ON TEST

18 Australian Hi-Fi ˹˹˹ƖŘˁʊǒǔǞƖƋɁȧ

M

any famous hi-fi

brands were

established in the

post-war period

in the United

States, almost all

of which were

named after their various founders. Six or so

decades later, most of the famous names are

owned by conglomerates, and are not at all

connected with their original founder in any

way other than name. Most no longer even

manufacture their products in the USA.

But there is one exception: Grado. This

famous brand—and company—is still in the

hands of the Grado family some two-thirds

of a century after it was first established

in Brooklyn, New York. And, what’s more,

Grado is still hand-building its products in

Brooklyn.

The Grado GH3 Heritage Series head-

phones are one of this company’s low-

est-priced offerings.

They’re very light in weight (156 grams)

and, as you can see from the accompanying

photographs, are an ‘on-ear’ (technically

known as ‘supra-aural’) headphone design.

The drivers in the GH3 are conventional

dynamic types that are rated with a nominal

impedance of 32Ω. Grado rates their sensitivi-

ty at 99.8dBSPL for 1mW of input. A claim of

driver sensitivity specified down to tenths of

a decibel may seem a trifle over-precise, but

Grado then goes on to specify that the left and

right drivers are matched within 0.05dB. The

company seems very keen on precision.

But ‘nominal impedance’ is one thing,

while actual impedance over the audio band is

another. The headphones clearly have a very

high impedance peak at 80Hz. When fed from

certain home theatre receivers, this is going to

result in an 8dB boost in output level at that

frequency. With good sensitivity and a clear

preference for low output impedance amplifi-

ers, these headphones are best suited to being

used with modern portable players.

As you might have guessed from the ac-

companying photographs, Grado uses wood

in the construction of the GH3s. The bodies

are made from Norwegian pine, so of course

Grado titles its webpage for this model (and

also for the more expensive GH4) ‘Norwegian

Wood’. You should note that the wood isn’t

just a stuck-on bit or an insert. If you peel off

the ear-pads you’ll see that cases look to have

been turned on a lathe. They are ridged cylin-

ders because the driver units are open-backed.

Consequently they give virtually no isolation

from ambient noise in the environment in

which you’re listening, plus it goes the other

way too, so you’ll be sharing whatever music

you’re listening to with anyone else within

ear-shot in the same environment.

As for those ear-pads on the Grado GH

that I mentioned in the previous paragraph,

they’re made from foam rubber, and they’re

both removable and replaceable. The ear-cups

had sufficient travel on the headband to

properly align with my ears, plus there was

GRADO

GH3 HERITAGE SERIES

HEADPHONES