I got a pair of these over the weekend.

I've been looking for a portable over-the-ear headphone with a smooth, forgiving, all-arounder sound signature -- which had me strangely drawn toward the B&W P5. I have demo'd the P5 about a dozen times, but could never convince myself to part with $300 for them. The V-80's have a similar sound with more treble presence, from what I remember. The tonal balance is totally money for a portable set -- it's a headphone that tries to avoid any major flaws rather than trying to blow you away. It's pretty competent all throughout the spectrum. It does smooth over the finer details, but typically I'm not listening analytically when I'm out and about.

My biggest gripe is that they don't isolate well at all for a portable set. I'm not sure what they were thinking putting the bass vents on them -- which renders them pretty useless for on-the-go listening. I used them on the train this morning and the ambient noise was horrid. Good thing that the treble is shelved down so I can crank these up.

Overall though, this is a really solid headphone for the price.

I got a pair of these over the weekend.

I've been looking for a portable over-the-ear headphone with a smooth, forgiving, all-arounder sound signature -- which had me strangely drawn toward the B&W P5. I have demo'd the P5 about a dozen times, but could never convince myself to part with $300 for them. The V-80's have a similar sound with more treble presence, from what I remember. The tonal balance is totally money for a portable set -- it's a headphone that tries to avoid any major flaws rather than trying to blow you away. It's pretty competent all throughout the spectrum. It does smooth over the finer details, but typically I'm not listening analytically when I'm out and about.

My biggest gripe is that they don't isolate well at all for a portable set. I'm not sure what they were thinking putting the bass vents on them -- which renders them pretty useless for on-the-go listening. I used them on the train this morning and the ambient noise was horrid. Good thing that the treble is shelved down so I can crank these up.

Overall though, this is a really solid headphone for the price.

I like them - especially at the price you bought them at. Probably one of few headphones over-hyped at HF (and hyped by Jude) which I actually like. As you said, it doesn't do any particular thing horribly wrong.

They probably used bass vents because it was necessary with that driver or enclosure or whatever to get proper response.  I agree though, it kind of defeats the purpose of a closed headphone...

Yeah, this makes sense. Even though there is a bit of the "echo/cave" effect, it isn't nearly as bad I expected. The Edition 8 or MDR-V6, in comparison, sounds much more closed in. The sacrifice in isolation is a bit unfortunate, though.

@shipsupt, I have the V-80's too, and I agree they're fangtastic! (sorry, couldn't help myself)