New Grado PS500 headphones aimed firmly at the audiophile

A cracking pair

Headphone specialist Grado has announced the launch of the Grado PS500 Professional Series headphones, which should deliver some serious audio pleasure to your auricles.

Now we'd be the first to admit that high prices don't always equate to a quality product, but in Grado's case, if you're paying ?700 - something you'll have to do if you want a pair of the PS500 - you can pretty much guarantee you're getting something very special.

The New York based company has built up a reputation for being at the forefront of headphone manufacture with previous high-end headphones including the ?1835 per pair PS1000. These new PS500s look to emulate the majority of the performance of the Grado PS1000 but at around a third of the price, perhaps bringing a little more justification for the ?700 price tag.

The high quality of the PS500s was achieved by creating a "hand-crafted mahogany" inner-sleeve by way of an intricate curing process. The "spark finish" was then, "machined from a bespoke non-resonant, very hard metal alloy which utilises a special processing and casting method to increase the porosity of the alloy. This combination of wood and metal insures that the earphone chamber has no "ringing" which might obscure detail or add colouration. The large driver diaphragms contain rare earth metals and the connecting cable is Grado's newest formula, with some fifteen wires enclosed in a proprietary shell."

So, in short, you're going to have to be one hell of an audiophile to justify splashing the cash, but if you do it'll probably be worth it. You'll end with a compact and comfortable headphone that delivers open, dynamic and virtually distortion free music to your ears.

The retail price for the Grado PS500 is ?700 per pair. They will be available from authorised stockists throughout the UK from mid October 2011.

?

Tags: Audio Headphones Grado Grado PS500

New Grado PS500 headphones aimed firmly at the audiophile originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:19:29 +0100

TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS TOTAL SYSTEM SERVICES TNS