Warmer, softer, fuzzier, and better sounding then your average puppy

I need to start with a small preface, I love sound, I’m obsessed with it, and I listen to sound all day and all night on all different speakers and TV’s and car systems. Due to my audiophile nature it is very possible there are things that would bother me in a set of speakers that most people wouldn’t notice, or care about.

I bought these headphones based on a recommendation from a friend who works for a recording studio, and because they were relatively well reviewed right here on Epinions. My favorite pair of headphones that I’ve had for the last 6 years, and which had, I kid you not, impressions of my ears in the pads, finally died. They served me well for a long time, but now it’s time to start a very serious hunt!

My new crusade is not like most of the time when I test out headphones. Usually I test out headphones just for the fun of it and to gain new knowledge about what is out there, but now I am hunting for MY headphones, and this is a job I take seriously. I was shocked that it only took two tries to find the right ones. After disastrous results with the Sony MDR V5000DJ, I found the perfect headphones only a scant couple of weeks later. This is their story.

These headphones, are completely perfect for my purposes. (As a side note, for those of you who are keeping up with my personal life through my reviews, I recently decided to pursue a higher level degree. I requested and received a transfer to an Electronics store of my brand here, although for a step down in pay/title and am now taking afternoon/night classes at Boston University.) They sound amazing, they fit great, they’re comfortable as anything, they’re single sided removable cord…I mean, just, WOW!

There are two key areas to consider when purchasing a set of headphones.

Sound Quality
To most people, this is the most important element for obvious reasons. These offer impossibly good sound from portable devices, and fantastically good sound from any other source.

There is a rule in headphones that says powerful headphones can not be driven by portable devices. Powerful headphones take far more power, that’s how they produce better sound, and portable players only produce a very limited amount of power. I don’t know how, I’m not an engineer, but for some reason these headphones loose very little on a portable player. The full “volume” of sound is still very present, so the following sound review applies to both portable and fixed devices.

The bass is exactly right. It’s there when it should be, it’s not where it shouldn’t be, it can come out of nowhere and smack you upside the head, it can be a deep pulsing trance note, but it always feels right. It falters only at the very highest of volumes. One of a very few headphones I’ve ever tested that have not just a good deep bass on a portable player, but also a SUBTLE deep base. For reasons I can’t explain very deep bass has a tendency, when it exists on portables, to be very heavy, and these don’t do that.

The mid range notes are extremely strong, and amazingly sharp. You can practically hear the artists breath coming out of her mouth. Each sound is unique and distinctive. They are balanced perfectly with everything else, never overpowering or under whelming.

The highs are just like the rest of the system, about as good as you could possibly expect headphone in this price range to sound. They’re as good as any headphone highs I’ve ever heard, and better then almost all. Nothing comes even close to them on a portable.

A fourth category that I’m starting to include with this review is surround, usually I leave it out because most headphones are the same, so there's not much to say. Not so with these! I have honestly had, “head turning” moments where I’ll hear a drum beat or a voice from afar, forget I’m wearing headphones, and actually turn and look for the source of the sound. These make sound come from all over the place, if I close my eyes I can imagine that I’m wherever the music may so be. I can see the distance I am from every given part of the music. The surround is frighteningly lifelike.

Aesthetic

The headphones feature a four-piece design consisting of the two earpieces, the headband, and a detachable cord that goes into the left cup. The earpieces attach on small protrusions that ride in a slot that runs up the headband in the headband; the dents in this long track allow the user to adjust them accurately to fit the users head.

The cord is proprietary, but replaceable. This, for me, is a fantastic feature because 95% of the time when headphones are damaged/broken the damage is to the cord. It gets frayed, or cut, or the needle gets bent or damaged. The headphones themselves are very rarely damaged. This way, instead of purchasing a new set of headphones, I can just replace the cord in the event of that type of damage. It also makes them moderately more easy to transport.

In terms of comfort let me say this: I spend hours and hours every day wearing headphones (I don’t want to annoy my roommate) and I can comfortably wear these for upwards of 12 hours a day and upwards of 4 hours at a time. After 4 hours I have to take them off for about 5 minutes to let my ears cool off and relax, and then they go right back on feeling fine again. The cups are covered in velvet, just as an added touch and are simply as comfortable as any closed headphone I’ve ever worn. (Closed tend to be a bit less comfortable then open in my experience.)

edit:
Now that it's getting colder here, I also find that these make PERFECT ear warmers! They keep my ears nice and toasty on these chilly 30 degree days =)

The only negative thing I have to say about these is that they are not very portable, but that’s just something you loose when you reach this quality and comfort level.

The seal is good, I can hear outside noise, but it is greatly dampened. Not completely eliminated like some headphones, but seriously restricted.

Bottom Line:

**note, these are related to price, EG, it’s not sound quality related to the best sound in the world, it’s sound quality related to the other things in this price range.**

Sound Quality: A+
Surround:A+
Portability: B
Comfort:A
Overall:A

edited 10/03 to add some formatting and details