No seriously, everyone does it. Thinks "oh I need a new pair of headphones, I've heard of those Sennheisers but I'll do some research anyway" I thought I'd write this thread (which should be made sticky) to tell these people not to bother wasting time. Your thought process will most likely follow the following steps. 1. Look at cheaper headphones. Brands like AKG and SONY 2. Discover this isn't exactly what your looking for (sound quality, isolation, build quality) 3. You amp up the budget to around $130-$170 4. You think about getting HD25-SP's for about a day (Make sure you proceed to step 5!) 5. You realise that for an extra 50 bucks or so you can just get the real deal and be happy/carefree. So if this is you, I can assure you that it is a completely safe option to go with the HD25-II's from the outset. They will last you a very long time, and most likely pay themselves off!