Pioneer HDJ-500K DJ Headphones (Black)

After having these DJ headphones for about a month, I can see I'm fairly impressed despite the fragile appearance and the frequency response graph. UnEQ'd, mids and trebles will be slightly veiled(take it with a grain of salt) due to the bassy sound signature of these headphones; they are for DJ's after all, not studio use. The response is far better than when they were out of the box though.

Rock: These are...Well, I'd say neutral on speed (they don't attack, nor do they lag too much when listening to rock). You will get a blast listening to drum lines though.

Electronic/Anything focusing on bass: The response is tight and controlled; you can easily feel the vibration from truly low bass lines (and hear them too thanks to the wide frequency response range, 5Hz-27kHz). The bass doesn't feel overpowering either, mids and trebles will come through with startling clarity.

Comfort: These feel more like on-ear supra-aural headphones rather than circum-aural. This is due to the pad design, your ear still rests mostly on the earpad portion of the earcup, not really touching the grille of the drivers, which is covered by a piece of cloth anyways. You'll also notice they're fairly light, you'll scarcely feel the headband pressing down once you have a comfortable fit. They will clamp a fair amount, so a few hours of wear is the maximum for me.

Durability: I've only had them for a month but they are in fairly good nick. In black, many blemishes won't show up. Most of the headband and the plastic isn't very plasticky actually, it has this ergonomic soft-grip material feel to it, similar to the backs of certain smartphones for grip. I've ended up tossing these into a cramped sports bag which was already holding a tablet computer and a notebook. They came out in once piece, so they're fairly tough at this point. We'll see how school treats these cans soon. If they do break though, I'll report back.

Looks: I don't really need to get into this. They look quite nice, and draws a fair bit of sometimes unwanted attention. It's a more contemporary approach to styling, sharper and angled.

Other thoughts: They are sibilant, since they aren't exactly studio material. I'd recommend these headphones to any basshead if you can find them cheap though, they'll easily please trendsters and people who like rap. Just make sure whatever you're listening to doesn't have single frequency bass though, or else it will sound very disappointing. They have a tendency to be picky about your source though: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing goes out garbage in, garbage out. No dropping turrets through portals please. Otherwise, I question if I should have bought V-MODA crossfades or some Ultrasone HFi 580's instead. But that's something I'll find out another day.

I will comment, after several months(half a year, in fact), that these headphones are still in one piece. The rotating mechanism has loosened slightly but it's nothing a bit of stiff glue or gaffa tape can't fix. Never was a fan of the rotating part either. But despite the Pioneer logo having worn mostly off, I can say they look quite appealing. I'd venture to say that the Pioneer logo on top looks better in black. They sound much darker than they did out of the box, but songs like K-ON!'s Cagayake! will make even these sound bright. Don't believe me? Try it yourself. Overall, I'll bump up the rating.