First off, this is my first real pair of "audiophile" headphones. After about of year of research I came upon massdrop and these beauties, all black, Austrian design, and legacy of great open backs to back it up, for only 200$! I can very much get behind this. Although I was disappointed to hear that it was being produced in china instead of glorious Austria, the pros to this over the k712 and the k702 seemed pretty great. The new headband, the slightly altered drivers, etc. It all seemed like a great deal, so I went with it, and boy oh boy was it the right choice. These cans are amazing. First off is the comfort. It uses the elastics attached to the headband to make it seem weightless on your head, that coupled with the memory foam velour ear pads make these incredibly comfortable. Alright onto the sound!
 
Serj tankian "fish don't scream"
This song is kind of my standard for bass because its very well recorded and starts out with a bass intro, the bass sounded clear and loud but not overpowering or boomy like some bass head cans, I personally love the bass on these but they definitely aren't for people looking for a strong or imposing bass. Other than that the other instruments sounded great, the piano was clear and sounded similar to being in a room with a piano, I think what I found with these headphones is everything sounded exactly as it should.
 
SOAD......all of it..........I tend to really like this band
The first thing I noticed was the guitar sound, I could hear not only the sound of the guitar coming through the amp but also the sound of the guitar being played, strings being pressed against frets, picks strumming the strings, similar to how being in a room with a guitarist would sound. The drums had a nice oomph to them which was great, it reminded me of the drum sound I got when listening to a large speaker system rather than a pair of headphones. Its really a great sounding pair of headphones. The bass on tracks like Mr. Jack sounded clear and precise whereas on tracks like Streamline the bass sounded heavy and distorted giving each track its own unique tone instead of muddying all bass tones together.
 
Infected mushroom "friends on mushrooms"
I actually really like these headphones for infected mushroom because they make it easier to differentiate live bass from synth bass, one of the pros of EDM is if the track is programmed to sound open it will sound very open with these headphones. A lot of these tracks take advantage of the large soundstage these headphones have. These headphones definitely weren't designed with EDM as an intention but they do a good job so bravo to AKG
 
Miles Davis "kind of blue"
Bass sounds incredible, especially for something recorded decades ago. You can hear the bass throughout the track even as more instruments are layered on. Although it doesn't sound quite as clear and precise as Serj tankians "Jazziz Christ" I believe that has more to do with 60 years in technological advancements in recording equipment. The brass sounded wonderful and yet again just reminds me of being in a room with the instrument, a very large, open, room. I've listened to lots of closed backs and something about these headphones is different, it feels a lot closer to listening through a large speaker set in a big open room and less like listening to a pair of headphones, yet at the same time it gives the very immersive feeling of listening through headphones.
 
Jaco Pastorius
Just bass and piano galore, the harmonics sound incredible and the piano is beautiful and clear.
 
Lara Ruggles "snowflake"
Now I admit, I only have this track because it came with my DAP (sony NWZA17, wow they have got to come up with easier names), however, after listening to the track many times I'm probably going to end up getting the full album. The piano is perfect, it is absolutely perfect. Crystal clear, amazing sound, it's just beautiful. The vocals rang, there was power in her voice, you could hear all the slight nuances and subtleties that go with each individuals unique voice.
 
Okay I've rambled enough and I'm running out of adjectives in my active vocabulary to describe sound so I'm gonna end it here. These are absolutely fantastic headphones, I love the sound signature and the huge soundstage, these are super open and just sound beautiful with whatever you listen to (note: bad source=bad sound, you put good in, you get good out, I wouldn't recommend any sound files below 320Kbps, and I also wouldn't recommend generally poorly recorded albums, so maybe old punk fans wouldn't like it, it catches all the imperfections so just beware). I love these headphones and can't get enough of them, I've even been sleeping with them on sometimes (I guess thats a statement to their comfort). They're just amazing and for 200$ I cannot emphasize enough how much of a must buy they are. 

This is my first review and I'm mainly writing it because the headphones are lying right next to me and I've been getting into the whole "audiophile" thing recently (though I don't currently have the money to go crazy with the really serious cans). These replaced a pair of DJ headphones I had gotten on the suggestion of my bass teacher a while back and it sent me into a couple months of research on headphones and stats and reviews and all sorts of nonsense that distracted me from my school work. These aviators thoroughly surprised me. As a pair of skull candies I expected an unbalanced bass head pair of headphones meant purely for looks. They do look good, and because of their design they feel very durable. The frame never feels fragile and has maintained its shape perfectly especially considering that I usually keep it in a backpack with some heavy books and such.
 
These headphones sound pretty good. The treble is nice and stands out which is the opposite of what my earlier headphones were. It stood out but wasn't ear piercingly sharp. I think part of the treble standing out did come from the complete lack of bass. I listen to quite a lot of music so these were put through the wringer.
 
I used "fish don't scream" by Serj Tankian to really test the bass sound and instrumental separation.
-the bass was incredibly lacking especially when compared to the Sennheiser HD518s or the AKG K7xx (way out of price range but its the other pair I have so its the pair that I can best compare to)
-the bass wasnt very clear or impressive and just doesnt sound as good as the HD518s which, for a cheaper pair of headphones, had a much clearer bass sound that really sounded like a stand up bass.
 
I used "at the edge of time" and "a night at the opera" by Blind Guardian to see how they preformed with large and impressive bands.
-Again the highs are pretty good but the lows lack, especially when compared to headphones like the ATH M50Xs that just have great bass (you may start to notice a pattern that the bass on these things isn't so good)
 
I used every single SOAD song to see how they did with modern metal songs. 
-the guitar riffs were great, the separate vocals could easily be differentiated from one another and didn't blur together, the percussion sounded great and even the intro to ariels sounded wonderful so bravo to these cans for making my favorite band continue to sound amazing.
 
I used "friends on mushrooms" by infected mushroom to see how they did with some energetic and heavy EDM.
-shrill highs of electronic music sounded great but not ear piercing or overly sharp
 
I even used some of the bastion soundtrack (which I highly recommend listening to) to listen to how it sounded with more interesting instruments.
-These headphones actually separated the wide variety of instruments used in the bastion OST surprisingly well. The cellos stood out nicely and the varying percussion all sounded unique and apart from each other. Most importantly the varying high string instruments such as banjo, mandolin, etc. were all separated instead of being muddied together.
 
 
Over all its actually a pretty great headphone, I've listened to all sorts of genres and bands from Viza and Darren Korb to Infected mushroom and Pendulum to Powerwolf and Blind guardian all the way to Techn9ne and OFWGKTA and it all sounds pretty good. I'd say a really weak genre for these would be jazz and old blues, the bass simply isn't good enough for genres that so often have such prevalent bass parts. Would definitely recommend these for the price, especially if you aren't a bass head, a decent equalizer can somewhat remedy the bass issue so if you have a equalizer on whatever device you use then these would be perfect. For their price they're a great pair, sadly once you move on you wont want to look back, its frighteningly easy to hear the lack of bass on a good jazz track if you're going from the HD518s back to the Aviators.
 
Sorry if I tend to ramble a bit, its my first review and I don't really know what I'm doing, I just like a good sounding pair of headphones and a lot of music so I thought I'd bring some interesting taste to this forum.