[impaledface]

Alright I have had my hd 438s for about 5 months and they have held up beatifully. They have lasted being thrown in a plastic bag and put into a backpack and walking around campus. The sound quality definately requires a burn in. I would say the burn in is 40-60+ hours of play. When my skullcandies broke I researched a little and got the 438s.  I may be off but they do need some sort of burn in. Right know I would say comfort wise is GREAT the velour  is great on the ears and top of the head. It is circumural for my ears but on my friends they were just a little small and were superaural ( I think thats the term)so take that into consideration. Sound quality is nice. Right know I am listening to my friends grado sr-80s and can't tell much of a difference. The only differences is that the grados allow me to hear outside the headphones compared to the 438s. I also think its true that the 438s will get hot and sweaty after about 2hours or more. But comfort wise the sr-80s don't strike me as bad fitting. Right know listening to hammerfall or overkill both headphones are great. Sadly I am only using my ipod nano right know and the grados require a little less power to drive as other people have stated. The 438s I think are about 80 or 90 usd on amazon right know which I consider a great price. I have ran with the 438s at school and have done other aerobic exercises so they aren't to bad as that. Only problems is as stated above they may get a little hot. I chose this version of the 4xx series for the looks and the fact that they looked fairly durable. If you want to know how fast I went through headphones cheap $10 earbuds are about 2-3 months. skullcandy hesh are 1 month in back pack and these 438s have lasted 4 months oh ya and have been dropped from 5 ft

 but still work

. I would recommend the 438s to anyone wanting a durable upgrade to good large portable headphones. Right know I am listening to power metal, thrash metal, nu-metal, and other forms of metal. The only complaint is that they don't have a little sack to carry around these headphones included, but thats not a bad problem.
so wrap up the review
 
Sound= great bass not really overemphasis on bass like box says but takes along time to settle down. Treble great but if you pump up the overall volum to much you can hear a slight hiss. Remember tho very slight you have to look for it to hear it
 
Comfort= Very good they weigh nothing, no problems with comfort
 
Packaging= descent comes with 1/8-1/4 adapter to plug into amps
 
Design= I chose the rim inspired design I bet all the other headphones won't sound much different considering the close range of prices, but I may be wrong
 
Value= Very good would recommend to anyone
 
Also thinking between the hd438s vs the grados the grados have more of a pronounced mid-highs sound signature