I working in my room several times throught the whole night, and there is only a few ways to take me far from sleeping. One of it is music. But how can I hear it without frustrating all other people living in the same small flat?!I looked over, and tested several (at least 50) headphones from most of the known manufacturers (Sony, AKG, Technics etc.). And I found Sennheiser 565 Ovation as the best price/value, and the very best sounding headphone on the Hungarian (and probably the worldwide) market.
I listen to several kinds of music (mostly jazz, classic, jazz-funk, world music and sometimes other popular music). I found this headphone always the same experiencing as my Pioneer FX-1 tower (which has the EISA award for the 1998's Best micro component system in Europe). I didn't find any hard-copromise part of the unit (except the little fast broken cable at the connection point, but this can be fixed with a simple cable change).
All, who needs an all-purpose, low-priced and comfortable headphone, look for the Ovation!

Well balanced sound

Intermittent connector, wire going to both earpieces

I listened to this phone while seeking comfortable phones to use at work. Other options at the local store were Senn 500 and Beyerdynamics 931 (?).

I wasn't planning to use more than about 110$, but after having a bad experience with Senn 500, I had a very good discount for the last piece of 565's (about 150$) So I ended up buying them with a plan to use them at least for a following 10 years...

Sound is great! Bass is very controlled, maybe too weak for some people's taste, but it is easy to hear bass passages even when they are quiet. Midrange is balanced - vocalists sound "right", no nasal sound or on the other hand, muted quality. Star Wars soundtrack is especially impressive with big choirs and orchestras. Treble doesn't sting your ears until with higher volumes (I am somewhat sensitive to high frequencies). Hi-hats sound natural.

I would have wanted to compare these to more expensive Sennheisers, since the scale goes something like 545 - 565 - 580 - 600 (on older Senns). However, even these phones bring out the limitations of mp3's and my soundcard so well that I am considering buying a portable cd player for work. And yeah, my Dali 350 -speakers don't sound _so_good anymore...

The cord problem is fixable; I used a pin to bend those little metal springs without opening the phones (through the hole for the plug).

Recommeded for those who think 580 and 600 are too expensive models. The value rating is 5 because of the great discount...yours may be different) Overall rating is five (actually, four and a half) since the cord problem was easy to fix and since I haven't heard better sound reproduction yet...