Headphones

Back in 1953, watchmaker Joseph Grado founded Grado Laboratories to produce phono cartridges that he’d made on his kitchen table for years in Brooklyn, New York. In fact, he also went on to invent the first stereo moving-coil cart while building up the company’s lineup.

Jump forward to 1990 and Grado’s nephew, John, bought the business from his uncle and created its first line of headphones with the Signature HP1 at the top of the range.

Although Joseph Grado passed away in 2015, the company wanted to celebrate the centenary of his birth by launching a new flagship headphone: the Signature HP100 SE. Despite being a nod to the Signature HP1 and still hand-assembled in the company’s Brooklyn-based headquarters, this is a completely new design. As well as having updated engineered drivers, the HP100 SE now comes fitted with detachable cables and has an improved headband assembly.

One of the design aims of the HP100 SE was to create a new 52mm driver with a good high-frequency resolution, midrange, smoothness and bass energy with low distortion. To this end, a new paper composite cone was chosen, which is attached to a new voice coil made from lightweight copper-plated aluminium. This voice coil sits in a powerful high flux magnetic circuit using rare earth alloys. The resulting sensitivity of 117dB/mW makes it very efficient, so amp power should not be an issue.

This is the first Grado model to feature detachable cables, which have been engineered to a softer but durable braided finish, with insulation that improves flexibility and decreases weight. Additional detachable options such as 4-pin XLR, 4.4mm balanced and different cable lengths will be available in the future.

The headband assembly features 50 percent more padding than previous Grado designs and has a stainless steel band and height rods that can be adjusted to minimise listening fatigue. The gimbals are made from an aluminium alloy and the height rod using stainless steel. The housings come in a Space Grey finish and are machined from specially treated aluminium and supplied with new ‘G’ over-ear cushions (my preference) and the older style flat ‘F’ cushions of the original HP1, HP2 and HP3.

Sound quality

Spinning Lyn Stanley’s It’s Magic, vocals and orchestral backing have real presence. The bass is clear and the brass sparkles with great clarity. The performance comes through as effortless, detailed and very refined.

Moving on to Mendelssohn’s Octet performed by The Locrian Ensemble, the detail is absolutely superb and each individual instrument clearly occupies its own position within the soundstage. Finishing off with the rousing Spartacus by Khachaturian and the Vienna Philharmonic, the performance is big, full and very powerful. The drums in particular really seem to resonate with a commanding authority. The detail in the percussion is crystal clear and the strings are not at all harsh. Brass instruments are not over bright, but have a very real presence.

Conclusion
NR    

DETAILS
Product: Grado Signature HP100 SE
Type: Open-back headphone

FEATURES
● 52mm drivers
● 12-conductor detachable 1.8m cable fitted with 6.3mm jack
● Quoted sensitivity: 117dB/m/1W

Read the full review in  Issue 527