Considering ten years of wear and tear, these phones are in great shape, they don't even distort at low volumes! The Treble is upfront, but not fatiguing, the mids are clear. The bass is a little thick, but an eq fixes that. The open back design give these sound an incredible sound stage. Sometimes I plug them into my amp, put the speakers on, and pretend I'm at a concert. It would work if not for how uncomfortable they are. The pads are plastic, with very litle actual padding. The headband has a fabric hanging off it, but no real padding. The phones are mostly held up by the user's ears then the users head. The adjustable headband is very smooth, so you can find the sweet spot, but its a pain. As far as amping these headphones go, its fairly easy. I have found they really shine through any speaker amplifier's headphone jack. Ipods are a no go. I have found that they work fine with the Fiio E6, and they don't drain much of the battery. Overall these are a great Hi-Fi headphone. I have also used them on long carrides, and for watching movies on my computer. They are not very good for portable use, and you might look stupid anyhow, cause the cans are very thick. Even when I had very long and think hair, they were a litte too big. I gave an overall rating of 4, because the sound quality was very good, and they are probably comprable to some 150 dollar heaphones on the market today. They may not have any new technology in them, but thats a nice change, because its so simple. You just plug it into your amp and enjoy. If you could find these heaphones for anything less than 100 dollars, you should go right for it. Again this was a review for the HD 525 not the 535, because Head-Fi doesn't have the 525s listed at the moment, and I thougt this would be easier. (Side note: I may have gotten these for free, as a birthday present, but they originally retailed for around $100)
