JVCFull Sized Over Ear Headband Over Ear Full Size Headband Black (HARX330)

Wow!! Just received today. Don't know where to start. These are truly fantastic in every regard! I listen to all kinds of music and have owned expensive stereo systems in my car and home. This review concerns using the HA-RX500's listening to music through my PC. I am very particular about quality. I want to hear all the details in a piece of recorded music and want background parts at the right sound level in relation to the other instruments/vocals in a song. These headphones have AMAZING sound--not for $20--just amazing sound in their own right. I read a review that said they have better sound quality than a $120 pair of headphones, and I couldn't agree more. Sound is rich and full. Can hear all layers of all types of music. Bass is very impressive as are the highs, but what truly impressed me, and which I have found lacking in two other sets of headphones I recently ordered, is the quality of the mid-range sounds.The headphones are incredibly light-feeling on your head and the ear pads are soft and very, very comfortable. The long cord is absolutely no problem and looks and feels substantive, unlike some other cheap, very thin cords. They are excellent at outside sound dampening. I researched so many headphones for hours and bought a pair of JVC HAV-570 "Super Bass" headphones. Admittedly, they were only $13, but they had many of the same specs as the X500's, i.e., 40mm drivers, etc, but the sound on the X500'S is literally five times better, and this saying a lot, because I was mildly satisfied with the cheaper pair (which got four stars overall on Amazon). However, wanting more, I purchased a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M30 Professional Headphones through Amazon for $40. They lacked range and were tight and felt smothering when worn. They don't come close to the JVC X500 in sound quality. I returned them and was going to settle for the other JVC's until I saw these on Amazon).I am not an expert at describing what makes for high sound quality but I know that when someone says, when describing headphones, that they hear parts of songs they couldn't previously hear well with other headphones, that means something, if accurate. That description is absolutely true with these headphones. It's not so much you will hear sounds that you never heard at all, it is that you will hear instrumental parts and vocals (such as some back up vocals), much clearer and stronger than you hear them with other headphones. I must re-emphasize that the sound from these headphones is incredibly rich and full, especially if your system has a graphic equalizer that you can admust to your particular likes. You cannot go wrong with these headphones!! I am almost in disbelief that they cost only $18, seem solidly made, are extremely comfortable and the sound will impress you to no end. They are heaven!

I run a podcast and I was searching for an affordable solution that provided three key factors: Comfort, Clarity, and Compactness. The comfort factor was the most important because if you are going to have a few of your guests wearing these for an hour, they need to feel like nothing is there. Clarity for the quality of the sound and to make sure your guests hear themselves clearly. Compactness for a podcast that has to go to multiple places.I tested these JVC HARX500 against the following: JVC HARX330, Monoprice Premium Hi-Fi Dj Style,Vogek On Ear Headphones with Mic, Tascam TH-02, Koss UR20, and Panasonic RP-HT161-K.Here is how they stacked up:JVC HARX330: decent clarity and lower profile for over the ear headphones but they really hurt my ears because they didn't completely cover my earsMonoprice Premium Hi-Fi Dj Style: If this purchase was for just listening to music or doing something other than my needs, this would have been my choice. The set was comfortable, albeit a bit on the heavy side and the clarity was unsurpassed. By far the best of all. However, these headphones had a good seal around my ears and I was unable to hear ambient noise. As a podcaster, I need to be aware of A/C units running in the background and I was unable to hear mine when wearing this. For my purposes, I need to be able to hear things that the microphone may or may not pick up.Vogek On Ear Headphones with Mic: I tried these just to see if on-ear headphones would work. Not for the comfort factor. However, these won the compact prize. They could fold up to the size of my palm which was a bonus.Tascam TH-02: with all the great reviews, I thought this was going to be a winner. However, it was very bulky and didn't fit on my head properly. Good quality sound but still not great. So it didn't win the prize for comfort because of its weight. These however did fold so they could have gotten a bonus point for compactness.Koss UR20: These things were a beast. This means it didn't pass the compact test. However, the sound clarity was terrible. I was amazed at how distorted voices were. It sounded like every time I talked I could hear myself clipping and I didn't hear that with any other headphone.Panasonic RP-HT161-K: Decent slimmer profile but didn't pass the comfort test.The JVC HARX500 met 2 of the 3 conditions I felt were the most important, comfort and clarity. After putting on these headphones, I just felt like I could easily have them on for hours without any worry of fatigue or my ears hurting. The sound coming from the speakers was true to self and was great for the price point. As mentioned above, it still allows some ambient noise to penetrate so you can hear background noise and isn't completely noise isolation which I needed. These fail the compact use case but they are still slimmer in profile compared to the Monoprice and Koss ones. I can overlook that for the top 2 needs