Secure the five-Star Grado RS1x for under £700

If you're considering buying a pair of the best audiophile headphones, then we recommend considering the five-star Grado RS1x. Their design might not be everyone's cup of tea, but few, if any, would doubt their sound quality.

In our review we described them as "distinctly open, entertainingly lean and agile, and unfalteringly detailed. Grado has carved out a solid sonic signature over the years and stayed unwaveringly loyal to it".

As a result, the RS1x are up there with the most compelling pairs around at this price, let alone at a discounted price of £695 at Peter Tyson. Snap them up while they're so affordable.

Five Star

Save £104.95

Grado RS1x: was £799.95 now £695 at Peter Tyson

Thanks to a maple, hemp and cocobolo wood finish, the RS1x look gorgeous and are guaranteed to stand out from the crowd. That doesn't mean they're lacking under the hood, though. Thanks to a hugely insightful, dynamically expressive and spacious sound, we had no qualms rating them a full five stars. Now with £105 off, they're more tempting than ever.
Read our full Grado RS1x review

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If you’re looking for home headphones to plug into your hi-fi system or desktop DAC and are fortunate enough to have this kind of budget to spend on them, I would wholeheartedly recommend that this be the pair you treat your ears to.

A 14 per cent discount may not seem all that generous in the face of 'half-price this and have-this-for-free that' in our deal-persistent world, but premium Grado headphones such as these are rarely discounted by much.

The caveat to owning Grado headphones is that their retro look will not appeal to everyone; those trademark antenna-resembling adjustment sliders won’t suit all, nor will their foam earpads.

But the RS1x are arguably the nicest-looking pair we’ve seen from the Brooklyn-based brand, owing to their mix of maple sleeve, hemp core and cocobolo wood – which doesn’t just look lovely but is essential to their wa​​rm tonal character.

Speaking of which, it’s their sound quality that really stands out. True to Grado’s signature sound, the RS1x are, to borrow our words from back in 2022, distinctly open, entertainingly lean and agile, and unfalteringly detailed.

There are far more premium-priced Grados, but the RS1x’s balance of performance and comfort (their frame is lightweight and the earcups sit on, rather than fully enclose, your ears) makes them a good go-to everyday pick to plug into, say, a laptop-connected Chord Hugo 2 DAC.

This would be a good time to mention that you'll need a good, quiet space in which to listen to these Grados, considering their open-back design, which inherently leaks a notable amount of sound both in and out.

So bear the open-back vs closed-back headphone discussion in mind when considering these, or any pair of audiophile headphones.

If they fit the bill on paper, you won’t regret making the Grado RS1x yours for the very reasonable discounted sum of £695 at Peter Tyson.

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