šŸ”¶ Grado GW100

Following this, canā€™t decide whether to go TW100 or go hemp plus my BTR5 which I love with my 60ā€™s and 80ā€™s, I also use with Apple TV for recliner listening tv stuff, damn decisions

the problem here is the Hemp Ltd are nearly twice the price of the GW100ā€™s.

I wonder if you can EQ the GW100 to sound similar when wireless.

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Sound is, of course, subjective. Sound at price point? I would bet money the GW100s sound better to a larger audience. But objectively better? I would say too subjective. Admittedly I have not heard the Hemps but would love to. $420 for Grados as much as I love to shill them is asking a bit much for the build quality in my opinion.

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I think the ā€œno bassā€ rep is an exaggeration ā€¦ at least for some of the mid-higher range Grados. Also think build quality concerns are; maybe I just take especially good care, but I have had some RS-1 for 17 years; they look virtually new.

Iā€™d trust the appraisal of GW100 as ā€œbestā€ more if it were coming from people who heard at least a representative sampling of the other higher-tier Grados; and Iā€™d trust the guarantee of the Hemps sounding better more if it came from someone who compared the two!

If I ever pull the trigger on the GW100 Iā€™ll weigh in. But ā€¦ not really in the current budget. Picked up Elegias and then the Hemps too recently; and I am hoping to keep workingā€¦!

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The Hemps are a very appealing sound. Thatā€™s why I think they are probably (havenā€™t heard the GW100) the next step up in the Grado line. The price is fair imo but I get how it can be hard to justify that much for a headphone with a plastic build and an attached cable.

@Marzipan Iā€™m sure someone will figure out the eq for these at sime point. I bet it would be a fun way to waste some time trying to figure it out.

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Can someone try explaining to me what exactly DSP is and how it is done?

Itā€™s Digital Signal Processing. Allows someone to shape or enhance the signal, changing the sound.

How itā€™s done? I think you take a Framis pin here, and another Framis pin here, slap them together with just the right amount of juice, put it through the goggulator and you can have the thing running for monthsā€¦

I mean, no idea.

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you just reminded me I need to get a new goggulator!

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I have just watched Zeosā€™ review and I cannot believe my eyes or ears that he believes these to the best Gradoā€™s heā€™s heard.

Iā€™ve demoā€™d these headphones on a couple of occasions and found them underwhelming, the treble was a bit too recessed to the point it ruined the sound for me.

But when I compare my impressions to Zeosā€™ itā€™s as though he has listened to a completely different headphone.

Now the interesting thing is the unit I demoā€™d was the Bluetooth 4.2 version with 15 hours battery life whereas the unit Zeos reviewed was the newer Bluetooth 5.0 version with 40 hours battery life.

I am no expert but I doubt the fact that despite the upgrade in terms of the Bluetooth technology and battery life it would have impacted or improved the sound.

I am interested to hear from either old or new GW100 owners of their impressions and how they compare with Zeosā€™ ā€œthey could be end gameā€ admission!

I posted Gutenbergā€™s review of the 4.2 version and he was also underwhelmed. Maybe they updated the DSP FOR THE 5.0 version?

Iā€™m assuming you can update the DSP version as revisions are released?

I mean depending on how much access grado has to the hardware they could change it up with every batch (no one would ever do that for obvious reasons) so if they felt the first version was not to their liking then it is very possible they returned the DSP for the updated version.

Edit: did you mean we can change the DSP as the customer? If so then probably not.

hmmmā€¦so no firmware flash updates or anything?

You might be able to email Grado and ask but my guess is no. But I donā€™t think this will be a problem since I doubt they will release any more revisions like the BT4.2 to BT5.0. At this point I would guess this wonā€™t get an ā€œupgradeā€ untill they do somthing like the move from the ā€œiā€ series to the ā€œeā€ series.

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AHAHAHA! I thought we were talking software revisions, not HW. I saw 4.2 and 5.0 and didnā€™t think BT standards, I was thinking revision of the DSP on the headphones. LoL!

I usually find Zeos to be a fairly reliable and honest source so when he pays something kudos like he has with these headphones then I think I need to go back and listen to them again.

I will have to compare the sound quality with my SR80e playing out my BTR5 as a reference because they really kick butt.

I know its not a like-for-like comparison but I have found playing most of my headphones out of the BTR5 pretty unbeatable at this point and being Grado"s they will be the nearest match I have.

Iā€™ve tried various different Bluetooth headphones including the Sony WH1000XM3s, B&W PXs, PX5s and PX7S and found the sound on them all underwhelming. Maybe my expectations are set a little bit high at the moment in terms of the audio output quality on Bluetooth headphones. Perhaps i need to wait for a game changer, not sure if the GW100s are ā€œitā€ but Iā€™ll give them another go.

I just bought them this will be my first grado headphone I hope Iā€™ll like them

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what made you choose them over the others?

I own the BT5.0/USB-C/40hrs battery version of the GW100 since a few weeks and I partly agree with Zeos that these sound surprisingly good (specifically in the low end) for a wireless headphone (also the BT-range is fantastic) and that they are really bad in wired mode. I have no experience with Grado headphones so I can not compare to Grados but I do prefer them in wireless mode over my Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless headphones. However that preference is also due to the convenience of finally having an open-back BT headphone for use at home (I want/have to be aware of my surroundings/family). The sound quality is however not out-of-this-world as one might think from the review. They were relatively cheap at amazon UK (about 150 GBP) and in that price range they are really ahead of the competition.

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Do you know the name of the seller on Amazon UK you bought them from? Iā€™ve contacted a few and they have the original Bluetooth 4.2 version