I picked up a pair of high-end headphones last weekend–at Kmart of all places. I was killing time before I needed to be somewhere, and was browsing the clearance rack in the electronics department. They were priced at $20, dropped down from $60, so I thought I’d give them a try.

They have active sound cancellation, and they sound fantastic. They’re easily the best headphones I’ve ever purchased. Unfortunately, here’s the problem:

I can now hear how many of my mp3s suck. If I’m listening with lousy headphones, everything sounds equally lousy–but now that I can actually hear details some of my favorite songs sound awful.

Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger sounded so muddy that… I’m ashamed to admit this… I paid for a legal copy from iTunes.