Another update. I picked up a pair of Creative Aurvana DJ (they seem to be the same as the old Creative Aurvana Live headphones, but with stainless steel backing and supposedly better isolation). Definitely good headphones but clearly inferior to the Monoprice 8323 in pretty much every way. More...

Late addition to this thread. I have the JVC HA-S400 and these Monoprice 8323. I have to say I prefer the Monoprice to the JVC, decisively. I haven't tried the S500 so I don't know if they're significantly superior or not. The JVC definitely have a number of things going for them, they seem to...

On second thought, the Aurvana Live reportedly have poor isolation, so they're not likely to work for my purpose... sigh.

(By "sound promising" I mean in the reviews here and elsewhere. But, where to try them?)

It was one of the V-Moda Crossfade models, but I'm not sure exactly which one. Probably the LP2. It was okay, but just didn't "wow" me --- I don't remember exactly what it was about them I didn't like, but I put them on with my Hifiman and it was just "meh". They also had a $300 pair of...

I went ahead and got the Monoprice 8323, just for the heck of it --- I mean, for $24 they're practically free, anyway, just like these JVC S400's. As others have noted above, they're not audiophile grade, and in many ways the S400 is superior in the mid-range... but I'd say the 8323 has a more...

I got these JVC HA-S400's based on the reviews here and elsewhere. I have a fair amount of experience with audiophile equipment at the low-middle end when it comes to speakers and amps, but I'm new to audiophile-grade headphones (I had some fairly high-end Sennheiser headphones years ago, but I...

I just got this -- astoundingly good sound for very cheap. Some comments about the noise floor: the line output is MUCH cleaner in terms of noise than the headphone output. It is quite possible to listen to this using the line output. But much of this is due to the isolation or lack thereof of...

Apologies if this question has already been answered --- I read a bunch of this thread but it is so long!     I gather that with some combination of lightning-to-USB or CCK plus cable it is possible to run the HRT Microstreamer directly off the iPhone 5 or 5S using bus power. My question is...