Grado SR325x: A Worthy Upgrade To The SR80x’s?
As a fan of the excellent entry-level Grado SR80x headphones, I was interested to see how the SR325x’s might improve upon them.
I tested this pair of Grado SR325x’s with an iFi ZEN 2 Dac (power match and true bass activated), connected to a MacBook Air streaming TIDAL.
For those who don’t know, Grado are a family-run headphone company based in Brooklyn, New York. They’ve been making headphones by hand since the 1970’s.
The SR325x’s are a premium looking headphone, with a nice silver/metal finish on the earcups and a cool looking leatherette style headband over the top, which is actually comfier than it looks. These headphones feel more premium than their younger sibling, the SR80x’s, and as a result are more comfortable over longer listening stints. They’re also a more natural fit, even on my largish head. The SR325x’s provide just a little bit of extra comfort in the headband, so there’s a bit more space to play with.
The SR325x’s are open back, so they leak sound — which means that everyone around you will be able to hear what you’re listening to. Worth bearing in mind when choosing open or closed back headphones.
Listening to Deep Purple’s excellent ‘Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming’ the Grado’s absolutely sing. They’re warm, extremely detailed and offer a nice wide sound stage — even at lower volumes. Jon Lord’s piano is gutsy and lush, Ian Gillan’s voice, although aged by the time ‘Perpendicular’ was recorded, is nuanced and smooth. During Steve Morse’s guitar solo you can hear the pick movements and string noise, such is the detail here.
Listening to Fleetwood Mac’s classic 80’s banger ‘Big Love’ I noticed synth lines during the intro I’d not spotted before, as well as the multi layered picked guitar parts in the chorus.
The Grado SR325x’s aren’t bass heavy, but they’ll give you that little push over the hill when needed — if you’re a bass junkie these might not be for you, but if you like listening to detail and a bit of ‘oomph’ where needed, they could be.
A Cut Above The Rest
Separation and sound staging with the Grado’s is excellent — no muddiness at all, even with a 320kbps stream from Spotify. Treble’s are clear without being trill, mid’s are warm and the bottom end cuts through nicely. Despite the 38ohm impedance rating, we’d still recommend a DAC like the Audioquest Dragonfly Black or our go-to choice the iFi ZEN Dac 2 to help bring out their full potential.
What About Without a DAC?
We plugged the SR325’s straight into an iPhone using the little lightning to 3.5mm adaptor Apple used to include with every new iPhone, and were frankly blown away. The soundstage is excellent, with a nice buoyant bottom end and separation. When listening to the gorgeously wide mix on Joe Satriani’s ‘Rubina’s Blue Sky Happiness’ it’s hard to believe you’re listening to sub-500 quid headphones plugged straight into a phone. We’d always recommend using a portable DAC wherever possible, but you could do a lot worse than plug-in ‘bareback’ with the Grado’s.
The Grado SR325x’s dish out a detailed, rich and well rounded listen without breaking the bank — and don’t be fooled by the appearance, they’re surprisingly comfy.
At a price point of around £229/€249 the Grado SR325x’s are clear leaders in their field.
