https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/16/22285497/sennheiser-investors-selling-consumer-headphones-soundbars-business : ((

Sennheiser is going to sell off their consumer audio division (which includes the HD500/600/800-series): https://en-us.sennheiser.com/newsroom/sennheiser-to-reposition-its-business-units-independently-of-each-other-s5jh2n RIP : (

No they don't.

I'm pretty sure hardware equalizers are technically inferior to software equalizers. The main advantage is that they are more convenient and some people like physical buttons/knobs. Equalizer APO is a very popular software equalizer that is free and I haven't seen any proof that it creates...

Hifiman has apparently gotten better. The driver failure issues with the Sundara was only a big problem for the first batches, they've made revisions since then. You can google it and find people who have owned their Sundara for years without issue

Lmao good choice. I think I might do the same.

I'm guessing that covid restrictions or other difficulties due to the pandemic have messed up whatever usually goes on at sennheiser's factory in china. This level of quality control is horrible.

It seems like Thomann should have charged you VAT when you ordered it. Maybe you should contact them just to make sure?

Well I can't find anything on being exempt from VAT if the value is under £135, so it seems like you're supposed to pay it somehow. You've imported goods from another country and the government site says that you need to pay 20% VAT.

This is what it says for headphones, on the government website, with no mention of a £135 limit anywhere: "Goods are subject to Value added tax (20.00 %)." https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/8518300090

You should check that very carefully, I'm pretty sure it's not true. "HMRC has announced that it will abolish the LVCR with effect from 1 January 2021 and are proposing to make all imported goods up to £135 in value liable for domestic VAT rather than Import VAT – thus shifting the point where...

It's your responsibility to pay VAT.

That's exactly what I did. I got my first pair directly from Sennheiser and returned it. My second pair came from Amazon and it had the exact same problem so I returned it too. Both units were buzzing/rattling only on the right earcup when playing bass.

I think you mean hifiman, I was talking about hifonix: www.hifonix.co.uk, they're a reseller

Hifonix offers a 2-year warranty on the Sundaras, which is longer than hifiman's own 1-year manufacturer's guarantee. It's the only reseller I could find in the UK offering that at the moment so I'm probably going to order from them.

Yes but I don't feel good about the chances of them holding up with time. In a year or so, the screws might get loose and start spinning. Not sure if the warranty will even cover that but I don't want to wait and find out. I'm not worried about sound signature, EQ can fix all of that and I'm...

Welp I was looking to upgrade anyway so I'm going to return the HD560s and get a hifiman Sundara instead. I know hifiman's QC has a bad reputation but apparently it's gotten better now. I'd rather have a failed driver than a distorted one due to loose/spinning screws, plus the Sundara will have...

If they were buzzing and distorting, you probably should have returned them. The one I got is perfectly fine once I tightened the three screws. No buzzing at all even at painful volumes

See: this is the benefit of using those scary "bass tones" and freaky "sine waves", it lets you catch problems. If the screws are spinning, you will definitely get buzzing/rattling when you play bass.

@Evshrug add this to the list. I feel like a lot of people with the HD560s also have this problem, they just don't realise it because they never play only bass. It's not easy to notice when playing music normally.

Tf. You're probably the only person who will claim this. Are you sure you understand what soundstage is?

That's excluding VAT. It's actually £174, which is more expensive than buying direct from sennheiser's online store (£169).

I want to clarify something: when I turned the volume up to painful levels, the rattling was very loud. So loud that I could still hear it clearly when I hold the headphones at an arm's length away. This did not happen on the left driver, only on the right driver, and tightening the screws made...

It is a pretty minor issue for me, assuming the rattle doesn't cause noticeable distortion with other parts of the frequency response (but it probably does, and this was what bothered me), as I could barely notice it at all if I just listen to a bass sweep at normal listening volumes. But still...

I bought the HD 599 first and I returned it, then I got the HD 560s instead. The main reason is that the HD 599 has boosted lower bass/upper mids which makes the sound "boomy". It can be nice for EDM songs, but I hated it with guitar and vocals. Especially with blues. It just sounded wrong, the...