As a Grados PS500e owner, I'm really happy with the fidelity of these. I had a couple of pairs of some flimzy Brainwavz earbuds a few years ago but after the second one went kaput I was just using ipod earbuds (occasionally taking my ps500e out in public, quite irresponsibly!). I'm not sure how it compares to them, maybe not so much in terms of comfort... There's nothing that's really lacking in the sound per say. For the price it was absolutely a steal!