Monster's fashionista headphones aren't all about looks

Hi. I'm David Carnoy, executive editor for CNET.com, and I'm here with the Monster Diamond Tears headphones. These are Monster's currently hottest selling headphones, and they are a whopping 300 dollars. These are obviously very flashy-looking headphones with a unique design. These are geared towards women, though some men will certainly be able to rock them. I would include our own Brian Tong in that crowd, but these are more of a female-friendly headphone. They do reflect light and they come in 2 colors right now. This is kind of a bluish purple with black ear pads and there is a crystal model that has white ear pads. That said, there are more colors coming in 2013, so expect to have more choices. These are on-ear headphones. They are fairly comfortable for on-ear headphones. They are a little bit tight, but the ear pads are nicely padded, and they have kind of a teardrop design. I would say that folks with bigger ears will have a little bit more hard time with these. They do seal out a lot of sound. They do leak a little sound, but all in all a comfortable pair of on-ear headphones that also seem well built. They do fold up a little bit and fit into a soft carrying case. There's a straight cord for audio purists and then 2 cords with in-line remotes and microphones, ones for Apple device users and ones for Android device users and other types of phones. Another small feature worth mentioning, there are 2 jacks in the headphones, a left and right. That means you can plug into either headphone, and it also means that someone else can plug in their headphones into the open jack and you can kind of daisy chain your headphones and listen to one device at the same time. As for sound quality, these may surprise some folks. For a flashy headphone, they do sound good and I did like them better than some of Monster's other high-style headphones, headphones like the DNA which is a little bit cheaper than this model, but this one does sound better. It's fairly neutral for a Monster headphone; that means it doesn't push a ton of base. There is ample base, but it isn't overbearing, and there's good detail here. However that said, you can certainly find headphones in the 150 to 200-dollar price range that sound as good as these or even slightly better. Of course, people first and foremost are buying these for their aesthetics, and they do come with a cleaning cloth and a little spray bottle of Monster shine so you can buff them up. As to the question of whether these are worth 300 dollars, well a lot of these status headphones are overpriced, and the Diamond Tears certainly are too, but at least they have good sound, so you're getting some decent performance along with the flashy looks. I'm David Carnoy and these are the Monster Diamond Tears headphones. Thanks for watching.