I don't really consider myself an audiophile, but I can appreciate great sounding music. These headphones certainly come through! I love how well they handle bass. The balance is perfect. I would have liked them to be a bit tighter over my head, but I'll get used to them. Some may want louder, but I find them to be plenty loud enough. Any louder and I'd have a perpetual headache! They are definitely noise canceling because they do a wonderful job of drowning out my noisy cube neighbors. I certainly could not be happier with the price!The one thing I miss from my old headphones is the volume control on the cord. These have to be adjusted from the source and that's somewhat of a pain to do quickly when multitasking at work and someone walks in my cube. Again, a learning curve will help this.