I actually got to play Santa at work and get these for a coworker because of good performance on his part. He was cool enough to let me listen for a while and I really liked the sound. I've never heard an open-back design before and I really liked it.   So I listened to some Heather Nova and heard a loop in Ruby Red that I had never noticed before. It was pretty obvious. I played other stuff too and all the music had more distinct layers than I'm used to. I've got some good AKGs and I've heard the layering that the NuForce Icon HD brought to...

I didn't know things could be this good. Considering the criticism of NuForce, particularly around their uDac2, I doubted if they could make something good. I plugged my AKG's into this unit and the sound was wide and brilliantly detailed. The bass was alive and fantastic. The clarity was amazing. Nothing drowned out anything else (i.e. no bass wiping its snot all over the lower mids). I couldn't believe what I was hearing.   I played all kinds of stuff through this. I think I actually like piano music now because of this thing. I can feal the...

Keep in mind that my star rating is weighted against price, and I'm reviewing the uDac2-HP. It sounds just like my laptop's out even though there are legitimate reasons to expect it not to. There's a sense of quality to the unit and its volume knob from their feel but the USB cable that came with it is poking wires out of the plastic shroud. Lame-o. I have another cable hanging around that I used instead.   Anyway, I like the sound well enough despite its supposedly massive shortcomings that others talk about. It isn't spacious like the Icon HD...

These things hurt my ear canal too easily unless I use the orange foam inserts, but they get gross and deform a little too easily.   Anyway, the sound on these was good enough for me to realize that my iPod had a pretty constant hiss. They also made it apparant that I could only listen with EQ off or the signal would clip. I never listen to these things with the volume up. I'm a quiet listener so I don't lose my hearing, and the iPod's shortcoming became very apparant. So I rated them quite good at first and told people how much I liked them...

They're not hard to drive, they isolate the environment well, and they are the best phones I've heard so far.   They are lean on bass until you plug them into a good amp. I tried them with a NuForce Icon HD and they sounded so unbelievably detailed and pleasant with strong bass, clarity through the entire range, spacious sound stage, and clear yet unhard trble. I was blown away at how good these things really are.   I usually just monitor voice-over straight from the monitor port and these are fantastic in that arrangement because without an...