I have not compared earphones extensively, but I had a pair of Sennheiser HD580's and I was pretty happy with them, but they are open design so I needed earphones for airplane travel. I bought a set of Shure E3's and the E3's sound way better than Sennheiser HD580's. I never listen to the Sennheisers anymore. When I got the Shure E3's, I listened to them with an ipod for so long, I fell asleep wearing them.