Ive read about 1000 reviews before purchasing the Grado sr80i- been listening to them for about 5 hours now...and they are PERFECT! The bass is there, BUT if you want it to REALLY PUNCH, plug these babies into your amp. Without the amp, they are fine, they have nice tight, clean bass. As far as highs and mid tones, id say they are spot on. I do not need to use any sort of EQ with these, as they represent the music accurately and there is no need to distort....perhaps only a little bass boost since i prefer a nice boom to my bottom sound.....anyway if you have 100 bucks to spend and don't care about portability, GET THESE , STOP READING ALL REVIEWS AND JUST GET THEM you'll be more than happy. Oh...and...everyone says how these things leak sound...I don't think they leak any more sound than a regular closed back headphone would....they are fine in the car with people talking- with the volume up you can't hear anything so they tend to block out sound to some degree...its not like they TOTALLY lack this capability.........HIP HOP sounds superb....house/techno sounds awesome.....rock sounds good too....they are NOT ONLY for rock...EVERY genre will shine with these puppies............GET EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!