Full disclosure... I've never owned expensive earphones, so I have no idea how they would compare to these. Personally, I just want headphones that sound good for a good price. Frankly, I wasn't expecting very much when I bought these headphones, but then again... I didn't pay very much either.Long story short, they sound great, and are quite comfortable to wear......once you figure out how to wear them.The instructions aren't the greatest translation into English. But I didn't take off any stars for this because if you're looking for something in this price range, you're lucky to get instructions. Anyway, I'm including a couple of photos. One is of a page from the instructions, which will give you an idea of which way the earphones should be pointing when they are in your ear. As for which side is which, the cable ends are marked R/L, but the earphones are not.In my picture, I put some white on the connector so you can see the 'R' symbol more clearly. My picture of the earphones will show you how they *should* look if you have assembled them correctly. Also, the picture is the general way they should be oriented on your head. The part with the speaker should be at the bottom of your ear. See the instruction page for details. NOTE: There is a bag of alternate silicone buds. They come with 'medium' installed. In the bag is a pair of 'small' and 'large' buds. They just pull on and off.Once assembled, I suggest you leave them that way. There is no real benefit to take them apart unless you want to put them in storage. As for comfort, the reason you bought these is since you wanted an over-the-ear style earphone that won't fall off if the cable gets tugged. So long as you use the right size silicone bud, you should have a good fit. Unlike other earphones, the over-the-ear style means they don't need to be jammed in your ear. They just need to be pressed in snug, and the cord will keep them in place. After a while, you'll forget you're wearing them. If you find your ear gets 'warm' when using them, try using a smaller size ear bud.I found the sound quality to be quite good. They didn't sound like 'earphones' to be honest, they sounded more like full-size headphones. With a frequency range of 10-20000Hz, they certainly seem to deliver on that. The key is that I was able to tell the difference between MP3s encoded at 128kbps and 320kbps. If you have a keen ear, you will notice the audio compression since there will be a lack of audio definition. With these earphones, the 320kbps files sounded great. The highs and lows were quite distinct.As for bass, it's decent, although hard to quantify. I put on Sigrid - High Five, and with a flat EQ I didn't get any clipping at volume levels that were as high as I could tolerate. Of course it will depend on your device and EQ settings. But I didn't find it 'lacking'. Yeah heavy bass is nice, but at this price point I think it delivered respectable bass performance.Bottom line, I've paid more for earphones that didn't sound as good as these. These are an excellent pair of budget earphones, and would likely be a great choice if you want to take them on a trip and not worry about losing them on the plane. If you check out my images, I'm sure you will find them helpful.