In conclusion, these are very, very nice headphones, in my opinion, for a stay-at-home user who wants a closed-back headphone for the purposes of isolation, while at the same time not wanting to sacrifice TOO much of the soundstage and imaging achieved by good open-backed headphones. They have quite nice clarity, and great detail through the bass, mids, and low-treble. The overall signature is very slightly warm, but can be tuned (YAY!) to be neutral through the bass and mids if desired, and has roll-off in the treble which starts to become quite audible around 8Khz due to the constraints of planar-magnetic driver technology. And while not sacrificing the aforementioned detail and clarity, these are also very very FUN and dynamic sounding headphones, and invariably make me want to start tapping my foot to the beat of the music. Finally, these are very very comfortable as long as they are not too heavy for a person.
So, the biggest points against these headphones would be: the aforementioned treble roll-off (although keep in mind that below 8Khz the treble is very good, and it is always smooth and non-fatiguing. . .personally, I prefer a rolled-off non-fatiguing treble rather than treble which is strident and piercing in an attempt to sound more detailed), the weight (for some folks, but not for me), and the looks which are simply dorky-as-heck:p
So, do I think these headphones are worth spending $500 on? Definitely. Will I be buying a pair of either these or the Alpha Primes for myself someday, after experiencing them as a loaner? Oh yes, yes I will, definitely. I've pretty much reached the conclusion that these are what I have always been looking for in stay-at-home headphones, and they or the Alpha Primes will almost surely be all I'll ever need (at least for a long long time) in that regard, once I can afford a pair myself. My search for stay-at-home cans is over, and now I only need to find the "perfect portables" and my "ideal IEM's" to one day complete my collection.