It is often the mid-range SR325x that the What Hi-Fi? Team frequently highlights as the top Grado headphone deal, and with good reason. It is a multi-Award winner and one of our best audiophile headphones recommendations, often found at a 25 per cent discount.
But Grado makes wired headphones from as little as £60 to several times that, and the pair I use at home is a model I rarely see discounted. Right now, however, it is enjoying a discount of over £100 at several UK retailers.
Indeed, the Grado RS1x are now just £695 at Peter Tyson, which has the best price right now. (That said, Amazon currently sells them for only 37p more – £695.37 – while today’s Sevenoaks price is not far off either – £699.)
That’s a tidy £105 saving on the original launch price and makes them even better valuable than when we awarded them five stars in late 2022.
If you’re looking for home headphones to plug into your hi-fi system or desktop DAC, and are fortunate enough to have this kind of budget to spend on them, I would wholeheartedly recommend that they be the models you treat your ears to.
A 14 per cent discount may not seem all that generous in the face of half-price this and have-this-for-free that in our deal-persistent world, but premium Grado headphones such as these are rarely discounted by much.
The caveat to owning Grado headphones is, arguably, their retro look – those trademark antenna-resembling adjustment sliders won’t appeal to all, nor will their foam earpads.
But the RS1x are arguably the nicest-looking I’ve seen from the Brooklyn-based brand, owing to their mix of maple sleeve, hemp core and cocobolo wood – which doesn’t just look lovely, but is essential to their warm tonal character.
Speaking of which, it’s their sound quality that really stands out. True to Grado’s signature sound, the RS1x are, to borrow my words from back in 2022, distinctly open, entertainingly lean and agile, and unfalteringly detailed.
I have far more premium-priced Grado (and other branded) headphones at home, but the RS1x’s balance of performance and comfort (their frame is lightweight and the earcups sit on, rather than fully enclose, your ears) makes them my go-to everyday pick to plug into my laptop-connected Chord Hugo 2 DAC.
This would be a good time to mention that my office is quiet and therefore a good space in which to listen to these Grados, considering their open-back design, which inherently leaks a notable amount of sound both in and out.
So bear the open-back vs closed-back headphone discussion in mind when considering these – or any pair of audiophile headphones.
If they fit the bill on paper, you won’t regret making the Grado RS1x yours for the very reasonable discounted sum of £695 at Peter Tyson.
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