Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In this household, we care a lot about sound quality. We're spoiled with great 2 channel stereos. For headphones I listen to Grado headphones, at least until they finally broke down. Recently we found ourselves surrounded by headphones. So, in a headphone shootout here at home, two kids, two adults we came to this conclusion. $200 Beats (paid $70 black Friday sale price): 1/4 picked as fav. (the teen) $120 Bose: 1/4 picked as fav. (the mom) $10 Sony: 2/4 picked as fav. (the audiophiles, dad and 10 year old) $20 Apple earbuds 0/4 picked as fav. (universally hated) We listened to uncompressed rock over an iPod shuffle, or Youtube. These "giant killer" Sony phones have a clear, detailed, open sound. Meaning that the music don't sound cluttered between your ears, it seems to extend to around your head. Bass has real detail: you can hear the note, the reverb and the string pluck. For bass, these beat the Bose and Beats, with ease. Also, unlike Beats, you can actually hear people talk to you when you have these on. Not everybody in my family thought these were the best sounding though, my wife preferred the Bose. The low point: they aren't as super comfortable as the Bose. Everybody agrees the Bose are the super comfy pair. Technically, these were not the loudest, but they were plenty loud enough!