Grado Hemp evaluate: sonically spot on open-back headphones – if not the final phrase in consolation

Grado Hemp: Two-minute evaluate

The Reference Series Hemp headphones began out as a restricted version – however due to common opinion, Grado has determined to make them a everlasting a part of its catalog. How doubtless are the Grado Hemp to characteristic in our finest wired headphones shopping for information? Very, with only a few caveats. 

In some ways – definitely aesthetic – it’s Grado enterprise as ordinary. Which is not all excellent news, precisely, as a result of it means these headphones are nothing particular the place perceived worth is anxious, are removed from luxurious as objects, and develop into lower than snug extra rapidly than, say, the Sennheiser HD 660S2 they’re more likely to face off in opposition to on most individuals’s shortlists.

Happily, it’s additionally enterprise as ordinary the place sound high quality is anxious. The mixture of the open-backed configuration, together with the acoustic abilities of the maple-and-hemp building of the motive force housing, means these headphones sound spacious, detailed and completely participating. So a lot so, in truth, that you simply’ll nearly definitely discover they’re changing into simply barely uncomfortable earlier than you’re actually able to cease listening to them.  

Grado Hemp evaluate: Price & launch date

• Release date: February 1, 2024
• Price: $479 / £479 / AU$799
  

The Grado Reference Series Hemp wired open-backed over-ear headphones can be found now – initially this mannequin noticed the sunshine of day again in 2020, however then it was a restricted version and now it isn’t. In America, the worth is a pun-tastic $420, whereas within the UK the headphones price £479 and in Australia they’re AU$799.

There isn’t actually house right here to record all of the very many pairs of different over-ear headphones this form of cash will purchase. But direct, hard-wired open-backed rivals are skinny on the bottom (though the FiiO FT3 is one choice), and people partially constructed from a semi-illegal botanical species are thinner nonetheless…

Grado Hemp evaluate: Specs

Grado Hemp evaluate: Features

• 44mm dynamic drivers
• 13Hz – 28kHz frequency response
• Chunky 177cm cable

There’s not a lot you want from a pair of passive headphones in relation to ‘options’, is there? The Grado have the necessities: correctly suspended, properly remoted 44mm dynamic drivers delivering a claimed frequency response of 13Hz – 28kHz, and that almost covers it. 

Each earcup is wired utilizing the acquainted eight-conductor cable Grado has favored for some time now – and right here, simply as in each different software, it’s nearly wilfully wanting to twist in on itself and heroically immune to straightening. At least Grado has seen sense and fitted a 3.5mm termination with a 6.33mm adapter equipped – again within the day, the corporate would terminate with a 6.3mm jack after which present an enormous, unwieldy 6.3mm/3.5mm adapter. So progress has undoubtedly been made the place that individual characteristic is anxious… 

• Features rating: 5/5

Grado Hemp evaluate: Sound high quality

• Open, organised and expansive presentation
• Nicely balanced and detailed sound
• Straightforwardly fulfilling to hearken to

Buying open-backed, hard-wired headphones strongly suggests you are taking your listening fairly severely – in spite of everything, you haven’t hit on a pair of Grado Reference Series Hemp headphones for his or her comfort. So it appears affordable to imagine you’ll plug them right into a worthwhile supply of music, fairly than straight into the headphone socket of a laptop computer or smartphone.

And positive sufficient, connect the Hemp to a half-decent headphone amplifier, feed in some digital audio content material of affordable decision (a 24bit/96kHz FLAC file of Nick Drake’s Which Will, as an example, a 16bit/44.1kHz FLAC copy of Petra Haden’s model of I Can See For Miles or a 24bit/192kHz FLAC file of Astrud Gilberto’s Chup Chup I Got Away) and the very fact they neither look nor really feel like $480-worth of headphones turns into a moot level. Because they sound prefer it, after which some.

The soundstage they’re able to creating, for instance, is spacious, well-organised and, most of all, large. So large, in truth, that even for those who select to hearken to a full symphony orchestra gearing up for a full assault, there’s greater than sufficient room out there for every particular person instrument to get pleasure from just a little house wherein to do its factor with out worry of being trampled over by every other. The format is specific, and the gap within the entrance/again and left/proper planes is important. Switch to a small-scale, guitar-and-voice recording, although, and the Hemp makes it sound unified, intimate and direct. As far as creating a giant image goes, these Grado are vivid and assured.

Detail ranges are excessive, throughout the board – the underside of the frequency vary is simply as information-rich, diverse and articulate because the midrange and the highest finish. At each stage, the Grado are in a position to establish and contextualise even essentially the most minor occasions in a recording, in addition to conserving an in depth eye on the larger image. It’s in a position to amalgamate each strand right into a singular occasion with a robust sense of ‘efficiency’, and the mixing of all the frequency vary is clean (though simply fractionally midrange-forward within the established Grado method). This may appear to be a given, on the idea that the Hemp are producing the entire frequency from a single driver per earcup, however I’ve heard sufficient equally specified headphones that merely can’t handle it to comprehend it’s not good to make assumptions.

Control of the underside finish is sweet, which implies rhythms are dealt with with assurance – the Grado’s total sonic signature is one in every of momentum and engagement, fairly than dry evaluation. Oh, they will peer deep right into a recording and produce again all of the trivia – however that’s not the place they’re at their handiest. It’s their sense of vitality and drive, well-supervised assault and easy musicality – that’s the place their elementary abilities lie.    

Big dynamic shafts are dealt with with out alarms, and with simply as a lot positivity because the low-level dynamic variations which might be obvious in a solo instrument or unaccompanied voice(s) as within the Petra Haden recording. There’s loads of punch and assault when it’s referred to as for, however the Hemp are simply as able to soothing as they’re invigorating.

• Sound high quality rating: 5/5

Grado Hemp evaluate: Design

• Hemp/maple driver housing
• Leather headband
• Foam ear pads

Despite the truth that each pair of on-ear headphones is basically the identical in relation to ‘design’, the Reference Series Hemp may solely be a Grado product. The established design cues are all right here.

Thin metallic headband, modestly padded and coated with stretched leather-based? Check. Prosaic ‘friction pole’ headband adjustment mechanism? Check. Metal mesh protecting the rear of the motive force enclosure, ordinary-feeling foam forming the ear pads, a rudimentary yoke permitting only a diploma of ear cup motion? Check, verify and verify once more. Grado come across these design options some time again, and fairly clearly sees no cause to mess with them. 

No pair of headphones stays snug indefinitely. At some level throughout a listening session you’ll develop into conscious of warmth, or fatigue, or each, someplace or different – however the design and execution of the Reference Series Hemp signifies that time will come just a little earlier than with some various designs. 

• Design rating: 4/5

Grado Hemp evaluate: Value

• Unremarkable in feel and appear
• Perceived worth shouldn’t be all that prime
• Excellent sound high quality on the cash

You can have a look at this one in every of two methods. The first means says that the Reference Series Hemp are basically unglamorous, and under no circumstances look or really feel like they price as a lot cash as they price. The second means says {that a} mixture of sonic abilities corresponding to these exhibited by these headphones justifies the asking value all day lengthy. You will very a lot make your individual thoughts up…

• Value rating: 4/5

Should I purchase the Grado Hemp?

Buy them if…

Don’t purchase them if…

Grado Hemp evaluate: Also think about

How I examined the Grado Hemp

• Used with numerous sources
• Tested for over per week
• Many various kinds of music performed
  

Headphone amps of assorted varieties, music from vinyl records and hi-res digital audio recordsdata (and loads of them) plus an extended, onerous hear is principally how I examined the Grado Reference Series Hemp. 

This is how I used to be in a position to set up they like good sources of music higher than common ones (no shock there), they couldn’t care much less concerning the form of music you wish to hearken to (which is sweet information), and so they get just a little uncomfortable when you’re hours deep right into a listening session (which is barely much less excellent news). 

It additionally did not take me lengthy to determine that the noise they leak is an irritation to anybody who could be within the neighborhood…  

• First reviewed: March 2024
• Read extra about how we take a look at