Of course coated strings do have a slight change in sound, but these are by far the closest to the ''uncoated'' sound... I do love the sound of the Ernie Ball Slinky a bit more, but the difference in longevity is definitely huge. Ernies last for only about a week, up to 10 days for me... These can stay on for months and still sound great. Also love the fact that they break quite a lot less than regular strings. One thing to note, though, is the string tension is a bit higher with these when compared to the same gauge strings from other brand or other series (NY core in these is more tense), I do love that, so I'm ok with that, in fact, one more plus for me, but for someone that wants lower tension, you might want to experiment with lighter gauge than you usually play when switching to these.