Well I received mine today, here are a few notes I made - my ears are still very untrained and my musical knowledge is poor so this isn't going to be an accurate review. Think of it as a noob review.
I listened to a few songs: Wedding Dress by TaeYang, Star by Youmee, Tik Tok by Ke$ha, Omen by The Prodigy and Melt 3M Mix by Gazelle.
Here were my observations when compared with the XE200PRO and from what I remember of the TD-III (v1) (They broke hence I got the new headphones):
XE200PRO:
The vocals were quite dominant in most of the songs I listened to, especially in Wedding Dress and the highs were certainly prominant too, you could hear a lot of detail in the mids and highs and the sound was very clear and warm at the same time. These headphones sounded very nice for ballads but it probably had the lowest bass out of all the headphones. The cable is a sort of cloth weave cord type and it's a Y-cord headphone. Isolation is not as good as the TD-III but with the foam tips it was good enough, however I felt the seal was not as good as the TD-III and therefore the sound quality could be even better but it's already better than the TD-III in my opinion as the TD-III was just tiny bit muddy with it's bass and it was not as detailed as the XE200PRO, I can't remember which one is warmer or more coloured though.
XGF500PRO:
I was a bit disappointed when I first heard them as I immediately knew I preferred the sound of the XE200PRO, however, that's not a bad thing as I did not pay much for them. It's bass is quite punchy yet detailed, although it doesn't have as much bass as the TD-III, it has more bass than the XE200PRO. I feel the highs are less prominent than the XE200PRO and it sounds less warm, and perhaps "thinner", punchier, than the XE200PRO. The mids didn't seem as tight but it was also detailed and clean, but not as much as the XE200PRO but moreso than the TD-III. I feel the sound of these is a little like a mix of the TD-III with the XE200PRO but they're also unique at the same time. I noticed these seem to require more power to drive though and the flat cable is quite soft so I'm not sure on the quality of it, I don't think it'll break easily though. It does carry more microphonics than the XE200PRO but I noticed you could wear these over ear to lessen the microphonics.
I've decided to keep the XE200PRO but I'm sure the XGF500PRO will appeal to people. The RRP is definitely overrated though, I reckon these should either sit on the same price as the XE200PRO or a tad bit higher than the TD-III.
