Geekria pads
Earzonk pads
TLDR: these are great headphones. The geekria pads have the most bass and less treble and are probobly the sound most people will prefer while the earzonk pads are more of a traditional grado sound with less bass and more treble. None of the the other pads I tried did anything better than these two options.
Full thoughts on the SR80e:
These are great headphones that, for $110 (with pads), are a no brainer. These are bright, but rarely, if ever, harsh or sibilant. It takes a really harsh track to make these hurt. This goes for all the pads I tried, but especially for the two linked above. The mids are pretty great. Strings and anything acoustic sound wonderful. The only issue I have with these headphones is that the upper midrange can be a bit shouty, but the geekria pads fix that. As for the bass, with stock pads itās kind of lack luster but with any open faced pad Iāve tried it improves to being more than enough for the genres these accel at, with the geekria pads making the bass rather astonishing for what these are. (Iāll talk more about the pads later)
Soundstage and imaging are good. Not the widest but very open, so you donāt get that sense of there being a hard outer limit to the stage. The imaging is pretty much average. Also I donāt get that ālinear soundstageā Joshua Velour mentioned. It sounds like any other headphone in terms of front and back staging.
The Hemps did timber the best Iāve heard so far, so I had slightly high expectations for the SR80e. Thankfully they pretty much lived up to those. They are not as good as the Hemps but are still very natural sounding. They are pretty much on the same level as the HD58X in terms of timber. Nothing sounds metallic or plasticy to me and everything just sounds like you would expect.
These excel when it comes to dynamics. They make sounds hit hard and make music just so lively. This seems to be a trait most Grados have (Gutenburg raves about this a lot) and itās probably my favorite thing about Grados. When a note hits, it hits hard. This is why I love that KODO Heartbeat album so much. Every drum hits with such authority. I should mention that this means these are not laid back or relaxing to listen to. These are exciting and lively, but some could find this fatiguing.
Time for the pads. The geekria pads reduce the treble a bit and boost the bass. The treble is probably a bit ācongestedā compared to other pads but nothing that I find objectionable, especially since the treble is never too sharp with these pads. The bass is the real star of these pads. It is kind of funny how good the bass is on these headphones with nothing more than a pad swap, especially since Grado is stereotyped as having no bass. Itās mostly mid bass, but the sub bass is pretty decent, maybe a bit less than the HD58X. The shouty-ness in the upper midrange is also pretty much gone. These are also very comfortable pads. The foam is soft and not at all scratchy and they stay comfortable for at least 3 hours for me. The only issues I have with these pads is that they fit rather loosely on the headphone and the foam probobly wonāt last all that long (maybe a year of heavy use) but they are only $10 so itās not the end of the world if they need replacing every so often.
The earzonk pads are very nice. Theyāre about the same quality as the F-cush pads that came on my Hemps. These are probably the longer lasting option. Sadly they are not as comfortable as the geekria pads. They only touch a thing ring and put a fair amount of pressure in the top of my ear. They are good for about 2 hours at most for me. Sound wise, these are more what one might expect from a Grado. The highs are brighter but still rather smooth and rarely sibilant (takes a harsh track to make these harsh). These also seem to be the clearest and most open/wide. The upper mids can still be a bit shouty, but not as much as stock pads and only on rather shouty songs. The bass is still better than stock pads but not as much as the geekria pads. Sub bass is surprisingly similar to the geekria pads, but mid bass and overall bass impact is less. These are a great option overall and you should get these and the geekria pads. They are only $10 each so that brings you up to a wopping $120 and you have three sound varuations to chose from.
Depending on the pads, these can can handle everything from classical to EDM. It may not be the best at everything bit it can do any genre justice. I particularly like classic rock and metal with the geekria pads and classical/orchestral and anythung acoustic with the earzonk pads.
Iāll probably keep using the geekria pads since I like the added bass and if they only lady a few months befor they need replaced Iāll get the TTVJ deluxe pads.
