Joseph Grado, Inventor and Founder of Headphone Manufacturer Grado Labs, Has Died
Photo via Grado Labs
Joseph Grado, audio engineer, inventor, and founder of the Brooklyn headphone manufacturers Grado Labs, passed away in South Carolina on Friday, Billboard reports. He was 90.
Grado started out as a watchmaker, but moved into audio engineering, inventing the stereo moving coil phono turntable cartridge in the early 1950s. In 1953, he opened a storefront in the family’s fruit shop in Sunset Park. Grado ran the company until 1990, when his nephew John Grado took over, turning its focus to headphones.
In a message on the Grado Labs website, the family writes, “The Grado family holds Uncle Joe in the highest regard, and without him, not only would we still be working in a fruit store, but we would have never started making headphones.”
Watch a short documentary about the family business that came out last year:
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