This is my first pair of open back headphones. While they're not playing, I can hear everything around me. I thought that'd be a problem, but it hasn't been so far.
I've listened to a few songs on this pair of headphones and I was blown away! My old headphones pulled the soundstage fairly close to me. These open it right up and let me hear all the details.
The first track I played was specifically to see if it would disadvantage music that was meant to be close-up and personal. While the vocals and primary instruments stayed close by, I heard more background details that seem to have been meant to be further away. Some of those background details get masked on all my other audio equipment, so I'm excited to see what future listening will bring.
Taking a page out of Cambridge Audio's playbook, I also listened to some Daft Punk. Random Access Memories is a well-mastered album and that mastering shone through brilliantly with these headphones! A few tracks which I had grown somewhat numb to were reborn. I got chills!
I'll have to listen to some more music and get back to y'all, but as far as I'm concerned, these headphones slap :)