Meh. I somewhat disagree. The design and build quality alone warrant the higher price tag, but I do agree if you can find them sub $200 grab them! Read below about making the MOE's mids shine.
That is why I keep pushing for iOS users to download Accudio and apply the MOE settings. What you just described is what GoldenEars did to balance the MOE. Kudos to you for essentially nailing it. I agree 100%;
when balanced the MOE are a whole new animal and sound (more) amazing.
Un-EQ'ed I think these are pretty bad, waaaay to much bass, and the mids are way too distant. Kind of reminds me of the Klipsch S4 in ear monitors but without the harshness in the treble. Marketed to the mass public, they may be fine, but for us "audiophiles" or "audio enthusiasts" they are not voiced correctly. The design is awesome and the comfort is good. I don't have an IOS device, so I can't say anything for Accudio, but if it pretty much does the same thing as my EQ changes, then it should make these sound pretty close to neutral or at least a whole lot closer. They at least sound "natural" now. I'm not sure I'd want a flat sounding headphone for portable use anyway. This is close enough that when I go home and listen to the same songs on my speakers at home it still sounds like the same song.
After my EQ changes, the bass sounds nice and tight and punchy, but still digs deep when there is deep bass present in the recording. The sub-bass on these is great, but the overall bass is no longer overblown. At least they were tuned to have huge, but linear bass. It could have been much worse and had a huge mid-bass hump, but this is not the case. The response from about 125hz and lower all the way down as a whole is just too much, but I think it's a lot easier to compensate for this than it would be for a massive mid-bass hump or spike. After my EQ there is still plenty of ample clean linear bass response.
With my settings the mids still may be back a bit from neutral, but that helps to give these some soundstage depth and it helps them to not be fatiguing. Vocals no longer sound a mile away anymore though. Guitars in metal sound nice and crunchy now as well. The cut I made at 7-8Khz helps to reduce some nastyness there as well.
On the top end I still give them another 3dB from 10Khz and up for some added sparkle. Overall I think they actually sound very detailed now. They are good at low to moderate volume levels.
Again, if I had no way to EQ these they would be getting returned, but after playing with EQ a bit I have them sounding just the way I want them. I am happy for the $130 I spent on them. I can't say how thrilled I am to have a truly portable headphone, one that doesn't need any additional amplification other than what my Galaxy S4 provides. I think the fact that I am cutting the bass helps with headroom. When amps run out of juice the bass is usually the culprit, with these being sensitive in the bass, I think that actually helps.
