Grado SR80e Measurements and Impressions

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by Vtory, Aug 1, 2020.

  1. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    USPS rarely delivers faster than their estimation. Today was such a lucky day to me -- this pair originally expected to be here next Mon.

    Picture or didn't happen.

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    I could pick up pretty mint condition sr80e. Likely the previous owner couldn't bear Grado threshold. His loss became my gain -- in fact I benefited from no-bidder last minute jumping in strategy.

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    One thing I didn't know was grado headphones do not necessarily have identical diameters in their chambers (and according to @pure5152 also in drivers). Prestige series' plastic chamber was noticeably smaller. This means some pads fit perfectly on Hemp but not so on SR80e. And unfortunately f-cushion coming with Hemp applies to this case. Geekria pads worked for both though.

    Enough intro. Let's see the measurements first.

    By the way, if you haven't, please check out the following thread of Grado Hemp for better understanding the context: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...20-measurements-reviews-and-impressions.9627/
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2020
  2. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Please note that SR80e (at least current gen) comes with S-cushion. Usual measurement settings applied.

    Pads named as below:

    • Scush or S-cush : Grado S-cushion (stock pads for SR80e)
    • Donut : Geekria Donut pads
    • Flat : Geekria Flat pads
    For more info regarding Geekria pads, please refer to the following posts:

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    Last edited: Aug 1, 2020
  3. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    The next question you may wonder is whether and to what extent these SR80e's are different from the Hemps. From measurement perspective, Hemps have clearer and smoother highs around 4k-8khz range. A peak at 5khz typically shown in many grado products disappear with the Hemps.

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    Last edited: Aug 2, 2020
  4. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Super-early thoughts
    • These make me appreciate Hemp headband that I disliked.. Hemps are much better padded than SR80e.
    • Geekria flat pad is the right way to go for my taste. I can take geekria flat over stock S-cushions any day. TTVJ deluxe may work better (if it's identical to F-cush) but $50 pads impose extensive psychological threshold to dial in $100 headphones.
    • Others being equal, both objectively and subjectively, Hemps are significantly smoother and more refined on highs. Enough for me to think both reasonably priced.
    • Compared to Hemps, SR80e present in a little more aggressive and forwarding manner. Thinner and sharper sounding, too.
    • Relatively more fatiguing than Hemps. To me long period fatigue level is similar with HD600 but lower than Elex (not to mention vintage Grados).
    I'm currently listening with Grado SR80e + Geekria flat pads + iFi Zen Dac. This chain is the most awesome budget bliss I've ever seen (particularly for $240 new combo). Hard to beat.

    More detailed subjective assessments to come later. I have some working hypotheses, but want to verify subjectively with various tracks before posting them.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2020
  5. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Listening with SR80e (Geekria flat) and Hemp (F-cush) side by side, there's no doubt that I way better prefer Hemps to SR80e's. That motivated me to measure SR80e with F-cush even though cushions were not solidly attached to chambers (due to diameter difference as described above). I wanted to know about which of cushions or drivers(+chambers) played more important roles.

    And below were what I got.

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    SR80e left and right channels frequency response

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    SR80e fixed, Grado F-cush vs Geekria Flat pads

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    F-cushion fixed, SR80e versus Hemp

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    Finally for fun SR80e F-cush vs Hemp Flat as I thought these combos showed the closest tonal balance (both subjectively and objectively).

    My general preference:
    1. Hemp F-cush (the most preferred in any tracks)
    2. Hemp Flat (technically preferred over the SR80e F-cush)
    3. SR80e F-cush (tonally preferred over the Hemp Flat)
    4. SR80e Flat (the least preferred among the bunch; relatively the most grado-ish sounding)

    I hate to say this. But conditioned by TTVJ DX is identical or almost identical to F-cushions, I am starting to think $40 difference is worthy. Still SR80e+TTVJ DX cost $150 and to me that smokes any other offerings on the market below $300 if $$~$$$ amps not assumed. The moral of the story is that Grado does not immediately kick out budget or suboptimal upstream while maintaining competent technicalities (over "well-driven" competitors) -- not to mention no laborious mods required.
     
  6. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    I've been thinking why F-cushions and Flat pads (Geekria) sound/measure different. One hypothesis is driver's proximity to concha and tragus matters. Then I recalled Hands did reverse the pads and got interesting results. Remembered Tyll did something similar decades ago, too. There's no reason not to follow the idea by myself.

    I did this with SR80e because I have only one pair of F-cush in the house, and They're strongly bound to Hemp (my ultimate goto can). But I wanted to replicate something like F-cush on SR80e.

    Anyway, here are pics.

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    For your reference, here is "Unreversed flat pads" (pasted from the Hemp thread)
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    As you may guess from the pics, this setting made my anthelix and antitragus directly touch to the mesh surface. Surrounding cloth lightly attached to helix and lobule, creating some acoustic seal.

    Below shows how they measured. I conveniently named this "reversed flat" or "revflat".

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    Note that EARS's silicon ears are too small to get a seal. With my real huge head and ears, reversed pads work more like f-cushs.

    Soundwise, at least, this finally tamed SR80e (mid to upper) highs to the extent I don't complain. Instead, 2.6khz boosting is also subjectively hearable, more decibels than I would like to hear. Maybe a thin layer of tp could help? That's homework for later. With this setting, I am frankly quite impressed with how capable these drivers are. Ignoring a little too hyper-realistic presentation (and/or too much digital-ish-ness), there is a substantial information influx streaming to the ear. And this is the setting I enjoy my SR80e the best so far.
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2020
  7. elsordo

    elsordo Acquaintance

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    Just want to thank you for writing this up. Purr1n has a thread I went over as well and I learned a lot from both of your postings.

    I ended up selling my Hemps due to not being able to listen to them much because we're all home so much right now due to covid and working from home. Just got endless complaints whenever I wore them (does anyone else think the Hemps leak more?). And it was hard for me to justify keeping a $400 pair of headphones I can rarely listen to.

    Anyway, I really loved them and was rather upset about selling them but these 2 threads made me decide to pick up a used pair of SR80E and give those a try with different pads.

    I don't have any TTVJ deluxe currently but I do have the Geekria LL and I tried those reversed as you did here and was pleasantly surprised. They're close enough to the Hemps that I think I won't miss them too terribly. I am very curious about how they'll sound with the TTVJ's but it seems kind of odd to spend $50 for pads for headphones that I also paid $50 for. I guess I just need to get over this psychological barrier. The total cost is what's important and it would only be $100 total. Not much if they can sound even closer to the Hemps. But I'm still hesitant because these LL's don't sound bad at all. Ahh! Decisions decisions.

    Thank you again for this information.

    Edit: I'm going to try putting some toilet paper over the mesh to see if that will tame some of the peaks in the highs. It's not that bad but I wouldn't mind them just a tad softer. That's definitely one area the Hemps were much better in.

    Edit2: 1 ply of tp tames them a tad. Need to listen more to see how it sounds overall. Interested to see if you do measurements with tp.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2021

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