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After years of speculation as to whether this would ever happen, Grado Labs' first wireless headset, the GW100, has finally arrived. Even though they use the same Bluetooth technology as the big brands with which you are perhaps more familiar, they do not look like any other wireless headphones that I've used.
What is it?
The first wireless headset of a cult favorite.
As
Super Grado sound, now wireless
Not as
The manufacturing quality is low
For some brand of nerd, Grado Labs, based in Brooklyn, inspires loyalty of devotion. This 65-year-old family business has built customer loyalty through its distinctive aesthetic, stubborn commitment to local roots, and uncompromising commitment to audio quality. And they have a headset that anyone can afford: the audiophile brand offers products of exceptional quality, worth $ 80 and can go up to thousands of dollars. Grado's slow style suggested that society would never go wireless.
But after 18 months of development, the GW100 ($ 250) are very real! John Grado, the president of the company, talks about making helmets in such simple terms that almost anyone could conceive of them. ("There is a wire, a speaker and a case for the speaker.") For me, this shows why five whole years (at least) in the classic Bluetooth era, we just came from receive our first Grado cans. Grado has mastered the art of tuning simple headphones. Why would you throw a wall of digital technology between the music source and the human?
When developing the wireless product, Grado and his team had to make several adjustments to digital technology to get exactly the sound he was looking for – not too bad, with the medium of the brand.
Using the GW100 over the last week, I remembered feeling completely immersed in the music. One day I went through a pile of new records that I wanted to listen to in various genres. The delicate voice of Cat Power on Vagabond were clear and humanly rendered. Meanwhile, the headphones conscientiously treat the punk thrash metal of High on Fire without flinching. My favorite song to check the bass is "Auntie's Lock / Infinitum" by Flying Lotus; its saturated low-end synthesizer lines are diabolical for audio products of all kinds. And while Grado prides himself on not having followed the crowds with overly serious products, the headphones air and capture the nuance of the song's bulbous tones.
I could go on and on, but just say yes! The headphones sound good! Super good! To my decent ears and to all I have ever heard, this does not drive the price north of $ 400. Given the pedigree of the company, this is not surprising.
There are of course disadvantages. In case this has not happened yet, the GW100 is an incredibly barebones-free product and provides none of the benefits or conveniences of our favorite wireless Bluetooth headsets like the Bose QuietComfort-35 II and the Sony WH-1000XM3. There is no noise reduction technology, EQ mode, or companion application. Heck, you can not even connect them to more than one source device at a time. If you want to switch from listening to your computer to your phone, you need to disconnect the headset from your computer, turn off Bluetooth, or get out of range so that the headset goes back into pairing mode.
While Bose and Sony headphones are clearly designed to meet the comfort and durability needs of frequent flyers, the GW100s look better suited to your office or chair. The design of the helmet is very similar to the affordable helmet of the Grado Prestige series. (According to Grado, the GW100 is not based on a specific hardwired product.It's a new design.) While it's nice that the headphones have this iconic look and they are quite light, the plastic and thin metal construction makes me feel nervous when I stuff it in my backpack. Notably, the headphones survived a five-foot drop from a gym locker with only a small scratch on the finish of the bolts securing the ear cups.
The foam pads provided with the earphones is another point of friction. It's a cheap thing that scratches your ears and does not stay attached. If you throw the headphones into your bag, get ready to rummage through the fallen atrium. They are very light, so I was able to wear them a long time and I was not too worried about scratches.
Noise is one of the main disadvantages of open-back headphones: you hear a lot of people outside and the sound of headphones is also broadcast. (In a funny way, Grado himself sees this as a feature and not as a bug: "You make ice cream – melted cream.") Design. And it works. My old grados would bother my colleagues and they could not hear the GW100.
The problem of sound from the outside has not been completely solved. I still heard the thud of an ice truck on heavy metals and the roar of a subway train heading to Union Station made it hard to hear Nirvana.
The headphones worked well in the city and even if there were dropouts in the big spaces, as is the case with Bluetooth headphones, it was not so boring that I could not use them.
Grado indicates that, depending on the behavior of these headphones ("We are on needles and needles"), the company plans to add more products to its wireless product line, including possibly some high-end models. Right now, the only plan he will release is the publication of an in-ear model with noise reduction next year.
So where are we? If you are the type of Grado consumer who really likes the most affordable products in society, you will love too. They hit every note, both in terms of sound and aesthetics, that fans have come to appreciate from the brand. That said, like all Grado products, they are not suitable for everyone: they are capricious, uncomfortable and do not block the outside sound. But as someone who wondered if Brooklyn's venerable audio brand would ever go wireless, I'm delighted that they finally have it.
READ ME
- It looks delicious.
- Noise leaks have been significantly reduced compared to other Grados.
- Very light, but also potentially not very durable.
- Atria are irritating and appear constantly.
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