When you go to the concert hall, the bass doesn't tend to overwhelm you...it gets kind of dissipated throughout the hall. Thus, when you listen to classical music recordings through headphones (or speakers, for that matter) and the bass overwhelms you, it may be quite exciting, but it is not real life (i.e., the sound is colored or exaggerated...it becomes a caricature of the intended sound). What the HD800 does is make the music sound as close to real life as possible (at least music that has not been artificially amplified). Thus, when people find the HD800s lacking in bass, it means (at least to me) that they want their headphones to be on the south side of neutral to get the thrill of the thumping bass...even if it isn't so in real life. The T1 is wonderful for classical, but you may like the Audeze LCD-XC even better (i.e., this is the Audeze headphone for people who hate the Audeze house sound!).