Review: Grado GT220

It’s not uncommon to log into a WIRED Zoom and find two or three pairs of Grado over-ear headphones staring back at you. We’ve called them “the best headphones in the world,” after all. Not only is the sound quality top-tier, but they’re also beautiful and have a storied history. Grado Labs is a family-run company that has made all its headphones by hand in the same Brooklyn factory since 1953.

I was excited to test its first pair of wirefree buds, but a little nervous too. We’ve tested a lot of wireless earbuds, and in general, I’d say you mostly pick these kinds of earbuds for their convenience rather than sound quality. They’re small and easy to lose, and the Bluetooth connection can be janky. There’s a reason why our top pick is only around $100.

I shouldn’t have worried. The Grado GT220 are expensive—and for the price, they may not have many of the features I’ve come to love about many wirefree buds. But they sound wonderful, are beautiful, and feel more secure than any bud I’ve tried that doesn’t have an optional ear fin or wing included. If you love great sound and have been generally disappointed by the wireless earbuds you’ve tried, these will probably work for you.

Grado GT220 earbuds.

Photograph: Grado

The first thing you’ll note about the GT220 is the case. It’s quite a bit taller and longer than the AirPods Pro or Samsung Galaxy Buds Live case, but it’s a beautiful, smooth matte black that makes small, overly shiny cases look garish. Inside, the buds look fairly standard. They’re also matte black, flat, and have no visible buttons—just a glowing Grado logo that turns on when you open the case. 

Fitting earbuds is something of a chore. I have small, shallow ears, so I usually have to spend a lot of time experimenting with different sizes and materials of earbud tips to find one that will both feel secure in the hollow of my ear and also seal properly against my ear canal. And, of course, fit can affect sound quality.

With the Grado GT220, the smallest earbud tip fit perfectly. It extended farther down into my ear, and it sealed perfectly against my ear canal when I gave it a final gentle twist. The buds might not have active noise-canceling properties, but passive noise cancellation works pretty well when the fit is that good. A pair of foam earplugs doesn’t need any advanced software either. Noise canceling worked well enough for a repair person to startle me as I was working (masked) at my desk.

I’ve also complained before about needing a full manual and a day to memorize all the different ways you have to hold and tap buttons to manipulate wirefree earbuds, like you’re tapping out Morse code to communicate with the manufacturer. "Oh, it’s simple!" the instructions always say. "Just hold and tap three times for transparency, double-tap for volume, hold to take the call!" I recite these to myself as I walk around, along with a constant litany of "No! Ack! Dammit, sorry I hung up on you!"

The GT220 earbuds are simple and intuitive enough for even a bubble-brained person such as myself to remember. They don’t have any visible buttons, just a capacitive touch system. Gently touch the right earbud to skip a track, hold the right for volume up, the left for volume down, and tap the left to take or end calls.

Grado GT220 case.

Photograph: Grado

Removing frills like active noise canceling, different EQ options, and an app has a few benefits. The first is great battery life. Grado advertises six hours out of the case, which is over two hours more than my beloved AirPods Pro, and you can recharge them more than five times over in the case. A mom working from home with small children doesn’t often get the chance to wear earbuds for six straight hours, but in a month of listening on and off, I only had to recharge the case once. (The case supports wireless charging too.) 

The second benefit is sound quality. This won’t surprise anyone who has had any experience with Grado, but they sound stunning. Grado's signature mini drivers gives these buds bass like nothing I’ve ever heard before.

The drums from “Gold Digger” thudded directly into my heart. I also spent some quality time with my man Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers that vibrated my sternum. Higher ranges sound beautiful too. One of the greatest parts of testing headphones is that it’s considered work to dance around your desk to Robert Randolph’s citrus-bright steel guitar at 9:30 in the morning.

The best way I can think to describe it is that listening to the Grado buds is a much more intense and immediate experience than anything I’ve heard with wireless earbuds before. It made the AirPods Pro sound remote and kind of sterile.

It’s worth pointing out that, as good as they are, these are still wireless earbuds. I still find it more comfortable to wear over-ear headphones for long periods of time, and the sound quality of over-ear cans—even the wireless GW100s that are sitting on my desk right now—is noticeably better.

The major selling point of wireless earbuds is that they’re convenient. There are no wires to untangle. The GT220 are simple, but they’re not precisely that. For example, I can listen to podcasts with the AirPods Pro while doing laundry and simply turn them to transparent mode so I can keep track of my kids. With the GT220, I can’t. After my 3-year-old made me jump out of my skin a few times while I was doing laundry, I had to switch to different buds.

They’re also a little wonky when pairing to an iPhone 11, though I suspect that to be partly Apple’s fault. Still, if the sound quality on Bluetooth-enabled wireless buds has bothered you enough to avoid them before, these just might be the ones to win you over. If it’s been a while since you’ve listened to “I Need More Love,” I’d like to take this chance to recommend that too.