Price Paid:  $135.00 from Hifi store

Summary:
Purchase price was AU$135.00

Ok first off, I don't consider myself to be an Audiophile by any means but I do appreciate good sound quality so this review will be totally subjective.

Having heard and owned many headphones in the past for use with our home theatre setup and portable music players, I have to say These are by far the best headphones I've heard for its price range.

I listen to a fair amount of trance music so therefore its no secret that I fancy a bit of bass. The way I can describe these headphones are they are warm sounding with an emphasis toward a little more bass which blends smoothly to the mids and highs which are still clearly defined and never muffled out, One could listen to these for hours upon hours without suffering any aural fatigue whatsoever! Another positive point I can give to these headphones is the very decent stereo separation. I can sort of describe listening to these as like sitting in the sweet spot in front of a pair of quality floor standers.

Although these are quite large cans, they can be driven with most portable music players which adds to its versatility, however I noted some issue that some of you may need to know. These headphones are circumaural but its of the open design variety so therefore it does leak sound, additionally, because of this, anyone thinking these will attenuate outside noise or expecting natural noise reduction from these cans will be dissapointed, by design, I assume these were never meant for any noise reduction.

Build quality, not much to comment other than its of top quality and seems very durable, the detachable single sided cord will help in prologing the life of these headphones.

Comfort. At first, I thought it was a little on the tight side when I first got them, but after a month of owning these, It doesn't seem as tight and seem a more comfortable fit, however, I must say its not as comfortable as some Sony's I've had.

One word of advice with these headphones (like most, if not all) take time to break these suckers in!! The sound does round out to an almost audiophilic sound experience. For the price I think Sennheiser have done a great job with the HD-485 cans.

Strengths:
- Bass output is outstanding.
- Silky smooth mids and highs and never sounding muffled.
- Easily driven by portable players.
- Detatchable single sided cord.
- Reasonably comfortable.
- Great price/sound ratio.

Weaknesses:
- Leaks sound (commuters of public transport take note).
- Has little to no natural noise reduction properties despite its circumaural design.
- May be a little tight at first for some.

Similar Products Used:
Few Sony's (eggos, e888 and another which I don't know the model no.)
Sennheiser HD515, HD202, HD555 and PX200 which I briefly had and replaced with the HD485. I have to say this but PX200 sounded so bad I can't beleive they are even Sennheisers, my iPod earphones sounded better than these!