|
The sound is warm and natural, slightly analytical, and dynamic. I own both Grado SR225 and Sennheiser HD-595 headphones. At its current price of about $185.00 delivered, the HD-595 is a bargain. And the HD-595 is very comfortable.I like both headphones, but most of my listening will be with the HD-595 because of the great soundstage, dynamics, and comfort. The HD-595 lacks the ultimate clarity of the SR225, but they do something the SR225 doesn't--and that's throw a realistic soundstage. It's almost as if you're not listening to headphones.
I know this isn't very technical but to me they sound amazing and are easily the best headphones I've owned, albeit the most expensive headphones I've purchased. Also, I have many fans in my computer which creates quite a bit of noise, but I don't hear the fans when listening to these headphones. After about an hour of listening, I realized how muddy my Bose headphones sounded. I use my 595's primarily for music, however, I am also a pretty hardcore gamer.
However, after listening for a while I started to hear things more clearly than I had ever heard them on my Bose. I've been looking into perhaps a Little Dot amplifier to get the most out of my 595's, but I'm uncertain as to whether an amp is a wise investment with the 595's due to their low impedance. So in conclusion, the sound quality is excellent. The headphones are very comfortable and can be worn for hours upon hours just listening to music or gaming with friends. Eventually sound went out on the left, I took it to Bose and they replaced it on the spot, really awesome customer service.
But I digress]. Using abx, it's very difficult for me to differentiate between flac and 320kpbs. Also, I wear glasses and I have a pretty big head and they are really comfortable. I was looking for an entry level audiophile headphone for quite a while.
Scrimming is a lot more fun now too.I use my 595's directly into my computer's sound card which is a HT Omega Claro+. Not sure whether it's my hearing or the headphones, however I can easily tell the difference between 320kbps and flac on a lot of treble heavy techno songs. Everything sounds great. My source is flac and 320kbps mp3 files in Foobar2k. They are not noise canceling in anyway, however.
I was using the Bose around ear headphones for a very long time, but they really didn't hold up very well, very weak cord and plastic pieces falling off. But I just felt I wasn't getting the most of my music with my Bose headphones. I listen to a lot of different music, Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service, Eagles, Queen, The Beatles, Green Day, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, My Chemical Romance, Nada Surf, The Doors, Mozart, etc to just name some bands. If you're a college student living in a dorm, these will probably annoy the hell out of your dorm mate so I wouldn't recommend it for certain situations such as that. Regardless, the music sounds excellent.
I have ended up getting banned from servers due to alleged wallhacks. These headphones are ideal for home listening in my opinion. Also, I wouldn't wear these in public for fear of looking like a dork as well as the very long cord which brings me to my final point.These are open headphones, the sound does leak, even at moderate volumes. The positional audio on the 595's is very accurate.
They are very well built, and the cable is very thick. When I first put on my new Sennheiser 595's I was underwhelmed by the sound versus my Bose pair. If anyone has any input I'd greatly appreciate it. So use at your own risk.
[If you have long hair like I do, make sure you don't pull your hair one way when placing the headphones on your head, it could happen with any pair, but it happened to me with the 595's and my head hurt so bad after a couple of hours of not realizing. Counter-Strike Source I play quite regularly, almost every day.
I can hear the guitars, horns and percussion better and the bass, although very present is also balanced. The HD 595 headphone was shipped promptly and was well packaged by Amazon. It appears that the HD 595 has done this.This was no easy task as the HD 580 had been in Sennheiser's product line-up for many years and produced great sound. As always, Sennheiser has excellent Customer Service and tech support.All in all, the HD 595 produces great to outstanding sound for the price point. The Sennheiser HD 595 are a very good to excellent headphone for the sound and the price point.
The HD 595 is a very good to excellent headphone. Also the ear cups/padding are smaller than the HD 580. The next step up for Sennheiser, the HD 600, is a bit too expensive for me. I'm glad I bought the Sennheiser HD 595.Jon Green However, the bass is not over the top unless you dial in the bass levels well over the treble. After listening to a few different types of music, for example; the Beatles, Stones, The Who, vocals from Barbara Streisand and horns from Chicago, I can hear the differences between the HD 595 and the HD 580.I also called the Customer Service for Sennheiser and spoke with a tech representative to discus the HD 595.
The HD 595 is the successor model to the long established Sennheiser HD 580 headphone. I would have liked the HD 595 more if the ear cups/padding were the same or similar to that of the HD 580. The tech I spoke with took the time and effort to explain the new features and sound quality for the HD 595. First, the new HD 595 had to reach and exceed the performance of the HD 580 in sound quality, materials used and craftsmanship in order to be a success. Also, I noticed the stereo effects are clearer and more evident with the HD 595.It took a while to get adjusted to the HD 595 as I have been listening to the HD 580 for many years and still use the HD 580 headphone. The HD 595 has greater dynamic range, acoustical clarity and has a clean, focused, bright sound.
I have had my HD 580 for at least several years and have been really pleased with the sound quality, construction, wearing comfort and durability.When I received the HD 595, I noticed that Sennheiser had made big changes to the appearance and the construction materials. On the positive features, the HD 595 also comes with a well padded, stitched leather style head set and has a longer cord.Once I started to listen to music with the new HD 595 the real difference was heard.
My daily use of them is in respect to the very high-quality sound that comes from pretty much any source I put in, whether games, films, or video production environments. The cans do not provide overpowered bass that is becoming increasingly common to consumers (ala $40 junk Skullcandys), but are more mid and treble oriented. Negative points against the headphones are under-whelming bass response, and lack of any sound isolation. A negative against the 595s is the lack of sound isolation, that is to say, none. While bass is certainly present, it is not in the amounts that some users desire, perhaps due to the overloaded driving of low frequencies being so common and expected (while not accurate to 'original' sound levels). The rather bulky provided 1/4"->1/8" adapter puts excess weight on small jacks such as an iPod or iPhone, but the sound comes through with satisfactory volumes. If you're a person desiring good looks, these are one of the more appealing form factors of high-level headphones.I strongly recommend the Sennheiser 595s in their audiophile level reproduction of mid-range and treble frequencies, extreme comfort, introductory audiophile level price, low-impedance for portable devices, and good appearance. I commonly spend 4+ hours a day on my computer either gaming, working in Final Cut Pro and Photoshop, or writing web code while listening to iTunes & Winamp.
That being said, many friends (non-audio enthusiasts) are highly impressed by the sound of the 595s, and I greatly enjoy them every time I plug them in. The Sennheiser HD-595 headphones provide excellent sound quality with very low impedance (50 Ohms @ 1KHz) for their size, making them suitable for use on any common electronic device without the use of a headphone amplifier. At medium-high volumes over my ears, they are essentially primary speakers for my computer. As such they can be inappropriate to listen to on airplanes or quiet settings such as a library, they can easily be heard from 30 feet away when volume is at 80 decibels. Weight is relatively high at 270 grams (0.59 pounds), but the head pad is very comfortable in relieving weight from the ears, while adding some bulk for transportation.
As such my headphones must not put excessive weight or pressure on my ears for hours of use as with supra-aural headphones, and I've never reached a point where they became uncomfortable. Though appearances are not a motivating factor in my purchases, I have received compliments on the aesthetics of the 595s and personally believe they look very nice. For the adept consumer or entry-level audiophile, these headphones make for an great, long-term purchase. While the wearer may not hear much of the outside world, the sound does escape. I purchased my headphones eight months ago in June of 2009 for $180, they have withstood my daily use of them very well, lacking any functional or auditory problems, any harm is cosmetic scratches to the paint. Noise-canceling for the listener is non-existent, but this does not mean they are limited to very-quiet environments. Purchasing a headphone amplifier definitely improves the power and sound quality of these headphones, but it is impractical to carry around such equipment during travel or even within the home.I primarily listen to electronic music and rock and roll; the clarity of these headphones is pristine whether on face-melting guitar solos, drawn out pads, or acid synthesizers.
Whatever you are listening to, so will anyone else within the room. For this reason I suggest purchasing a separate adapter such as the Grado or Cardas 1/4"-1/8" adapters.The headphones are full-size, circumaural over-ear headphones, and are exceedingly comfortable for long-term use. Vocals and classical music also come through crystal clear on my 595s, very complex melodies integrating ultra-heavily distorted guitars and synthesizers can bring (very minor) grain to the sound. The cable has yielded no internal breaks, however the provided 1/4"->1/8" adapter's excess weight can lean the plug to one side of the audio jack, possibly creating an intermittent connection.
A really nice feature which sets these headphones apart is that since they are 50 ohm they can be quite easily powered and don't require a separate headphone amp to sound about as good as possible. These headphones are extremely comfortable and not fatiguing at all to listen to. There is probably a better word than balance but what I mean is that nothing overpowers or is underrepresented.
However, I think for the money these HD-595s are hands down one of the best bargains in audio. As much as I like the Grados, they aren't in the same ballpark as the HD-595s although to be fair I paid about twice as much for the HD-595s as I did for the SR-80s. I realize that there are better headphones out there if you are willing to fork over the dough as I have heard Sennheiser HD-650s which run around $400.
Still in this case, I think the 595s DO sound twice as good as the 80s or at least enough of an improvement to make me feel the extra money was well spent.What I really like about the 595s are the dynamics, the clarity, and the overall balance of sound. While to me the 650s definitely sound more refined than the 595s, I don't think they sound close to twice as good, which they would have to in order to make them worth the difference in cost to the 595s.
As a reference, I have had some Grado SR-80s for about 5 years which I really love for listening to rock and blues.
|
