These headphones are hard to review because I like the balance of this headphone and to me balance is probably number one on the list of what makes a headphone of any quality because without balance you can have immense quality in the whole spectrum of frequencies and it would be for naught. Second on my list is vocals and clarity; 2a and 2b followed by bass impact. These have good balance and decent quality through the range but are otherwise irregular sounding largely due to what I can assume is shoddy driver replication, bad assembly, lack of real quality control or all of the above.

They are very comfortable. Maybe the 2nd most comfortable headphones I have tried behind the WS1100iS. See I had gone years thinking all around ear headphones were designed to torture the user, so the recent ones I have tried have been very surprising in the comfort department.

They have decent clarity especially in the treble region and for a small part of the bass region there is very good resolution, like little short flashes of brilliance. Vocals are actually very very well done and actually sound "airy" but unlike the treble and bass it's weakness outweighs its brilliance; by this I mean every so often you will find music that doesn't sound "right" vocally.

If my analysis stopped here these would be GREAT headphones but alas there are serious concerns. Concerns so serious I would put some kind of dangerous material sign on these headphones, maybe something black and yellow with the lines of "Caution Radioactive". There is a radioactive leak of harshness somewhere in the mids and/or upper bass that has a sonic effect similar to what one would feel if hit in the neck with a ninja's throwing star. This was most apparent in the left side driver. Every once in a while a frequency would hit perfectly to have this undesirable effect and I would watch my health bar go down like a Tekken character being pummeled by Marshall Law's unending windmill kicks. Every so often i would also feel a small almost imperceptible rush of air on the left side like a ghost, an apparition of very low level bass frequencies being activated. Bear in mind it took time but surprisingly not very long to notice these flaws and it took even longer to realize they were serious enough to make the headphones unusable.

With bass ports closed I could tell these were harsh for prolonged use within maybe an hour or two.
With 1 bass port open some of the harshness is less noticeable, as the treble gained some shine and the bass gained some fun buzz to achieve a more v-shaped sound, but nevertheless the harshness was still there over time. This actually sounded the most desirable to me because I like a little extra bass accentuation.
With 2 bass ports open bass was obviously more elevated similar to headphones only diehard bassheads would enjoy.

So china copies A LOT. Cars...headphones...other things. It's hard not to notice similarities between Takstars headphones and other popular big brands. Most likely some of the big brand headphones are made in the same place or assembled by Takstar employees. Maybe some of these parts slip under the table. Maybe we assemble our own headphones with some of these parts. I get a feeling these drivers are sourced from one of Sony's piles of drivers. The previous iteration of Takstar's the Pro 80's might be sourced from Beyerdynamic pile. I don't know if they're actually using the same drivers or creating "rough" copies of the big brand's drivers but somewhere within that assembly process, which I can assure you does not include quality control measures longer than a few seconds, the chinese counterparts fail miserably. I did like the Pro 80's and Superlux 681's(I would probably pick both over these) but both had serious treble issues and I could never use either one for long periods of time. I actually ended up destroying and throwing both away after some modding.

These are one of the few headphones I feel I need to actually give out a warning. I would literally recommend any other headphone than this. For audiophiles, modders, tinkerers, people who have too many cables and electronics devoted solely to audio, and who would be using amps and equalizers to make these barbaric things sound unobtrusive, for 70-90 dollars these will be a steal for them, and they might be happy with their Frankenstein results. For me I like simplicity and I'm glad I got these from amazon so it was easy to return. I only give these a 2/5 because like the Pro 80's before them; they're ambitious, and even though I suspect some uniformity in assembly and design of these headphones I cannot rule out that mine might have a unique defect. Maybe I just got a bad one, but from previous experience with Chinese headphones I doubt it.

I am surprised. Audio-technica. Probably the best looking headphones ever. Probably the most comfortable headphones ever. Probably the biggest sound in a closed headphone. Bass resolution and impact is crazy good.

Very very verryyyyyy comfortable. My big elephant ears don't touch pads -reminds me of a big Sennheiser but even better pads. These are like the Sony XB series had sex with the M50x. The headband extends smoothly, almost automatically like the automatic doors of a Tesla. Hard to find weaknesses to these complete headphones most other headphones are car parts like the tin man without a heart.

Bassheads don't read further. These are already for you. Go now. Buy. Right now.

Okay now that they're gone...Audio-techncia...you bastards crippled my treble and mids! I didn't expect the great "Audio-technica" brand to have bloomy bass. Don't get me wrong these sound GREAT for hip-hop/electronic music hence the "solid bass" moniker. But audio-technica you were so close to something bigger... I expected something revolutionary; a great headphone. The next M50's... the M500's. The highs are are there they are crisp and clear but they are about 2 floors down from the bass. The mids you can barely tell they are there -they are about 4 floors down. At this point the frequency graph looks like the bitcoin market history graph, in reverse.

If only these had that balanced M50x treble it would be game over. Audio-technica do me a favor -Tune these 53mm drivers to the same balance as the M50x's 45mm drivers and put it in this design with these pads, (why isn't everyone using these pads for around ear by the way?), and you have a MENACE of a headphone.

These may be moddable to control the bloom in the bass and bring up the treble about 1 floor because they have several ports on the back of the cups(around and in the middle of the cups), if you cover the middle parts with your hands you will notice a clear improvement, but modding these would be like destroying a piece of art, like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa. Audio-technica....just go back and do it again. Call them Audio-technica WS2200iS with Solid Treble and Solid Bass.

I remember first hearing the Yamaha MT220's. I remember thinking Yamaha is the new king of headphones. I can't wait to see what they do next. I thought if their lower level headphones had 50% of the energy and forwardness and refinement of the MT220's, they would be an adequate and fun and maybe more consumer friendly headphone to use regularly. I was wrong.

These are a discombobulated mess. Treble peaks meanwhile parts of treble are missing. Mid peaks, guess what parts of mids are missing. Bass...WHAT?! This is not a cheap headphone why does everything sound monotone? Huge chunks of the spectrum seem to be missing. The worst part is these are very fatiguing like trying to listen to music with a fire alarm going off in the background.

Full disclosure the MT220's were also slightly fatiguing but you were having so much fun you barely noticed it and it was many hours later. It was something in the highs that gradually weakened you but you gotta pick your poision. These...these monstrosity's are fatiguing because of parts of the mids are unnaturally exemplified, like a background drone. Their fatiguing aspect is evident very very quickly. It is a very unrefined headphone. Everything is sharp. Even bass. How can bass be sharp!? Yes I know they are meant to be used as studio monitors but we know plenty of studio monitors that have become hi-fi consumer headphones. It even says "or for personal listening" in their description.

Writing anything further or in depth on these is a waste of time. I would stay away from these at all costs. All I can say is; Why Yamaha why?

V-moda calls them "Modern Audiophile" headphones and from my experience it is hard to argue with them. They have everything; clear highs that are crisp enough but not too crisp, strong backbone of mids, and expansive but balanced bass. I think it would be hard to find someone who's actually heard these say that it has too much bass other than some extremists who spend most of their time listening to classical music, yes those people would benefit from a completely different headphone, but we are not those people.

These headphones have a forward sound. They are not veiled. Both those statements are necessary because of the following statement; These are tame headphones, as tamed as you can make a lion for instance or maybe one of Khaleesi's dragons; you know they eat people in the background every so often but you barely see it. They are just majestic beings. But these lions..in their cage...at the zoo... they are almost sad, not as kinetic as you want them to be, filled with potential energy. One imagines they daydream of glory days of running after prey with unstoppable ferocity.

This is still the best overall sound I've heard from V-moda but I wish V-moda had made something in between the LP2; which were the equivalent of a large herd of buffalo jumping off a cliff, and our ambivalent lion in his cage. This is not to say that the V-moda are not great sounding, they are. They are actually perfect sounding, which is somehow bothersome. It's like dying, going to heaven, and finding out you have to really walk around on clouds in a white robe and listen to harp music.

In comparison to M50X, these have less viscosity in the bass but most people wouldn't notice it unless you directly compared them. They have a more present midrange, which makes the whole sound signature seem complete and connected. The treble is adequate on the V-modas, but on the M50X's they are like an honorable but lethal ninja friend willing to go to war at a moments notice. Overall V-modas strengths slightly outdo the M50X's if it were not for it's one fatal flaw: the earpads.

What kind of alien has up and down ears that are shaped like diamonds!? Tell me V-moda! What are you!? Where from do you hail, for it is not this galaxy.

Honestly these are great headphones if only they were slightly more explosive somewhere, somehow, anywhere on the signature and if they included XL earpads by default. At their price and with these drawbacks I would take M50X's over them. That being said congratulations V-moda and I can't wait to see the next few generations of your products.

If you can buy these around the $170 mark and you have average or smaller ears, these are a steal! Otherwise get something tried and true, and which I keep going back to: the M50X.

These headphones seem to have a large disparity in reviews with people saying they're either too bright or too dark. They're very different from the UE 6000 which to me were very very dark. At first they sounded muffled but with a good balanced sound. Eventually they opened up with the treble shining through, lots of detail, great mids. I went to some regular hiphop songs and I was surprised that the bass was toned down. These are either very well balanced or the treble is slightly forward hard to tell right now since I just came from a very bassy headphone(probably the former). I got these very cheap but their quality is very good probably on par with Momentum on ear -maybe even better(but with very different frequency signature). Definitely a steal if you can get them in the 20-30 dollar range, nothing else is going to beat them at that price. 
 
They're relatively small profile though. Very plastic-y looking but sturdy. I'm always surprised when I see an expensive headphone with 40mm drivers and they make the earpad opening small which really cripples the sound -most of the time (some designs pull it off but it's usually depends on the earpad material and design). You can tell these have a bigger sound to give but they cannot because of this design flaw. These would probably be on par with the Denon D340's if they made the earpad opening larger. As is they are still very good headphones with an unusually well balanced sound signature -I really expected a ton of bass. 
 
Update: After further listening these are very bass light. I admit I'm somewhat of a basshead but these are too forward in the mids and treble for me. There's nothing in the bass department. Bass is not just turned down it's impossible to tune to output crucial bass frequencies correctly. Unfortunate fatal flaw to a otherwise good quality headphone. 

These are solid headphones. A modern day boombox. Insignia reminiscent of the Illuminati. Too cool to explain the meaning to the uninspired.This is the future, or is it the present...or past. I don't know. Trapped in a desolate world like a black box that stretches to infinity in all directions. Plugged into the multiverse of beat. Torn between Zen and Chaos she is versatile. A shark that cannot stop moving. 
 
It's hard to compare from memory because memory lies but the highs have been tamed slightly compared to the old M50's. They are still very clear, if not more robust. It's a little picky about sound quality. It will let you know when you have a bad recording. I laughed when it said Professional Monitor headphones on the box remembering my previous go around with the M50's, but now I see that they may indeed be useful if not for all recording but at least some modern genre's. 
 
The Mids. See V-shaped in dictionary.
 
Bass. Magnificent as always. You're still there. Seems like you gained some sub-bass but whatever. As long as you don't cross this line we won't have any problems. You even add .00001 db more of bass and you have to change your name from "ATH-M50X Professional Studio Monitor" to "ATH-M50X-Take That Beats". But I am slightly exaggerating. None the less for me this is the upper-most echelon of acceptable Bass accentuation and it is magnificent.
 
Soundstage. I thought it was smaller in the old ones. Now it seems significantly better. It is still clearly nothing special but at least it's somewhat outside your head. Must be the slightly different pads. 
 
Are these worth 120 dollars? Yes, but there are many out there, many young lions without big names that can fight and put an end to M50's dynasty. But they are barbarians, unrefined and uncivilized. These are solid headphones, heralded and unwavering. 

This is a great inexpensive headphone with one of my favorite sonic signatures. It's one of the few headphones I bought twice when I tried much more expensive headphones being disappointed and realizing what I had lost.
 
One of the things I look for in headphones is how vocals are represented and these probably beat out most 200 dollar headphones in vocals department. But these are not one focus headphones. They're for studio use so they are well balanced everything is tight and well represented. If you're looking for the humming type of bass found in Beats headphones, you won't get them here. If you're looking for crazy sibilant highs that crackle, they were smart about that too, they stop well short of that cliff in fact maybe that's it's hidden flaw.
 
Maybe the mids are slightly more represented over the highs than they should be. Maybe it's human nature to look for flaws in all things. Maybe the Japanese were right. Wabi-sabi. An imperfect rougher sound signature may be more desirable. I don't know but all headphones should start with this level of vocal clarity and build around it. 

These are hard to review especially at the 50 dollar price point. At that price it's probably going to be one of the best headphones you can get in terms of pure sound detail. 
 
But I would be remiss to not mention that it is very very V-shaped. I miss the mids. I would even trade some of that clarity for semi-decent mids. Only thing worse than a headphone with bloated bass is a headphone with buried mids. 
 
The pads are very comfortable at first but like any around ear they tend to get hot over time. 
 
In general ATH-M50 is better(although also suffering from recessed mids) with better detail through the spectrum where the CAL! has greatly detailed highs but the bass isn't on par. 

These have been my main headphones for a long time. Their simplicity combined with their excellent sonic character and relatively cheap price make them legendary headphones. There's a reason they have a cult following. 

This is an elitist headphone. It believes most youtube videos deserve death and suffering. It will turn down videos it does not like and add bass to cover whatever is left of those videos. It does not believe in more cowbell.

My first instinct was "these sound terrible worse than cheap sony headphones," but as I listened I realized it was just picky. It liked certain recordings others it wouldn't even consider.

The bass is overpowering for my tastes and the highs are ridiculously veiled so for most music this will make it sound unspectacular. I find I am missing the sparkle of highs I can usually hear in less bassy headphones.

In general the ATH-M50's are much better headphones but there are things the LP2 beat the M50's at, like soundstage and the overall "thickness" of the sound-the M50's can sound "thin" sometimes.

They are a very snug fit around the ears but not hugely uncomfortable. They are substantial. Solid. Like a soviet era automobile. I feel like everything will last forever and I'll just eventually have to switch out the drivers.

These are not bad headphones but they are pretty far up on the Basshead spectrum.

Edit: Upon revisiting these headphones I've realized I was a little too tough on them. Most of what I said is still true, these are still basshead headphones but they deserve a higher score for what they were designed for -they do very well. They have a combination of big sound and bass rumble that I have yet to find matched in another headphone making these perfect for some of my favorite genre's of music (industrial metal, hip-hop, dubstep). Very high quality recordings especially within these electronic genre's really make these headphones come alive.