Grado unveil new X Series wooden headphones with all-new drivers
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Grado has taken the wraps off two new pairs of audiophile-friendly wired headphones, with the premium audio brand boldly claiming their new flagship Statement GS3000x are the best best-sounding they’ve ever made.
Eschewing modern features most headphone wearers have come to expect from their cans like noise-cancelation and voice assistants, Grado high-end lines instead focus on detailed wired models that offer pristine audio fidelity with an equally top-tier asking price.
The GS3000x features a new 52mm driver, the largest in the company’s history, measuring a full 2mm larger than the speaker which appeared in Grado’s previous flagship GS3000e headphones.
The new driver design also features a more powerful magnetic circuit and voice coil with reduced effective mass, alongside an overhauled diaphragm.
As we’ve come to expect from the Brooklyn-based brand, the GS3000x sport a wooden finish, with the housing made from a tropical hardwood called cocobolo.
The driver has been specifically tuned to maximize the wood’s resonance, while the nature of cocobolo means that no two headphone’s will look the same thanks to the wood’s varying grain and tone.
Sitting slightly beneath the GS3000x is Grado’s also just-announced successor to their popular GS1000e headphones.
Sharing a similar retro, open-back design, the new Statement GS1000x sees Grado combining mahogany and ipê wood for the first time.
The family-run company claims the combination brings together the best qualities of both tone woods, with the mahogany bringing warmth and texture, while the ipê helps to maintain structural integrity of the sound when passing through the grains of the housing.
Largely similar to its flagship sibling, the main difference performance wise comes with a slightly narrower frequency response of 8 – 35,000Hz from the GS1000x compared to the 4 – 51,000Hz provided by the GS3000x.
With both models featuring exposed grilles on the rear of the enclosure on each housing to allow sound and air to move more freely, these headphones are primarily designed for savoring music at home, as their output leakage makes them less than ideal in an office setting or on a packed train.
Both new Statement lines come with an “improved” 12-conductor braided cable as well as a redesigned new headband, with both set to go on sale next month.
The Grado Statement GS1000x come in at $1,195 / £1,295 or $1,365 / £1,495 with balanced XLR connectors, while the flagship Grado Statement GS3000x are priced at $1,995 / £2,195 or $2,165 / £2,395 with balanced XLR connectors.