I figure this would be a good place to add my 2cents. I also got my pair of ex700 for a week. I mainly listened to jazz music on them. I also own a pair of er-6i and er-4s, also ex90. The ex700 better isolates environmental sounds compared with the old ex90. It's not as good as ER series. The base on the former is powerful, but restrained, compared with ex90. The former Sony gives a base that's takes more like an old wood trunk, while the new one gives a more pumpy, controlled base. In terms of mid and high tone areas, the sony still lag behind the er-4s, IMO. However, the ex700 is much easier to drive, and wear, a big plus when going mobile. The case that came with ex700 kind of sucks. It is very difficult to wrap the cables around it and most of the time I end up just munching the cords and put the headphone in my pocket. Overall, ex700 is a good pair of headphones. I am not sure if it's better bang for buck in terms of sound quality compared with the Shure guys, or UE guys. But for me, at the end, I am biased on Sony products... but I would not recommend this for everyone. It's just too expensive to some extend.