Alright, so I got them a few hours ago and just some first impressions. Keep in mind, I am still new to the whole audiophile business. My past headphones have been Ipod earbuds, Sennheiser CX-300 earbuds, Koss Porta Pro, Sony MDR-V150 and now these. I've also listened to the Sennheiser HD280 pro, Beats solo, studio, Skullcandy Aviators, and some Bose headphones (don't remember the model.)
First of all, the feel on the top of my head is nice. A soft padding on the top to alleviate anything that may come up. A 3 foot cord. But comfort around the ears right now is a bit troublesome. I definitely feel it press onto my ears, and after about 30-40 minutes, there was some irritation. However, I did sort of get used to it, but paid dearly when I took them off 2 hours later, cause my ears were definitely feeling...uh...more like with some redness around the ear.
Isolation is pretty solid. Just by putting them down, things become muffled on the outside, and once you start the music, everything goes quiet around you. Now, I don't think these will work on the airplane, and you may have to crank up the volume when walking downtown with cars driving by, but on the bus or subway, gym, these work great. Also leakage is pretty good as well. On my macbook, you have to go up 4 notches of volume to hear what the singer is singing with them a foot away from your ears. I figure once they are on, no one can hear them...I can't press them together to test it so to speak, so I'll have to ask someone else to wear them.
Sound, how should I put this...they aren't "open" compared to my Porta Pros, or the cheap Sony MDR-V150 I was using before I got these. There is definitely more clarity in every aspects of the songs, and the bass can definitely get booming when I set the EQ on Itunes to "classical." I really don't know how to describe it, but everything just sounds more clear compared to my previous headphones. Really happy with this purchase overall. I'm gonna let these burn in, and hopefully the sound will get better.
Just my initial thoughts. I think it's worth the 85 dollars I spent. Just wish the comfort around the ears was a bit better.
Edit: Took them to the streets and some comments...
1. They do a good job of blocking a lot of noise out, but not to the point where you can't hear anything when crossing the street.
2. When I try to slide them down around my neck, the headphones are literally choking my neck no matter what size I adjust them too. That's rather disappointing.
