This is a no brainer. I compared these to my Neuman closed ear phones, which were a bunch more expensive, and we're all in the same sandbox here. It's very impressive what Avantone does and the value they offer. With these phones, you may notice nothing much happens when you put them into "cube" mode, which is normal. The ability to switch on "mono" on the earset is genius; all studio headphones should have that switch. In normal mode these headphones sound very very good. I am very glad to have them.