[audioKyle]

It's the earpads. The soften and used earpads will add more thickness to the lower half of the spectrum while the new earpads will be dryer and crisp. I switched the shop's demo HD598 earpads from its stock one to mine and the difference was quite noticeable.

Interesting. That's probably the case.

"Oh I just bought and returned/exchanged K701 25 times before getting a 'perfect one' to keep."

Never heard of that before but i guess sometimes people in this hobby can be a bit obsessive. :rolleyes:

 

[joshwalnut]

Quote:

a bit obsessive

 
Hahahaha.... wait.. wait..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
 
Most of us have OCD and enjoy paint chips.

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

These are still my favorite. Got them for $130 open box on Amazon from some company called VMInnovations. Wow they sell refurbished ones for $100, that's a steal. How does Sennheiser manage to make them sound real good, yet not too revealing of poor sounding tracks? My Koss TBSE, and V6 sound so revealing compared to these.

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

These are still my favorite. Got them for $130 open box on Amazon from some company called VMInnovations. Wow they sell refurbished ones for $100, that's a steal. How does Sennheiser manage to make them sound real good, yet not too revealing of poor sounding tracks? My Koss TBSE, and V6 sound so revealing compared to these.

 
Really, I had the Koss TBSE and thought it sounded way more lush and smoothed over than the HD558. The Koss isn't nearly as revealing or articulate, but is probably less fatiguing.

 

[teb1013]

These are still my favorite. Got them for $130 open box on Amazon from some company called VMInnovations. Wow they sell refurbished ones for $100, that's a steal. How does Sennheiser manage to make them sound real good, yet not too revealing of poor sounding tracks? My Koss TBSE, and V6 sound so revealing compared to these.

I've had my refurbs ($105 USD at Amazon) for 6 months now. Truly as good as new.

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

Quote:

 
Really, I had the Koss TBSE and thought it sounded way more lush and smoothed over than the HD558. The Koss isn't nearly as revealing or articulate, but propbably less fatiguing.

I hear the opposite; the TBSE seems more articulate and I can't listen to it for long periods of time because the highs are fatiguing for me. The HD558 I could listen to all day, and is pretty warm. Anyways, mine are developing cracks on the sides but I hate to live without them for a week. Should I replace them now or just wait until they get worse? I'm not sure. lol.

 

[streetdragon]

Quote:

I hear the opposite; the TBSE seems more articulate and I can't listen to it for long periods of time because the highs are fatiguing for me. The HD558 I could listen to all day, and is pretty warm. Anyways, mine are developing cracks on the sides but I hate to live without them for a week. Should I replace them now or just wait until they get worse? I'm not sure. lol.

Try loosening the screws on the opposide part of the cracked part of the headphones (inside part), hope that would relief some of the stress on the headband.

 

[joshwalnut]

You must have the old version, i think they fixed that with the newer versions in early 2012 with the stress cracks. Phew! I thought i was in trouble there! lol
 
I used my Fiio e10 constantly for the past 6 months with the 558's. I thought i'd try and experiment with my laptop output jack the other day. (when i first got the e10 i didn't here THAT much of a difference). But now, it's like night and day. The bass and the mids lost all of their fullness and the highs were less bright but still the same pretty much... and obviously it wasn't as loud... not nearly as loud. Yuck. I'm not sure if my ears got trained to good sound quality (i'm a newb) or my e10 "burned in"... i honestly could not tell you. That's just with a $60 amp/dac... i wonder what a $500 solid state or tube amp would do....? 

 
UPDATE: I was talking to streetdragon recently and he said he puts his amp on high gain with the 558's... so me... being me, thought i would also try it out on my e10 (even though it's a different amp). Well... COT DAMN! The music seems more fuller everywhere (i also now have to turn off bass boost or the bass gets crazy)... what the hell was i doing on low gain this whole time? I'm now re-thinking of not getting a closed can for EDM... 

 
P.S. i only notice a difference when i turn it up to high volumes... when it's on medium volume there doesn't seem to be any differences i can pick up. It's when i turn them up i can here a pretty drastic increase in different areas.

 

[Stricker]

I bought these headphones today. They sounded great on my phone, and when I came up, I tried them some more in games and music. Nice, but not really all that exciting.
I often felt discomfort while wearing them for the hour I used them at home, and had to frequently take them on and off. It reminded me of my former Logitech G35 headset that I never found comfortable to wear. I removed the Sennhesiers and I could feel slight discomfort up to 2 hours after having taken them off! Has anyone else had this experience with the headphones, or am I just much too sensitive to things on my head? Because while I have larger an average ears, they're not particularly big and they fit well in the cups, but it was still uncomfortable.

 

[joshwalnut]

  I bought these headphones today. They sounded great on my phone, and when I came up, I tried them some more in games and music. Nice, but not really all that exciting.
I often felt discomfort while wearing them for the hour I used them at home, and had to frequently take them on and off. It reminded me of my former Logitech G35 headset that I never found comfortable to wear. I removed the Sennhesiers and I could feel slight discomfort up to 2 hours after having taken them off! Has anyone else had this experience with the headphones, or am I just much too sensitive to things on my head? Because while I have larger an average ears, they're not particularly big and they fit well in the cups, but it was still uncomfortable.

 
Give them time to break in. I too found them a little uncomfortable at first because of the clamping pressure. Now they're the most comfortable headphones. I can wear them all day if i wanted to now.

 

[Mackem]

Wonder how these will sound with EDM through my Xonar DG if I set the gain to the highest..

 

[Stricker]

I've also noticed that the music easily sounds crackled, like someone's crumbling paper next to your ears if the volume is set to highish. Is this normal? I'm afraid I might have a faulty unit.
 
Okay, this can't be right. I just tried plugging in my Porta Pros, the crackling effect is also there, but much less noticeable, and I have to turn the volume up even higher to hear it.

 

[teb1013]

I bought these headphones today. They sounded great on my phone, and when I came up, I tried them some more in games and music. Nice, but not really all that exciting.
I often felt discomfort while wearing them for the hour I used them at home, and had to frequently take them on and off. It reminded me of my former Logitech G35 headset that I never found comfortable to wear. I removed the Sennhesiers and I could feel slight discomfort up to 2 hours after having taken them off! Has anyone else had this experience with the headphones, or am I just much too sensitive to things on my head? Because while I have larger an average ears, they're not particularly big and they fit well in the cups, but it was still uncomfortable.

As joshwalnut said, these seem tight for a couple of hours and are then super comfortable. These do sound OK unamped, but really come into their own with a little amping. The Fiio e7 did pretty well. A desktop amp (in my case Aune T1) is a knockout.

 

[joshwalnut]

  I've also noticed that the music easily sounds crackled, like someone's crumbling paper next to your ears if the volume is set to highish. Is this normal? I'm afraid I might have a faulty unit.
 
Okay, this can't be right. I just tried plugging in my Porta Pros, the crackling effect is also there, but much less noticeable, and I have to turn the volume up even higher to hear it.

 
What are you plugging it into? An amp? Or just your normal output jack on your computer?
 
No, that is not normal... one of your sources is to blame, or both of your headphones are faulty. Try another computer or ipod and see if it happens again.

 

[palmfish]

Sounds like clipping to me. Playing too loud?