Let me express my opinion even though you've already made your decision. I bought mine from Massdrop about 1.5 years ago. I also have the terrific Philips Fidelio X2 open headphone. Honestly, these are my go-to headphones. I use these the most for their fantastic balance, privacy, and listening enjoyment. The value is just off the charts and they really do get better with time--like fine wine. Additionally, I just auditioned these against the new, fresh out of the box, Beyerdynamic DT-1770's with Tesla technology. How did they fare against the more expensive and more capable Beyer's? Actually, better than you'd think. I was close! Yes, the 553's were bested in smoothness, but not frequency range, or dynamics, or even clarity--just a whisper of "graininess" was evident by comparison. The Beyer's will cost you an additional $500. And the Beyer's don't fold up. Enjoy!....but give them plenty of time to sweeten up. Don't be in a hurry. This is going to be a long-term relationship.
