Are the Sennheisers HD598's worth the money? - Page 3

Hello Zombie_X, 

 

Don't worry I believe you. But it's very possible that you may have been subjected to listening bias (like everyone else, even the best of audiophiles) because you assumed the drivers were the same. They are not. The guy who told you was misinformed. If you look into the forums and online website reviews, people will tell you otherwise that the drivers are different. And even the difference in the grills will change the sound. Don't forget that the HD 558/598 follow an angled driver design, a unique concept only given to another headphone: the HD 800. 

 

It's interesting how the mind works. Two days ago I was able to completely tell apart between FLAC and 256 kbps file of this one particular music. It was like day and night. Today, I cannot tell the difference. As far as I'm concerned, my perceptions (or possibly bias) did not change. But iono. Maybe my ears are just not very responsive today. Who knows. The same thing may have happened to you. 

Here's another interesting thing..if I sometimes listen to 3-4 fairly neutral headphones with portable devices, they'll often sound so similar with specific music. I found this just so bizarre. When connecting them up to my main setup, it's about 5x easier. That's with my HRT DAC and Micro Amp.

 

I remember this stupid thing happening to me where I had one song and I could not tell the difference between the HD-600 and HD-650!! When switching to acoustic music it was extremely easy. They say the HD-650 is less grainy than the HD-600, but I could only spot the differences in specific music.

 

I wonder how the drivers comes from Sennheiser..if they're included with the plastic baffle or you need to glue them in place. I can't imagine they'd expect you to pry out the actual driver since it's glued in place.

 

I just forgot the 598 had angled drivers too...duh.

I had the HD598's for a short period of time, enough though to allow for burn in of the drivers. Driving them from a Fiio E10 I was unimpressed with the quantity and quality of bass produced by the transducers. It seemed quite weak to me. 

The HD595s at least don't sound very good when underpowered.  I heard my HD595 out of an E7 before and wasn't impressed.

wow crazy thread o.O

anyway the 5x8 series is different from the 5x5, for me the 5x8 have a little more bass and a bit wider soundstage. also the 598 is a bit brighter than all the others. I did this comparsion like 2 weeks ago
to OP i think the 598 are worth around 200 us dollars.

 

The design and materials of the 598 housing looks pretty much the same as 595 to me. Only real dif I see are colors and trim. I'm going with zombie's opinion on this one and think the rest of you are falling for psycho-acoustics, you are imagining sound differences that are really not there. Happens all the time.

 

It's like those ortho Fostex headphones. I told a friend about how people are claiming they sound super good after dampening mods are done to them so he bought a pair and we modded them. They sounded like all mids prior to the mods and they sounded like all mids after the mods too. That is the opinion of both him and me and is not something I made up in my mind alone. Glad I didn't waste my money on a pair anyway because I do not enjoy the hard mid sound they have. They are horrible for music listening IMO and sound far more "plasticy" than 595. In fact, 595 do not sound plasticy at all anyway.

Edited by Schonen - 7/27/12 at 12:41pm

double post

 

Where is the delete post option?

Edited by Schonen - 7/27/12 at 12:41pm

BS. 595 also have an angled driver. Look it up, it was one of the main advertising points that Sennn put out.

I actually prefer HD558 over HD598. To my ears, HD558 is slightly brighter, have slightly more bass and a smaller soundstage (not as deep). HD598, because of a bigger soundstage, sound hollow to me. Eventually, I returned my HD598 and have been enjoying my HD558 in the office. They are very listenable straight out of my Sony S545.

Have you taken both 595 and 598 apart and looked up the part numbers? Zombie has and the part numbers are the same so I can only conclude you are wrong and he is right.

That's interesting. I heard the HD 558 is actually darker though you're probably right about the bass of it. The HD 598's soundstage makes it pretty versatile with nearly all genres. I love it for classical, jazz, and acoustics. I can live with that soundstage with metal music and electronic music, though it can sound a bit slow sometimes. And of course, I use these for games and movies so the soundstage is important there too. But I can totally understand why some people would prefer the HD 558. 

 

Hello Schonen, 

 

No I have not had the chance to open them apart. There are many who will testify that the drivers are different. And even more people will tell you that they sound DIFFERENT. Off the top of my head, I know Headfonia did a review comparison between the HD 558/ 598/ 595. MadLustEnvy tested out many different headphones for gaming and he notes a significant difference between the HD 595/ PC 360 (remodified HD 595) with the HD 598 in gaming performance. It doesn't take an audiophile to hear the differences between the two. I think I read somewhere from an official Sennheiser distributor that the drivers were different. There are plenty of reviews testifying to this. You just have to look them up. It's not the same case where a modded HD 555 = HD 595. That has already been proven. 

From my experience, they both share a similar sound signature - laidback, maybe a tad slow. The HD 598 clearly sounded  brighter, perhaps because it had a trifle stronger treble emphasis. But its soundstage and bass were just far superior. Go grab some FLAC files and listen to them side by side if you don't believe me. 

 

Orthodynamic headphones tend to be mid-centric. Damping isn't really going to change that. Are you sure there was absolutely no difference after you damped it? There shouldn't be a crazy shift in FR to V-shaped or anything, but you should probably at least hear a difference.The damped ortho's I've heard definitely sounded better than they did stock.

You know, I think I have a guess as to why the HD595 and HD598 sound different.  Simply enough, the HD595 is older.  The older and more used a dynamic speaker is, the more the treble drops off.  It could very well be that the HD595s have just been more broken in.  Of course, I could just be terribly wrong, it is just a theory.
 

Can we put this thing away using REAL evidence, once and for all?

 

I won't make comments about the sound of them, cause that's a subjective matter. For some they (555, 595, 558 & 598) might sound identical and for others not. We don't share the same hearing so it's impossible to came to a conclusion and call it truth.

 

That being said, the construction of the HD 598 it's clearly different to the other 3 in the bunch. The HD 555 and HD 595 are virtually identical, with that foam piece being the only difference.

 

The HD 558 shares a similar concept to the older two, but it's not identical to them. The holes in its cups are of larger size. And it's not covered by a grill on the outside, only by some fabric mesh.

 

Then it's the top of the line, HD 598, which has a totally different type of internal. A much wider "spyderweb like" structure, with huge large spaces to maximize the airy and spaciousness sound. And unlike the HD 558, it also has a type of paper dampening material between the core structure and external grills. While HD 558 is all plastic, HD 598 has metal grills.

 

Here's how it looks on the inside HD 558 vs HD 598:

 

 

Now let's go to the important part, the drivers and the evidence. The new models and the old ones DO NOT share the same drivers. They apparently share between them in each series (tweaked or not). 555 with 595, and 558 with 598.

You can notice serious differences in the following photos. As i stated the HD 555 and HD 595 are virtually identical.

 

Now look at the drivers of the HD 558 and HD 598. The magnet it's different, and the driver has four vents, which might explain why some people believe the new models have increased bass response.

 

Case closed?

Not necessarily on the case closed.  Has anyone took the grille apart on the HD595 and HD555?  There are quite a few people that claim that the bass is a bit flabby on the modded HD555 compared to the HD595.  That being said, it is a pretty good analysis.

 

Edit:  Also, has anyone noticed the red dot on the HD555's driver?  Guarantee that it is binned.  Also, I have a feeling that it would be a total crapshoot if you try to replace the driver in your HD595/HD555 as to the quality of the driver since they are the same part number.

 

Edit 2:  Check this out.  Doesn't make a whole lot of sense that the HD595 seems better dampened than the HD555.  If anything, due to the piece of foam, you would expect if it was the exact same driver (and they aren't binned) that the HD555 would have a more controlled (but not necessarily better) square wave response.  This however, is definitely not the case, and the HD595 is more controlled.

 

Edited by linuxid10t - 8/26/12 at 11:31am