JANUARY 2022 MACWORLD 93The GW100 is Grado’s first wireless
Bluetooth headphone. It was first
introduced in 2018 and was recently
upgraded to version 2. The company cut
no corners and took its time to get the
sound just right, and the result was well
worth the effort.
FE ATU R E S
The GW100 v2 is a lightweight, on-ear,
open-back design with foam earpads and
that distinctive, somewhat retro Grado
styling. It incorporates specially designed
44mm dynamic drivers within a finely
tuned enclosure. In addition, the company
claims to have decreased sound leakage
from the open-back earpiece by 60
percent with careful placement of circuit
boards and other internal
components.
The frequency
response is specified to
extend from 20Hz to
20kHz (no tolerance given),
and the drivers in each unit
are matched to within 0.1dB
of each other. And they can
play plenty loud—up to
99.8 dB SPL from 1mW.
This is the first
Bluetooth headphone I’ve
encountered that does not
also offer active noise
cancellation (ANC).
According to Grado, ANC can degrade the
sound quality—which is certainly true with
many but not all the headphones I’ve
tested—so the company decided to omit it.
Instead, Grado focused on providing
the best possible Bluetooth experience.
The GW100 v2 implements Bluetooth
version 5.0 (as opposed to 4.2 in the
original GW100) with support for the aptX,
AAC, and SBC codecs. It can work up to 10
meters (33 feet) away from the source
device thanks to an upgraded antenna.
The updated 850mAh battery charges
in two hours and provides up to 40 hours
of play time, which is based on a 50
percent volume setting. Other upgrades
include a USB-C charging connection
instead of micro USB (good move!).The Grado GW100 are a great companion for a high-end digital
audio player, but their open-back design will likely deter you
from using them when you’re out and about.