My short review of the HDJ1500

After my worn out HDJ1000 finally had enough, I wanted to replace them with a new pair of cans, so naturally, I looked at many options on the market today. In the past, I've owned and professionally used the Pioneer HDJ2000 and HDJ 1000, Ultrasone DJ1 Pro, Sony V700, Shure 750, and Technics 1200's, and now after using the new 1500's, I can say that they are the best headphones I've used and better than any of the ones I've mentioned above, including the HDJ2000. The sound very bright and clean, and not overly saturated like some other headphones, bass response is superb, and isolation is just right. Low impedance helps in loud settings. I had no problem with comfort wearing them for 4+ hours, but to be fair, I did was replace the earpads with the optional "protein leather" pads from Pioneer (interchangeable with HDJ2000). Build seems solid, but we'll see if they hold up in the long run. My only gripe is that none of the Pioneer headphones including the 1500s come with an angled plug. The regular plug always seems intrusive and sticking out right in front of the headphone control knobs on the 800 and 900 mixers. I don't want to go into detailed comparisons between the 1500s and all other headphones I've used, but if anyone is interested, I will elaborate, and give you pros and cons. If you're wondering why I prefer the 1500s to the 2000s, I was unhappy with the 2000's headband, which pressed against the side of my head, slightly above the ear cups, and made them somewhat less than comfortable, especially for longer sets. It could be attributed to the shape of my head, I don't know, but based on the price difference alone, my vote goes to the 1500s. I also bought a pair of the aiaiai tma-1, which received a lot of publicity on the web, but the sound reproduction was just horrible. Put on any Pioneers (or other quality cans), and while listening to the same track, switch to tma-1's and it'll make you say WTF is wrong with these. The difference is really night and day. Overall, very satisfied with these new Pioneers, we'll see how well they hold up.