Sennheiser HD 598 Appreciation Thread - Page 2

Thanks Blindness for pointing me to this thread.

I like the sound of the HD598 a lot but find myself confronted with the same headband problem:

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/534963/sennheiser-hd-598-starting-to-crack/15#post_7317290

Contacted my dealer today, my preferred course of action is paying for an upgrade to the sturdier HD650 as I lost confidence in the build quality of the HD598 (what if I end up getting an old version replacement?). I'm awaiting their response.

Your welcome!

I also thought about upgrading to HD6x0, but the fact is that I prefer the sound of the HD598. :) Sure it's less audiophile in many aspects but in my opinion it's the most musical headphone that Sennheiser offer (Well, in the acceptable price range anyways, I didn't had the luck yet to try the HD800). I wonder too if they recalled all the "old" ones, or I have to wait till the service runs out of the a "cracky" one, so I don't get one of those again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bacci 

Thanks Blindness for pointing me to this thread.

 

I like the sound of the HD598 a lot but find myself confronted with the same headband problem:

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/534963/sennheiser-hd-598-starting-to-crack/15#post_7317290

 

Contacted my dealer today, my preferred course of action is paying for an upgrade to the sturdier HD650 as I lost confidence in the build quality of the HD598 (what if I end up getting an old version replacement?). I'm awaiting their response.

Well, maybe read the thread you're posting into? :) Or at least this post.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rasmutte 

I bought mine in november, and they're starting to crack!

What should I do?

Got myself a Sennheiser 558, and having the same impedance as the 598 here I am actually pretty impressed by the sound coming from my Realtek HD ALC888, the volume is very solid and stable, and more than I need during games.

When listening to music Its pretty good too in regard of the volume but when listening to heavy bass songs I wouldnt mind if the volume was ocassionally a bit higher but that can be solved by increasing the sound level on each mp3 file on iTunes. It is like experiencing a whole new level with my songs and movies as well! I am really stunned going from a HD 202, though my old one here did please me for a long time now but cant stand having them on more than an hour since the earmuff rest on my ears!

Anyway I actually wanna get the Sennheiser 598 but i've heard that many people having issues with cracks on them? What is that all about?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosmadi Mahmood 

Hi Headstar,

 

We've changed the material of the headband of the HD 598. You may bring in your HD 598 to the nearest Sennheiser service centre together with your receipt / proof of purchase and they'll provide you with a replacement unit.

 

Cheers!

 

 I'd like to hear a little bit more about this, Rosmadi. Does this mean Senn were deluged with returns? Are they admitting an error in choice of materials? Is this going to send them broke (no, don't answer that)?

Just curious.   

I don't get how people can listen to these off onboard sound and be happy with them, maybe its just my music preferance, but without an amp I found them slow, boring, grainy, and a little muddy. Since I didn't want to invest in an amp I returned them,  I  had them for about 1-2 weeks and there were no cracks. I guess I got lucky with that. For the record I listen to very fast and very heavy metal, and some electronica and blues. It did great with the electronic genres, and ok with the blues, but for metal it was a complete letdown. However after trying these I cannot go back to my Grados, I now know what a soundstage is. Take my impressions with a grain of salt though, as I only could try them out of onboard sound and my dad's stereo, which is just an old Sony 5 slot CD player.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosmadi Mahmood 

 

Quote:

 

Here in Sennheiser, our products need to pass through stringent quality tests before they are released to the market. However, there may be instances where a small batch of products may still suffer some undesired quality issues. In this case, we've heard of customers writing in about cracks on their HD 598 headbands. But this does not mean that all units of HD 598 that we've produced will crack after a few days of usage.

 

Nevertheless, we've decided to act on this by changing the material to improve and make it even better. And you may rest assure that we'll stand by our 2-year warranty claim. So long as you bring in your HD 598 with your receipt / proof of purchase to our service centres, we'll provide you with a replacement unit. 

 

Cheers!

 

I'm always glad to see manufacturer's posting on head-fi, being forward about their products and any issues. To see such a large company as Sennheiser posting is a pleasant surprise!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosmadi Mahmood 

Here in Sennheiser, our products need to pass through stringent quality tests before they are released to the market. However, there may be instances where a small batch of products may still suffer some undesired quality issues. In this case, we've heard of customers writing in about cracks on their HD 598 headbands. But this does not mean that all units of HD 598 that we've produced will crack after a few days of usage.

 

Nevertheless, we've decided to act on this by changing the material to improve and make it even better. And you may rest assure that we'll stand by our 2-year warranty claim. So long as you bring in your HD 598 with your receipt / proof of purchase to our service centres, we'll provide you with a replacement unit. 

 

Cheers!

Thanks for clearing that up Rosmadi. I'm very interested in purchasing one of these in the future.

But may I ask, what kind of material has been used to improve the cracking issue? Or is it just extra fortified?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MohawkUS 

I don't get how people can listen to these off onboard sound and be happy with them, maybe its just my music preferance, but without an amp I found them slow, boring, grainy, and a little muddy. Since I didn't want to invest in an amp I returned them,  I  had them for about 1-2 weeks and there were no cracks. I guess I got lucky with that. For the record I listen to very fast and very heavy metal, and some electronica and blues. It did great with the electronic genres, and ok with the blues, but for metal it was a complete letdown. However after trying these I cannot go back to my Grados, I now know what a soundstage is. Take my impressions with a grain of salt though, as I only could try them out of onboard sound and my dad's stereo, which is just an old Sony 5 slot CD player.

I wouldn't expect them to do that well for metal. They aren't meant for it.

Ah! I wish you could have briefly compared the HD598 and the AD900 before you sent them back. I'm curious.

I use them primarily for metal, including some of the most sick types of it, and I don't have any issues with them, actually I found them quite good with it, especially with progressive metal. Maybe black metal sounds a bit strange, but I think it's due to the fact that BM recordings are far from hi-fi quality, thus the production errors really come forward.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katun 

 

Thanks for clearing that up Rosmadi. I'm very interested in purchasing one of these in the future.

 

But may I ask, what kind of material has been used to improve the cracking issue? Or is it just extra fortified?

 

I wouldn't expect them to do that well for metal. They aren't meant for it.

 

Ah! I wish you could have briefly compared the HD598 and the AD900 before you sent them back. I'm curious.

They will probably add Nylon into the plastic , thats what Monster did to fix the Solos.

That's how my HD558 sound out of the line-out jack of the Xonar DS. Connect them to the HP output on the front and they're a totally different beast, much leaner, cleaner and precise bass and everything. They do need a bit of juice to sound good. It has something to do with the impedance spike around 80 Hz, I guess.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MohawkUS 

I don't get how people can listen to these off onboard sound and be happy with them, maybe its just my music preferance, but without an amp I found them slow, boring, grainy, and a little muddy.