Maybe you should get your hearing checked; immediately!!!

You found them at a friend's place? I would feel dirty knowing you were even near my headphones, let alone touching them.

I second the getting the hearing checked. I own the ATH-M50s and I most of the time would prefer to use these unless I need the sound isolation.

Short cable? This review is a complete joke. A bad one at that.

I listened to about 20 models of Sennheiser's, PSB's, B&W's and others , too many to mention. I was going to buy the Beyerdynamic BT 1350's($350.00 Cdn. dolars)...until I listened to the Grado Sr 100i's at around $125.00 (Cdn.) The sound was better than anything I listened to. I eventually bought the Grado 225i's at @260.00 (Cdn). I get that they fall short in the fancy build department. They clearly put all of the money into achieving the best sound possible. I don't understand how you knock the sound of these headphones. For me, these Grado's with the open design come as close as you can to feeling like you are listening to your stereo without cans on. I have recommended them to friends who also have fallen in love with the sound.

I forgot to mention:
1. The headphones (Grado Sr 225i) are around $200.00 in the U.S.. They actually retail for $300.00 in Canada. The salesman told me that they cost $100.00 more in Canada as Grado sells them via a distributor. So, not selling them directly from Grado to my audio shop adds one more cog who needs to get a cut on each pair. That's my main gripe with Grado. To top it off, you can circumvent this setup and order them from the U.S....but the problem with that is that Grado will not honor the warranty if you buy them from the U.S.. Everything to do with audio is more expensive in Canada. It doesn't make sense, as the Canadian and the U.S. dollar are valued equally right now. Furthermore, a 50% markup from $200.00 to $300.00 is not even close to being reasonable. The guy at my audio shop gave me a bit of a deal. He also forgot to add on the $20.00 for the adapter I purchased. When I told him they were not on the bill, he said "they are on the house then". So, I can listen to my I pod with the headphones with the adapter. If you happen to live in Canada, I would suggest buying them from a U.S. distributor online and saving the money. Two of my friends went to a different audio shop in Calgary, and the best deal they could get was $280.00 + tax - and that did not include the $20.00 adapter you need to listen to your I pod. Next time I would order them from the U.S., because they are built well. Nothing is going to happen to them in the 1 year warrantee period 99% of the time.