Quick Summary
There's a new member of the Grado Signature family – the Signature 950 headphones come with walnut housings and a version of the drivers first heard in the HP100 SE.
They'll be available in March from £2,495 / $2,195.
Grado has announced the second pair of headphones in its Signature line, the Grado Signature 950.
The manufacturer is no stranger to our pages, with its products regularly considered amongst the best premium headphones. Its GS3000x Statement headphones won a coveted T3 award in 2023, for example, and we've been consistently impressed by its over-ears over the years. Its latest high-end pair promises therefore to be an attractive addition to an already impressive range.
The Signature 950 headphones are open-back and come with gorgeous-looking wooden housings. This wood is new to Grado – it's Brazilian walnut, and according to the firm, delivers a notably different sonic signature to the "more analytical" machined aluminium of the HP100 SE.
Walnut is quite a dense wood, resists expansion and contraction due to temperature and humidity changes and, as Grado says, delivers a relaxed musical presentation.
In addition, because it's a natural material with its own grain, every pair of Signature 950s will look unique.
Grado Signature 950 headphones: key features and pricing
If you're worried about the weight of those walnut housings, don't worry – at 395g you're not going to feel like you've stuck a tree on your head. The S950 over-ears have the same headband assembly as the HP100 SE, which is considerably more padded than the one in older Grado models.
What about the audio? Grado has used a version of the 52mm S driver that was originally created for the HP100 SE. That driver was built to deliver smooth mids and powerful bass with minimal distortion, and it's constructed from a paper composite cone teamed with a high-flux magnetic circuit made from rare earth alloys. There's also a lightweight copper-plated aluminium voice coil.
The HP100 SE pair were designed for accuracy, making the headphones a good fit for recording studios and very demanding listeners. The Signature S950 promises to deliver a more neutral, balanced sound – Grado uses the word "relaxed" a lot – and the headphones have a frequency range starting at a subterranean 3.5Hz, rising to a stratospheric 51.5kHz.
As with the HP100 SE the cables are detachable: they're Grado Signature Gold cables with 6 feet length and a 6.35mm terminator, connecting to the headphones via a 4-pin balanced mini XLR.
The Grado Signature 950 headphones have an RRP of £2,495 / $2,195 / about AU$4,935 and will be available in March from the brand itself and selected independent retailers.
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