Very happy with mine. For the money, if you need a closed back design for occasional use, these are very listenable and un-fatiguing. No problems with earpads or build quality. Mine are the gold ones and, unlike most closed back 'phones, I think these things look rather good even when just lying around not being used. I remember an industrial designer saying that you can tell when you've developed an aesthetically pleasing consumer product because customers see it across the shop floor, and make a bee-line for it, saying 'That's lovely, I want that'. Their second uttering is 'What is it?'. That was pretty much me buying the 99 Classics