Sennheiser's are awesome. But not portable.

I've gone through many different headphones, each time taking a step above, however, those were mostly in the $10-$40 range. I had never really had the ambition to take the big step up to a more expensive pair. I finally decided to go with it, and see what its like. It was a great decision, especially with these hd280's.

Sound: Absolutely amazing. When I first got them, I wasn't very impressed, but then I read that they require break in time, so I gave them time, and soon I noticed that the highs were crisper, the lows were much deeper, and mids were clearer. The sound is extremely accurate, and precise, with distortion only when cranked to levels that shouldn't be legal, or when an inadequately powerful source is used. With a frequency range of 8hz-23khz, they have the audible spectrum more than covered. Wonderfully rich sound.

Comfort: Quite comfortable, but after a while, the leather on the cups starts to interact with body heat, and you start to sweat after a few hours. Also, because of the great sound canceling with them,(-32db) they tend to push a bit as well. Another downside is that if you have semi short hair, or styled, these are annoying, because they put a line in your head, from the headband, so just watch that before u go creating a great doo and then put these on ;).

Portability: Sadly to say, although I love these, they are hard on trips. Although they fold, it is still not enough to be considered easy to travel with. They are big and bulky, and also, a portable CD player may not be powerful enough to drive them sometimes. It works, I've done it tons of times, but still they can distort. If a CD is quiet, and you have the volume up all the way, you will hear distortion. Although they can be taken on a trip if you really want to (I should know, I've done it enough) you may want to consider a more portable, less expensive pair. Also, that way you don't risk losing them or having them stolen.

Looks: These are classy looking headphones, but walking around school with them on sometimes, I'll get some funny looks. Little kids will come up to me sometimes, and ask why I'm wearing earmuffs in the summer. But despite these comments, I always offer whoever teases me to listen to them if they'd like, and as soon as they do, they stop teasing me and ask me where they can get some. So if you don't mind being looked at for a few seconds because of them in public, they are awesome. If you care about looks more then sound, then expensive headphones are not for you, my friend. These are big on your head. Period.