I am a pro-sumer not an audiophile, so I will not speak to the sound as much as others have.
I am not affiliated with the music industry in any way.
I have a full head of hair, no glasses, no TMJ, normal hearing.
As many others, I bought these based on the many positive reviews found elsewhere. (At the time of this writing there are no reviews here on head-fi for this product.) That and the fact that my wife was sick of having to turn off the lights to get my attention while listening to closed cans.
Pulling these out of the box you understand why people say these are big. They are mammoth. On my small-headed wife they look absolutely ridiculous. Even on my large-ish man-head they look a bit big. They come with the headphones themselves and a 3.5mm-to-1/4inch snap on adapter.
After unboxing, I plugged them in to check both ears produced sound, then started the burn-in process.
Whether or not you believe in this, I did it and the entire review is after the 100+ hours of burn-in with no modifications performed.
These are listed as circumaural and fit the bill. These easily fit my large noggin, and my large-ish ears stay inside the ears cups comfortably. My ears hit neither the cups nor the felt driver coverings. The headband-thing is comfortable as well.
I took these on my 90-minute commute a couple times and even on a plane once, just to test. Do not try this, kids. The vents in the cups let in all the droning sound you would hope to keep out. Take these to the office and leave them there. (At $35 you can afford it if the cleaning crew decides to lift a pair.) Beware-- they are open-back and if you crank the volume your cube mates may hear your music.
The cups swivel a tiny bit and rotate a tiny bit, but along with the headband adjustments this is all there is to adjusting these. While you are not going to dj with these, they are comfortable for normal listening sessions at work. I have never had to remove these due to fatigue of head or ears (though as I mentioned these are currently used in a quiet office environment).
The sound on these really is quite good. The lows reach deep and are pretty quick. The mids do not disappoint, and the highs are not overbearing. They will teach you how good sound can be coming from a couple magnets strapped to your head. And from there you will begin to wonder what else there is that you are missing. The answer is, plenty. But its gonna cost you. For beginners wondering what all the fuss is about, pick these up.
Pros:
- Price. At $35 these aren't exactly spendy.
- Decent sound. Good extension low and high. Plenty of volume, even on my phone, no amp.
- Single-sided cable entry. Enters left earcup. (L and R marked on cups.)
- Long, thick cable. (This is not a portable, so this is a plus.)
- Metal headband components. Feels nice and durable.
- Moddable. I have not done this, but understand these are great to get your feet wet in modding.
Cons:
- Freaking humongous. I mean really. Long cord, big cups, large headband. (Though you can see from my ranking that I did not factor this in much.)
- Fixed cable. I prefer removable cables as accidentally rolling over cords often occurs for me.
Now the question, when these fail/disappear will I repurchase? Not sure I would. As this is my office pair, I would likely shell out the extra $20 for the JVC HA-RX900 and see how I like those. (I could not audition these before purchase and was unsure if I wanted to spend 60% more and get the the 900s. Knowing now, I would probably just spend the extra $20.) But for those of you wondering if sound reproduction gets any better than your stock ipod ear buds, try these out. (Do not blame me if you realize you want to try the $200 V-MODAs in a couple months, though.)