It seems hemp has reached the world of high-fidelity.
Hemp has always had many uses, but the past months have shown that it does more than make rope and clothing. High-tech electronics are apparently now on the table, and all signs show they’ll be a blast as Grado has announced hit is producing hemp headphones.
Industrial hemp was made legal in 2018 and American consumers were rightly excited, with a plethora of CBD products on standby.
As the market for those additives, supplements, smokeables and novelties expanded, normal people were astounded as they learned how many relied on CBD for their anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia and other common problems.
Those with longer memories or students of history will also know that hemp has long been used in rope-making, textiles and other manufacturing. Prominent among its uses have also been ship-building in previous centuries, but in the age of cruise ships and luxury yachts its easy to understand why that’s not so realistic.
The new era requires new hemp products, and not all of those are likely to be CBD smokeables and supplements.
More modern iterations of hemp products still revolve around textiles and clothing, but innovative options like renewable concrete replacements and other construction materials have also become prominent.
Hemp grows using far less water than cotton and renews substantially faster than trees, and it can also be crafted into bioplastics.
Brooklyn-based Grado recently announced it is producing a limited run of high-quality headphones using maple and and swirls of highly compressed hemp.
The high-end phones have a phono input and could be the perfect choice for audiophiles and vinyl-heads.
“Grado headphones are an acquired taste with a build that’s been fairly relentless in its lack of comfort and a design that’s firmly at odds with today’s big trend in over-ear and on-ear headphones: noise cancellation,” Tech Crunch wrote in its review of the new line. “The open-air cans let in plenty of sound and let out as much, something that doesn’t make them a great choice for the office and tends to keep the headphones in the tight niche of at-home listening.”
Grado’s new hemp-infused open headphones are currently available for preorder at the steep but fitting price of $420.
A stand for the headphones is also an available purchasing option.
Sources
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/10/grado-unveils-its-420-hemp-headphone/
[2] https://pcper.com/2020/06/grado-labs-hemp-headphones-high-fi/
[3] https://9to5toys.com/2020/06/10/grado-labs-hemp-headphones/
