Pros: Isolation
Cons: Terrible sound, uncomfortable, large
These have a very thin and dull sound. There is a noticeable lack of low mids / bass, which leave the headphones sounding very cold. There is no sound stage to speak of. I just can't find any redeeming qualities in the sound department. My cheap Senn IEMs sound much fuller than these.
They do isolate extremely well, at the expense of strong head clamping and ear warmth.
Stay away from these. Frankly I'm astonished that these have 4 stars (as of this review) on a site dedicated to headphones. I suspect people want to believe their $80 were well spent.
They are designed for DJ-use, but wtf are they if there even lacking bass?
I guess you really want something in the league of the HD380 pro or Beyerdynamic DT770 if you must use a closed headphone, however you won't find anything like that for under $100. If you can use an open headphone, the Sennheiser HD598 might give you the soundstage you want.
The only use I can find for mine is possibly monitoring when I'm editing my site's podcasts. Outside of that, I'm not touching them. I deluded myself into thinking they sounded good with my music for a while but eventually, I realized. Having heard some actually good cans, I've since abandoned my 280s. They sound so dull and so lifeless with music next to my better headphones and IEMs.
Maybe you should have stuck with them in the first place :[
And I've done it twice... is that "a lot"?
I believe I am entitled because I paid for them...
When I say there's no point to writing a review of the sound signature, I don't mean you can't talk about the sound -- what I mean is that "These headphones have [insert anayltical characteristics here], therefore they suck and I am angry" is a very pointless review. Talking about what they do bad compared to other headphones with a similar sound sig would be far more helpful.
If what I said was "pointless", than 99% of audio reviews must be pointless as well. I described the sound signature: "there is a noticeable lack of low mids / bass" and the negative effects on the sound: "which leave the headphones sounding very cold".
I don't know why I bother responding, you are obviously a very ignorant and defensive person with poor reading comprehension.
Sennheiser HD595, Sennheiser HD650, Ultrasone HFI 680, Sennheiser HD280 PRO.
The other cans sound ok with badly mastered music. The Sennheiser HD280 PRO sounds amazing with music mastered with a wide dynamic range. On the other cans it just sounds ok and sometimes boring.
If I had a choice of only one headphone I would keep the HD280s and sell the rest.