Just out of the box with a cheap Radeon mainboard PC output Iam impressed with the sound quality.
At these same conditions my others vintage phones are awfull in every item and unlistenable.
After listening an hour of Barbara Dannerlein, ambient music and chinese vocal jazz my initial impressions are very positive:
The bass are firm, strong, articulated and velvety, how a bass string are hit are audible as a individual sound, not how a cloud of notes.
The midbass also good with a feeling of tube harmonics or Alnico.
The treble are a doubt to me, I not confident to say anything due short listening experience so far, but the HD650 may be sweeter, but I may wrong.
Can be listening a room ambience or studio effects if it is the case.
Soundstage are big, but not huge, I would say it is aroud 1 metre large with the Beyound the Portal CD , not inside the head as some phones.
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Portal-Padilla/dp/B001NY4WXI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1390273853&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+the+portalThis soundstage are located over the height of the forehead up, not in the mouth area nose.
Image are good, the instruments can be followed easily, the bass guitar and drums can be listened as various musical notes, not one note bass.
The overall sound is definitely planar with a nice signature of harmonics, it reminds me of the Carver Amazing not Maggie or ML, which are good.
Phones weight are not a prob, the confort are excellent and the ear fit all inside the round pads which are the factory fitted eco black leather and are very soft and confortable, the individual drivers cables are 3 metres, its too long for HiFi use.
The drivers connectors deserve care though.
It is a great value, a bargain at just $299 at even at the regular price.
The manual inform the breakin are 150 hours but not in loud SPL.
I could not listen more these days due the high temperatures we are suffering due constant chem trails attacks:
Regards
