Grado SR-80

For 4 years I've tried to love these headphones.  But I can't get above simply 'liking' them.  I listen to lossless (flac) Jazz, Blues and Rock using a mi-fi quality $500 DAC.  
 
In a nutshell, I am continuously looking for better transparency/clarity/detail.  I have tried to understand the common description of SR80's as 'bright' - however, the only 'bright' sound I have found is in a peak in the response that centers on male and female vocals.
 
I have tried cup and cable mods, looking for improvement, but have come up wanting.  The cup mods made the most difference.  The cable upgrade had little impact.

They have very open, bright and oftentimes a trademark piercing mids and highs quality about them, which makes the soundstage sound very very clear.  In fact the  sound is very bright at times and their top volume can double as a small speaker..the brightness and soundstage can be heard from 20 ft plus if the volume is raised at max, that is how clear they are.   That said, these headphones are best used if you want a flat response, they have nice tight lows but they are not punchy, the upper of the low frequencies is the best aspect of its bass , so they would be great for classical.     For those looking for modern music like EDM, hardcore, rap, I would not recommend them.     
 
Design:  It is what it is and have a very mature, simplistic look.   They are for pure listening purposes from a comfortable couch and even laying on your back, they do not fall off which is a double edged sword unless you get new earpads-they range from uncomfortable from a few minutes of use to extremely uncomfortable within an  hour.   The earcups are a hard-dense foam but they are not plush enough that they can circumvent the lack of padding touching the ears.  It will cause fatigue in short time.    Most uncomfortable headphones out of the box experience I've ever seen.
 
Next and in my opinion, the worst thing about them... since the earcups CAN swivel out of place as there are no place holders, one can forget which way they are supposed to swivel back into if they are laid flat on a table.  This is a huge design flaw which happened me within the first 5 times I used them, so I very strongly recommend hanging them up somewhere.   They are not suitable for constant travel (long, thick cable, can not fold and they can/will swivel out of place) so they won't swivel from their correct alignment, if the cables twist enough they can break.  I had them stored in their original box and the force from how they were coiled up, caused the cable to break at the adjoining vertex, until even the internal audio cable was cut loose.

These headphones sound really good for their price point. But the pads are really scratchy and can't be worn sometimes.