Grado SR225i Headphone

Owned for 2 months

Price: $200

Rating (1-5):  4 – Great Buy – No Regrets

Pros:

• Sweet spot for value performance versus 325/125
• Great for live recordings, guitar, and earns the Grado claim to king of rock
• Can be plugged into an iPhone / iPod (with adaptor)

Cons:

• Can be fatiguing
• Bad recordings sound terrible (might be a pro as well)
• Thick cord is cumbersome

Decision Criteria:

1. High quality audiophile caliber headphone (first headphone purchase)
2. Reasonable price (<$200)

Did It Deliver?:

Yes.  I have occasionally had a few regrets about the sound signature and awkwardly thick cable, but overall really like these.  My  rating has ranged from 3-5, and I settled on a 4.  No regrets currently, read more below.

Summary:

The Grado headphones seem to elicit love / hate relationships with serious headphone listeners.  I guess that I fall into the camp that really likes these headphones.  I decided to look at these based on extensive reading on the web, mainly at Head-Fi.  I auditioned them along with the SR125i ($150) and the SR325i ($295).  I was immediately struck by the lifelike sound signature of all three phones.  If you have been listening on the Apple ear buds, you just do not know what you have been missing.  I found the differences between the 3 headphones very subtle.  I did hear a little more bass in the 225i versus the 125i.  The phones are a little light on bass, so I placed a high value on this.  The 325i sounded a little more detailed than the 225i.  This was very subtle though and required constant switching back and forth listening to the same passages of music to hear the difference.  In the end, this difference did not seem worth $95 to me.

The only reason that I rate this a 4 rather than a 5 is that they can be fatiguing with some music.  However, just after listening to three Lenny Kravitz discs I would have rated it a 5 without a doubt.  I do think that for some ears these are not the best phones.  There were a few days I would have rated them a 3 – Good Buy, Some Regrets.  You should find a high end stereo shop to listen to these.  The prices on the internet are not any lower so you may as well get the full service in selecting them.

Also, Head-Fi is a great site.  Lots of great information if you read carefully.  You will quickly figure out who knows what they are writing about and might have similar tastes to yours.