If you're listening to headphones in noisy conditions, a stronger response in the lower end is a greatly desired trait - a bump in the bass (done right) will give a feeling of rhythm that engages and draws you into the music, but loose and flabby bass will make your music sound muddy.

Drawing on Sennheiser's engineering experience, the Urbanite and Urbanite XL do this right with a "better, not louder" approach. The headphone targets a frequency response that gives you that impressive and seductive lower end while still preserving the clear mids and highs you expect from a Sennheiser product.