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The never-advertised, always coveted headphones built and sold in Brooklyn
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/07/some-of-the-worlds-most-reknowned-headphones-built-in-a-brooklyn-townhouse/Buried in a packed townhouse on a quiet street in south Brooklyn is a manufacturing operation that produces some of the most renowned headphones in the business. Despite Yelp reviews for the business, Grado Labs doesn't sell directly from its location to consumers, though it does take the occasional walk-up request for repairs. For the most part, its long-time employees, including owner John Grado and his son Jonathan, tinker away through four crowded floors on audio gear that hasn't appeared in advertising since the 1960's.
In the building, the company assembles and ships models that range from the flagship PS1000, priced at $1,700, to the $79 SR60s. As of early June, Grado has evolved the drivers for the second time in 23 years, from the I-series to the E-series.
The average New York City apartment building is narrow to begin with, but Grado's space is like a house eternally in the middle of moving day. You get around by edging your way around boxes, through the halls, on the stairs, and in the rooms. During the holiday season, Jonathan says, the boxes are stacked high enough to effectively move the walls in.
The company does all the injection molding of the plastic parts for its headphones in the basement with two machines, one old and one modern. The machines also still churn out parts for turntable cartridges, of which Grado shipped half a million per year in vinyl's heyday. In the early '90s, those shipments dropped to around 12,000, but hipsters have surged cartridge sales back up to 60,000 units in recent years.
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http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/07/some-of-the-worlds-most-reknowned-headphones-built-in-a-brooklyn-townhouse/
17 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I had a pair of Grados, great sound but fugly, I forget what happened to them:
Currently I'm using AKG K240s, also a decades-old design, also great sound but fugly (and incredibly comfortable):
Best headphones I ever used were Stax, but thousands of dollars a pair.
I wonder if they make a mic unit
