Grado GS3000x Statement

These wired headphones offer truly mind-blowing sound with an eye-watering price tag

£2,199 selfridges.com

You can forget concepts of 'modernity'. If it's a pair of expensive over-ear headphones you're after, your Grado option is going to be a throwback - visually, at least. So what exactly can you expect when you put a lot of money Grado's way? And can it possibly be worth the way you look when you're wearing them?

The way Grado goes about designing its over-ear headphones, you'd think 'design' had been outlawed before the first Beatles album was released. That the GS3000x Statement are rigorously engineered, painstakingly constructed, and specified without compromise is not up for question. But 'design'? The more expensive a specific pair of Grado headphones, the more apparent their, ahem, agricultural appearance becomes.