From the outside, you won’t notice much different about Grado's new e Series headphone lineup. The whole gang, from the bargain-priced SR60e headphones ($80) to the top-of-the-line PS1000e professional headphones ($1,700), look pretty much the same as their predecessors. They’ve all got the same classic look, and they’re still all open-backed, made more for listening at home than in public.

But on the inside, it's a different story. Grado has tinkered with all the materials and components in order to squeeze every last drop of sonic fidelity out of its new line. They’ve redesigned the housings, changing the way the wood in each headphone is cut and cured in order to make the sound quality more consistent.

Grado says the new woodwork helps keep resonance from interfering with each driver. The interplay between the neodymium magnets and the voice coils in each headphone has also been tweaked, and the company is using stronger, lighter glue in its new cans.

These alterations have been applied to every set of Grado on-ear and over-ear headphones; the only models that haven’t undergone the changes are the company’s in-ear variations. Like previous generations, the e Series will come with 3.5mm connectors (and 6.5mm adapters) standard, except for the the higher-end GS100e and PS1000e; those come with 6.5mm connectors and 3.5mm adapters.

Oh, and those connectors? They’re coated in crazy-expensive rhodium so they won’t corrode.