Product Review:
iGrado Headphones
Reviewer: Jason Gillard
Today I will be reviewing the iGrado headphones. First I think I should give you a little history about the brand. Grado is a family owned and operated business. They started with headphone and phono cartridges designs and they hold over 48 patents. Joseph Grado started production on these cartridges on his kitchen table in 1953. In 1955 he opened a factory in Brooklyn on the site of his father's grocery business. To this day this is the home of Grado Laboratories. In the late 1980's Joseph Grado began work on high-end dynamic headphones. With all his experience creating high end audio devices critics were astonished at how amazing these headphones sounded. Joseph has passed the business on to his nephew John. John took it upon himself to develop the prestige series of headphones, winners of more awards than any other headphone line in the world.
What I find truly amazing is that they still produce these headphones in house and they continue to produce some of the best headphones in the world. With the iGrados the task was to produce the best sounding headphones under $50 for audio devices such as an Ipod.
Most people when they buy an audio device such as an Ipod or any other type of MP3 player forget about the most important part. They use the standard headphones that come with the device and never give it another thought. There is nothing wrong with these headphones but you are missing out on sound quality. This is where products like the iGrado come in.
When I received the iGrado's they came in a clear package that was easy to open. I appreciate that because usually products of this sort come in blister packs that are absolutely impossible to open. The iGrado's are behind the neck headphone which happen to be my favorite type. I have an old pair of Sony headphones like this which have been worn so much that the ear pads have holes in them. The iGrado's were slightly bigger than my old Sony's but were still small in comparison to some of the larger sets of headphones I have used.
Let's take a look at build quality. The first thing I noticed was a small silver plate on the top of the headphones that had the words iGrado on them. This metal strip was obviously glued down but the glue was not holding it and it was sticking up at one end. The band is made of plastic which is not surprising. My only other complaint would have to be the cord. One thing I really liked about my old Sony headphones was that the cord went into one side of the headphones only. With the iGrado's the cord connects to both sides which is kind of a pain when taking the headphones off. Also the cord seemed a little thin and I wonder how it will hold up to long term use. I also found the headphones tight on my head, but I would assume they would loosen up over time.
But the question remains how do they sound? In one word "Fantastic". The first time I put these headphones on I immediately heard a difference. The sound was fuller and more rich. Bass was certainly better as well. I decided to pull out a variety of headphones to test the iGrado's against. I had the stock ear buds that came with my Ipod Touch, my old Sony headphones (MDR-G42) and a pair of Sennheiser PX 200 headphones. Compared to the standard Ipod headphones there really isn't any comparison. The iGrado's sound so much better. The Sony's were no match as well. The only headphones that came remotely close were the Sennheisers. But even those did not sound as rich and full as the iGrado's. I also noticed that the iGrado's required much less volume than any of the others.
I listened to a variety of different types of music to get an idea how well they sounded on the iGrado's. I listened to Leona Lewis "Better In Time", and I listened to Sarah Mclachlan "Path of Thorns". I also listened to Genesis "Hold on My Heart" and Savage Garden "Truly Madly Deeply". I am also a big fan of movie soundtracks so I listened to the Sweeney Todd soundtrack and the Star Trek First Contact soundtrack as well. The iGrado's did a masterful job with the pop songs and when listening to the soundtracks I was able to pick up individual instruments that I had never heard before.
I was definitely impressed with how well these little headphones produced great sound. A friend of mine at work listens to a lot of music so I gave him the iGrado's for a couple of days to see what he thought. What follows are his thoughts using the iGrado's with his Ipod Nano.
First off, the iGrado headphones sound leaps and bounds better than the stock iPod headphones. They are both louder and reproduce the entire sonic spectrum of the music much more effectively.
I put these cans through their paces listening to several different types of music including Ice Cube's "Wicked", Mastodon's "The Last Baron", Glen Hansard's "Say it to Me Now", Wajjo's "Lambda" (African drumming with Scottish bagpipe, very cool), and current American Idol contestant Adam Lambert's take on "Tracks of My Tears" (incidentally I think he's probably the most likely candidate to actually have a career after the curtain falls on this season of AI).
On all tracks, these phones really pumped up the bass bringing out a real thumpy quality in the music, without having to crank the volume. I limit the volume on my iPod Nano to half its range, and these produce a full sound even at that level. No need to bring up the volume more.
I found they shone the most with "Lamda" and "Say it to Me Know", both songs with simpler instrumentation, and less sounds in the lower frequencies. In the other tracks, although I found the bass was good, there is also a muffled quality to the songs, like the bass portion of the song is coming from the next room over. I even detected a bit of distortion in the Adam Lambert song, although I don't know if this was attributable to the AAC file or the phones.
In terms of aesthetics, I don't find the headphones terribly attractive, I'm more of an ear bud type, and I found them less than comfortable—they pressed on my head to hold themselves on rather than perching nicely on top of my ears.
I would be willing to sacrifice some of the low end for a crisper delivery across the whole spectrum.
For me the iGrado's are a hit. They sound fantastic and that's whats important. My only concern is how well they will hold up over time and if the headphones will stretch to fit my head, because currently they feel a little tight. All in all these are fantastic headphones and I find it refreshing to be able to deal with a small company instead of one of these big box stores.
8.5 out of 10
Highly Recommended