so could we describe these as sounding like headphones on steroids?

I am not sure that I understand what you are saying exactly. If you mean they sound like standard earbuds on steroids I guess you could say that. They have a higher quality of sound then the earbuds but also have a more bloated bass. Hope this answers your question.

really not bad for a first review though you did give them 4 stars in sound and based on what you said it sounds like they would be getting maybe 3 stars in sound haha But yeah... very readable, not too much audiophile vocab" which really doesn't help sometimes lol