The best portable headphones I've ever owned!

I listen to my portable CD player throughout my entire 1hr commute to work, twice a day, 5 days a week, approx. 48 weeks a year and have been doing so for over ten years.

In that time I've pretty much exclusively used Sennheiser headphones (HD56 and similar) because I think they sound great.

Of course, what tends to happen is that after about 13 months of use (note 1 month over the typical guarantee period!) the cable gets broken at the connector end and I have to buy a new pair (I think this is quite reasonable and a great opportunity to upgrade, god forbid I should get a pair that last forever).

Last week I bought a pair of PX200s and I can say unreservedly that they're absolutely fantastic. The improvement in sound quality over my old HD56's (which I thought were pretty damn good) was instantly noticeable. Indeed I now find myself in the position of having to re-listen to my entire CD collection because I'm hearing levels of detail I'd just never noticed before.

The only thing I would say is that the "closed" design took a tiny bit of getting used to. Basically (as I now understand it) a "closed" headphone relies on creating a sealed air chamber around your ear. The first thing you notice then is that when you put them on (with no music) you're suddenly sealed off from the outside world (rather like when you wear a pair of ear defenders). This also means that sounds like your own footfalls are actually more noticeable than with an open design. The plus side tho' is that bass notes produces a real sense of air movement which I would previously have only associated with a big woofer, but without adding any bass bias to the top end notes.

Aside from the excellent sound quality they also look and feel very elegant and are extremely comfortable to wear. I can't comment on how resistant to wear and tear they're going to be but my guess is that the soft fabric on the ear pieces and headband cushions is going to get pretty tatty after a year. On the other hand, god forbid they should last forever!

As to their portability, they can be folded up into a very neat plastic case (although in practise I'm unlikely to ever use it unless I'm packing them away to go on holiday) however, when you're wearing them loose around your neck they do feel like a rather tight bow tie.