from the what,-no-special-digital-wire? dept.
Anyone who's ever heard the Grado name is probably also familiar with the old-school way this headphones manufacturer does business. The majority of Grado models are still made by hand at the company's original home in Brooklyn, New York, and very little has changed about the materials, design, or sound of its products over the decades. That's why it's quite a momentous thing to learn that Grado is developing a wireless model, which is set to be released this year.
[...] The specs, release date, and even name of this new wireless Grado model are yet to be finalized, but it's something definitely on the schedule for 2018. One final note of import is that these wireless headphones will remain open-back, as has been the Grado tradition. When I asked Jonathan Grado whether the company would build a closed-back pair — which would be more suitable for using outdoors because of its sound isolation between your music and the outside world — he (half-)jokingly replied, "Let's see where we are in another 65 years."
Source: TheVerge
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:09AM (1 child)
We always bought Grado cartridges for our turntables -- reasonably priced and great performance. Some models claimed to have frequency response out to 40 KHz, for use in playing 4-channel records that were available for a short time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadraphonic_sound#Discrete_vinyl_formats [wikipedia.org]
I'd forgotten almost completely about Grado, had no idea they also did headphones...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:11AM
submitted a moment too soon...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:20AM (2 children)
Bluetooth sounds terrible, Grado or otherwise. It's like selling a string and two paper cups for $300.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:40AM
You need to get Monster bluetooth for your speakers! It has much thicker air between the receiver and the speaker, or between the tranmitter and the receiver (speakers). And besides, it has ion neutralized pathways, prayed over by and Audiophilic Druid, for nearly realistic sound. Yes, it costs $20 per foot, per channel. But if you are serious about your audio system, it is well worth it.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:53AM
I have the BT headphones from Voxoa. The BT link is only conditionally ok. It does not reach into the adjacent room, and even within range you have to orient yourself in a specific way to have a relatively clean cassette-tape quality. And don't move!
If someone thinks that it's the particular pair's problem: I have another pair of BT phones and mp3 players; one is a phone, another - a dedicated Panasonic flash player. They work with varying amount of artifacts, and often I just used an audio cable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:38AM
Fuck you and your ad for hand-made horse buggy. What the fuck is this BS?
"Let's see where we are in another 65 years."
Fuck you. You won't be around in 10 years.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:19AM (1 child)
Story says headphones but I don't see anything on the link article except earbuds.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 24 2018, @06:21AM
That's what I thought. That's what many people thought. But there are TWO links. So confusing!
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:27AM (5 children)
Why is it not just a string of digital information to be interpreted by the receiver's dac/amp as if it were an optical stream? Obviously light is different than sound, but I mean the 0s and 1s. Why are BT's 0s and 1s so inferior? Is it a transmission power thing where it has to be compressed pre-broadcast? Are consumer BT receivers' dac/amps just really cheap and quality sound alternatives exist? Anybody have any input (other than Bluetooth)?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:37AM (2 children)
BT is crap tech. None worked well for me - headphone, keyboard/mouse, car stereo, all infested with random dropped connection.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:33AM
Sorry you had so much trouble. I've used three different BT headsets in the last ten years (Plantronics, something the company gave me, and Turtle Beach), and I've had flawless connections with three different phones and two different PCs. Didn't listen to much music, but worked perfectly for conferencing multiple hours per day. Can't remember ever having a dropped connection.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:27AM
Yes really: "party". It's not enough to offer good quality bluetooth speakers, the subwoofer has to light up in the color of your choice.
The only thing I dislike is the blue LED that blinks when the speakers aren't paired. I fixed that by putting a large bottle of cinnamon up against it.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by KilroySmith on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:48AM (1 child)
Bluetooth has a limited data rate, which means that in general audio is compressed (sometimes poorly) before it's transmitted across the link. So it's 0's and 1's are indeed inferior.
A2DP and aptX are technologies that attempt to resolve this, one by improving bandwidth and one by greatly improving the codec used. A2DP supports MP3 encoded sound, and all the music I listen to is MP3 encoded, so aesthetically I'd like the MP3 file to get transferred directly to my headset, and let it decode and play it but I'm not sure that's done as a practical matter. I fear that the source side decodes the MP3, and passes that to the BT stack which re-encodes it before transmitting it.
Even high-bitrate MP3s (say, 320 kbps) should fit easily into Bluetooth bandwidth (about 2 mbps as of Bluetooth v2.0). I don't know enough to say why this isn't the case...
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday January 24 2018, @10:20AM
An additional factor is the DAC that is used, companies won't provide a similar quality of the listening experience for a similar price-point and go wireless, while using the likes of properly implemented Sabre, Wolfson, et al. chips. So count in an additional 50-250 Bucks extra for the DAC circuit.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:24AM (3 children)
They sounded awesome but were quite uncomfortable to wear. I far prefer cans.
I Swear I'm Not Making This Up:
I emailed Grado to ask how I could obtain an earpad replacement, because my dog chewed it up.
They told me to fax their factory with a credit card number. That new pad set me back ten samoleons.
I challenge you to do the same with Sony earphones.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @08:06AM (1 child)
I just get replacement pads for my Bose headphones on Ebay for €10. Fast and easy. No need to fax any company.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday January 24 2018, @09:33AM
Except that you can't compare Bose's psychoacoustic, "adapted to the expectations of the listener" sound to Grado's much more analytical and flat frequency response. In short, Bose sucks, but then again, obviously you don't own headphones in the $500+ range.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:26PM
No way I'm getting a dog just because someone on the Internet challenge me to.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday January 25 2018, @09:51AM
I've tried a few Grado models in the past and always eventually had problems with the wired connection becoming loose and flaky, resulting in the audio dropping out. It was a shame, because I really liked them otherwise. I thought it was something I was doing wrong, somehow, despite only ever using them carefully at my desk, but no other headphones I've used before or since have had the same problem, so I eventually concluded that it was a problem with their design or manufacture at the time. Grado going wireless might actually make them more reliable :/
Might be worth checking them out, especially if they're not bluetooth. (Everyone's assuming bluetooth but I don't see that confirmed in TFA.) Also, good to see that they're still sticking to their guns on the open-back cans; sure, they leak sound to anybody around you, but it also makes a huge difference in sound quality. Though I'm probably going to just stick to Sennheiser, considering my HD-595 headphones (also open back) sound great and are still in excellent shape something like 9 years later.