I don't have HD280's left but these strike me as a direct replacement, closed-back for studio use, good isolation, a good tight fit so the thing doesn't fly off your head when rocking out. I also had HD380 which were a lot firmer than the 280 and gave a good reference on dynamics, but overall liked the tone of the 280.These Adam HD200's are firmer still, but wait...there's a plugin! Using the plugin you can change the tone quite a bit. I have left the leather pads on that it came with (who knows how available spares for this fairly rare can will be when I need them?) but you can set the plugin to soft cloth profile anyway and the sound goes from Unity Rock hard (hardest sounding speaker I ever heard) to Dynaudio soft and rich with a full low end. You can soften the sound of a driver but not harden it, so this makes perfect sense why they went this way. I also like the UNR option the same, but it is a much more subtle change.I understand the crossfeed option but it more or less collapses the stereo width so I would just try it as one of many reference points and otherwise leave it off. Most people are listening in headphones anyway so your mix should work without it.As a tracking can these are unforgiving which may be worse for the less confident but better for hearing parts buried in the rough mix one should be responding to. A critical listening can I would say. And the 32ohms is LOUD. Very high output! Be careful accordingly.The cable I understand can be a problem, it's the fairly standard mini jack (is that 1/16"?) but it has a friction grabber rather than the Sennheiser/Neumann twist lock thing. Who knows if I will be able to get official replacements again, but...I yanked the cable from the NDH-20s which are available here and it fit in there fine and stayed put. Speaking of the NDH-20, those are much heavier and less comfortable but they are a more refined sound than these, one would hope so for the price. I do like the fact the cable can go in either ear as you prefer! That also gives a backup jack, those jacks can be impossible to replace.A good price and ADAM gives nice free plugins on the account sometimes and I've enjoyed ADAMs since I got the S3As years ago. I think this review will steer you exactly right with these. Apparently the higher end models are even better. And btw, these do not sound or feel like Beyers AT ALL no idea why a reviewer elsewhere said that. This is like an updated HD280/380 but with a Sonnox-developed plugin that works well.