I have ended up with the 497's as a result of a plesant surprise on christmas . In my opinion the 497's are just magical for the price

The Senns have endured about 10 hours of burn in and so far:

Bass: well i have finally graduated from the Koss KSC-50's bass. These phones not only deliver smoother , more "present" bass , but also do it nearly effortlessly. Their bass is surrounding , enveloping and fully encompasing. While they do have the absolute slightest mid-bass hump , it dissapears if you dont intentionaly listen for it. While they dont quite thump at your ear-drums its still very satisfying. They could stand to go slightly deeper but theyr not far off perfection (for my ears anyway).

Mids: While the mids are a severe improvement over the Koss's they still have a hint of "artificial" sound to them. They are well represented in vocals , but some instruments such as electric guitar are a bit "off colour" so to speak. The timbre is exelent , not superb. Still there is some elusive element that i havent figure out yet that "massage" the ears , rather than force them to listen. One thing i found about the Koss's was that while you wanted to listen to music , you were sort of discouraged by their sound. The Senn's on the other hand (so far....) have been inviting me back time after time. it could be the fact that theyr new and different though so only time will tell. One thing is for sure , the mids are as Airy as you could get.

Trebble: Here is where the Senn's are nearly outclassed by their cheaper Koss counterparts. While the highs are very very clear, they are not quite as "shinney" as the Koss's. They sort of lack some sort of spark/snap that my ears have gotten used to over my time with the Koss's. I dare say that these phones are , whilst being very clear and smooth, a tad dark in their representation. With a quick tweaking of the EQ on my Sony MZR_909 this phenomenon was cured and im now enjoying my new "reference" cans with little doubt they are the best things my ears have been introduced to. God help me if i one day hear some HD600's.

Hi Cyanide (and all HD497 users...)

I know we were discussing the HD497s on MSN Messenger about me getting a pair of these for portable use, but something you've said in your thread here has alarmed me...

You say that the HD497s are only a little bit better than the KSC-50s in terms of the treble... I personally find the '50s to sound very dull... although it could just be my ears, Bangraman heard my '50s and said that they didn't sound so bad?!

Is it that i'm just not a Koss lover, or have the couple of months that i've had this Aura CD player with high end Senns turned me into an audio snob??

I am still genuinly interested in these for portable use, but want to try and recreate (as much as I can) my home setup within the confines of the portable environment...

Thanks

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Don't worry too much about it - that privilege would do that to anyone with a decent ear for sound.

Just be greatful your precioussss is letting you out of its sight for a few hours... eventually it will control you

cyanaide: enjoy
i agree with you on the very present bass, it is "boomier" than my 590's, tho 590's only have like a few days of burn in vs weeks on 497's
highs get better if you let your ear sit INSIDE the 497 cups, instead of resting them on back edge of your ear. tho you might get sore ears after 2-3 hours.

Duncan: well it could be that i have been too used to phones like the Senn MX500's and Koss's and my ears only need some time to re-adjust to the 497's sound.

The more i think about it , the more im beliving that the trebble is on par with the Koss's , just a mild bit better , but to my very much consumer rather than audiophile ears , the Koss's just reach that extra bit higher. What it is more likey to be is that the very well rounded bass makes the balance of the Senn's more toward dark than bright.

jessica00: I havent had the pleasure of the 590's yet but for now these are doing me just fine ;o)
My ears sit fully inside the cups and the cups rest around the outsides of my ears on the sides of my head. So far i have not been fatigued or pained in any way by them (5 hours straight and there still good) so ill try changing the way they sit to optimze their sound.

Cyanide,

Glad to hear you're getting to enjoy some awesome cans!!! It's always nice to hear when someone gets in some cans that they just enjoy and get lots of listening pleasure from!! Hope you enjoy them and use them for many years to come!!!

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KSC50s very dull???

I've had mine a few days and my immediate impression was boom and tizz. OK, I quite like them, but the top is, IMO, fairly bright. Not so bright, like the Sony EX70 (ouch), that I can't use them, but on bright-ish vocals they get a bit close to going over the top. Oh, and where has the middle disappeared to?

Strange...

It must be my ears then... but I really can find nothing invigorating about the KSC-50s...

Hey... maybe we could compare the two KSC-50s... in case i've got a dud pair... when we do the mini-meet in February?

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Absolutely!

You can also hear my wicked sounding PX200s - which are nowhere near as bright as the KSC50s.

Ironically...

The PX200s through my EJ1000 are brighter sounding than they are through the E905... the EJ1000 generally sounds the darker of the two players... now how does that work out?

GRRRRRRR!!

I just posted about the PX200s vs the Koss, but got an 'This Page Cannot Be Displayed' error

Oh well, we won't bother about that again

Anyways... I'd be really interested in an HD497 vs PX200 shootout, using a Sony D-EJ1000 PCDP!!

Here's hoping

i have a sony DE-j915 (wich id say is pretty damned close to a 1000) and the 497's , anyone willing to provide the PX-200's?
They wont be in Oz for another year i predict , and even then they will be about 80 AUD , approx 45 USD. Damn i hate the non-head-fi'ian AUstralian market....