I was initially impressed by the out of the box quality of the A818 but the headphones that came with it leaked too much sound so i sealed up the outer area with silicon and used those foam sleeve covers and WOW bass is sooo BOOMY that i had to make my EQ so the vocals EXISTED. but I decided to invest 150 bucks in Shure SE210's I must say these are amazing given the right EQ settings cause the bass is kind of weak. My settings for the Shure's is 0 +2 -3 -1 0 try it, the vocals dont hiss and the bass is most definitely present. its my perfect balance. try it and tell me what you think?