[lawrywild]

Knowledgable Head-Fi Users,

I'm looking for a nice pair of full-size headphones to buy (new only) and after researching and reading around, I'm considering the HD555's.

I'm in need of headphones because I'm going to be living in a top floor flat (apartment) next year, and won't be able to play my subwoofer loud and vibrate the floor! I watch a lot of movies with DTS 1.5MBit, FLAC 24Bit or AC3 640KBit and listen to music mainly in mp3 v0 (because of my iPod 5G) but willing to change to FLAC if the headphones enable me to hear the difference!

I will be hooking the headphones up to an X-Fi XtremeMusic (which I have modded with AD8599 Opamps, Panny FM power filter and removed and shorted some other caps in the signal path). So no Creative front panel audio jack, just the rear which I have a 3.5mm splitter on so I don't have to keep switching it to play from the speakers or headphones.

Mainly I listen to Rock but also quite a bit of Drum and Bass, Dance, Techno, Electronic, Hip Hop and (non-heavey) Metal. Oh, and I also game too.

I've read that the HD555's don't have much bass; I don't like tons of bass, but I do like a fair bit so I don't know if that should deviate me from the Sennheiser's...

I also want to spend only around the same amount as the HD555's (so £60-80). Oh yeah almost forgot, they NEED to be comfortable

Thanks for reading, do you think I'll be satisfied with the HD555's?

PS: Creative EP-830s are what I'm using with my iPod, just to randomly say.

 

[lawrywild]

B
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M
P

 

[adiZero]

I liked the HD555 a lot when amped. But since I am more fan of the Grado sound I think Alessandro MS1 is the best buy within this price category ($99 delievered).

 

[lawrywild]

Pretty much everywhere I read said the HD555's don't scale much at all with amplification

What type of music do you like the Grado sound with? What source? I've read the Grado's aren't particularly comfortable and the dual wires could get annoying too...

 

[Rad Librarian]

I owned the hd555 before upgrading to the 595. They are both physically very comfortable.

In my exprience the 555 sounded better unamped though. Amped, I found that they made male voices/singing sound wierd- the tone was just not right. Everything else was fine, but it really bothered me when I listened to songs with male vocalists that I knew well.

I'd recommend saving up for the 595.

 

[lawrywild]

It's almost double the price though, so I won't go that steep for my first headphones, I'm just a student!

I've definitely come to the conclusion from reading around that the 595s are better, but not worth the increase in price for the marginal increase in SQ.. Also, I don't really want to buy an amp; as in OP, I'd rather just plug it straight into my X-Fi..

Anyone want to comment on how the 555s fare with MY music tastes?? It's hard to get a definitive answer as I read conflicting stuff everywhere (and I understand everybodies ears are different) so I'm assuming that they will be fine for pretty much anything I chuck at them. They look teh sex as well!

 

[xnor]

The 555 and 595 are basically the same headphones, but the 555 has a small piece of foam behind the driver (could be removed easily I guess).

 

[adiZero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawrywild /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pretty much everywhere I read said the HD555's don't scale much at all with amplification What type of music do you like the Grado sound with? What source? I've read the Grado's aren't particularly comfortable and the dual wires could get annoying too...

The HD555 does not need an amp to sound good, but there is no doubt that it improves a lot with a nice source and amp. Believe me! (also see what the guys at Headroom write about this...). A lot more punchy and "complete" sound! Actually, it was the HD555 and my first cheap headphone amp that got me into headfi....

Regarding the Grado sound. I think it sounds good with all kinds of music, and the comfort thing isn't that a big issue. For me SQ is much more important.

Source/amp: Beresford 7520/ibasso d10 or my turntable setup....

 

[lawrywild]

Fair enough, but this is for me and not you

: I really need them comfortable for long sessions, otherwise I would just get too annoyed with them to put them on lol. I was hoping to get a few more opinions but nobody but you guys seem interested to help me lol. I reckon the HD555's will serve me well for my first 'phones, and as in OP, I'm obviously open to doing pretty much any mods to make something better

Just gonna wait till my refund on Win 7 Pro pre-order comes through and them can snap these up

 

[Das Mookid]

The HD555 is a great value, and a good introduction to quality headphones.

As has been noted the HD595 is not a large upgrade, the main physicaldifference is the foam backing which can easily be removed (even with the foam present, the impedance and spectrum are close enough matched to within measurement error, which is unsurprising since they use the same driver!). There's a really good thread buried on these forums which contains disections of both cans as well as the head room measured responses for each. The biggest difference is the nice leather headband on the 595s.

My own pair of 555s definitely benefit from amplification (D10), but they certainly don't require it.

As for comfort, both the 555s and 595s are excellent (although, I think this is true for most Senns). They're open so my ears never get sweaty, they're quite light, and the pads are very soft.

For your taste in music (seems a little on the bass side?) the 555s may lack a little punch on the lower end, but they are very nice for gaming because of their respectable sound stage. You definitely need to give these a few hours usage of burn in as well, as it improves the neutrality considerably in my experience.

Anyway, I'd definitely say go for it!

 

[Gbjerke]

get the 555 do the soundstage mod, which supposedly will make them exactly the same as the 595, so good choice right there. For gaming they are pretty good, above average, for non gaming headphones. THe bass is lacking, but its definetly there, u know when theres bass, u can feel it, hear it, and its very precise. Fits good for all genres, except if u really love loads of bass.

 

[lawrywild]

Cool cheers guys, sounds like the correct headphone for me

 

[ciphercomplete]

The 555 is a nice pair.

My two cents: look for small to moderate improvements throughout the frequency range when you use a decent SS amp. Its worth it imo.