Hm.. based on my time with them on a Cantata > LAu rig, the last thing I'd call them is speaker-like. They are very similar to Audeze headphones, but less wubwub more balanced signature. Still sounds like a hallway with speakers on direct left and right with not much in the middle. Even my poorly assembled speaker rig has a far better soundstage than these, and my UERM rapes my speakers, as do the HD800s, but not by as much.

Not that I think they sound bad, they are merely one of the best sounding headphones out there with my signature fatal flaw. People without soundstage issues ignore me.

When we say they're like a good speaker rig, we're not talking about soundstage so much as their tonality, physical presence, and how the bottom-end performs. They sound like a good, properly optimized two way speaker system. Not a big room-encompasing multi channel rig.

The biggest weaknesses of the Abyss in my opinion are:

-Treble could use a bit of refinement / polish. I prefer a smoother top end. My set doesn't sound as bad as Tyll's original measurements would suggest, but it's still somewhat noticeable, especially if you're coming from e-stats.

-The timbre of some instruments is a little hollow, namely strings. The best headphone of all time for strings IMO is the Sony R10, followed by the Orpheus. Just for reference.

Other than that, most of you know what I like about the Abyss by now and why it's one of my primary references.