Gallery: The Joseph Grado Inventions That Shaped the Way We Hear Music
courtesy John Grado01Joseph Grado
__Joseph Grado__ began his career as a watchmaker before taking a job designing phono pickups for Sherman Fairchild’s hi-fi division. In 1953, he left Fairchild and founded Grado Labs in Brooklyn, NY.
courtesy John Grado02Joseph Grado 2
__Joseph Grado__ He continued to design and drive innovation at Grado Labs until 1990, when he sold the company to his nephew and protégé, John Grado. It's still a family-owned business.
courtesy John Grado03Joseph Grado as Otello
Joseph wasn’t just an avid listener, he was also a talented performer. A tenor with an affinity for opera, Joseph was no stranger to the stage. Otello was one of his favorites.
04moving coil
__Stereo Moving Coil Cartridge__ Perhaps his most significant and well-known contribution to consumer audio, Joseph Grado’s design of the stereo moving coil cartridge is shown in this 1959 patent illustration. This design forever altered the course of consumer-level hi-fi audio by offering greater fidelity.
U.S. Patent Office05flux-bridging
__Flux-Bridging Pickup__ Grado cartridges are a mainstay in the audiophile world. Following his invention (and patenting) of the flux-bridging pickup, Grado cartridges began using this technology.
06record cleaning device
__Record-Cleaning Device__ Joseph Grado has close to 50 patents in his name. Though not all of them came to be legendary as his phono cartridge designs, they serve as a reminder that Joe was a thinker and an innovator, dedicated to the cause of making the listening experience better for everyone. Like this simple device for removing the dust from records.
courtesy Grado Labs07Grado Cartridge Gold 2
Grado still sells a variety of cartridges (the Prestige, Reference and Signature collections), building on Joseph’s legacy and supplying audiophiles with some of the most sought-after cartridges in the industry.
Jeremy Liebman/WIRED08Signature Tonearm (Wired)
One of Joseph Grado's many innovations included new tonearm designs. His famous wooden tonearm was an odd departure from industry standards, but one that caught the attention of consumers. The wooden tonearm and the Grado Signature tonearm (pictured) are still in high demand now, even though they've been discontinued for years.
courtesy Grado Labs09Grado SR80e First Shoot
After John Grado took the helm in the 1990s, the company shifted its focus to include headphones, as the world was becoming increasingly obsessed with mobile audio. The first HP-1000 Signature series headphones of that era were instant classics. Grado continues to make some of the best-sounding and affordable open-back headphones available today. These are the SR80e headphones, which cost just under $100.
Ariel Zambelich/WIRED10ps1000
Grado has built a whole new reputation on the quality of its headphones, but the design has remained similar since the days of the now-iconic HP-1000 series. All of them are simple, retro and classically cool. The PS1000's are Grado's current high-end offering. While the components have been updated and steadily improved, the design is remarkably similar to the very first Grado cans.
Jeremy Liebman/WIRED11Grado Labs Exterior (Wired)
Grado Labs started at Joseph's kitchen table in Brooklyn, and then moved to the site of his family's fruit store, where it still operates today. Without Joseph, the face of the consumer audio world would be dramatically different, and this building would still be used to sell fruit. There are a lot of fruit stores in Brooklyn, but there's only one Grado Labs.
