I must say I would never have described Grado's as being forward, compared to other brands of headphones.

I always felt the SR80s the best value headphones back in the day, before you went over £100.

I have a pair of Grado SR1000s and they are a tad fussy regarding proper impedance matching. My Audio Valve RKv 2 impedance matcher was a real blessing in getting the most from the Audio Valve headphone amp.