Experience with Grado SR125e

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Spannko
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Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by Spannko »

The 125’s arrived yesterday, and like most of us, I couldn’t wait to fire them up and compare them to my current headphones, the standard freebie Apple ear buds.

I appreciate that the Apple’s are not to everyone’s taste, because sound wise, they have their (audiophile) limitations. However, in terms of their musicality, they’re one of the most musically coherent headphones I’ve heard, regardless of price. They’re also pretty fragile, and mine are on their last legs, hence the purchase of the highly regarded Grado’s.

Sound wise, compared to the Apple’s, the Grado’s are better in every respect. Bass? Treble? Midrange? Transparency? Spaciousness? They’re just better. No contest.

Musicality differences are less clear cut. My first thoughts are that the Grado’s are very good, and clearly better than nearly every other pair of headphones I’ve heard apart from a £3000 pair of planar type headphones I heard (but didn’t make a note of their name because of the crazy cost), and the Apples, which have a very coherent sound which makes them a joy to listen to for long periods of time and with a wide variety of music. In comparison, the Grado’s are a tiny bit less coherent, which is only really noticeable on the most musical of recordings eg acoustic instruments recorded in a natural environment, but I can’t help but feel that the slight incoherence makes itself known, at a very low but still slightly annoying level on all material.

However, I’m comparing the brand new Grado’s to well run in Apple’s, powered by the standard output of an iPad. How will their musicality change with time? Do they need a headphone amp to drive them better? It’ll be interesting to see how things develop!
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by tokenbrit »

Is this with the ear pads that came with the Grados? I recall Thomas recommending the 'Cushion G' ear pads with the SR125e 'phones, but don't know if that was to address any "slight incoherence", or some other aspect of their musical performance.
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by V.A.MKD »

Thank you Spannko,
Very very good and very interested how the things will develop ...
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by Spannko »

I’ve had the 125’s for a week now, and tbh they’ve had very little use, mainly due to me being less than enthusiastic about their musical qualities. I’ve pulled them out occasionally and given them a quick listen, before disappointingly putting them away again. However, this weekend, the 125’s presented me with a stepwise improvement which I didn’t see coming. Throughout the week, there was very little change in their performance, but suddenly, they started playing something resembling music!

After yet more running in, I have to say, these are a cracking pair of headphones for the money! Nearly every pair of headphones I’ve heard really struggle to play bass properly, hence my preference for the Apple earphones: even with all their sonic deficiencies, they still managed to knock out a reasonably decent tune. The great news is, the Grado’s now seem to be even more tuneful than the Apples. Yesterday, I wasn’t sure the bass was more tuneful, but today I think they’re more tuneful throughout the whole frequency range. Sonically, there’s still a bit of a hardness in the upper midrange, but this does seem to be reducing, and I do wonder just how well the iPad is managing to drive them, otherwise, they don’t appear to do anything seriously wrong (for the money).

Consequently, I’m really pleased with the 125e’s and consider them a Best Buy. The only fly in the ointment is the new 125x’s! It’ll be interesting to read what ThomasOK thinks of them. Also, what about the more expensive Grado’s? Are they worth the additional expense? What about a headphone amp or dac/amp? A friend is bringing one round tomorrow, so we’ll see.
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by u252agz »

If you try them With a decent source ( I use LP12 and KDS/2 Spotify ) and a decent headphone amp ( like Giella) these SR125s are really something.

I also have the Grado RS2e and these are even better ( sound and musicality, as well as build quality).
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by Eli7 »

I have listened to some Grados. My favourites are RS2e and PS500e.
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by Spannko »

I’ve discovered that there are companies selling parts to “upgrade” the Grado’s.

https://www.headphonesty.com/2018/02/i ... ps-driver/
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by ThomasOK »

Just thought I'd put a quick addition to this thread. First off, when I did my headphone comparison a few years back with the i versions I liked the 125i and the original PS500 a lot. So when I did the comparisons of the e series a little while back I was really hoping to listen to the PS500e, but we I had sold our demo pair to a woman who preferred them to all others in the range and had bought our last stock pair, then came back a week later and bought the demo pair! We ordered a new demo pair from Grado months ago but they never came in. When I ordered my pair of SR125es, not knowing that the x would be announced in three days, I asked about the demo PS500e. I was told that they hadn't talked about it but Grado were slimming down their line somewhat and the PS500 was going away. They were going to sell what they had left and that was it. A few days later, when they announced the x series we received a new price list which has no PS series headphones on it. So it looks like the PS500 and PS2000 are both discontinued.

I'm not completely finished with listening to the new headphones, but despite a hectic weekend and yesterday dealing with a sick dog (who appears to be on the mend), I did get a little listening in to the 125x. They had been on continuous burn in for a few weeks with FM radio through the Giella ∏ so should have pretty much stabilized. I started out with the radio but it isn't a true A/B and I was having a hard time. So I put on a new record and compared and so far I think the SR125e is still a bit more musical than the new SR125x. I will try to do a couple more comparisons, and also try both with the G cushions (this was done with the stock cushions) when I get a chance. But you certainly wouldn't go wrong with the 125e, especially at the closeout pricing that was listed up here.
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by Spannko »

Thanks Thomas. The PS500e’s seem to be very highly regarded all over the internet, except for one “reviewer” who said he couldn’t hear any difference between any of the models, from the 60’s up to the SR2’s! The less said about that, the better!

How would you describe the difference between the 125e’s and the 500e’s? And do you feel it’s a difference worth paying for?
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by ThomasOK »

Spannko wrote: 2021-06-30 23:44 Thanks Thomas. The PS500e’s seem to be very highly regarded all over the internet, except for one “reviewer” who said he couldn’t hear any difference between any of the models, from the 60’s up to the SR2’s! The less said about that, the better!

How would you describe the difference between the 125e’s and the 500e’s? And do you feel it’s a difference worth paying for?
Unfortunately I was unable to do a comparison of the SR125e and the PS500e. When I did the comparison it was with the older i models a few years ago. I'm pretty sure I posted a report on that up here but as they were different models I don't think it is fully relevant. I do recall finding the PS500i to be very musical and likely it provided more information than the SR125i, but that may not translate to the e versions. I don't have my cheat sheet handy now but I found the SR125e more musically enjoyable than any of the other Grados we had here at the time which included all the Prestige series (SR), the GS2000 and the PS1000.
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by Spannko »

The 125e’s are pretty well run in now and they sound pretty good. I find them particularly good for watching videos or the TV on my iPad. They’re reasonably clean, clear, musical, tuneful’ish, with an uncoloured bass and they never really draw attention to themselves. Well produced material can be very involving.

Ultimately, I don’t find them as tuneful as the Apple earphones, but they have a much better sound which suits a greater range of material than the Apple’s. Where I still find the apples better is for comparing videos in the playground and listening for relatively small differences in musicality. In this instance, the Grado’s tend to lessen the differences and make everything sound “nice”
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Re: Experience with Grado SR125e

Post by V.A.MKD »

Spannko wrote: 2021-07-16 23:59 The 125e’s are pretty well run in now and they sound pretty good. I find them particularly good for watching videos or the TV on my iPad. They’re reasonably clean, clear, musical, tuneful’ish, with an uncoloured bass and they never really draw attention to themselves. Well produced material can be very involving.

Ultimately, I don’t find them as tuneful as the Apple earphones, but they have a much better sound which suits a greater range of material than the Apple’s. Where I still find the apples better is for comparing videos in the playground and listening for relatively small differences in musicality. In this instance, the Grado’s tend to lessen the differences and make everything sound “nice”
Thank you for sharing your experience Spannko.
Good to know where each of them goes or to what school they ... you know what I mean.
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