GRADO SR80x Prestige Series Wired Open Back Stereo Headphones
$125.00
Price: $125.00
(as of Dec 31, 2024 04:55:38 UTC – Details)
Product Description
Through a well-heard history and deep roots in Brooklyn, the Grado family has been hand building headphones and cartridges here since 1953. For three generations, tradition and heritage have been carried down with the philosophy that sound comes first.
SR80X Prestige Series
Worthy Sound
In the Beginning.
The story of the SR80x holds a special place in not only our ears, but the ears of hundreds of thousands of listeners. The first pair was built in 1991 and we wouldn’t be here today without it. With its soundstage, world renowned mid-range, and speed, the SR80x is worthy of being the longest running Grado headphone.
The first Grado headphone, this is the legendary pair that started it all.
Signature Sound
Grado speakers can reveal new notes and details in songs heard hundreds of times. The driver and housing working in tandem react to sound vibrations and virtually eliminate transient distortions. The full bodied vocals and excellent dynamics compliment the musical characteristics that are brought to light through the extreme clarity and wide range of the SR80x.
X Series Driver
4th Generation Grado drivers are here. Specifically tuned for the SR80x, this new speaker design features a more powerful magnetic circuit, a voice coil with decreased effective mass, and a reconfigured diaphragm. Reengineering these components for our 44mm drivers improve efficiency, reduces distortion, and preserves the harmonic integrity of your music.
New Cables & Headband
Along with the speakers, the cables and headband have been redesigned for the SR80x. Now housed in a more durable exterior, the 4-conductor cable features a super annealed copper wire for improved purity of the audio signal. The new headband features more cushion for a comfier experience.
Hand-Built in Brooklyn
Each SR80x is hand-built by our team in Brooklyn. This headphone goes from workbench to workbench until it’s ready for your ears. We started building on a kitchen table in 1953, and every experience since then has led to the creation of the SR80x.
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Customer Reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
276
4.2 out of 5 stars
112
4.4 out of 5 stars
126
4.3 out of 5 stars
847
4.4 out of 5 stars
505
Price
$295.00$295.00 $225.00$225.00 $175.00$175.00 $125.00$125.00 $99.00$99.00
Frequency Response
18 – 24,000 hz 20 – 22,000 hz 20 – 20,000 hz 20 – 20,000 hz 20 – 20,000 hz
Customers say
Customers appreciate the headphones for their sound quality. They find the guitars and jazz sound clear and spacious, with good top end without being too fatiguing. However, some have mixed opinions on the build quality, comfort, and value for money.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Amazon Customer –
Game Changers. Improved upon the Prestige E Series in every way.
***Edit*** Full disclosure. I returned the SR80X and decided to upgrade to the 125X. The 125X has an immediate bump in girth or meatyness for lack of better words. There’s a layer of heft behind things like guitars and painos that is noticeable to me, it’s warmer and more instrument separation. All these are bumped by about 15%. I also had some disposable income to make the jump, and I’m sure the 225X, 325X, Hemp, etc outperform the previous similarly. That in no way takes away from my review. The SR80X is an absolute game changer for the price and for a lot of people this price is exactly what they’re willing to spend on Grado. I love Grado, so I felt comfortable with the additional bump.Original Review:TL/DR: Grado knocked these out the park. They improved on every single category, from build to sound signature, while retaining what makes their cans some of the best on the market. These are game changers.**Let me start by assuming you know what you’re getting with these: open back, audiophile sound where you’re going to plug these into an AMP and DAC and have no problem owning multiple cans. Not sitting on a bus wondering why you can’t hear anything. These are not for planes, they’re not for work, if you play these in bed next to your spouse at night, you’re gonna get smacked*…anyhowI love my Grado SR60e and have owned them for some time now. I have owned or heard many headphones, including the SHP9500, X2HR, 4XX, M1060C, KHP30i, Focals, HD600, HD6XX among others, and there was just something about even the cheapest SR60e that I absolutely found enchanting despite its flaws. Tonality and energy was class leading. There were certain genres that no matter how good the headphone was, my base model Grado could either compete or outperform it. Guitars, acoustic, violins, jazz just sounds so accurate, energetic and detailed. You put even the cheapest Grado on a good tube amp and play the right music and you would swear you were listening to $1500 headphones.But they’re Grado. They had all the design and comfort flaws everyone knows of (though tbh I find them near indestructible and also comfortable in their own weird way). More notoriously, Grados are severely colored with a 2K spike that would make your ears bleed if you turned the volume up or played the wrong song. They also had no bass to speak of. They were really only usable at lower volumes and with certain genres. With other genres they were painful. Massive amounts of people would pick the Hifiman 4XX (or now the 400se) or the Sennheiser 6XX and get a more easygoing, warm sound signature that would play well with all genres. And such was the life of owning a Grado. The gift and the curse.Enter the X Series. The build improvements are subtle but substantial. The headband has been upgraded to be much more padded and comfortable. It feels great. The notorious vacuum cord has been replaced by a much nicer braided cable. The cable is stiff with kinks, but overall, it’s a nice upgrade. A lot of people are raging that it is still attached, and while I sympathize with that, I also know from IEMs that cables matter a lot, and if Grado believes their copper cord attached gives them a bump in clarity, so be it. That was never a deal breaker for me.Now for the important part. The sound upgrades. Rumors were floating around that this X Series was going to use either the Hemp Drivers or something similar. That was very exciting because the Hemp was really the only Grado with low end and less sizzle, and as such, the Hemp is one of the best, if not the best sub $500 headphone on the planet. Now while I cannot confirm these are the same drivers as the Hemp, and obviously the premium wood and leather aren’t here, I can 100% confirm, the Grado House Sound has undergone a very tasteful remodel. I don’t have any measurements to verify this, but the SR80x are nowhere near as spicy as the 60e. It’s like Grado lopped off that 2k spike. But not entirely. It still has some top end energy, but it’s WAAAAY more relaxed and mainstream. That alone is a game changer worthy of celebration. But it doesn’t end there. These new drivers add a very nice dose of much needed low end. After listening to these for a few days, I can 100% say there is no genre these cannot play well with. I can FINALLY listen to hip hop, pop and EDM in these, and they sound quite good. The ear bleed is dramatically reduced, you can turn up the volume and they even play well with clean solid state amps (though they still sound a little better with warmer amps).I’m in love with the Grado SR80x. It has all the magic of Grado, all the energy, all the detail, all the width and airiness. But just in a much more consumer friendly presentation. It’s like the old Grado finally got a haircut and a shave and put a nice tie on and payed some child support. Grado was already the most detailed headphones for the price. And now they’re just beasts. These destroy the SHP9500, X2HR, 4XX, all those. The sound quality you get for the price is ridiculous.**I should also mention a few tricks I notice with Grado. 1) I like the bigger G Pads the best: they add width, soundstage but maintain detail. Theyre a great upgrade. And 2) tinker around with your amp gain switch. I know it shouldn’t matter, but I swear that volume matching on the highest gain produces consistently meatier sound for my Grados. Grado seems to be VERY amp dependent (which makes sense cause theyre so accurate) and I would go so far as to say theyre also gain dependent. So if your Grados sound thin or shouty or piercing, try to up the gain and volume down. It works a charm for me on several amps.
Dylan Lewis –
Absolutely stunning. SEE UPDATE BELOW 8/28/22:
BACKGROUND:Ever since Dankpods posted a video extolling the virtues of his Grado SR60e headphones, I’ve been eyeing Grado headphones for the past 5 months now. Then, suddenly, their headphones just disappeared off Amazon for nearly a month. After weeks of radio silence, I saw an article pop up about their new and improved prestige x series. I read up the sparse information available and impulse bought a pair of SR80x cans with zero reviews.To give some context, my current daily driver cans are Beyer DT990 Pro 250ohm. I have also listened to and loved the following headphones: Samson SR850, Sennheiser: HD650, HD280, HD555, Momentum 2.0 Audio Technica: M50, AD700, ES7 and Beyer DT 1990 Pros. My taste in sound is clearly biased. I tend to prefer a V-shaped frequency response curve. So naturally, I was worried the purportedly weaker bass in the Grados would turn me off them. Thankfully, this concern was unfounded, as I’ll explain later.FIRST IMPRESSIONS:I love the packaging. In a world of cost cutting the actual products and wrapping them in wasteful packaging, Grado does it right. They came in a simple white box with Grado branding and the only thing differentiating them from other models is a sticker slapped on the side. They came in a mickey mouse shaped foam cutout with a cute thank you letter inside. They also come with a 1/8″ to 1/4″ headphone adapter. Picking them up for the first time I was shocked at how lightweight they were. The plastic construction and spartan adjustment mechanisms make these feel virtually weightless compared to all other headphones I’ve worn.CONSTRUCTION: (6/10)While I adore the retro look, there’s no question that most of the money went into the headphone drivers and sound design. The newly padded headband is a huge step up as the prestige e series had virtually no padding at all. The driver housings however are still a questionable looking gloss black plastic. It’s safe to say I’m going to be gentle with these, especially all the plastic parts. The earcups can swivel 360 degrees horizontally, making it convenient to fold them flat. They also have a little bit of vertical tilt adjustment. Compared to my much-loved Beyers, these don’t feel nearly as sturdy as the DT990s, which is a worthy compromise for the sound.The cable however is BEEFY. It’s thick with a nice Y-split plastic housing to protect the area where the channel wires separate. The woven outer sheathing, new to the prestige x series, really adds to the cable’s heft and structural integrity. It’s all terminated in a lovely male 1/8″ jack with integrated strain relief. The earpads are a decently thick foam that harkens back to the days of more retro on ear headphones like the Koss PortaPros. It’s much better quality foam than on the Koss headphones, but I suspect they won’t last more than a few years of very heavy use before deteriorating. Time will tell.SOUND: (9/10)Other than Dankpod’s glowing endorsement, I really didn’t know what to expect. I fired up Paranoid Android and was immediately hooked by the IMMACULATE detail of these cans. Instrument separation and soundstage is INCREDIBLE. I never thought I’d say this, but I was hearing new details on the Grados that I didn’t notice with my DT990s, which are already very bright and detailed to begin with. The bass response was a pleasant surprise. The DT990s have much more thump and impact, but the Grados are tuned so well that you spend most of your time enjoying all the detail in the mids and highs. They certainly have much better bass than Audio Technica AD700s, which is quite the feat considering there is virtually no seal present around the ear.I spent hours blitzing through my Spotify library, everything from Massive Attack to 2Pac. There’s no question these are best suited to songs with lots of detailed mid and high notes. 80s tracks and synthwave music really sings on these beauties. That said, if big, stinky bass is your thing, you probably won’t like these too much in bass heavy songs. So far, I’ve binge listened to these for 2 days now and I can safely say that everything I put through them sounds amazing. What’s more, no amp is required to enjoy these puppies. They’re 38 ohms and can be driven really loud from any phone, laptop or tablet. I’m running them through a tiny FiiO E10K USB amplifier, and on low gain these can easily damage your hearing at full volume.The soundstage really caught me off guard. I was always under the impression that spacious, deep earcups contribute to soundstage and instrument separation. These proved me wrong. With the foam earpads, they sit directly on my ears and provide absolutely no seal or noise isolation whatsoever. And yet, I’ll hear sounds in TV shows and Movies that make me pause and take them off, thinking it was coming from inside my room. Every little crunch of a footstep to a squeak in a door is all present. You won’t miss a single bit of detail in any content. Any content with excellent sound design will really shine with these.Just don’t expect to ever use these in a confined public place. There’s no seal at all. These let in all the surrounding noise and all of your music out. You’ll probably get punched if you use these on an airplane. Further, the exceptionally detailed highs can definitely be fatiguing after long listening sessions with certain genres. If you’re very sensitive to bright headphones, these might not be the best fit for you. For what it’s worth, my ears are pretty sensitive and I can still have a wonderful time listening to bright music. I recommend trying them out and seeing if they’ll work for you.COMFORT: (6/10)Their light weight and padded headband makes these very comfortable for the top of your head. However, the on ear foam pads are definitely a compromise in comfort. While they don’t get sweaty at all, I do start to feel discomfort and pressure points on my ears after the 2-hour mark. These probably aren’t headphones you could wear all day like my DT990s or AD700s. I think these are an excellent compliment to more relaxed sounding cans like Sennheiser HD600s. If you already have headphones you’re comfortable wearing for an entire day, a set of Grados would be a great addition.SUMMARY:Despite their compromises in construction and comfort, I have never been more blown away by a pair of sub $300 headphones. And, as the cherry on top, these are made by lovely folks in Brooklyn, NY. These are strange times and it feels good to support American businesses that don’t outsource their products to sketchy countries with virtually no workers’ rights. Ultimately, this was a terrible financial decision because now I’m really wondering what the 325x cans sound like. It was such a joy to go through my library and rediscover music I haven’t listened to in years.Trust me, unless you’re 5 figures deep into audiophile gear, you will hear new sounds in music you’ve listened to for years with a set of SR80x’s. If you’re brand new to enthusiast listening and you want to know a great place to start without spending boat loads of money, these are an excellent option. No amp or electrical engineering knowledge is required. All you need is a headphone jack and a fat music library.Lastly, because durability is definitely a concern with these, I will update my review should anything go wrong with them. If there are no updates, then everything is good. I hope you give them a try.UPDATE 9/4/21: Well, the impossible happened. After 7+ years of use, my DT990s ultimately became my secondary headphones. And that’s the highest praise I can give for these Grados, because the DT990s are exceptionally good. These days, I don’t spend nearly as much time gaming for hours on end, so the long term comfort is less of an issue for me. The lighter clamping force and foam pads on the Grados mean my ears never get sweaty, so these are now officially my daily drivers.However, I have had one issue with them, which has also plagued my DT990s. I have long hair and a beard, and the earpads are an absolute hair magnet. After the two-month mark, I started hearing a nasty rattle in the right earcup during low notes. Upon further inspection, some of my beard hairs found their way behind the earpads and would rattle against the driving casing. Thankfully, it was an easy fix as the earpads are easy to take off and re-install, unlike my Beyers. If you have this issue, it’s likely due to hairs stuck behind the earpads.After further research, I found out this is a common issue. Some call it “Grattle.” I figured this would be worth mentioning, because it sounds just like a blown headphone driver. That being said, these are still wonderful and I highly recommend them.UPDATE 8/28/22:So, I’ve finally had my first real issue with them. The head band padding has started to separate near the left earcup. Granted, it is a small problem and has had no effect on comfort or overall listening experience. I’ve posted additional pictures showing the issue. I am concerned it will gradually travel further up the headband. I still adore and recommend these headphones, but considering their sound and price, I knew their durability would be a concern.These definitely aren’t headphones you can carelessly kick around or stuff in a book bag. If it does get worse, I suspect a sewing needle and some black thread could be used to easily stitch the headband back together. I think Grado may want to consider a more durable solution of binding the two halves of the headband together, but it’s likely a necessary cost-cutting measure, seeing as they’re made in the USA. As I am a tinkerer and love fixing my own stuff, it certainly won’t deter me from buying other Grados in the future. It’s worth it for their sound.
Steve N. –
Great headphones
So I’ve bought two of these, the first one presented issues within the first three months. The issue was mainly a connection issue, the right speaker wouldn’t work unless positioned correctly. No problem, probably just needs to be resoldered. I emailed them to see if I could get a repair, which they did at only the cost of shipping towards them. Sounds great, I ended up ordering a second pair for the few days I was going to be without them.The headphones themselves? You’ll probably want more bass if you’re looking specifically for that in headphones. I played bass and most of the music I listen to (The Omnific specially) sound fine to me through them. My only two real criticisms are the lack of detachable cables and the material used feels flimsy. For the first, you can do that mod yourself if you’re so inclined, but I feel like the sound more than makes up for not having detachable cables. I would like to have a shorter cable in public and a longer cable at home, though. And for the second, I’ve dropped this thing a whole bunch of times and despite feeling flimsy, it seems to do fine not breaking so I’m going to give it a pass in terms of build quality since apparently it’s a lot less prone to breaking than it would lead you to believe.Great headphones, 5/5, you’ve got a customer for life.
Tania rubio –
Excelente calidad, al precio. Tal como dice la descripción.
4Tifier –
These headphones promised high fidelity sound, and they truly deliver. Everyone from my extended family on Christmas absolutely loved the quality of these headphones and the sound they delivered.Keep in mind, though, that to use these headphones for most modern devices, you will need to purchase an adapter that converts a larger jack to an auxiliary jack. These headphones are also designed for stationary usage that also allows you to still be aware of your environment.So unfortunately, if you need headphones you can easily take on the go or need some noise-cancelling potential, these wonât do.But if youâre just looking for a pair of headphones you can use for stationary listening, you honestly canât do any better than these.
andra e. –
He probado todos los earbuds possibles bose, sony, senheiser, y auriculares que te cubren las orejas de precios desorbitados y os puedo decir que en comodidad nadie se acerca a esta marca, Grado. Son super confortables, no sabes que los tienes. Sere yo mas sensible pero para mi los earbuds y los que te cubren las orejas me los quiero quitar despues de media hora, no puedo con ellos me molestan. Estos he estado 8 horas jugando sin quitarmelos. Calidad de audio es superior a todo lo que he tenido, te van a impresionar 100%, no importa lo que hayas tenido, aunque sean unos Focal de 5000 euros y da igual, te van a impresionar.
Jans –
Zeer goed bas geluid en dit is redelijk zeldzaam. Open achterkant zorgt voor comfortabel luisteren.Verkoper MaquimSom heeft mij beloofd dat hij voor een betere verpakking gaat zorgen.
E. –
Amazing headphones with a wide soundstage, lots of details. Maybe not the best for pop music since it lacks some speed but its very good for vocals. I got the feeling itâs slightly brighter than the SR80. The comfort could be better but the sound quality is amazing. Only the Audeze LCd-X? are a lot better. But those are â¬1000 more expensive. I didnt hear a difference in sound quality between the SR80 and de SR325.