Hear me outā¦
Grado-branded aftermarket headband compatible with current models
ā¦instant STONKS
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Someone say stonks? Is Grado publicly traded? Iām pretty sure itās private.
Sarcasm aside, that would be a great idea. Hope youāre listening, Grado!
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Grado really need to watch this video. Everyone else is moving on and they really need to catch up, in terms of build rather than sound I mean.
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Metal gimbals and rod blocks would be nice on the more expensive models and detachable cables are really not negotiable at this point. Other than that Grado is good as far as Iām concerned. The design of the headband is great imo. Simple, light weight, and (if not for the plastic) rather robust.
Unless there are issues Iām not aware of with this connector, they should use the old hifiman screw on connectors since they are rather un-intrusive into the cups.
Removable cables would go a long way. Hopefully their next series will make some changes.
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I would even accept just not making the wire Janky in the box. Just a nice big spool around the headphone so it is straight.
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Or even just inside the headband like this. This way itās even a FREE change they could make. I canāt for the life of me understand why they donāt do it this way.
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Didnāt Z receive some Grado Yaxi pads a while back? I bet those are a good match. Iād love to see Yaxi purple bagel pads / Gcush.
On the SR80e the Yaxi Grado pads are fine, but not exactly an upgrade compared to the stock S-cush pads.
On the Hemps they are not worth it at all. Either stick with stock pads or use geekria hole punch flats or geekria G-cush pads.
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Good info.
Iāve owned many Grados over the last 20 years (and modified some of them for detachable cables, essential mod btw and not hard either) and on my GS1000 I got pretty bummed out paying full price for the G Cush bagel pads from Grado.
I broke down and bought the Geekria pads at one point and I really I didnāt love them at all. They feel different.
The Grado foam, even though itās stupidly priced, is still a denser and more closed foam than the Geekria pads. You can feel that the Grado pads have different density at different portions of the pad too.
IMO I still like Grados pads the best but Iād really like to see someone like Yaxi come in and do a proper middle ground, something thatās still quality unlike the Chinese Amazon offerings but still affordable / priced more appropriately than from Grado.
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Yeah exactly. There isnāt a reason not to do that.
The flat purple ones for the GW100. Werenāt much better comfort wise.
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that is some grade A tech Heresy right there Z. But dont worry I wont tell the mechanicus 
Hi Zeos. Given your recent recommendations of the zeus and hemp, are heaphones like Koss esp/95x or Dan clark aeon open x still worth it?
Absolutely. If one new headphone rendered all previous headphones obsolete it would be a terrible world. EXP95x being electorstatic are more of a departure from the normalcy of headphones dynamic or planar and the Aeon Open X are damn close to fully neutral yet not boring.
Zeus and Hemp actually compete a little closer as they are both massive fun, wide and bassy cans. I have a hard time picking them apart. The Grado is smoother I suppose while the Zues is more overpowering.
I hate writing reviews.
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Hemp is surely the more exciting and horn-speaker-like out of the two?
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From what Iāve read it seems that most Grados have that lively and energetic sound to them, so the only real difference between the RS2e and Hemp is tuning (since they are in the same rough performance class). The RS2e is more the standard Grado sound while the Hemp is less bright and has a thicker lower mid range with some more bass.
Also, while I like the geekria G-cush pads, they lose some of that lush mid-range magic the Hemps have, so I would recommend sticking with the stock pads.
Recently bought the Hempā¦ after much headband bendingā¦ (otherwise can be really clampy especially if you wear glasses like myself) really comfortable and the sound is really worth the cost. Very natural timbre. Great with many different genres of music. Itās a real enjoyment 
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Hey folks, I added the new Dekoni suede headbandā¦ even more comfort!
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Itās good to see there is a cheap option for more headband padding for the leather headband Grados that doesnāt involve any disassembly. The stock beyer pad wonāt fit over the leather headband like it does with the vinyl headband. Dekoni to the rescue again.
