*Warning* A very opinionated message follows. I don't mean to offened anyone by what I say, especially anyone who loves the HD590s. My opinions are my own and are not any more valid than anyone elses. Many people will disagree with what follows--

I can understand how Lazyiesat may percieve his Triports as sounding better than the HD590s. I've owned the HD590s for about 3 weeks now and I must admit that I am very disappointed with them. The midrange is thin and distant, the highs are sibalant, and bass is heavy yet thin sounding as well--it just sits there and hums instead of providing impact. Istruments and voice through these phones sound nothing like reality. Everything sounds very processed and fake due to an odd timbre in the midrange and bass and an even odder one in the treble. I understand entirely how he would find listening to these phones unbearable after a half-hour; I think the same thing. Now matter what equiment I play the HD590s out of their highs are sibalant and this coupled with the recessed mids and perpetually boomy (yet thin sounding) lows make for one fatiguing and bad sounding phone. Although I've never listened to the Triports for over a few minutes in electronics stores I would not be supprised if someone prefered them to the HD590s. The HD590s are the worst phones I have heard in their price range and are one of the worst I've heard regardless of price.

*And there you have it. Feel free to disagree with me over the sonic characteristics of the 590s. Your opinion is just as valid as mine. I just had to get my extreme hatred for these phones off of my chest and I figured there was no better place to do so than in this thread.

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I agree mostly with your observation, except that I found the Bose TriPorts even worse than the HD590s. The HD590s are good headphones - if they were priced at $70. But they cost $200 at my local Tweeter stores! And the Bose TriPorts sound every bit as terrible to my ears as the Sony MDR-V600s: Both of those sound like cheap $15 dollar-store full-size headphones.

And, as I said, the HD590s are the worst open-back headphones in the $150~$200 price range that I've heard. Very few headphones in this price range sound worse than the HD590s (the older AKG K270S's - not to be confused with the K271S's - come to mind). And I have listened quite extensively to every one of the open-back headphones in the $150~$200 price range that are currently on the market - AKG K501s, Beyerdynamic DT931s and DT990s, Grado SR-225s, Sennheiser HD580s and Sony MDR-CD2000s. All of those open-back headphones handily beat the HD590s in overall sound quality. (I picked the Sennheiser HD580s as best in this price range, followed closely by the AKG K501s and the Grado SR-225s.)

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Okay... M-Audio and Creative labs both make decent external sound cards for laptops... Uhm, don't you have a CD player? Are you downloading your mp3's? Where do you get your music? Why not invest in a Headroom BitHead instead of an (ugghhh) Cavit? Really... if I were you, I would do this:

Return the 590's.
Get a Headroom BitHead, an Etymotic ER4P, and the 4P -> 4S converter. You should be able to get them all from Headphone.com for a nice package discount... and maybe even a nice case for your BitHead and iPod...