Mine are 71's with the extension, the fact that your's are 71's without, may explain Cris's: his had no extension. I love the 71's and I dispute: The bass sounds much crisper than the Sennheisers.
Generally I only use the cheapest, because it's mainly spoken word I listen to in the night and I ruin them when I roll over in my sleep: 3.99 either currency is top whack!
Has anyone tried the noise cancelling version? I would have done, but Mrs.Boxer hasn't been bothering me so much lately. I can't help but think that the noise cancelling feature couldn't be built into some Rio software at some point: just a thought!