Ordered. Thank you

@Trinkle I don't feel like it's less detailed. It's really detailed! Sometimes it does seem like male vocals are less forward than female ones. I didn't notice much till 2am tonight though, so my fatigue may be a factor. I also didn't notice till I saw the graph... interesting.

How much?

The pre-order price is $349.00 at Drop.

really good review, I appreciate when people take time to write about more than just music. wish I could give this one a spin!

Was it weird to use spoilers to organize and expand the different sections?

Kind of. I thought of them as bullet points though.

not a fan of open backs, but these look beautiful and designed well.

To me, these sound VERY interesting.

Even though I've really been into Head-Fi for about 4yrs, I've seen more than enough gushing over the HD 6XX / 650. There was things that interested me about them, like the legendary (for where it's sits in the market at a minimum) soundstage, but also the repairability built into it too.

But this grell, this seems to just interest me more right from the start. I like the little touches like the headband adjustment, we'll have to wait and see on any possible hotspot issues with it though.

But the thing it looks like it will do well is help you just enjoy the music, and what are you doing here if that isn't your ultimate goal?

@SeanHasAPairOfDuals I personally felt the AKGs did soundstage/headstage better than the Sennheiser’s at this price point… but the grell sounds clearly better to me in that aspect.

The HD 6XX (I have a 650) is indeed venerable and well loved… I used to visit a discord server where every “what headphones should I buy?” question was answered with HD 650, first batch if possible (mine is a later silver mesh baffle model). I have more to say about that headphone (and the HD 660S, which I ended up using more) when I edit in some comparisons, but like I said in my conclusion the grell has more of a “Wow!” factor for me while still being fun for long sessions.

When I pick headphones apart, I enjoy them less, but when I let go of the analysis and just let music/games/movies play, the fun comes back!

"Extrem geringe Toleranzen für Frequenzgang, Links-Rechts-Abweichung und Verzerrung"
Grell advertises extremely low tolerances in unit variation for the special edition (I think). Since you seem to have contact to the team, could you ask them if they could specifiy those tolerances? I know some of Sennheisers and Moondrops tolerances and I find this data interesting.

@maegnificant I think I won’t hear back from Axel for awhile now that the High End show is over… I think the trade shows take a lot out of him

That said, the tight tolerances might show up on the individual measurement data delivered with the Signature series. I don’t know German with any reliability beyond Google Translate (which often makes mistakes or chooses a word that loses the nuance of the original), but if those tight tolerances specifically were applied to tight driver matching, that has direct impact on how good the soundstage would be, and the lower yield and higher manufacturing cost would be on the level of flagship headphones from other manufacturers. Chasing low tolerances is what made $1k and up headphones happen, or the $500 launch of the 2003 HD 650 adjusts with inflation to about $850 today (inflation seems to be different depending on product category, for example computers vs houses) and I think the OAE1 is a more advanced design than that.

Alright, thanks!

I look forward to hearing it. Been waiting a long time for this one.

Expected selling price?, maybe I missed it.

Thanks for taking the time to right this informative review, Evshrug. Much appreciated.

at $350-$400, I just hope they dont sell out before I can grab one. I love everything about the build alone, ultra angled driver or not.. it is beautiful.

based on the impedance and sensitivity, i think you'd need to use this with a very low powered amp like the Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital for best results

Is everything on these metal or plastic? Hard to tell from the images.

@Audi5000 I think grell is trying to make it easier and give extra perks for the early adopters who don’t have any reviews yet (besides my own), in the hopes to attract more reviews. But it’s selling pretty fast, and I think that would probably be a good sign for future runs, so while I’d like a low serial # I think there will be more runs. I’m not always right… but I’m right more often than I want to be The earcups’ aesthetic reminds me of microphones !!

@ruinedx It depends on how you look at it… higher impedance and lower sensitivity has great dampening properties, but also requires a more powerful amp. This way, people can use the headphone with whatever dongle or accessory they have now, and they can always get the upgraded amp (that the OAE1 deserves) later. Not to mention IEMs are really popular and this should run on good IEM amps just fine.