4 ms·

Grado headphones.

by mudil 10y ago

Grado headphones.

blunte 10y ago
My SR-80s have what many reviewers (and I) say is the best sound for anything under $1k (and these were under $100). That said, they're poorly designed mechanically, and they use lower quality materials - especially the type of plastic. The way the speaker unit attaches to the head piece is just a little pole of metal (textured at the end) stuck into a plastic hole, and the hole can eventually stretch. The result is the speaker unit falling off the headpiece... and there's really no way to fix it. Superglue is a short term solution, and it's hard to get the angle of the can perfect. My point of saying all this is that the sound engineers did a great, great job, but the product/mechanical design guys - or maybe the production guys after them, ruined it.
- wiredfool 10y ago
  My SR60's broke that plastic yoke -- I wound up replacing the part. They lasted ~20 years until the Y junction of the headphone cord started having intermittent faults. I was going to replace the cord with a detachable mic + volume cable, but wound up just getting a set of SR-80s. Sound wise, I think the high end Sennheisers have better balance and are a bit more comfortable. A little clearer treble, not as heavy bass. But either way, they're really good for the price.
phlipski 10y ago
I'm torn on this. Best-designed things ever? I've got a 20 year old pair of SR-60's that I use daily. I'm on my 3rd or 4th set of foam ear cups, and the left channel solder joint failed about 5 years ago (which was easy to fix - just resolder the joint). However they're not the most comfortable headphones. I'd prefer the foam surround be higher density and/or thicker so that it keeps the plastic grill off of my ears. After about 1-2 hours of listening my ears need a break. From a value proposition - $60 over 20 years and they still sound great - that's hard to beat. But from a perfect design perspective I think they could use a little improvement.

Grado headphones.

by mudil 10y ago

Grado headphones.

My SR-80s have what many reviewers (and I) say is the best sound for anything under $1k (and these were under $100). That said, they're poorly designed mechanically, and they use lower quality materials - especially the type of plastic. The way the speaker unit attaches to the head piece is just a little pole of metal (textured at the end) stuck into a plastic hole, and the hole can eventually stretch. The result is the speaker unit falling off the headpiece... and there's really no way to fix it. Superglue is a short term solution, and it's hard to get the angle of the can perfect. My point of saying all this is that the sound engineers did a great, great job, but the product/mechanical design guys - or maybe the production guys after them, ruined it.

wiredfool 10y ago
My SR60's broke that plastic yoke -- I wound up replacing the part. They lasted ~20 years until the Y junction of the headphone cord started having intermittent faults. I was going to replace the cord with a detachable mic + volume cable, but wound up just getting a set of SR-80s. Sound wise, I think the high end Sennheisers have better balance and are a bit more comfortable. A little clearer treble, not as heavy bass. But either way, they're really good for the price.

phlipski 10y ago

I'm torn on this. Best-designed things ever? I've got a 20 year old pair of SR-60's that I use daily. I'm on my 3rd or 4th set of foam ear cups, and the left channel solder joint failed about 5 years ago (which was easy to fix - just resolder the joint). However they're not the most comfortable headphones. I'd prefer the foam surround be higher density and/or thicker so that it keeps the plastic grill off of my ears. After about 1-2 hours of listening my ears need a break. From a value proposition - $60 over 20 years and they still sound great - that's hard to beat. But from a perfect design perspective I think they could use a little improvement.