Sounds like an opinion to me....what $30 headphone is better than any grado.....put the crack pipe down and slowly walk away :whiste:
I just listed a specific headphone as just one example, the Tascam TH-02. Go look up measurements of Grado headphones. They all share same the same characteristics I just mentioned: mid-bass hump, elevated and peaky upper mids/treble, high harmonic distortion, etc. The Tascam in comparison has considerably lower distortion and a much flatter response overall save for a dip around 4-5KHz. With an extra $30 in new ear pads and some mods (super easy to do), the comparison is just silly. You can find measurements for all of these on Innerfidelity and other audio sites like changstar.com, the latter of which also has modded measurements.
Yeah, it's my opinion that Grado is junk, but it's also the case from most objective standpoints as well. Here, let me make it easy for you.
Grado SR-60i:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR60i.pdf
Grado SR-125i:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR125i.pdf
Grado SR-325i:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR325i.pdf
Notice how similarly they measure, and rather poorly at that? That response after 2KHz is just nasty, taking into account the technology and compensation curves used for measurements at Innerfidelity. The measurements at changstar are a bit more telling.
Here's the RS-1, a supposedly reference headphone:
http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=44.0;attach=208;image
Or how about the modified Alessandro MS-1, that's supposedly to be more neutral sounding?
http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=392.0;attach=1728;image
No thanks, and that doesn't even account for their CSD (areas of resonance in the frequency spectrum) or harmonic distortion, which are similarly bad.
The Tascam TH-20 in comparison (no PDF):
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/canjam-rmaf-2013-tascam-th-02-low-cost-sealed-headphones
Correction, there's a PDF in his database under the brand Teac. Here are measurements of a modified Tascam TH-02, using even simpler mods than what I did:
http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1203.0;attach=4413;image
Much better response, much lower distortion, better square waves...the works. The measurements of the headphone at changstar reveal the dip is mostly around 4-5KHz (I can also verify after running it through SineGen). Nothing really out of the ordinary...they sound a tad dark but still have decent air and detail. Low resonance, so the sound is clean. Even better with a bit of damping material in the cups. Compare this to measurements of the $5000 Abyss headphone, some of the popular T50RP modded headphones (Mad Dog, Paradox, etc.)...
Yeah, Grados don't have much in the way of objectivity backing them up from any price point.