I bought these at less than half retail on a whim from Audio Advisor, looking to replace my aging Sennheiser HD 580's. Look at the picture...these are VERY NICELY made headphones! All aluminum components, with a steel headband, covered with leather...NICE! Replaceable headphone cables that screw into place. The literature that comes with them suggest 200 hr. break in, so I hooked them up to my Sony SACD player and put it on repeat...for a week.
Then I started to listen. To me, they were very close to my beloved HD 580's, sonically. Other folks say that these cans sound dark...well I guess the same is often said about the 580's. The difference between these and my 580's is, it sounds like there is a very broad and shallow dip in the midrange with these cans, compared to the 580's. It could be equally accurate to say that the 580's have a slight midrange emphasis. The HE's were a bit better at giving me rhythmic detail...how all the components of the music were put together. They sounded more analytic than the 580's, although I wouldn't call these cans 'analytical sounding' in absolute terms. The 580's were better at giving me the SOUL of the music...they seemed especially better with vocals in this regard. My take, your choice.
Plus, the HD 580's have better ergonomics. To wit, the oval ear cups fit the shape of my head WAY better, and they were SO much comfortable that every time I'd put them back on when comparing the two, a little voice would whisper "Why are you futzing with the other cans? Keep these..." So I did. I actually sent the HE's back. If it were not for the vise grip clamping on my head, I'd have probably kept them. But we all know that comfort counts for a LOT, with headphones. So I put about $75.00 worth of new parts into my 580's, and they look and sound new again. Not bad for a 20 year old pair of headphones. That said, I found a pair of HD 650's on Ebay that were too good to pass up, so a review on those will follow, once I'm convinced those are broken in and I'm hearing them at their best.
Then I started to listen. To me, they were very close to my beloved HD 580's, sonically. Other folks say that these cans sound dark...well I guess the same is often said about the 580's. The difference between these and my 580's is, it sounds like there is a very broad and shallow dip in the midrange with these cans, compared to the 580's. It could be equally accurate to say that the 580's have a slight midrange emphasis. The HE's were a bit better at giving me rhythmic detail...how all the components of the music were put together. They sounded more analytic than the 580's, although I wouldn't call these cans 'analytical sounding' in absolute terms. The 580's were better at giving me the SOUL of the music...they seemed especially better with vocals in this regard. My take, your choice.
Plus, the HD 580's have better ergonomics. To wit, the oval ear cups fit the shape of my head WAY better, and they were SO much comfortable that every time I'd put them back on when comparing the two, a little voice would whisper "Why are you futzing with the other cans? Keep these..." So I did. I actually sent the HE's back. If it were not for the vise grip clamping on my head, I'd have probably kept them. But we all know that comfort counts for a LOT, with headphones. So I put about $75.00 worth of new parts into my 580's, and they look and sound new again. Not bad for a 20 year old pair of headphones. That said, I found a pair of HD 650's on Ebay that were too good to pass up, so a review on those will follow, once I'm convinced those are broken in and I'm hearing them at their best.