
Grado SR60e
The tricky part about documenting how a Grado headphone is made is they don't make them from start-to-finish in easy-to-follow steps. John and Jonathan Grado did their best to slow down the process to give me an opportunity to illustrate as many of the steps of building a Grado SR60e as possible. Grado doesn't just build its expensive models in Brooklyn, NY, all of the "e" Series headphones are made there. I covered the fabrication and assembly of a SR60e headphone for this photo gallery.
Here's a finished pair of SR60e headphones.
John (left) and Jonathan Grado (right)
John and Jonathan in front of finished and boxed headphones awaiting shipment.
Grado's front door
Grado Laboratories world headquarters; that's the front door!
Welcome to the machine
Plastic Grado headphone parts coming off the injection-molding machine.
Interior parts
Driver cover, left, and driver, right.
Bonding parts
Bonding the driver cover to the driver.
Before and after
The driver, left, after the driver has been bonded to the driver housing, right.
Pre-soldering
Pre-soldering driver terminals.
Soldering the cable
Soldering cables to driver.
Listening test
Listening to check cable connections.
Aligning cable
Aligning cable in preparation for rear housing cover attachment.
Applying glue
Applying glue for rear housing attachment.
Clamping
Clamping and aligning driver housing.
Inserting headband spring
Inserting stainless-steel spring into headband.
Aligning headband
Aligning headband for junction block attachment.
Securing junction block to headband
Securing junction block to headband with a rubber hammer.
Applying L and R letters
Applying L and R letters to headband.
Putting it all together
Attaching finished driver/earcup housing to headband.
Last visual check
The technician's last visual check.
Fitting of the cushions
Fitting the cushions on the driver housing.
Checking cushion alignment
Checking cushion alignment by hand.
Boxing the headphones
At last! Boxing the headphones!
Grado prototypes
These prototype Grado headphones are in John and Jonathan Grado's private listening room.