Just received my 598 used (previous owner had roughly ten hours of burn-in). To be honest, I'm a bit underwhelmed. After a good time spent doing some research, the overall consensus was positive.
Research findings|
Notable pros: soundstage, mids, vocals, design
Notable cons: lack of bass
Personal burn-in time: approx. two hours
I had previously owned an Astro A40, w/ main use for gaming. Imo, they were great for gaming, but for music, they were just decent. I am very new to the audiophile scene, so my critical ear is perhaps a bit more forgiving than others on Head-Fi. To be blunt, the A40 was the first around-the-ear headphone I had ever used. Previously, I had owned a Sennheiser HD 238 (on-the-ear), picking them up at a Best Buy and knowing nothing about the brand and if they were reputable (what a surprise!).
The A40 overall have better bass (being a semi-open design) than my 598, which, in hindsight, I should have been more concerned about, I suppose. However, the bass on the A40 is not as tight/controlled as w/ 598.
Another thing that I will mention is that the 598 seems to be harder to drive (not by much) than the A40, which is interesting, considering they both are listed at 50 ohms. I use an Astro Mixamp, which I presume to be part of issue, and the issue of a lack of bass. I still want to keep the Mixamp, because I would also use the 598 for gaming.
Overall, I expected the bass to be more prevalent, but I guess that's the nature of an open design. Besides the bass, everything else happily meet my expectations for the amount I invested ($180).
* I'm not sure if I should return them for something better. Otherwise, is there something that I could do to improve the bass response, besides a recabling mod? I have a budget of ~$300 to work with.
Possible upgrades(?):
- Denon AH-D2000
- beyerdynamic DT 990
- beyerdynamic DT 880
Edited by invelity - 2/1/12 at 4:06pm
