It’s hard to make a rational case for a pair of £355 in-ear headphones.
It’s not that the product’s performance could never justify that kind of money – indeed these metallic-green Grados easily sound like a £355 product to us – it’s more a case of trying to find sources and amplification to do justice to such headphones.
Even class leading products such as the Apple iPod Touch or the ever-more ubiquitous iPad aren’t quite good enough to show the GR10s’ full array of talents off to the very best extent.
Need a true hi-fi source
So, what to use? Well, we ended up feeding these Grados from WAV files on a MacBook, fed through the DAC and headphone amplification of a Chord Toucan.
And, we’re pleased to say, we got extremely impressive results.
Get past the first 30 or so hours of play, when the Grados sound distinctly bright and a touch aggressive, and the sound gradually opens up to become wonderfully informative and enjoyable.
As with all such headphones, getting these to sit in the ears properly is vital to getting a proper tonal balance with decent bass weight. Get it right, though, and we’re sure you’ll find the Grado GR10s as transparent and musically engaging as in-ears get.
They manage to deliver lots of insight with breathtaking agility without ever seeming clinical. It’s a fine balance that very few rivals can match.
Where has the money gone?
A pricey pair of in-ear headphones are never going to have much perceived value, and just looking at the oddly green GR10s it’s hard to see, at first, where the money has gone. One listen is all it takes to find the answer.
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