Grado's Signature HP100 SE headphones arrive with '90s looks and a next-gen sound

Grado has been a go-to maker of open-backed headphones for years now — the headphone design style that lets air pass through the ear cups from the rear of each speaker driver for a more natural and wider soundstage. If you’ve got deep enough pockets, the new Grado Signature HP1000 SE headphones add a touch of luxury to the mix, too.

Taking their cues from the classic Signature HP1 release from the early 90s (considered by some a milestone early release in luxury audiophile headphones), the HP1000 SE fuses newly engineered drivers with a carefully hand built construction out of Grado’s HQ in cooler-than-cool Brooklyn.

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The HP100SE pumps your tunes through a new 52mm driver that features a “new paper composite cone [...], powerful high flux magnetic circuit using rare earth alloys, and a new voice coil made from lightweight copper-plated aluminium.” Grado says this produces “a voicing that is musically and harmonically correct,” with little bass distortion, smooth midrange and clear high frequencies, “excellent” dynamics and a “highly refined sense of space, soundstage and image.”

They look the part too, with a retro aesthetic that’ll please old-school audio nerds. Each housing is individually machined from specially-treated aluminium, with a space-grey exterior. Detachable cables, terminating in a 6.3mm plug, connect to each can with a 4pin mini XLR plug, covered in a red / black topper that mimics Hi-Fi speaker cabling.

Detachable cables give the HP1000SE some long-term sustainability, considering cables are usually the first element to give up the ghost on headphones. But there’s another practical quality-of-life consideration here too — high-end headphones have demanding users hooking them up to varied bits of kit, and allow for different cable types to be swapped in and out.

Rounding out the design is a revised headband assembly. Packing in 50% more padding than previous Grado models, it uses a stainless steel band and adjustable height rods for a spot-on fit, with a mechanism that allows the cans to rotate 105-degrees.

Launching in November and available from the Grado website, expect to part with £2,795 / $2,495 to get the Signature HP1000SE headphones over your ears.

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Gerald Lynch is the Editor-in-Chief of Shortlist, keeping careful watch over the site's editorial output and social channels. He's happiest in the front row of a gig for a band you've never heard of, watching 35mm cinema re-runs of classic sci-fi flicks, or propping up a bar with an old fashioned in one hand and a Game Boy in the other.