Instruction: Assess the user's sentiment in the provided review and select the appropriate sentiment option from the list as the answer.

Input:
Toss those white-plastic Apple earbuds. Do it now. Yes, really. I mean it. Make no mistake, behind the PortaPro's 80's styling and intended use with Sony Walkman CASSETTE(!) players, these headphones have just about the best sound you can hope for for the money. These are NOT noise-canceling and will allow a decent amount of environmental noise through, but I like this because it lets me stay aware of what's going on around me. Little to no distortion at higher volumes than I would normally listen to. Sound is crystal clear; non-audiophiles with a good ear will be able to tell a dramatic improvement over almost anything else they've used in the same price-range, especially over Apple earbuds (which aren't at all bad for included earbuds IMHO). Bass is powerful-almost overwhelmingly so, but there is so much dimension in the low range that some songs sound different. Highs were a little shrill at first, but calmed down with use. Mid-range was a bit stiff out of the box but has since opened right up. I'm hearing lyrics I've never heard before, and background instruments I've never been able to distinguish before, as well as background vocals and other interesting elements like you hear in Beatles songs that I had never really been able to make out before. They are all-around comfortable (I usually have the ComfortZone sliders set to Light) and very light-weight. They may look and feel a bit cheap and flimsy, but they are in fact pretty durable. Hair getting caught in the adjustable metal band has never been a problem like it is with other cheap metal-band headphones. Included "case" is useless, don't bother with it. They fit around my neck fairly comfortably with the headband fully extended. Cord is a good length to reach your pocket with slack to spare. Open-can design allows for clearer highs and mids than closed-can designs like Skull Candies. No expensive, electronic noise-cancelling like steeply overpriced Bose headphones to muddy up the audio signal. Just simple, clean, honest sound.

Word of advice to iPod users especially: I found the best balanced sound by setting the auto-equalizer to "bass reducer". I'm usually one to leave the equalizer completely neutral, and for iPod earbuds this provides the best balance; but the PortaPros have a lot of low-end kick.

Also, if you want the best sound quality as soon as possible, plug 'em in to your computer at a slightly-higher-than-normal-listening volume and set iTunes (or whatever you use) to shuffle through your entire library continuously for two or three days whenever you're not using them (it's perfectly OK to use them at any point during that time if you want). Break-in is real, people, and just like a brand-new baseball glove, the diaphragm of the speakers needs to loosen up a bit before reaching it's best sound response. Or, if you really want to put them through their paces to whip them into shape in just two days or so and be sure they've opened up almost as much as they're going to, Google "burn-in waves." The first site has a bunch of sound files meant to exercise headphones and break them in. Just be warned that they may start to sound a little worse before they start to sound better. But when they open up, these babies sing. (If you want to give yourself chills, the beginning of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is a good place to start)

EDIT (Feb. 17, 2010):
True audiophiles need not necessarily apply; a well-trained ear will be able to tell where the PortaPro's weaknesses lie, but you'd have to be used to sets costing $$$-$$$$ to even know what to listen for. My brother's a musician, though, and was using relatively cheap Sony studio headphones when he wasn't listening to the speakers in his "bedroom-and-a-closet studio" for recording/production. I gave him these for Christmas and he prefers these to his old set when not in his studio.

Final note: I wish I could have large versions of the sound drivers in these to use as the speakers for my car stereo. I didn't realize how lacking the stock speakers were until I got these. Oh well, I don't listen to music much when driving anyway, save for the tune of a turbocharged engine.

Options:
A: very positive
B: positive
C: neutral
D: negative
E: very negative
Answer: A: very positive