Grado SR325x: Brooklyn’s Open-Back Sorcerer
Grado is not a brand that courts trends easily. While they’ve dipped a toe into Bluetooth with a handful of wireless models in recent years, the Brooklyn family’s heart has always been in wired transducers — and the SR325x is a testament to why. Sitting at the top of the storied Prestige line, it arrives with a redesigned 4th-gen driver, a new 8-conductor super annealed copper cable, and the same utilitarian aesthetic that’s been dividing opinion since the 1950s. We put it through its paces to find out if the legend lives up to the listening.
Bass
The bass on the SR325x is tight, accurate, and well-extended — especially impressive when you factor in the open-back architecture. It earns no prizes for sheer impact or sub-bass authority; open backs rarely do. But that’s a deliberate design choice rather than a shortcoming. The lower frequencies here don’t jostle for attention — instead, they sit quietly in support, underpinning the warm tonal character of the 325x and stepping forward only when the music demands it. Controlled, purposeful, and honest.
Mids
The mids are, simply put, magic. A lush, open midrange presentation wraps itself around vocals and instruments with an intimacy that’s hard to describe and even harder to forget. The combination of the open-back architecture and the redesigned 4th-gen driver delivers excellent spatial resolution, a palpable sense of texture, and an almost tactile quality to the presentation. In all our time reviewing headphones, we haven’t come across anything that presents the midrange quite like this. If you listen to acoustic music, jazz, rock, or anything with real human voices, the 325x will rearrange your expectations.
Treble
The highs are clean, airy, and resolving — a match made in heaven for the 325x’s open-back voicing. Details arrive organically rather than forced to the front, which gives the presentation a natural, un-fatiguing quality that holds up over long sessions. That said, the 325x is not without its moments of brightness — on tracks that were recorded or mastered with an already-glazed top end, the headphone can come across as sharp. This is not a headphone to run from an underpowered or harsh source. Pair it well, with quality source material, and the treble is a genuine strength.
Soundstage & Imaging
The open-back design gives the SR325x a generous and natural sense of space. Instruments are well separated and placed with good precision. It’s not the widest soundstage in the segment, but it has depth and layering that more than compensates. Live recordings in particular feel convincingly three-dimensional.
Build & Comfort
The SR325x is the only headphone in the Prestige X line with brushed aluminium housing — a distinction that gives it a premium feel in the hand. The build is solid, with metal construction throughout save for the gimbal, which uses plastic. Comfort, however, remains the eternal caveat with Grado. The flat foam earpads and unpadded headband are not designed for marathon sessions. After a couple of hours, ears and head will register their objection. Pad rolling with Yaxi or Dekoni aftermarket options addresses this significantly without dramatically altering the sonic character.
Scores
7.5 / 10
9.5 / 10
8.0 / 10
8.0 / 10
7.5 / 10
8.5 / 10
Pros & Cons
- Transcendent midrange — class of its own
- Clean, airy treble with organic detail retrieval
- Brushed aluminium build feels premium
- Excellent open-back soundstage and imaging
- Easy to drive — no demanding amplifier needed
- Huge pad-rolling and modding community
- Comfort degrades noticeably after 2–3 hours
- Treble can bite on bright source material
- No isolation whatsoever — open design
- Bass quantity modest for genre-diverse listening
- Plastic gimbals feel cheap against the metal body
- Not portable — leaks sound significantly
The SR325x has been around long enough to have a healthy second-hand market, and this is one of those headphones that buys exceptionally well used. Grado’s build quality means units in good condition turn up regularly on eBay, Head-Fi’s classifieds, and local audio forums — often at 40–50% below retail. The driver and cable are both replaceable if needed, and the massive modding community means even a worn-out unit can often be restored for very little. If the $295 retail price gives you pause, the used market is the smart way in.
Verdict
The Grado SR325x is one of those rare headphones that earns its legend. It will not be for everyone — the comfort is real, the open design is a genuine lifestyle constraint, and its soul belongs to jazz, rock, acoustic, and vocals rather than the bass-first modern listener. But for the music it loves, it does things with the midrange that nothing else at this price manages. If you’ve found yourself jaded by clinical, technically correct headphones that leave you emotionally cold, the SR325x is the antidote. Highly recommended — with the caveat to invest in aftermarket pads from day one.
