Harman Kardon has recently made a big push into the headphone space with a number of new models, including the Classic (or CL for short), a set that retails for $199.95 and may be the best of the bunch.
This is an on-ear model that has a very distinct design, with a modern take on an old-school double headband and square earcups that harken back a little to the Bowers & Wilkins
I personally don't have a very big head (at least I didn't think so), so I went with the default Small band. The headphones were fairly comfortable but didn't feel great, especially over longer listening sessions, so I looked at the instructions and swapped in the XL band. It definitely made a significant difference. And while I can't say these are the most comfortable headphones I've tried, they're comfy. Just not supercomfy. Of course, comfort level varies from head to head, but a couple of editors I passed them off to for a test run felt similarly.
It's worth noting that they did create a tight seal on my ears and managed to shut out a lot of ambient noise. In other words, while this isn't an active noise-cancellation model, the Classic does passively block out a good amount of sound, and it doesn't leak sound either.
As far as extra features go, you get an Apple-friendly inline remote and microphone. With Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod), you can use the Classic as a headset for making calls. Call quality was good in my test calls. Using the inline remote, you can raise and lower volume, skip tracks forward and back, and pause/play your music. Those features will be more miss than hit for non-Apple smartphones, so take that into consideration if you're an Android user (the microphone and some of the remote features may work with certain Android models, but they aren't supported and don't usually work).
The headphones don't fold up, but they do fold flat -- and by flat, I mean really flat. While the included carrying case is fairly large in terms of height and width, since the headphones fold so flat there isn't much depth to the package. It stows away nicely in a laptop bag or backpack, or potentially your suitcase.
Discuss Harman Kardon Classic