Not top end but decent mid range. Padded well so if you get patted on the bottom, it will sound like a couch pillow. Im really disappointed because this would be perfect if the finish was done well. For coarser, thicker hair and larger areas such as body hair I think it would struggle and take a long time. No frequencies pop out like the Beyerdynamics (too harsh in the high end), everything is very even. I wear a medium width in shoes and this just. That never happened to me. The buckle is tight enough that they stay in place just fine. The large ear pieces were too large for me. Marketing materials for the E8s say that they support AAC codec, which is Apples choice for bluetooth audio transmission - so I should be getting great quality sound on my iPhone, but I wasnt.