Family-owned Grado Labs has been hand-making high-end audio equipment in its Brooklyn offices since 1955. That heritage made them an ideal collaboration partner, and these holy grail Grado x Uncrate UN2000e headphones are the result, and have been re-released this year in limited quantities. The company’s original version — called by reviewers “very likely the best sounding headphones ever made” and “simply an audiophile work of art” — is an open-air design with internal maple parts and mahogany cups that combine with purpose-built 50 mm drivers to create a special resonance inspired by techniques long-used by musical instrument makers. To have ours sound and look our very own, we paired ebonzied oak cups — different types of wood sing with their own personalities — with the internal maple wood to produce an organic sound that’s full of unrivaled detail, rich vocals, and a huge soundstage with deep lows. The bison leather headband and ebonized oak finish match our turntable perfectly.

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