Grado Sr225i Open Back Headphones

[josh_05]

Grado SR225i Review:

 

Pro's: Amazing overall sound quality, Superb mid-range, incredibly detailed sound, 32 ohm impedance and high sensitivity make them easy to drive with nearly any device.

 

Con's: Cheaply built, Some treble frequencies sound bright, Comfort can be an issue.

 

Equipment used: PC, uncompressed WAV audio, Rega DAC, Fred's 12AU7 tube headphone amp.

 

Grado's, they have a very love hate reputation and i think the SR225i's are no exception to that. The SR225i's have a very forward sound like their siblings in the prestige line, make no mistake,  they wont sit you 10 rows back in the audiance to enjoy the show, instead, the SR 225i's will put you right up on stage with the artist/band. 

 

The forward sound of being up on stage has its advantages and disadvantages in my opinion, the fact that your up on stage will stop the soundstage from being 3D, there's still ample space between instruments but its more of a wide short soundstage as opposed to being wide and long. The advantages of the forward sound of the SR225i's is that it makes detail levels huge, stringed instruments and vocals are layered with rich detail, Jimi Hendrix's Fender Stratocaster in the remastered version of Little Wing sounds incredibly real and natural and the dynamics dont sound forced. Moving on to some Dubstep and the SR225i's have no trouble keeping up with the fast bass line and brutal dynamics of Skrillex's Bangarang, this song really shows how fast the drivers in the SR225is respond, it actually sounds effortless for them. All this aside, i cant highly recommend these cans for this genre because i just dont think they quite have the bass weight and extension to keep most who like this genre happy, they also sounded a touch bright on the trebles in this song. 

 

Over to asthetics and build quality. The SR225i's aesthetics certainly aren't for everyone, they are a very retro design, a lot of people probably wouldn't want to be seen in public with them. With that said though, i personally wouldnt mind and i think most would use them for home use only because of their open back design (they leak a lot of sound and let a lot in!) and they have a 1/4 inch jack, with an adapter and the roughly 7mm thick cable they would be quite annoying to have in your pocket with an MP3 player. The build quality is decent its more the materials used that arent so impressive, the SR225i's are made up of mainly plastic and a thin metal headband wrapped in vinyl. The head band can be gently bent in order to lower clamping pressure if desired. 

 

The L-cush pads on the SR225i's can be quite uncomfortable for some people and i noticed a lot of people complaining about this while i was doing my research before buying, for me they can feel a bit tight but i think the foam will soften with time and if i have to i can bend the head band a little more to take a bit of pressure off.

 

Overall i think these are worth their money easily because of their incredible sound quality. As said above the aesthetics aren't for everyone and the materials used are a bit cheap but their performance is incredible. If your into mainly instrumental music like rock, metal, jazz, classical, folk etc you wont be disappointed  I think where they shine the most would be rock and jazz. As talented as these cans are i wouldn't recommend them for gaming due to their short soundstage, for me though, not being a super competitive gamer that needs that edge they are perfectly fine. I'm very happy with my purchase and i honestly think for me being as picky with audio as i am, they will be a keeper no matter whether i upgrade to a higher model later on, they have a way of stopping me from over analyzing the sound like i usually do with most speakers/cans, instead I'm just enjoying the music and that makes them extremely rewarding for me.

[Smoka]

Yeah these were one of the headphones i was looking at buying but they do seem a bit uncomfortable

[josh_05]

They very much can be, you really have to find the sweet spot for them to sit on your head to avoid comfort issues. I also have the SR80i's with the s-Cush, much more comfortable but you loose the soundstage unfortunately. I'm hoping the foam will soften up a bit with time like the s-cush's did on my SR80i's.

[Rhizo]

Nice review, although, why don't you use flac instead of uncompressed wav? 

[josh_05]

Thanks. I actually do use Flac now but half my music collection is still ripped in WAV. When I first started ripping my CDs I was unaware of Flac.

[vanwazltoff]

I have SR80i's and I love them, great for music, movies and gaming. Try taking the head band off of these [link below] and putting it on over your existing headband, makes them waaay more comfortable, thats what I did on my SR80i's http://www.harborfreight.com/ear-muffs-94334.html