Grado Signature HP100 SE - HP1000 homage?

[MexicanDragon]

https://gradolabs.com/products/hp100-se

Just found out aboot these today thanks to @DouglasQuaid

Anyone have hands/ears on yet?

[recstar24]

They look cool! Would be curious as well.  I do not have high hopes that they actually sound like a Joe Grado lol

[blessingx]

59 minutes ago, recstar24 said:

They look cool! Would be curious as well.  I do not have high hopes that they actually sound like a Joe Grado lol

Different drivers, different housing, and different pads? Never affected the sound of a Grado before.  🙃

[Sherwood]

They lost me on the pads, obviously, but Todd still sells flats.  The price isn't particularly competitive with used HP1/2/3, even.  That said, I'd love to hear them.

[HiWire]

I'd like to try them, too.

I don't expect them to beat the Joseph Grado HP-1/2/3, but I'm curious about how Grado engineers a target sound profile for a flagship headphone... and what kind of electronics they use to drive them.

[MexicanDragon]

8 hours ago, Sherwood said:

They lost me on the pads, obviously, but Todd still sells flats.  The price isn't particularly competitive with used HP1/2/3, even.  That said, I'd love to hear them.

https://gradolabs.com/products/grado-headphone-replacement-cushion-f

Look familiar?

Grado is now selling "F-Cushions", aka "Flat Pads... and these headphones come with both G (salad bowels) and F (flats) cushions.

They also have a nice little chart on their pad page that shows all the things that they work with:
https://gradolabs.com/collections/headphone-cushions

One thing I'm happy about, as someone who has had HF-2s that have been down for a couple years due to a bad cable and I just haven't gotten together with @cetoole (who has a Tyll-esque appreciate for Grados) to recable them, is that they have an effective-standard of mini-XLR jacks for cables. That opens up SO many opportunities to make something ridiculous.

Who is the first person to make the plunge and then have @n_maher woody them?

[HiWire]

Differences between the HP100 SE and HP1000 from Head-Fi:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/grado-signature-hp100-se.974679/post-18494071

[nikongod]

Considerable sadness.

[HiWire]

I didn't expect them to be perfect on the first time out.

The new Grado does seem to be more committed to changing, which is better than where they were stuck before - the detachable cables are a good change, and I think they should focus on reducing the headphone's weight as well as improving its sonic properties (I think they're overpriced, but all the flagship products are).

Since the HP100 SE can use balanced cables, it would be interesting if somebody were to try it with the Schiit Midgard amplifier to test their Halo topology.

Edited December 23, 2024 by HiWire