Grado has announced two new pairs of wooden wired headphones in the new 4th generation Bayan GS1000x and GS3000x, with the latter containing Grado’s largest and most powerful driver to date.
The new flagship GS3000x is, according to Grado, the best audio headset in their seven-decade history, and that’s exactly the claim given the number of great headphones they’ve released. It features a new 52mm woofer tuned specifically to embrace the use of cocobolo wood and its metal chamber.
The speaker design features a more powerful magnetic circuit, voice coil with low effective mass and reconfigured diaphragm. All of these tweaks and changes seem to deliver a performance “full of texture and emotion,” and the acoustic characteristics of Cocobolo’s wood and innate mass are touted as the perfect partner for new speakers. The wood finish on the earbuds tends to vary from pair to pair, making the look even more eye-catching and unique to each GS3000x.
The design of the GS1000x uses mahogany and ipê wood for the first time, and like the GS3000x, its tweeter is tuned specifically to the materials used with it. The former was a long-lasting material in Grado’s wood headphones and phono cartridges, and Grado describes the process of combining it with wood that had never been used before to achieve a “delicate balance.” Mahogany brings warmth and texture to the GS1000X’s sound, while the ipê is said to improve the structural integrity of the sound passing through the housing’s grain.
The GS3000x and GS1000x are assembled at the company’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, and both also use the “improved” 12-conductor braided cable and new headbands. They have retained the classic Grado look.
Price and availability
The Grado Statement X Series headphones go on sale in September, but there are two prices to note, one with the balanced XLR connectors and one without.
- Statement Grado GS1000x – $1,195 / £1,295
- Grado GS1000x Statement with Balanced XLR Connectors – $1,365/£1,495
- Statement Grado GS3000x – $1,995 / £2,195
- Grado GS3000x Statement with Balanced XLR Connectors – $2,165 / £2,395