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Member Reviews: Sennheiser HD-518

PKPnytheta47

HD 518 impressions

Posted
By PKPnytheta47

Pros: Big step up from HD 515, Mids and Highs are clear and vivid, Bass is more pronounced but still laid back, Comfortable for long listening sessions.

Cons: Plastic material (still feels and looks good though)

Design - The louvered design is something people will either like or hate. I personally like it since it gives it a very engineered look, just like a German car. The color combination is stylish and gives it a high end feel, very nice use of graphite and black with some silver highlights. I personally prefer these colors versus the 598.   Comfort - The velour pads have an edge in the inside but are still very comfortable, but the 558 pads are still a little bit better, they're rounded on the inside edges and are not as 'springy'. I can still listen to these cans for hours on end though. I also wanted to add that one of the reasons (I assume, aside from making it more...
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bpandbass

A Great Open Backs for Multimedia and Beginners

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By bpandbass

Pros: dark, smooth treble, strong bass impact, very comfortable, easy to drive, sounds good with cheaper amps, excellent for movies and video games

Cons: annoying 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adapter, bass is a bit obese and undistinguished, not the best transparency in mids, vocals are a little veiled

I purchased the HD518s for a good price lightly used, and have been very satisfied with them. They are darker Sennheisers, and have the signature Senn smooth sound. I have never owned Senns before, so these were my first pair. I am fairly used to how AKGs sound, so when I first listened to the HD518s, they initially wowed me with how smooth their mids and highs were, and how strong the bass was. There definitely is a "wow" factor when you first listen to them, especially if you listen to brighter, leaner sounding headphones. They are all plastic, but feel well made. They have that Sennheiser vice grip on the head, but you get accustomed to the grip, they do not present a comfort problem....
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jds491r

Awesome

Posted
By jds491r

Pros: Sound, Comfort, Looks

Cons: Plastic

Bought refurbished and well worth the money
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pornstarxkr

Immersive at least.

Posted
By pornstarxkr

Pros: mids,bass,relaxing/indirect [not inside-head]sound,equalizes however you want.

Cons: instrument separation,supressed treble, detailing.

I had to choose between this and hd 558 ,and after consideration i knew the 558 will take my expenses far ,with the requirement of amp and a new source dap to sound atleast good .Also it was very analytical,neutral ...not for me.   I don't know how it fares with different sources but i use it with a mobile[no amp] and it sounds good,but not so with my desktop[onboard].My motherboard is from 2009, so may be new motherboards can provide good output. Voices ,both male and female sounds very good,  and it has bass but not the deep rich bass sound the packaging would led you to believe. .I had a denon  d310 before it and i thought it had good bass but after spending time...
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atarim

Sennheiser HD 518 Impressions

Posted
By atarim

Pros: Bass, soundstage, comfy, great all-arounders

Cons: Vocals in music

Hello,   I would like to share my impressions of my first a bit more decent headphones - Sennheiser HD-518. I'm no audiophile, so this review will be more for a "normal" people, who want to use it not just for music, but for games and movies too.   Build quality and design     Headphones is all plastic, so no suprises where. It have strange grills that could look a bit silly, but hey, you will not go out with them outside. You could and I did it few times, but cable is just too long, you end up in wire mess + headphones are open, so no isolation from outside noise, you just don't enjoy your music with these outside.   Pads are made just for...
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TerminalDeath6

Great Headphones for a great price

Posted
By TerminalDeath6

Pros: Comfy, Good for long listening sessions, Great sound

Cons: long cord

First off id like to say i am not an audiophile and this is the second time on this forum that ive wrote a review.   Now with that said these headphones are really great and well worth the money i paid for em. The sound i bright and the highs and mids are clear and crisp and the bass is not at all overpowering which i personally love about them. They are quite an improvement from the HD 202s that i have.   When i first got these i put them on and at first it didnt seem all that different from my 202s till i went and put my 202s on and realized that i was very wrong. The highs and mids seemed to muddled due to the bass. So i put the 518s on and i could just hear how...
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AlMargheim

Everything I Hoped It Would Be Now That I've Replaced the Cable

Posted
By AlMargheim

Pros: Sounds great, comfortable, plenty of volume with my HTC Rezound

Cons: Factory cable not optimum for portable music players

I bought my HD-518 after Christmas to use with my HTC Rezound Android phone at work. I spent hours researching headphones and finally concluded that the HD-518s were a good bet to meet my requirements for good sound, good comfort, good build quality, and reasonable cost.   The only thing I didn't like about the HD-518 was the 6.3mm (1/4") plug and long cable. Fortunately, Sennheiser is now selling a shorter replacement cable with a 3.5mm plug. I have to say that the HD-518 and short cable work well together and sound great to my ears. I've spent lots of hours listening to a wide variety of music at work (mostly on Spotify), but some from ripped WMAs from my own CD...
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HolyCheese

Absolutely wonderfull

Posted
By HolyCheese

Pros: Soundstage/seperation!!, Covers all music styles, Great value.

Cons: Only minor ones, see review.

I will post a longer review when I have time but I just wanted to give some attention to these great headphones.   I really love them, these headphones have a HUGE enjoying factor. These are my first headphones and I really fell in love with music and headphones. I have heard ALOT of other headphones but there were very few that had the enjoyment factor of these. Cross off all the closed cans (lack of soundstage) and bright cans and there are very few headphones left.   -They sound like the hd650. Not quality like ofcourse, but if you like the hd650 you will like these.  -They are easy to drive. They sound good out of a high end motherboard (sabertooth 990fx)...
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MarcosRV

People need to discover this gem.

Posted
By MarcosRV

Pros: Embraces all music genres, super comfortable, not so expensive.

Cons: After 6 months of use, still haven't found any.

First of all, I still didn't have the opportunity of using an HD 598, which is the 500 series flagship. So I can only compare what I know about the 518 with what people talk about the 598.   Many reviewers say the HD 598 has a great soundstage with beautifully fluid highs and mids, but lacks punch in bass. A lot of users say these same things about it, so I assume these characteristics are true. The 598 was my first option, but sincerely I think those body colors are ugly, and they still cost too much for my possibilities. So, when I saw the 518, with the same appearance but nice design/colors and promise of almost same sound quality without spending too much, I didn't think...
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akshayshah12

Best entry level Audiophile headphones!

Posted
By akshayshah12

Pros: Very comfortable, Rich and Laid back bass, industrial looks

Cons: None so far

I was initially confused between HD 558 and HD 518 at the time of buying, but then some articles and forums on Head-fi helped me to decide for HD 518 as these were best bang for the buck and HD 558 did not justify their cost premium over these in terms of quality. Out of the box they did not sound boring. After few hours of burn in the became a little bit more tighter in sound. I tried them with Fiio E10, did not feel the significant change apart from tighter bass, so i think they might not necessarily require Amp/DAC to sound great. Any ways my impressions on the basic metrics of headphones review goes like this: Design : For some it may look ugly but i liked the industrial looks of...
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