I just bought a pair yesterday so they are not even broken in yet. But I did spend quite a bit of time down at 32 Ohm Audio (Portland) with the demo sets. I went in specifically looking for a pair of sub-$100 phones striclty for portable thrashing around. I have to assume the all the demo sets on the wall are fairly broken in. And I demoed straight off an Ipod just like I intend to use them.
Compared to everything else in this range these were my favorites. Nice tight bass that I felt was pretty well controlled. Maybe slightly rolled off at the top but to me that also means less sibilance. I am very sensitive to sibilance, in part I think due to a long career in woodworking with routers, saws, and such. The mids I found very accurate, i.e. my attention wasn't drawn to that band as either deficient or pronounced. All in all very smooth sounding to my ears.
Pretty dang comfortable for a inexpensive supra-aural's, I much prefer circum-aural but for the intended use I was willing to compromise. I did have a couple of choices in the full size but at that price range none of them sounded as good as the Eskuche's.
Some of the others I was trying included the Ultrasone HFI-450's which were my 2nd choice, stronger bass but a little bloated in comparison and while seemed to go a little higher more sibilant. The Grado 60's and 80's just seemed to shriek at me after the Eskuche's and I understand the Grado sound even though I find them very forward. There were a couple Sony's (can't remember the models) that just didn't do a thing for me. And some Senn's (again can't remember mod's) that were good but didn't sound as natural.
At this price range ($58 out the door) I wasn't expecting a lot. And 32 Ohm is a headphone "boutique" with some very nice gear and they did a very good job of selecting a line up in this price range. Got to love a store you can go in and demo everything from $29 earbuds up to the TOTL Denons, Grado's , and Senn's (no Beyer's though?). But I am very satisfied with the Eskuche's so far and am pretty impressed for a "lifestyle" headphone.
After getting home I put them on a SS receiver and let them run for about 8 hrs while I was out. Got home plugged them into my Ipod and re-listened. Yep, everything I remembered from the store. Then I made the mistake of firing up my home rig, Beyer DT-880's driven by an ASL OTL amp. No comparison, bigger than life real sound. After about an hour I went back to the Ipod and Eskuche's and they weren't shamed. I knew I was listening to portable phones but they still sounded decent.
Disclaimer: for the price I am aware that I could've got some in-ear's with good sound but I personally cannot stand ear-buds or IEM's. They just irritate me.
Anyway I know this is an old thread but thought I would ad my 2 cents for anyone doing a search on the Eskuche 33 1/3 phones.
