Grado’s ‘x’ factor

Grado’s Prestige headphones were the original range designed by John Grado when in 1990 he bought the company from his uncle Joseph, a former Tiffany watchmaker who had begun making phono cartridges in the 1950s. Nephew John had been with the company since 1965, watching the rise and then fall in cartridge demand during the 1980s; the Prestige line of Grado headphones were, indeed, the saviour of the company.

This latest Prestige X Series gains enhanced drivers, enhanced cable designs and more comfortable headbands, the drivers in all five models using newly designed voice-coils and diaphragms along with a magnetic circuit that has been revised in such a way as to improve efficiency, reduce distortion and linearise the frequency response, also making them easier to drive across a variety of portable devices. The range starts with the $130 SR60x and rises to the top-of-the-line RS325X model at $419. More information: www.busisoft.com.au