These are terrible headphones for the money, with a very colored frequency response, bloated bass, and an overall muddy and indistinct sound.

If you're interested in these, you owe it to yourself to check out the far superior Sony MDR-V6, which is an excellent headphone at the typical discounted price.

The Sony MDR-V6 is so much better than the V600s I can't imagine why Sony still makes the V600s.

The Sony MDR-V600 is one of the worst headphones at the $100 price point that I've listened to recently. It delivers hardly any deep bass response; it sounds muddy, honky and lifeless with severely bloated upper bass and lower midrange response, almost nonexistent upper midrange response and harsh treble response. And it's not as durable as it looks, as well.

In short, these headphones are not worth even one-fourth of their asking price.

I'll start with durability. These 'phones are now going on their 13th year. If you want headphones that will last a generation, here they are. They've been dropped, kicked, thrown, sat on, and everything in between, yet the only thing that was ever wrong with them is that the earpads wore out. Luckily these are available from Sony's parts website, and are not a pain to switch.

That being said, these were my first pair of halfway decent headphones. At first I was astounded with the quality, but after time, and after having listened to what "real" headphones sound like, my opinion of them has come back down to earth. They are smooth, I will give them that. The mid-low bass has a pretty decent mix to it; it's not punchy, abrasive or too weak. Listening to rap that's been mixed reasonably will be an enjoyable experience.

The mids and highs are also decent. Pretty crisp, fairly well defined. Definitely not anything to write home about, but again, the overall listening quality of these is good for the money. You can listen to many different types of music, from jazz to opera, and walk away feeling like you got more than just the gist of it.

They are also comfortable to wear (especially now after the pads are new again!). The clicky-thing that allows you to adjust how low the headphones drop has stayed solid through the years, so it doesn't slip or drop without warning. The headband doesn't grab at your hair, but it also doesn't slide around like some I've tried.

Can go with or without amplification. For this reason, it's great for iPods and computers as well as large systems and mixing boards.

Overall, these are great first headphones for those who've yet to pay more than a few hours' work a pair. Also, I need to repeat... Ridiculously durable! If you want headphones that you won't have to worry about for a decade or more, than these are for you. I highly recommend these headphones for the price.

These headphones were my first venture into the closed circumaural headphone realm. I bought a pair when I was 16 using money I saved earning minimum wage. I think they retailed for $100 back then, and trust me, they were worth every penny. At the time, they were by far the best headphones I have ever used, and to this day, they remain a pair of fantastic headphones to use for listening to hard rock, electronic music, or for gaming.

The bass, as with almost all Sony headphones, is powerful. The isolation was pretty good with the faux leather cups. I used to listen to classical music late at night while doing homework and fall asleep with them on all the time.

My only complaints were that the cups didn't breathe too well and the coiled cord didn't work as well as it should have. After some time, a bit of moisture would build up around my ears and I would have to wipe down a bit before putting the headphones back on. Additionally, the coiled cord was great for keeping it out of the way, but it didn't quite stretch as easy as it should, so while the cord stretches to 10 ft, it really was only good up to about 6-7 feet before the tension on the cord lifted the left cup off my head.

Over the years, the faux leather on the cups have torn and the foam padding is exposed along the inner edges. But that really hasn't affected the listening experience at all.

For the price, there are a great buy and should provide you with years of good listening. And although I'm ready to move to bigger and better things, these headphones will always have a special place in my audiophile heart.