Denon AHD2000

Pros: Great range, no distortion, comfortable, solid bass and sparkly highs

Cons: Too big for my taste, super-duper thick wire, no noise-cancellation

Summary: I have a good ear and I've listened to everything. Bose, Shure, you name it. My house is crawling with speakers. I'm a sound quality fanatic. I'm coming from Shure E2C Earbuds as my primary portable audio source, fantastic little things in a small package, and I thought that those would be the best sound I should ever hear. Until of course, I came across these cans, which United Airlines gave me for free in exchange for 30,000 airmiles

The headphones are silky soft and a dream to wear. For their size they're very light and the cushy leather cups fit snuggly over your ears. You put them on, play some tunes, and you can just close your eyes and you'll forget where you are. The sound stage is that incredibly realistic. The bass is solid, punchy, and NEVER MUDDY; it never blocks out your trebles or vocals, nothing is compromised. Just rich sound. The rumbling of cinematic soundtracks (Perfect Storm, Gladiator) comes through deep and rich, never cloudy and mushy. Highs are also unbelievably ringy dingy and rich. It's almost as if you can hear every little hair hitting a drum, ever little rattle of a shaker crystal clear. My music, whether it's in 64/128 kbps MP3s or CDs or Super HD quality, all comes to life with these cans. And it's not even only the super dynamic, soft'n'soothin stuff that sounds great, either. Even the modern-day punkier tunes (MCR, FOB) make me melt in my seat. Every layer of Gerard's vocal harmonies and guitar riffs are well-defined.

Movies are a pleasure to watch with these babies. Dialogue is powerful and dramatic - now you can hear every little breath the actors take, every little creak of the ship in Pirates. Explosions and shattering glass have never been so joyful and pleasant to hear

pair these with a little CSS, Halo, Half-Life 2, and you'll never play games the same way again either. Bullets whizz right past your head, as if to brush through your hair. Shots are crystal clear, explosions rattle the vicinity, and with a good sound card, the sound positioning can be so accurate you'll hear your enemy sneaking up to you before they even notice your existence.

A few problems - the wire is GIMONGUS. A mile long, and an inch thick. ALMOST.

Also, these do not feature noise-cancellation, so they don't match up to the Bose experience when it comes to an airplane ride.

These seriously beat anything I've ever heard. I swear it. They beat my Shures, my Bose speaker systems (both of them). Well - I AM getting myself a Companion 3 Series II ^ ^ and we'll see how those compare, but as far as portable listening goes, look no further than the Denon AH-D2000s.

FYI - I pair these with my Samsung YP-K5 MP3 player and my Creative X-Fi Xtremegamer sound card.