Grado SR60i-Amazing!

[Puma Cat]

Just picked up a pair of the "legendary" Grado SR60i's at my local high-end store yesterday. They are having a sale of older and excess gear, and I snagged these for only $50 new.

i've read about them, of course, but never had heard a pair.

All i can say is for the money, these are STUPIDLY good. Sheesh.

[prepress]

I have a pair, and though they haven't been used in a while, you're right. Very good, and not just good for the money.

[80B]

Absolutely agree - got a pair from Sound Earphones last Christmas and am very happy with them.

[Dj_AmTraX]

I haven't heard the SR60i, but I do like the RS1i. No Grado in my collection right now, but I may pick one up in the near future.

[ricmiclaw]

I read someone's interest in this thread about purchasing Grado headphones. I own their flagship headphone, the PS1000. It costs $1,695 from an authorized seller, as I purchased it. It comes in a cardboard box. There is no presentation or travel box available specifically for it. Grado used to make a presentation box but don't any longer because, as I was informed by e-mail from them, because they chose to focus on making headphones, not boxes. I have about one dozen headphones and IEMs, almost all of them very expensive, a couple even more than the Grado PS1000.

A few hours after beginning to use it, it failed and I encountered Grado's warranty service. Because I own a fair amount of expensive audiophile equipment, I have had dealings with other companies' warranty and non-warranty services. By coincidence, I experienced a near simultaneous failure of my LCD2 headphones from Audeze. Grado is an established company and Audeze is a new company. Both are American. I detailed my experiences with these two companies at Head-Fi, which began a spirited exchange with other Head-Fi members. This exchange can be found here:

If you're one of those for whom the only important issue is the product itself, and are unconcerned with support, service, courtesy, communications, etc., then don't waste your time reading the dozens of messages back and forth after I started the thread at Head-Fi.

BTW - At some point in the near future, I intend to sell my PS1000, but not because it doesn't sound great (Grado finally got it fixed correctly). It does sound great if you like Grado's sound signature. Anyone who owns or has used a number of high-end headphones will confirm that they all have unique sound signatures.

If possible, first audition the set in which you're interested if you want to save yourself disappointment and aggravation. If an audition isn't possible, check the return policy carefully before committing to the purchase. At an absolute minimum, read many, many reviews of the sound signature of the headphone you're considering. While everybody has their own opinion, you will find, with a large enough sampling of reviews, that a general consensus of opinion will emerge of the particularly noteworthy qualities of the model's sound signature.

When I'm thinking about spending a lot of money on something, I'm usually very concerned about a company's reputation for customer service. Unfortunately, I just depended on Grado's product, rather than customer service, reputation before buying the PS1000. If you're thinking, too, about spending a lot of money for a headphone, you might find the discussion I started at Head-Fi enlightening or at least mildly interesting (I hope).

Happy reading!

[ricmiclaw]

I have no idea why I can't post the link to Head-Fi. Perhaps it violates some policy. I'm sorry if that's the case. Just go to Head-Fi and search for ""Grado & Audeze". You'll find the discussion there.

[ricmiclaw]

I don't know how things work at this site but the rest of my post appeared after being initially truncated at the point where I inserted the cite to Head-Fi.org. Anyway, it's all there now.

[Tonepub]

Personally, I think your experience with Grado was an anomaly. John Grado is one of the best guys in the business and I've dealt with him for years. When you take into account that Grado probably sells a thousand times more product than Audeze, and the fact that no one is perfect, you fell through the cracks which is still unfortunate whether you've spent 10 dollars or 10 thousand.

But I certainly wouldn't write Grado off over one incident. They have traditionally had some of the best customer service in the business.

[ricmiclaw]

thanks. I got almost the exact opposite impression from the discussions at Head-Fi. There were a couple of people who said they like the Grado sound so much that they didn't care about poor customer service. Most seemed to say that Grado's reputation for poor customer service is well known. Like most things in life, I suppose this, too, is dependent on perspective. I will say, however, that Grado isn't big enough to use giant size and bureaucracy as an excuse when they do fail, though they are clearly larger than Audeze. Given that Audeze is so tiny, and were faced with a major driver failure issue, I think they walk away from their problems with an enhanced reputation, while Grado does not.

[jdandy]

ricmiclaw.......You might want to take a minute and read the Audio Aficionado FAQ's. You are not allowed to post links to other forums on this site. You can mention another site, but no active links to it. Take a minute and read this: http://audioaficionado.org/new-user-...all-users.html