ESS Laboratories ESS 252 Dynamic Driver Wood Chamber Headphones

Firstly, the Q&A from the seller/manufacturer indicates the earpads are "Lambskin"; they are not, the earpads are PU or "pleather".Secondly, they tape that sealed the box was already cut and open. Assuming this was someone else's return.Lastly, the sound...wow, it's bad, quite bad. There's another reviewer that said it sounds like coconut shells with a subwoofer and I'd say that's a fairly accurate statement. Not only that, but the bass is sloppy and relatively undefined. Mids? Highs? Didn't hear much there, as it's an extremely muffled sound. The description notes "mixing", "monitoring", "professional", and "audiophile" which cannot be further from the truth. They sound muffled with all bass, which is not even a good bass. I even tried running this balanced over my FiiO Q5s, and yeah, they sound the same...muffled and bassy.They look nice, feel nice, and are well built, but the drivers are horrible.

I (through my own stupidity) have lost a good bit of my hearing in the last three years. And because of that, the music that I love and listen to on a regular basis becomes jumbled and indistinguishable from itself. When I ordered these last week, I had no idea what I was getting into, and I can finally hear a lot of the things I had been missing for a long time. I definitely recommend these to anyone looking for a great set of headphones that won't destroy your wallet.

One sentence: These phones sound like two coconut shells with a woofer in each shell !!

so love theses I wear them all of the time feel great