Sennheiser HD 238 Stereo Open Aire Headphone

I paid 25 bucks for this phone, which makes it stupidly good value. Best Bang for the buck phone. Quite comfy so you can use it for quite a long time. Sounds is quite awesome, not 200$ awesome sound but for less than 50$, it is really great sound. Bass is quite strong, not so boomy and it is actually quite well defined. Mid  not solid but quite good. Well, it has Sennheiser house sound, dark, bit veiled, strong bass, and laid back ... I'm bit love the coloring of Audio Technica so not really my cup of tea, but I can live with it for a while. I may choose phone this over es7 though. Overall, it sounds good, does nothing wrong, and very cheap.

The HD238 seems like a very underrated headphone IMO. I haven't heard many people talking about these cans. Personally I think they are worth the $50 my dad paid for them. The sound signature is rather warm and dark, which is very pleasant to listen to at loud volumes IMO. The soundstage on these are not very big but for $50 I really can't complain. These are not so good with classical music but sounds very nice with EDM. The earpads on these don't seem to be replaceable but they are very soft and comfortable. The build feels a little cheap but they won't snap on my head or anything. I find these cans very comfortable, I wore these non-stop for 3 hours and I haven't experienced any bit of discomfort. Overall, these cans are great.

I've had these almost two years ago for a few months and enjoyed them quite a bit, but just couldn't get over the problems that had (besides being open and offering no isolation at all; my mistake here). The sound is good, good detail, smooth highs, without much sparkle, but the mids were too weak for my liking and the bass.. well, it was a big disapointment. Maybe if amped properly they'd sound better, I don't know nor do I care much, given that these are supposed to be easy to drive compact portable cans, not on the same level as real mid-fi or hi-fi cans. The bass was just flabby and boomy, not what you'd expect from nice open cans like these. Too bad, because they did a few things right soundwise (lovely instrument layering comes to mind) and were the most comfortable things I've ever put on my ears: light and with no clamping force.

I'm almost tempted to buy these again and try them with my new sources..

Initial impressions were in-line with the other reviews on the forums: dark, overbearing bass. I immediately performed the astroid-mod (removing the black foam center from the pads) and also opened them up and lined the grills with tin-foil based on another mod I found on this forum. Wow! The sound cleaned up immediately with the highs and mids coming through clearer, although they still weren't where they should be, so I left them playing pink noise and sine sweeps overnight for a few days. These don't need an amp, but the bass does tighten up and the mids come out stronger when connecting them to a FiiO e5. These sound surprisingly good for jazz and classical, but feel a little slow for rock/electronica and generally "busy" songs.

Comparing them to the PortaPros... I still prefer the PortaPros. The HD238 feel less enveloping and I liked the forward way that the PortaPros presented the highs, but this is purely subjective. I tend to use these (and the PortaPros) on the go and I like to have something that gives a punchy presentation. The Senns are overall smoother, but I have too many mixed feelings about them to call them excellent. If they were priced at the MSRP of $100 I'd definitely say no, but for $32 these are an absolute steal.