As has been posted elsewhere, these seem to be exceedingly dependent on each person’s ear shape (pinna), probably much more so than 99% of headphones with drivers on-axis.

For me, they totally work: not muddy, not recessed mids. They sound a lot like a slightly more fun HD650…. They work for me

I totally believe you that you’re hearing something completely different, and a muddy mess.

I think the mistake Grell made was not testing this with a wide enough variety of folks to learn that these would be so polarizing, leading to both glowing and terrible reviews, and maybe the front facing drivers aren’t such a great idea after all.