these are a great run for the money

I've also owned these for a few years and they do have their positives. They have good isolation and a nice punchy sound, you can listen to them at high volumes without almost any fatigue. I wish I could say the same thing about my D2000's but I guess that is one of the few drawbacks the D2000's have IMO.

I believe the ability to listen to them at high volumes comes from great isolation. D2000's don't isolate almost at all, so lots of sound escapes, and in order to achieve the perceived level of loudness, "energy" and "punch" in music, you need to use more volume. I find HD212pro the only headphones which I can enjoy listening to at low volumes as well. Usually all headphones, especially AKG's I own, need lots of volume to start sounding good, at low volumes they just sound incredibly inert and anemic.