Grado Labs hold a unique place in the Head-Fi community. A lot of their headphones’ sonic characteristics and design choices have many die-hard fans but perhaps as many detractors. Grado is never a boring listen and one of the most interesting brands in the industry.
A family-owned business running for over 70 years, Grado handcraft their headphones and phono cartridges in a small, Brooklyn-based brownstone. There’s a certain feeling of pride one experiences when owning a Grado, knowing that someone’s loving craftsmanship and hard work has gone into making what now rests in your hands (or on your ears).
But to us audiophiles, this won’t mean much if they don’t sound any good. Grado’s latest offering, the Signature HP100 SE, looks to bring the very best of what the company has to offer. And at $2,495 our expectations are certainly high; can Grado match them or indeed knock them out of the park?
Technology
The Grado Signature HP100 SE can be driven from a variety of sources owing to its easy-to-drive nature. It sports a rare paper composite 52mm dynamic driver with an impedance of 38 Ohms and a sensitivity of 117dB/mW.
Grado also boast about a powerful magnetic circuit consisting of rare earth metals, as well as a lightweight copper-plated aluminum voice coil. They claim that this “produces excellent dynamics and transient response, along with a highly refined sense of space, soundstage and image.” We will discover if this is truly the case in the listening section of this review.
The cups themselves harken back to the original Signature HP1/2/3 headphones of the 1980s and 1990s, machined from blocks of aluminum and engraved with the name of the headphones.
However, unlike the previous Signature/Statement headphones and indeed all other Grados, the HP100 SE features fully detachable cables. It accepts dual-entry 4-pin mini XLR and has a 6.3mm termination. Additional balanced terminations, including 4-pin XLR and 4.4mm Pentaconn, will be available in the near future.
Many in the Head-Fi community had been asking for detachable cables for a long time; hopefully this feature will trickle down into lower-end models in due course. EIC Ian White uses a pair of $125 Grado SR80x (you can read his review here) on the road due to their lightweight design and compatibility with his bottomless pit of Dongle DACs and has complained for years about the detachable cable issue — management in Brooklyn have finally gotten the message apparently.
Design & Comfort
The build quality of the HP100 SE is quite spectacular, even factoring in the steep price tag. Grado headphones are well-known for their spartan material choices, but the HP100 SE feels remarkably sturdy with its all-metal build and there’s no rough edges to speak of.
On the flipside, the headphone weighs over 500 grams; couple this to the fact that the headband padding is quite thin, which is not very conducive to extended listening sessions of several hours. Mileage may differ, but I got a hotspot on the top of my head after around 45 minutes of constant use.
Detachable cables are a huge bonus, and allows you to change cables as you wish. And you may very well want to; the included cable is heavy and retains its shape no matter how you position it.
Worth mentioning is that the HP100 SE comes with two differing sets of earpads; the over-ear G-style pads and the on-ear F-style pads. I found the G-style pads more comfortable as my ears don’t get along with on-ear designs. Listeners will definitely appreciate being able to experiment with both sets.
Grado also state that the different pads change the overall sound signature, which we will delve into right now.
Listening Notes
I listened to the Grado Signature HP100 SE headphones with two sources, being the SMSL DO400 DAC/Amp ($499 at Amazon) and the DO400 DAC connected to the Aune S17 Pro amplifier ($649 at Amazon) via XLR.
The DAC was connected to my laptop via Bluetooth (LDAC codec) or USB and I listened to both hi-res FLAC files and Spotify music.
Bass
Upon first listen the first thing that struck me about the HP100 SE was its midbass presence. A slight elevation in this area translated to an appreciable level of punch to instruments, couple this with strong macrodynamics and I was bopping my head to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.
There is a slight dip in the deepest sub bass frequencies, but this is a dynamic driver headphone after all. I would say the amplitude loss down to 20dB is only 2 or 3 decibels, so nothing to dock points over.
Although the midbass is emphasised, the upper bass (and lower midrange) region doesn’t get lost in the mix whatsoever. The male vocals in Jack’s Lament by Geoff Castellucci has just the right amount of body and sounded very life-like owing to the timbral qualities of the HP100 SE.
Midrange
The HP100 SE has a wonderful focus on midrange, especially vocal clarity. It is more mid-centric than the similarly-priced HiFiMAN HE1000 Unveiled for example.
Other standout features include a better sense of dynamism and a more natural, believable timbre, which shines through with guitars and female vocals in particular.
“Sway” by Cupidon and Shaqdi surprised me; the female singer’s vocals really stood out from the rest of the mix in a way that I hadn’t heard before in a pleasing way. Despite the emphasis, they managed to stay well clear from any harshness.
The frequency response picks up massively into the upper mids. Cyani’s vocals in “JOLLY” were a little over-emphasised; some would call it shout.
Treble
I found the response to pick up a second time in the mid treble, with hi-hats proving a touch piercing on poorly-recorded songs. This was exacerbated with the F style on-ear pads, which admittedly didn’t see a whole lot of use.
But it did have its merits; Billie Eilish and Khalid’s “lovely” has a part where Billie’s “s” sounds reverberate in a way which is pleasantly emphasised on the HP100 SE.
Furthermore, the slightly elevated treble helped bring out the impressive detail and resolution capabilities of the HP100 SE, with the paper compositive driver doing a terrific job at handling microdynamics.
Imaging and Soundstage
The HP100 SE is an especially open-sounding headphone, with the stage extending very wide in the horizontal plane. For reference, I thought the Grados staged wider than any egg-shaped HiFiMAN which are renowned for their staging abilities.
On the other hand, the centre stage sounded a touch diffuse to my ears, which meant the layering and imaging wasn’t quite as good as the HE1000 Unveiled. Still decent though; TOOL’s “Chocolate Chip Trip” still gave me that surround-sound auditory experience I strive for.
The F style pads improved imaging by bringing the centre stage forward in the mix, but it did also reduce the expansive soundstage by a touch.
Drivability
I wanted to test out the drivability aspect of the HP100 SE, but the included 6.3mm cable meant I couldn’t simply hook the headphones up to my phone or any portable DAC/Amp device.
Grado provided me with an early variant of their 4-pin XLR cable which allowed me to eke out the maximum power figures from my Aune S17 Pro amplifier, and I reached comfortable listening volumes with plenty of headroom. In fact, I had more volume to spare than with any HiFiMAN.
The Bottom Line
The Grado Signature HP100 SE not only brings detachable cables for the first time in the Brooklyn-based audio company’s lineup, but honors its Signature heritage with superb vocal performance, impressive soundstaging and top-shelf technical ability. We just wish they were a little more comfortable and perhaps catered to younger, more upper frequency-sensitive ears too.
Pros:
- Detachable cables at last
- Unmatched vocal clarity
- Wide, open sound
- Compete with the best in class below $2,500
Cons:
- Not the most comfortable
- Upper midrange and mid treble harshness
Where to buy:
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