I'm a Film student and the HD280's are really great for the midrange and good for editing dialog / "scene" sound. That's why I bought them.
Musically, and maybe this is because they're closed, but compared to some AKG K701's I'm borrowing, they just don't have the soundstage that I like. They -do- do the low-end / lower-mid "better" than the K701's in my opinion though.
It all depends what you are comparing against and the purpose for which they are being used. They are good for a slew of isolating/analyzing type activities. They are fairly neutral (with classical music anyway). But there are clearly better cans to be had. In any case, you won't find concensus on any other can either, so why this one! The biggest problem people seem to have is that the 280s are a tight fit on some heads.
The 280s were my first 'expensive' can, and I still own them. But I use them more as a backup now that I have the HD580. Against these, well, let's just say the 580s trounce it across the board.
Awful headphones? Sorry, that's bs. They can be had for less than $100. And they are second to none in isolation (as far as full-size cans go). Of course, for many people the isolation also means lack of comfort (not me and I have pretty big ears, which sometimes make it difficult to make the HD280 truly circumaural, but it's still quite comfortable
). Sound-wise, well, nobody's saying they're the best phones ever, but considering the price they're quite decent. And, I don't think they have any clear deficiencies in sound, which is important. They are flat, balanced and (contrary to what many might say) the bass extends quite low.
And there's also the issue with cracking headband - I've had mine for 1 year and it doesn't happen, but a lot of people are experiencing it so there definitely is a problem - if it a dealbreaker is a very subjective matter.
For the price you can probably buy open cans with significantly higher SQ (and maybe also some closed ones - D1001 etc.), but if you want isolation you can do much worse than pick up these.
I just skewed the results to one more in favor for these.
They're designed for the professional environment, folks. Just like most of you would not like any professional nearfield monitors to casually listen to music, and just like people who work in pro audio would not mix with a set of Bose speakers either (the HD280 Pro does not provide a "hyped" response, they are more neutral and help hear things happening in the middle to upper frequencies as someone above already mentioned).
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