Probably said many times, but to me:
1) SR80 doesn't have 'the best' sound; many call them Gratos; as per grating. They sound ok'ish at best.
2) lack of comfort; really not very comfortable when compared to say Sennheiser or others. Headband isn't even padded... VS a senn 598 it's night and day!
3) SR80 pads are awful; doesn't sit over your ears (pads sitting on your head), pads kinda half sits on top of your ears, with the hard plastic resting on your ears..... Really horrible design, was OK 20-30 years ago maybe, but today..... Awful.
4) the worse cable in the universe ........ Doesn't bend, and when it's bent because it was in storage, you can't bend it back so it's always all crooked and twisted, and the headphones are not straight when the cable is in its natural 'straightness', so under tension when in normal position, there's never a 'right' position, always wonder if one side is rotated 360 degrees that twists the cable funny, so you turn it 360 but that doesn't fix, so you try the other and it's not better, it's just always just twisted funny, never sits right because it doesn't bend right.. bleargh!
So they're not entirely awful, but they're pretty awful by today's standards.
Couple years ago replaced the pads with some extra large pads (like on higher end grados) and added a faux-leather/foam headband from ali, helped a lot for comfort, but just can't groove with the sound. Which reminded me that they sell headphone drivers. I really wonder if purchasing drivers (say $50 for pair?) and replacing Grado drivers could transform them and make them sound good/great? Maybe also put some sockets and replace the cable... Since the SR80s were like 100 bucks at the time, can't have super great drivers in them, think there was a thread on head-fi about that.. hmmm..