Marshall Audio Major II Headphones (Black)

TLDR
If you like the look of these and are willing to accept their limitations as portable headphones, you could to a lot worse than the Marshall Major II. This is especially true if you manage to get them for the 60-70$ that they are going for now. The only downsides are that are closed back phones, and that they compress some of the low mids due to the boosted bass that's ever so common in the "Beats-generation" headphones.
 
Long winded version
The headphones are made by Zound Industries. The company is responsible for making "fashion" headphones and do have a similar model to the Major II in the Urbanears Plattan II. The Major II is supposed to be tuned by the Marshall team however, and the two should have a different sound. I can't confirm this as I wasn't able to find any Plattan II's available for test anywhere near me. I did however test them against several other headphones and can say that the sound quality is above most portable headphones in this price range. 
 
I've had these headphones for a few days and have been quite pleased by their performance for the price. I've been comparing them against both some lower end Sony MDR-ZX300 (closed back, on ear, travel headphones), as well as ATH M50X(closed back, over the ear, bass heavy monitors) and AKG K240 headphones (1980's, semi-open, over the ear, very flat monitors). The audio equipment used was a PC with a Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 DAC (Cirrus Logic based) and sources used were FLAC files, mostly from CD/Vinyl rips.
 
Build and comfort
The phones are solid, though they look a bit fragile, due to the thin cables going to the headband, as well as the plastic hinges that allow the phones to be compacted. Despite this, they are flexible and don't make any horrible creaking noises that would indicate that the plastic is being stressed. At 6foot 4, I probably have an above average sized head and after the first day of stretching them out, they are comfortable even for longer periods of listening (2-3 hours). I should also mention that I wear glasses and I haven't found the Marshall's to cause any issues with that.
The finishes used appear to be built to last and there have been no obvious flaws with my particular unit.
The cable is ok. The coiled section is more aesthetic than anything else, the input L-jack has metal spring protection while the other end just has a normal plastic one. This will probably be the failure point of the cable, but at least you can replace it.
 
Special features
The headphones feature a replaceable cable that can be plugged into either the left or right side. The free jack can be used to daisy-chain another pair of headphones. Please note ideally a similar pair of headphones (same impedance) or ones with volume control should be used otherwise the users won't be able to listen to the music at normal volumes.
The provided cable includes a microphone and people have been telling me they quite like the sound of it, in fact they were surprised when I told them I was using a handsfree headset. There is also a single button for play/pause, previous/next, call/end call functions.
The Marshall Major II is collapsible but they don't come with a carry case, and their collapsed form doesn't take up much less space than normal.
 
Sound quality
After testing for more than 30 hours, I've noticed no burn-in whatsoever.
The Marshall Major II's provide a relatively balanced listening experience, though they do lean on the bass a bit much for my taste. This doesn't mean that they are meant for DnB or House music, in fact people wanting "basshead" headphones would probably be disappointed in these as they don't provide a robust enough low end for that kind of listening experience. 
They do emphasize the bass enough to give some warmth to rock/pop music, while not falling into the same trap as headphones like the Beats, that drown everything in bass. They do overemphasize it though, and this comes at the cost of separation and dynamism somewhere at the edge between the mid and low end.
Treble is not contoured and lacks sparkle, but this is not abnormal for this class of headphone.
 
VS Sony MDR-ZX 300: there's no contest, after listening to the Marshalls, the Sonys sound horrible. Mids and treble are muted, bass is muddy, everything sounds compressed on the MDR-ZX 300 by comparison.
VS Audio Tehnica ATH M50X: surprisingly close considering the difference in price. Pop/Rock sounds similar, with some songs even being helped here and there by the extra warmth provided in the low end by the Marshall phones. Lets just say I wouldn't want to do a blind test on any song, but the M50Xs do sometimes have a distinct advantage in clarity on both the low end and especially in the treble. This comes through best in classical music where they wipe the floor with the Major IIs. Soundstage is also different, though not dramatically so, with the Audio Tehnica 'phones having an edge in this area as well.
VS AKG K240 Monitor: again, there's no contest, the clarity and sound stage of open studio monitor headphones make for an unfair comparison. However, you have to take into account the fact that no phone/mp3 player could drive the K240s at anywhere the same volume as the Major IIs, so they are clearly meant for different applications.
 
Verdict
Overall they provide enough detail and clarity that they benefit from higher quality sound sources. Moving from the Sony MDR-ZX300s, I've found I needed to replace the mp3s on my phone with FLACs as the compression came through pretty clearly on these. If you listen to the kinds of music for which they're optimized (pop/rock/jazz/reggae) and stay away from things that require better definition or bass response (classical/DnB), the Marshall Major II could be just the ticket.