well ive heard both, and im not a big cdt fan at all. I didnt get to play with them much so i cant really go into detail, but mainly what u said about the hd's having more midbass and the es being more dynamic hits the nail on the head. IMO the Hd's do not sound that good, there sound isnt good enough for how much they cost, The ES's dont get me wrong here there very very strong mids that sound very good but again very pricey. The prices i was quoted was quite a bit high for both so i looked elsewhere.

Another set you might want to check are rainbow germaniums(sp?) and dls iridiums(sp?) i think i spelled both of those wrong. lol. But anyways there both great sets all around, jus another thing to add to the fun of finding a comp set