These headphones are a steal for the msrp price (don't mind that I got a killer deal).
I haven't heard any headphone come close to achieving the textures achieved by the PSBs. The chunkiness of Ska guitar, the ring of brass, the resonance of string orchestras, etc. These headphones handle a large number of music genres with ease. They also miraculously make lossy format music bearable to listen to. Female vocals kill it with these headphones,and despite being a bit on the warm side, there isn't any bass bleeding into the mids. Treble is present, clear, almost bright but not quite, and never sibilant. Mids seem a bit forward, but not to the point of drowning out the bass or treble. The detail and imaging are there, despite the small-ish sound stage (in general, for a closed-back these have a decent sound stage). I used to use these as my "go-to" headphones for everything, and when I was jacked into my PC, people could scare the dickens out of me by walking up to my on my workstation. I took these on plane rides with positive results considering there isn't active noise cancelling.
However, they aren't perfect. I find the ear cups a bit small, and they feel a bit uncomfortable after some time. You also feel the weight of the headphones after an extended listening session. After having listened to AKG open-backs, I've spoiled myself on sound stage. This also opened a can of worms for me, as the sound stage on the PSBs are a bit small for my taste now. You could definitely see this shortcoming in gaming, and as such, I couldn't recommend it for that purpose. The bass is solid, and as someone sensitive to boomy bass, I really like PSB bass. However, it does lack the extension and impact that some of my other cans have. This last point is a minor, as it's a fine line between good impact and boomy for me, and the PSBs are on the safe side of that equation.
Overall, great headphones. Not something I'd recommend for a bike ride or exercise in general, but amazing for travel and home listening.
I haven't heard any headphone come close to achieving the textures achieved by the PSBs. The chunkiness of Ska guitar, the ring of brass, the resonance of string orchestras, etc. These headphones handle a large number of music genres with ease. They also miraculously make lossy format music bearable to listen to. Female vocals kill it with these headphones,and despite being a bit on the warm side, there isn't any bass bleeding into the mids. Treble is present, clear, almost bright but not quite, and never sibilant. Mids seem a bit forward, but not to the point of drowning out the bass or treble. The detail and imaging are there, despite the small-ish sound stage (in general, for a closed-back these have a decent sound stage). I used to use these as my "go-to" headphones for everything, and when I was jacked into my PC, people could scare the dickens out of me by walking up to my on my workstation. I took these on plane rides with positive results considering there isn't active noise cancelling.
However, they aren't perfect. I find the ear cups a bit small, and they feel a bit uncomfortable after some time. You also feel the weight of the headphones after an extended listening session. After having listened to AKG open-backs, I've spoiled myself on sound stage. This also opened a can of worms for me, as the sound stage on the PSBs are a bit small for my taste now. You could definitely see this shortcoming in gaming, and as such, I couldn't recommend it for that purpose. The bass is solid, and as someone sensitive to boomy bass, I really like PSB bass. However, it does lack the extension and impact that some of my other cans have. This last point is a minor, as it's a fine line between good impact and boomy for me, and the PSBs are on the safe side of that equation.
Overall, great headphones. Not something I'd recommend for a bike ride or exercise in general, but amazing for travel and home listening.
