Fulfilling a childhood dream from when I’d ask for Pokémon cards after getting a good report card (and when I didn’t), Grado Labs is excited to announce a collaboration with Pokémon Center. With Pokémon, our family designed four styles of special edition headphones:
- Poké Ball Headphones (Wood with Red Headband)
- Poké Ball Headphones (Wood with Black Headband)
- Poké Ball Headphones (Aluminum)
- Pikachu Headphones (Black Aluminum)
Our favorite collaborations are ones that challenge us to create something different than what we’ve been doing for decades, and these fit that quite nicely. The housing of the headphones plays an intricate roll in the sound it produces, and when it comes to wood not any type will do. Not only does the type of wood change the sound, but also how it’s cut and the direction of the grain. Maple was chosen for its warm yet rich tonal qualities.
An intricate curing process as well as a brand-new ventilation system (in the shape of a Poké Ball) bridges design and function. During the prototype process, we weren’t sure how this Poké Ball design would sound. If it didn’t meet our standards, we would’ve scrapped the idea and moved on to something else. Fortunately, not only do they sound great, they’re one of our favorite designs we’ve ever put to a headphone.
On the other side we have two metal headphones, one focusing on the Poké Ball and the other Piakachu. Metal housings bring a surgical precision to your music. Better imaging of the space between the instruments paints a clearer picture of your music in their soundstage.
Grado drivers are the heart of each headphone we assemble. Our 4th generation drivers were just released and can be found in each Pokémon headphone. Specifically tuned for the housings they end up in, this new speaker design features a more powerful magnetic circuit, a voice coil with decreased effective mass, and a reconfigured diaphragm. Reengineering these components for our 44mm drivers improve efficiency, reduces distortion, and preserves the harmonic integrity of your music. These speakers were specifically fine fine-tuned for their Pokémon housings (for example, a wooden housing paired with a ventilation system in the shape of a Poké Ball).
Each Pokémon Center x Grado headphone goes from workbench to workbench until they’re ready for your ears. We started assembling on a kitchen table in 1953, and every experience since then has led to the creation of this collaboration.
You can learn more about each headphone by going to Pokémon Center below:
- Poké Ball Headphones (Wood with Red Headband)
- Poké Ball Headphones (Wood with Black Headband)
- Poké Ball Headphones (Aluminum)
- Pikachu Headphones (Black Aluminum)
Our family is extremely excited and honored to be working with Pokémon Center, and we hope you enjoy what we’ve achieved together.
See a behind-the-scenes look of the Pokémon Center x Grado headphones being assembled here.
