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The Forte Classic Bass are a good looking in-ear headphone. They have a nice dark wooden enclosure with a silver accent and a brown braided cord. As in-ear headphones go they're reasonably comfortable, probably better than average. There are no sharp edges and the rubber seems quite comfortable. They have an inline control which I can't test with my test rig, and they apparently have a built in microphone.

Microphonics are a small problem with this type of cord. When moving around you get a fair bit of cord noise, but it's not near as bad as the rubber cords. This is a fairly common problem with the fancier looking cords - sound quality is sacrificed for looks. Including a shirt clip would've been a good idea.

There's a slight hiss when these headphones are plugged in. That's not uncommon in in-ear headphones, probably due to the sensitivity. I'd say it's slightly quieter than average, but you can hear it in the quiet parts of the music.

Sonically they're a good upper midrange headphone. This model obviously emphasizes bass, and it does have very low, very strong bass. With smaller in-ear headphones this is usually a trade-off with the highs, but these don't suffer from this too much. The midrange is slightly recessed but is pleasing, and reasonably clear. Highs are slightly rolled off, but this is really the norm for bass heavy headphones. The clarity is detail is good for this class of headphone, though the detail in the highs has been sacrificed a little.

The main thing I notice from this headphone is that with a lot of music the bass overshadows the rest of the music. If the music has a lot of bass then it overwhelms the rest of the music. On music that doesn't have excessive bass it's not so obvious, but this makes the rolled off highs and lack of clarity in the highs more obvious. All in all the music sounds quite bass heavy, slightly recessed in the highs, slightly recessed midrange, but it's not bad at all for people who love bass.

Here's the results of listening to some of my standard test tracks:
- Diana Krall, I love being here with you live. The slightly shrill highs are apparent. The bass is slightly emphasized and distracts slightly, but it's not too bad. The mids are clear, slightly recessed. Overall, good.
- Joss Stone, I Believe It To My Soul Live. Everything sounds pretty good. The bass is a little loud, but it's not too distracting. The cymbals are there but are missing strength and detail.
- Electronic dance music - the bass makes me feel like I'm being kicked in my eardrums, and the highs seems sibilant and harsh. I'd say these aren't ideal for this type of music.
- Eminim Cinderlla Man, my bass test track. The bass is low and strong, almost overwhelming everything. Midrange is slighly recessed but it's there and sounds good. The highs are definitely rolled off but it doesn't detract as much in this track. Overall bassheads will like this track with these headphones.

Overall they're a nice looking headphone which will probably appeal to people who really love their bass and can put up with rolled off, sometimes harsh highs. If there was a "standard" headphone instead of bass/treble focused headphone I think that would be a great compromise, the best of both worlds without the downsides of either. For their standard US$70 price I'd say they're about average value, but I've seen them on sale on Amazon for $20 - for that I'd say they were fantastic value.

Test setup: 256kbps mp3 files, Cyberdrive Clarity DAC feeding into a custom made PPA DAC, comparison headphones Audeze LCD2 headphones.

Disclosure: free review samples were sent to HeadphoneReviews for review.