This morning I got in the last pair of Kennerton Gjallarhorn GH50 JM Edition that Audio46 had in stock. Ignoring the pretty nice packaging, I want to dig straight into the headphones themselves.

I listened to a variety of music on these (classical, opera, rock, pop, hip-hop, dubstep) for about a couple hours. Many will say this is not enough time to really get a "feel" for headphones -- what with burn-in, etc. However there's no amount of burn-in that will fix the issues present in these headphones.

First let's talk about microphonics and isolation. When I'm looking at a pair of closed-back headphones, I'm looking to close my ears off from the outside world as much as possible -- within reason of course, since these aren't IEMs. Unfortunately the level of isolation is comparable to many semi-open headphones like the E-Mu Teaks I have sitting next to me. To make matters worse, both the stock cable and a nice 3rd-party cable I have transmit every single tiny rub and tap of the cable against my hoodie directly into my ears. This wasn't noticeable when I had the volume at ear-piercing levels, but any sort of casual listening levels led to constant interruption.

Now let's talk about sound quality. Another thing I expect from closed-back headphones is good bass impact. I want to /feel/ the bass, not just hear it. Unfortunately, these simply do not deliver. While there is good clarity and reproduction of most sound under ~300hz, it's just... thin. Again comparing to my E-Mu Teaks, the experience is substantially better in a $500 pair of headphones -- about 1/3 the price. On the other hand, vocals are stellar on the Gjallarhorns -- both male and female. That is until they're drowned out by the muddiest reproduction of mid-range percussion I've ever heard on a pair of headphones over $300. Snares have zero texture, and horn instruments sound like they're being played behind a shower curtain in an NYC apartment bathroom.

All that said... they're very comfortable, have a nice wide sound stage, and the pads are very roomy. But that's all I can say that's good about them.