Grado is not bad, but I don't think their goal is faithful reproduction of the sound either.
I own a pair of Grado phones, and a pair of Sennheiser, high end. There's a pretty big difference between the two.
The Sennheiser is, for lack of a better word, "transparent". It's like the sound is coming not from a pair of cans, but from "out there". It's very easy to forget you're wearing phones. It's like they don't have any personality of their own.
The Grado, OTOH, is very different. The sound is very much "in your face". Can you hear all sorts of tiny details and nuances? Sure, but that's because they were magnified a lot, to force them to become obvious. A look at the response curve tells you why: Grado likes to crank up the high-frequency response on their cans. They are great, though, if you're mixing audio tracks and are keeping an eye out for tiny mistakes.
The Sennheiser is like a wide-screen TV. The Grado is like a microscope. Both are useful, but for different purposes.
I own a pair of Grado phones, and a pair of Sennheiser, high end. There's a pretty big difference between the two.
The Sennheiser is, for lack of a better word, "transparent". It's like the sound is coming not from a pair of cans, but from "out there". It's very easy to forget you're wearing phones. It's like they don't have any personality of their own.
The Grado, OTOH, is very different. The sound is very much "in your face". Can you hear all sorts of tiny details and nuances? Sure, but that's because they were magnified a lot, to force them to become obvious. A look at the response curve tells you why: Grado likes to crank up the high-frequency response on their cans. They are great, though, if you're mixing audio tracks and are keeping an eye out for tiny mistakes.
The Sennheiser is like a wide-screen TV. The Grado is like a microscope. Both are useful, but for different purposes.