I've been listening to these for a while. These are a great pair of headphones! Nice warm and detailed. Very transparent and balanced. Out of the box, bass was flabby and out of control. But after an hour of listening, they started to tighten up nicely. These have excellent separation of instruments. the $500 asking price when first released has gone down to around $300 and a little below due to them being discontinued. And I got them at a steal. If you have chance to find a pair snatch them...great addition to a nice audio rig.