Grado Labs has announced The Hemp Headphone, the first of its kind. In the Brooklyn company’s never-ending pursuit to experiment with different woods and materials, the opportunity to build with hemp came about. Unsure how it would turn out, the hemphone surprisingly became a favourite passed around Grado.

Grado told us: “Fine rolled for every genre of music, hemp and maple work together for the first time to bring a new level of vibrancy to the Limited Editions line-up. To be blunt, this is one of the best sounding Limited Editions Grado has built”.

Exotic Wood Limited Editions

The team at Grado had to draw on inspiration and experience from past Limited Editions. Taking what they learned from working with exotic woods, like cocobolo, they were able to fine tune the drivers to work in tandem with the wood that surrounds it. The highly compressed hemp creates a damping effect between their fibres. This produces a fuller sound, comprised of a noticeable low end and a top end that extends smoothly to its limits. While the hemp is doing the heavy lifting, this is a joint effort. Grado built maple into the housing along with the hemp to help balance out the sound, and bring out the sonic properties that they know maple can produce. Bringing maple into the mix gave some foresight, but only through trial-and-error could they get the drivers to sound how they wanted, and bring out the potential of the hemp.

“What?”, asks Jonathan Grado. “Oh right, the Hemp Headphones. This is some of the most fun we’ve ever had with a limited edition. We had no clue how they’d turn out, but they ended up sounding pretty amazing. It also reminded us to stock up on more snacks at the office.”

Made In Brooklyn

With every headphone built, Grado gives themselves high expectations. If it doesn’t sound as good as they want, the idea is scrapped no matter how far along in the project they are. Fortunately, The Hemp Headphone exceeded expectations. The last seven decades has given Grado time to perfect their sound, Grado say the Hemp Headphone is a slow burn, constantly getting better with every listen. Each Hemp Headphone is hand-built by the team in Brooklyn to make sure the Grado signature sound is delivered. The family started building on a kitchen table in 1953, and every experience since then has led to the creation of The Hemp Headphone.

The Grado Hemp Headphone Price

$420

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