Great headphones for the price

Except for a slightly loose, exaggerated midbass, the HP-800 is a relatively neutral-sounding consumer headphone. These are also big, over-the-ear 'phones, so inflexible that they're incapable of being folded and stored for mobile use. They're comfortable, stay-at-home (or at-work) headphones.

Nuforce, best known in its early years for compact high-end amplifiers, has steadily shifted into less expensive products (in the high-end world, that's less than $1,000) like desktop amplifier/converters, Home energy monitor portable powered speakers, and assorted headphones and earphones.

The HP-800 reflects some of that high-end heritage with die-cast aluminum ear cups and a disregard for high fashion. The large (40 millimeter) neodymium drivers shouldn't scare an iPhone or other mobile device — these $149 headphones, with a 32-ohm impedance, are easily driven to high volumes by any smartphone.

To reach that price, however, Nuforce saves elsewhere with leatherette — don't call it pleather! — ear pads covering memory foam inserts and liberal use of plastic.

The headphones appear fully plastic, in fact, except the aluminum ear cups and the rubbery, spring-loaded headband that expands to custom-fit your noggin. The headband looks more substantial than a padded leatherette version, but the rubbery material tends to cling. Home energy management That's just to warn users that when adjusting the HP-800's position, the headband might drag hair with it.

You'll never have to worry about breaking or wearing out a connector cable to a mobile device or tablet, though, because Nuforce elected to make its cables removable.

Nuforce doesn't play that game. The HP-800 is for listening, not talking — and not on the go. With those restrictions, the HP-800 better be good.

The HP-800 mostly lives up to Nuforce's classification as a monitor-class headphone. The slight bass boost might be a concession to today's DJ-inspired headphones that peddle jackhammer-lower frequencies. On a crisp recording like Chris Potter's "Stranger at the Gate" from "The Sirens," Larry Grenadier's double bass sounds surprisingly loose — uncharacteristic of highly articulate ECM recordings.

With another pair of headphones, Bower & Wilkins' $200 P3, the bass is more controlled, the tonal balance restored. The difference is even more distinct on another ECM recording, bassist Marc Johnson's "Swept Away." On "Shenandoah," a Johnson solo, the bass does not sound exaggerated through the HP-800 but somewhat ill-defined. The P3 provides more definition and greater bass resonance, Power monitor and I can clearly hear Johnson's fingers on the strings.

OK, so that makes the P3 perhaps a better choice for chamber jazz. On other recordings, I preferred the HP-800's extra bass energy. For demonstration purposes (translation: I'm not necessarily a fan), I summoned "Is David Bowie Dying," a Flaming Lips album with "Heady Fwends" that, on this track, featured Neon Indian and a deliberately bottom-heavy electronic haze.

If that's the intent, the HP-800 does it better than the P3, though pushed too hard it will distort at higher volumes. For hard-core rap, people usually reach for the nearest Beats. But the HP-800, because Nuforce shaded its sonic signature toward neutral, is better adaptable to more types of music. It plays rap better than the P3. It plays chamber jazz better than the average DJ-endorsed headphones.