florinandrei's Full Review: Grado SR-125 Professional Headphones
These were my first quality phones. The amount of detail revealed is flabbergasting. Normal studio monitors and proffesional headphones are like really clean crystals to look through, while the Grado phones are like quantum-effect microscopes, revealing tons and tons of details.
Unfortunately, part of this result is achieved through pumping up the high frequencies. Some will argue with that, but i compared my Grado's with my other high-end phones (Sennheiser HD600) and with my Alesis studio monitors; i also looked at the frequency response graphs on headphone.com and, to me, there's no doubt: Grado artificially lifts up the high frequencies.
Now, that's not a crime. In fact, i still keep my SR125 as a litmus test: if i don't find defects with them, then that means there are no defects in my MIDI tracks. :-)
It's just that they are tiresome if you use them for regular listening. E.g., the earliest J.M. Jarre albums are impossible to listen on Grado, they're so full of high-frequency stuff - probably poor young struggling artist Jarre didn't have money for a pair of phones with good high-freq response :-) or maybe he used to be a hi-freq nutcase. :-) (don't pay attention, i actually like his music)
Also, on my Alesis QS6.2 synthesizer, some patches will pierce your eardrums if you listen to them on the Grado phones - it's those clicky, scratchy, full-of-high-frequency nervous patches in the above-80 range. The SR125 put a harsh, metal-sandpaper feeling to them. They literally make me feel like i eat ground glass (strange, but that's how i feel).
Don't get me wrong. I don't prefer smooth, sugar-coated sounds. But the SR125 make certain clicky sounds just over the top. That's bad for casual listening. That's good if you're analysing the sounds in search for issues.
Also, they're not very comfortable. They're small and lightweight, but the design is kinda strange (they press on the ears). But i didn't have problems when using them for a couple hours or so.
If you think i don't like them, you're wrong. I love them. I just don't use them for regular listening; they're my problem detectors.
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