Real owners lean toward the HiFiMan HE400se: 80% of 127 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
“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
“The treble is still tamed, but the bass doesn't seem to roll off. Punchy and fun.”— @onepieceatatime on YouTube
“they are amazing, the replacement grills smooth out all the peaks and dips”— @ZdraveBass on YouTube
“Hifiman are known to last about two months. It's only a question of time before they fail and customer service is bad from what I saw.”— @westsenkovec on YouTube