They are incredibly light, the foam noise blocking pads do an amazing job of reducing exterior noise while not removing you from your surroundings. My wife wears these on the bus and is able to balance not hearing engine noise and TV ads with knowing when her stop comes. The sound quality is excellent, Higher tonal ranges (such as trumpets) are remarkably clear, mid tones (voices)are nicely reinforced and bass response is very good considering the size of the diaphragm.