Headphones you regretted buying the most - Page 12

My biggest regret is buying the Bose Tri-ports, not once but twice when my first pair broke Looking back I spent close to the same price for my triport as I did my HD595's. Well now I have been awakened to the sound of high quality headphones and will never go back to bose!

I am surprised how much negativity there is towards the HD595's on this page. Yes the sound isn't the greatest for music, but I think it is a great entry level headphone as it can be used for movies, music, games, etc. I have now moved on to Grado's as they suit my music tastes better, but I in no way regret buying my 595's.

Shure E4C - I keep reading about how it's very neutral, but found it to be bass-shy and a bit sibilant. EQ'ing helped, and I'd have been happy with it until it got fried by a bad airline adapter.

Westone 3 - It's smooth and very comfortable, but the bass hump is too much for my taste (I prefer accuracy/neutrality over the "fun" sonic signature) and the treble is recessed as well (not enough "air" at the top).

Equation RP-21 - For its price it's quite good, but it's not that comfortable and there's a bit of a spike in the lower treble that causes ear-fatigue due to sibilance. I would recommend spending a little more and get the Audio-Technica ATH-M50 instead.

Sennheiser HD600 - It's actually very good, but I immediately traded up to a HD650 because the HD600's bass is not as prominent as what I consider accurate. The HD650 get's closer, but still need a bit more punch/oomph to sound like high-quality reference monitor speakers with extended sub-bass capabilities.

You may have missed the point of my post, which was that the 595 IS the greatest for music--in fact, unbeatable in its class. As for Grado, I bought an SR80 once and ran screaming from the room, my ears bleeding. Noooooo! To me, nothing like live music at all.

A previous poster noted that the phones he considered "superior" to the 595 were fatiguing. I suggest that any phone that's fatiguing is not a good phone, since that's one of the chief indicators of quality: the ability to listen for long periods without fatigue.

Same thing happened to me when I tried out the SR60's for a while. They were absolutely horrible and felt like they were making my ears bleed as well. That said, I love my HF-1's as much as my 595's, just in a different way. And the 595's with the bithead... it's like perfect sound, for hours and hours and hours at a time without fatigue.

I have to believe that these people who say the 595's are all midrange are not giving much thought to soundstage or are used to closed phones. Tiny details, highs and powerful bass are right there in the 595's, but there is a lot of headroom and everything is spread out in a spacious and lovely presentation. I have heard tiny sounds in the 595's that I can't hear in any other phone without concsciously listening for them, ESPECIALLY those godawful k701's and certainly the DT770's. Maybe the 595 haters are expecting the bass and highs to show up right in front of your face, but this not their style or their soundstage. These are not Grados, or etys, and I can't even say about the K701s because those things have detail with no substance to back it up.

But as I have said before, I believe the K701's must require a ton of power, because my mid-power amps did not satisfy them, and I respect the people here enough to believe there must be good in the K701's somehow, some way.

For those who are debating whether to buy the 595's... just notice that most of us who have them and love them have had them for years, and we actually LOVE them, as opposed to being happy or content with them. There is a reason for this. The 595's were kind of a little sideline project of Sennheiser and there is just no way they would be getting this kind of attention if they didn't deserve the hype, even after all these years. These things are OLD now!!

Denon AH-D2000
Sennheiser HD380

Sorry I should have said this thread instead of page, as I was generally speaking that a lot people seemed to dislike them. I agree with you and spinneresque's opinions, as I feel that music sounds great with the 595's. Especially given the price range they are in. When I said that music wasn't the greatest, I meant that are other genre specific headphones that may suit peoples needs better. I was honestly shocked at how many people disliked them.

I have used them for watching movies before, but last night I used them and couldn't believe how detailed the sound was. Probably because i am usually too focused on the movie, but once I noticed it I was shocked at how much detail I was hearing.

I can understand how you didn't like the Grados! It seems as though people either love the Grado sound or hate it. I have found the highs on my 325i's to be a bit much on some sounds, but I love the aggressive sound they produce.

Sony MDR 7509HD - I thought the MDR7506 was better. I felt gutted and sold it soon after. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

Oh I know decent quality can be had for cheap but these things I bought? Simply awful. The low end was practically non-existent, mids and highs were tinny and lifeless and the things weren't even the least bit comfortable.

I preferred the stock Apple iPod earbuds to them. Heck, I don't even have them anymore. I threw them out one day as I was cleaning my room to prepare for the Christmas holiday.

ESW10: hardly used it at home, my D7000 reigns. Not brave enough to bring it outdoors. Also have some clamping issues with it (even after the pillow stretch: supraaurals aren't meant for my ears).

So was I, to be honest, especially given that this view is not only out of kilter with the concensus on the Net generally, but even in this forum, where the 595 has never been so well accepted (I've been defending them here since they were first released). But what really got to me was the casual assumption by a couple of posters that everyone accepted that the 595 was no good with music and was purely a gaming and HT phone. I've never heard this suggested before, even by people who don't care for them. The usual criticism is that they're boring, and that's understandable if you're coming from more "colourful" phones--but to say they're no good with music...wow! In fact a good number of people prefer them to the 650, and having done protracted comparisons (I own both) I can see where they're coming from. So how can any phone that can seriously be compared (let alone preferred!) to the 650 be "no good with music".

Take it back, you nasty people, or I'll throw a rock at you!

I understand the arguments in favor of the HD595, but how exactly are they considered a bargain when they're more than twice the cost of the HD555, which uses the exact same drivers?

Sony MDR-V6

They pop up on the For Sale forum quite often for a reasonable price.

Shure SRH840

Another poster in the dedicated thread put it best - absolutely no musicality.

They are flat and I don't mean the measured response, I mean the sound... flat, flat, flat and just plain boring to listen to.

Add to this that they somehow manage to be flat and boring yet at the same time the bass is fat, sloppy, disjointed and overwhelming.

I MUCH preferred the sound of my JVC HA-D700's to the Shure's. Yeah, they aren't as refined sounding but at least they are fun to listen to by comparison.

The only thing that the Shure's excel at IMO is detail. If you're a detail freak then maybe these are the cans for you, otherwise... meh.

Hated 'em.

I guess you don't like neutral sounding cans, monitors for that fact.