Real owners rate these about evenly: 63% of 27 ATH-R70xa owners recommend it, vs 60% of 55 for the Grado SR80x.
Verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube owner comments — affiliate reviews excluded. Sample sizes differ; judge accordingly. How we score
“I listened to a bunch of highly rated headphones at the last CanJam in NYC and none of them made me want to upgrade from the R70xa.”— this_is_me_drunk on Reddit
“I got the r70xa as well, but had to get a new amp to give it more juice to make it sing. But man, being so light i hardly reach for my other cans now and using these as daily drivers.”— Waste_Search2125 on Reddit
“it has this really arfticial, unnatural sound to it that's neither analytic nor is it a smooth, rich entertaining sound”— Overall-Cupcake7073 on Reddit
“SR80x (120€ new) was my first audiophile headphone over two years ago. They were so good that within a week I returned them to upgrade to SR225x”— Hunter-97-G on Reddit
“Grado SR80s were my first decent pair of headphones too, and I still love them - still have them and listen to them something like 15 years later.”— srmd22 on Reddit
“Using chinese components. And a lot of glue... You'd think with all that American Engineering, we could not use Glue, and instead use... maybe screws?”— KaosC57 on Reddit