Pros: Easy to drive, stylish for full sized heaphones, nice combo of flavor and accuracy
Cons: Sucked out lower midrange
Simply put? The lower midrange just isn't there.
Everything else, though, is pretty damned nice. Vocals? Clear as hell. Bass? Plenty of impact, and it gets LOW*
With that out of the way though, the lower midrange has problems. If I was feeling mean I'd some up with something witty, but **** you.
You like powerful vocals, orchestras, or metal? You better start running and screaming. Like R&B? Stick around, these will do you well.
*modded with m50 earpads, at least. Without them the midrange changes for the better, but they're otherwise unremarkable, and quite a bit less comfortable.
With the ODAC+Magni and M50 pads they're perfect for anything with a large soundstage in the recording. Strangely the soundstage size is increased more by the ODAC than an amp. With say the Buena Vista Social Club and this setup, it feels like I have an open headphone on my head.
I would say these are my favorites for female/male vocals. Both equally good IMO. I would say it does push female vocals a little more forward.
BTW have you tried them with the O2 or Magni yet?
I mainly use these with my Bithead and haven't tried any crazy amp paring. But to my ears there's a definite suckout somewhere <1000hz that makes instruments lack body (trumpets especially bug me) and pushes male singers to the back of the mix sometimes.
I don't think it's a BAD flavor but it makes me reach for my HD580s and T50rps most of the time at home. DJ100s make female singers sound brilliant, but the other two just sound a lot more natural to me.
Definitely agree with you about the boosted upper midrange though, screw the measurements. To me that's one of the defining characteristics of these things.