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The HD 457 is a budget priced open headphone from Sennheiser that aims at bassheads. Most online merchants still have these in stock as cheap as $30. They're basically designed headphones and don't isolate background noise. The headphones are fairly comfortable. They're a bit tight but after streching the headband out a bit they've been comfortable to wear. The build quality seems very good for a cheap headphone.

The sound quality is generally not half-bad considering the price, although this headphone looks far, far up to the much higher priced Sennheiser models, which sound better. The sound is BASSY with a capital "B". Seriously, the 457's have some subwoofer, basshead bass. So much that it affects the quality of the sound on a whole. The sound does reach rather deep in its bass response and the bass has a huge boost in the bass, but it's nothing but mud. The bass doesn't feel in content with the music and instead just seems to care more about quanity instead of quality. The midranges are pretty stale or "crusty" if you will. While the pronounciation of the lower mid-ranges is acceptable (around the range of male vocals), the upper mid-range is harsh and grainy at the same time. There's a peak around 2,000Hz and a pretty noticeable dropoff in the upper-mids after that. Much like the bass, the midrange is uninvolving with the music and feels more like a layer on the music than a true note. The highs, however, do fairly well. They are slightly recessed and lack the clarity and "oomph" of better models, but they are still pronounced to a level unexpected for an inexpensive basshead can. The sound on a whole is pretty unrefined. Not much detail or soundstage going on here folks, but when you're bumping a ton of bass out of these the detail wouldn't be heard anyhow. Generally the sound is extremely bassy with an uneven midrange and slightly recessed but well pronounced highs. They are quite obviously too bass heavy and too inaccurate for demanding listeners, (for better sounding open headphones look at the Sennheiser eH350 and the Grado SR60, or the cheaper Koss KSC75) but are a treat for bassheads who want a value in a bassy headphone.