I know a fair amount of people here have had or have a hemp, just recently got my hands on a pair, and it’s really enjoyable overall. I was surprised at the bass performance both in prominence and quality compared to other non totl grado I’ve heard, it’s a bit rounded but got solid punch, nice warmth, and not much bleed either, pretty enjoyable. Midrange is the spotlight typical of grado imo, but in the case of the hemp it tends to focus more on the lower mids more and is really great there with great timbre, good resolution, and weight. I do think that somewhere in the either lower treble or upper mids there’s some weirdness/unevenness that bothers me, but treble wise it’s actually a bit relaxed and smooth which I also wasn’t expecting, perhaps a slight bit more air would be nice but still good. Overall signature is a warmer slightly forward signature that really focuses on the bass and mid to lower midrange.
From a technical perspective speed and separation are a bit weak and I do find it a bit congested at times and clarity can take a hit, but the denseness can be fun for some tracks, reasonable detail, midrange texture is actually pretty good but not enough to be super stand out, control wise reasonably good, timbre very solid here, same with tonal density/weight. Smoothness very nice overall too. Spatially is somewhat more like other grados where it’s not that wide but it has solid depth and a pretty black background which is enjoyable, but it’s a bit more unique and hard to describe from that. Dynamically is actually pretty alive, more in a macro sense, but microdynamics are still pretty good too.
Regarding amp pairings, I think it tends to pair well with a warmer and more engaging system, found that some of the more neutral precise systems just didn’t seem as fun and lost a bit of what makes me like the grado. I don’t really have many budget pairings that I can talk about left to try out so I’m not sure if mentioning more than that would really be helpful here lol.
For actually appropriate pairings I bet it would be real solid out of amps like an asgard 3, quicksilver, tuba, and g111, but I haven’t been able to test that myself so moreso just guessing based off of pairing with other grado. I only really have 2 midrange amps on me atm one being the little labs monotor and that kinda sapped the fun out of it, but it did give better prominence in the treble and better separation, but also made midrange too aggressive and it needed more width, lost some of it’s body to where it sounded leaner. The rnhp I found to also push a bit too forward and want more width, but did offer great technical control and ability, still maintained it’s fun nature well, overall solid pairing with a bit more micro focus in comparison
Anyways though, this is likely the least grado headphone I’ve heard from grado, and it’s a good thing in this case imo, really different but really enjoyable where if I had to pick a sub 1k grado it would honestly be this, or if I wanted something more neutral and clean a ps500e, but this would really likely be the pick most of the time. It has a lot of the traits I like about grado’s in the past (unique spatial recreation, macro focus, real nice midrange, forward and fun), without some of the past gripes too (a bit too lean in the low end, peaky or grading treble, too forward, hit or miss signature). Just overall enjoyable with not much to really complain about for the price, hard to not like
Oh and comfort wise I don’t think I’d say they are comfy, but personally I didn’t have that many issues once you get it positioned right, perhaps slightly pushing on my ears too much but it’s not that clampy or heavy so no real qualms imo. Cable is unwieldy though, typical grado there. Build is cheap ish but not that big of a problem, typical grado
Admin note: edited to include all grado models
) But compared to the OG SR325 I had a while back, these are much easier to enjoy on a wide range of music, which is why I ended up buying them. The SR325 were dedicated acoustic performance specialists for me. The Hemps are great on almost anything, but for blues and any sort of classic rock they really are enjoyable.
