Hello,
Quick thoughts on modded with bass mod sennheiser hd 439.
Build quality
It is a mixed bag really. Headphones it self feels cheap. Well, probably because it is cheap. But they don't feel cheap then you have them on a head. They are very comfy, velour pads fit my ears perfectly. I forget I have headphones on my head the moment I put them on. Although if you have big ears, it could become an on ear headphones, because pads are not very big. Design is nice to my eyes, but you know, it can look bad for you
Audio quality
I'm reviewing modded headphones with bass mod, so keep that in mind. The sound they make is really quite good. Bass goes very very deep. For tracks like royksopp - the drug it just blew my mind
. I listened to it with my sens 518 and it just uncomparable. 439 destroys 518 in a bass heavy music. So if you are into music like this - go get it, do the mod and enjoy your music like you never did before. As for more popular music. They are actually not that bad. Sound stage is pretty good, but of course not as wide as 518 as they are opened. Still instrumental separation is good, you will here instruments in their place and not a chocolate mix
. Vocals. Hmmmm, well you can hear them
. Really not much more to say about them. You will not be blown away by them, when you listen to dido or meja. If you into female vocalist, when these headphones not really for you. Rock music is in a middle between bass heavy and female music. Lets say rise againts sounds good to my ears. As I said above, instruments are nicely separated but vocals are just where. So overall these headphones are perfect for a bit more bass heavy music, but not for "audiophile" stuff.
Important note
I don't why, but I find them very hard to drive. No joke, even though they are only 32 ohm, I find them a lot harder to drive than 518 which is 50 ohm. I don't know if it is just me, but I go to an 8 (max with low gain) with my fiio e10 and I keep 5 when I listen to 518. When I travel, I use my ps vita as a player and it does good job powering it (better than fiio e10
). As for ****y samsung android phone, it goes to listenable levels, but you can hear it struggles with headphones and ps vita just destroys it. I listen for few tracks on a phone for a review and just couldn't continue - it sounds terrible. So keep that in mind if you planing on using it with your ****y phone
I don't about iphone or such. Probably it will sound as good as ps vita which sounds pretty nice.
Conclusion
For the price these are very nice headphone and actually holds up pretty good versus its big brothers. Beats them in low end but gets beat in mids and highs. As I said, I would recommend them for bassheads and such. As for pop music, I don't really listen to it. As I said, dido don't sound so good, but listenable, I will not call it terrible as my phone experience. Beyonce actually sounds good to my ears, low end gives a very lively sound. Of course beyonce itself have powerful voice. Well I took a hit for you dear reader and listened to katy perry's roar and it sounds pretty bad ( but it could be just katy perry
). So yeah, I guess I gave you a pretty good understanding what to expect for these headphones. Cheers.
P.S.
I forgot to talk about isolation. It will muffle the sounds around you and if you are on a bus or train really you will hear just a distant wheel and engine sound, nothing to worry about, you will be able to enjoy your music. But they leak. I will get looks at bus if I put sound on higher volume. So keep that in mind.