Grado SR80i headphones - What Hi-Fi? Awards 2013

What Hi-Fi? Awards 2013 winners - Best home on-ears up to £150

Most headphones use a closed-back design to minimise sound leakage which keeps you from inflicting your musical taste on those around you.

Grado has taken a different approach, by making open-backed headphones that leak sound like there's no tomorrow but which, as a result, sound sublime to the person wearing them.

For home listening where it won't bother any significant other, the SR80is are simply a stupendous buy for £135. If you can live with the looks, these Award-winners will give you hour after hour of sonic satisfaction.

[laxrrs]

I've owned a pair of Grado SR125i headphones for several years now. They still amaze me, and when I demoed them with the 80i, the 80i was very close in sound quality. It was simply I had the extra money, and the sound was slightly better, I thought. I would recommend the 80i to anyone who cares about how headphones sound.