Sennheiser HD 518

Another review of a product I rejected after a brief test at a store. You may overestimate some headphones at first sight and regret buying them later. But a feeling that something is very-very wrong from the start is rarely deceiving. Wouldn't have written this review if I hadn't seen most of you adore them. Muddy upper bass interfering with mids is unbearable. I really don't remember what was with the treble, but I clearly got the impression of cheap, muddy sound. Even if treble was flawless fault points limit would still had been reached.
 
The only reason to buy them is to try modding them into some kind of HD 598. Sennheiser just gone too far purposely debilitating sound quality to provide diversity to the market. Use it to your advantage. As they are they can't compete even in $50 category.
 
Every headphones should have either something good or at least special about them. These have neither. Typical thing you gonna say "will do, will have to".

 

Sounds: FLAC 96/24, 192/24, DSD64 and DSD128

Currently own: Beyerdynamic T1, T90 (Current Favorite), Sennheiser Amperior (First headphone), Momentum 1st Gen, HD 414 Anniversary, Mr Speakers Mad Dog, Fostex T7, Aurisonics Forte IEM, Audioquest Dragonfly Red DAC
Testing Chain: Toshiba Satellite Laptop; Foobar 2000 running flac and DSD codec; amiMusik DS5 Headphone Amp.
 
Really was curious how this one would sound and I have to say I'm surprised. I generally rotate all my headphones and I love them all. I didnt audition this one before I purchased, I just went on the reviews of others. Fair to say this was an impulse buy- it was on sale in my local office supply store. I was buying coloured pencils, if you must know.
 
Build: 
All plastic construction for the cups and headband- probably for the price point this is to be expected, there are a LOT of Sennheiser headphones in the '5xx' series that appear with the same aesthetics more or less. The grill looks good - it has some function being aerated and the headphone looks good on my head. 
 
Comfort:
The velour / terry towelling of the earpadding and headband is fantastic. The cups are big enough that they are true over ears. These cans do clamp tightly. I have the Amperiors which rank highly in the clamp stakes and they would be in the same intensity.The difference is that an over ear clamp creates a stuffy cupboard feel. The silver lining is that these wont fall off if you decided you wanted to headbang or walk like an chicken down the street.
 
Sound:
Bass:
Yes this has lots of it, so much that it eclipses other spectrums in the mids. The bass plays deep and thorough, and is the major contributor to the darkness in the headphone. The bass is also a little slow and sounds like a reverb. So music like Joey Purps Girls where the bass + drum need to be snappy and attack, the resulting sloppiness of that bass makes it a bit a of an energy sapping listen. Similarly, Rapture's Jealous Lovers cant afford to have the bass lag what with all its hyper jumpiness, but there it is: the bass, front and center, and late. Where this kind of bass behaviour works, is in tracks like ACDCs Let there be Rock where the bass drone accompaniment is a great benefit to the thick mids of the guitar which brings us to...
 
Mids and treble.
The midrange is busy. You can't pick apart the details that you could tell exactly whats happening all the time. The mids could definitely be better engineered, as tracks that are midrange busy end up sounding humid and muddy. In tracks like Radiohead's Burn the Witch, the vocals sound like they are coming from a cardboard box, and the choppy strings sound like low resolution. To my ears, the congestion created by the bass and mids is problematic only once you have heard it when you compare other headphones in the next price range up, those headphones are simply more clariffic. The treble, though I must say is pitched nicely and lets you know that the HD 518 is on the audiophile spectrum. Given the balance here, this headphone couldn't be accused of being bright,  which is actually one of the nicest aspects of this phone, as its still subtle. Tracks like the sparkly Guiding Light from Television benefit from the HD 518 voicing, elevating it from a pretty album track to an outright epic.
 
Summary:
The HD 518 is a dark headphone (to my ears) with some rays of sun peeking over the clouds. The closest I have in my collection that sounds like it would be the Momentum. The HD 518 that has some nice aspects to it, such as the wide treble soundstage, but the muddiness of the midrange is a let down. As I write this after only playing it for 3 hours, I will report back after its burn in to see if I have changed my mind. 

I bought these from Amazon about 2 weeks ago, and felt buyer's remorse when I wasn't blown away by the sound.  They aren't bad, but they do lack bass and the feel is cheap.  They were somewhat comfortable, though, and the overall sound stage was alright.

Everyone here said everything that could be said about these cans. My contribution is about overall experience.. You can get good to very good performance with standard devices according to their hardwares. If you need real performace you need solid amp/dac.My Asus U3 gives very good performance and I am really satisfied indeed but this is review and to be fair with U3 it is not that stellar. If you want that you should use it with real systems.Overall V-Shape character which I prefer in most genres. It is comforty and well made even it is all plastic.It can be hot after 1 hour of usage in spring-summers. It has unnecessarily long cord and its phone connector coming from 70-80's. It is a bargain for sure. I gladly use it when I watch movies and listen classics of all sorts in my cave. Audio performance is 4,5 star (slightly dark-muted soundstage makes me uncomfortable in some genres maybe it needs more burn-in or my ears need more time to tune-in) but cons listed above prevents me using it as main monitor. 

Great pair of headphones. Agree with PKPnytheta47 about everything she has said. I would like to give some input as well.
 
Do they equalize?
Yes - they equalize perfectly. You want more bass, you get more bass by tweaking with the graphic equalizer bass which is the left bar (The two left bars.)
 
How's the bass?
Perfectly rich and yet laid back.
 
Material?
Does not feel like anything that was made from China. Sturdy plastic, but feel a little scared when someone is trying these out in school. I'm afraid their ignorance will snap the headband, so... yeah.
 
Price?
Worth every penny. Sounds 100x better than the Dre Beats in my opinion. Sorry, I'm an audiophile.

I got these on a killer bargain from Fry's late last month. After two weeks I can say that my initial impression of them has improved but, in short, you should get the 558s and do the foam tape mod instead of buying these.
 
First thing I noticed was that these clamp HARD to the top of your head if you have the right (or, I suppose, wrong) shape of head and it's extremely fatiguing and uncomfy. After two weeks of frequent wear and about 4 hours of "stretching" with pillows they have gotten significantly more comfortable and I can say that with one of the most sensitive heads around. However I will be replacing the earcups with HD 558 earcups as they have more give and, I think (don't quote me on this) they leak a bit more bass than these do which leads on to the next thing.
 
They have a bit more bass than I would like. It's very deep and sounds great with bass guitars (listen to "Life in the Fast Lane" by Eagles if you wanna hear dat bass guitar strum) but it's a bit boomy and it drowns out the mids. Vocals are quite hard to hear without a proper EQ of the mids. Listen to "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen and you'll see what I'm talking about. Freddie's amazing tenor has no effect when wearing these without a good EQ mids boost. After messing around with an EQ these do sound much more balanced now and I like the sound.
 
As for the "closed-back" mention I made in cons - if I were to compare these to the AD500X from Audio Technica with those being a baseline 100% for openness, these would be about a 55-60% openness effect. They don't have the widest soundstage and when I'm not playing music through them I can hear my Cherry MX Green keyboard (loud) though it sounds deeper and somewhat muffled. The HD 558s are more open by design and, if you take the foam tape out of the cups they sound amazing - better than these for certain. I'm contemplating modding these cans to see if I can get a more open soundstage by doing what this guy on Reddit did. https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/2t8jtw/my_modified_sennheiser_hd518/
 
The cable is stupid and you need to use the terrible adapter to use it with most audio equipment and you can get replacements but only from Senn. Seems like a money grab to me. 
 
However, with all these negatives I listed I still like them enough to keep them for as long as possible. They were $60. Come on, hard to beat that. Would buy again but would grab a pair of HD 558 earpads on the way out.

I had to choose between this and hd 558 ,and after consideration i knew the 558 will take my expenses far ,with the requirement of amp and a new source dap to sound atleast good .Also it was very analytical,neutral ...not for me.


 


I don't know how it fares with different sources but i use it with a mobile[no amp] and it sounds good,but not so with my desktop[onboard].My motherboard is from 2009, so may be new motherboards can provide good output.


Voices ,both male and female sounds very good,  and it has bass but not the deep rich bass sound the packaging would led you to believe. .I had a denon  d310 before it and i thought it had good bass but after spending time with hd 518, the denons sound boomy[anyways they are not comparable].
 


I don't know whether to place soundstaging in pros or cons department because its a step above good, but not great,certainly not the best thing about these.You can still feel and hear it though and proper equalization helps too .


Now the treble ,its present but sounds like its being strangled by Agent 47.Its like tweeter is covered with cloth.


instrument separation is average..


Good part is u won't feel like you 're missing something and u can enjoy music [don't use <256 Kbps(min ) and with 320 u're all set..I don't think FLAC makes a difference with my mobile ] and that's  what matters and if you have dedicated source u will be happier than me.I hear few notes i didn't in cheaper HPs.


Genre wise from what i listen hip-hop/rnb/club songs sounds best >pop(very close to best)/Indian Pop>rock


u can't go wrong with these.


 


thanks everyone who read this.

This is my second review on Head-Fi so it won't be the review you'll ever read.
I will try to use as much terms that are described in the "describing soung glossary".
Please note that English isn't my native tongue, so there will be a few grammar and spelling mistakes.
 
Build Quality:
 
These headphones are made out of plastic entirely (except the earpads of course), but they don't feel cheap. I think this is due to the fact that the plastic is high quality and has a nice finish on it.
The plastic doesn't make annoying sounds like on some headphones that are even cheaper.
 
Comfort:
 
All headphones in the 500 series are really light and the HD 518 is no exception, but unlike the HD 558 and the HD 598 the earpads aren't padded with velour. That doesn't mean that they're uncomfortable.
It just means that they aren't as comfortable as the higher end models. The HD 518 has a slightly stronger clamping force than the HD 598 and 558, but you can easily stretch them by putting them over a big pillow or just wearing them. The headband is padded with the same material as the earcushions but the foam inside seems slightly softer to me.
 
Bass:
 
The HD 518 has the best bass quantity out of any headphones in the 500 series according to the following graph:
 

I have listened to both the HD 518 and the HD 598 and while the 518 has more bass, the 598 has cleaner, more detailed bass.
But both headphones are not bassy or boomy at all.
 
Mids:
 
The mids on this headphone sound more forward and are more present than on most headphones that I've listened to. This is great for vocals, but it might get a little overwhelming when listening to more brutal/heavy genres of music. The mids are also very clean.
 
Highs:
 
Just like the mids, the highs are very clean. Not too bright, but I did notice some sibilance when listening to brighter records (can't remember which ones).
When listening to the beginning of "Ghost of Perdition" by Opeth, the lower highs and upper mids sounded slightly muffeled, but it is barely noticable.
 
 
Soundstage: 
 
The soundstage is not huge, but definitely noticable due to excellent seperation. When playing planetside 2 I could hear where enemies are coming from. Playing Skyrim with the HD 518 felt more immersive and just walking around the forests was awesome.
 
Pros:
 
These headphones are great for gaming and listening to classical music, jazz, metal that isn't too brutal (Opeth's latest albums, Porcupine Tree etc.) folk, and classical rock.
They are really comfortable, even so comfortable that when the music I was listening to stopped, I just forgot that I was wearing headphones.
You can also drive these headphone very easily even my old Ipod classic can drive them.
 
Cons:
 
The stock cable is the biggest problem with this headphone, because it ends in a 6.3mm. Luckily Sennheiser decided to include an adapter, but this makes the end of the cable very bulky.
Another small problem I had with these is that they're not really fit for faster and heavier genres of music like death metal and dubstep.
 
Picture:
 
 

They are a very good option. The sound is natural, they are comfortable to use. 
The only con I have with it is the included cable that is too long and bulky (if you want to listen them connected to a computer). I changed it with a nice cable mod from China, but you need to take this into consideration when considering these. They are marketed by Sennheiser as audiophile grade.

I bought my HD-518 after Christmas to use with my HTC Rezound Android phone at work. I spent hours researching headphones and finally concluded that the HD-518s were a good bet to meet my requirements for good sound, good comfort, good build quality, and reasonable cost.
 
The only thing I didn't like about the HD-518 was the 6.3mm (1/4") plug and long cable. Fortunately, Sennheiser is now selling a shorter replacement cable with a 3.5mm plug.

I have to say that the HD-518 and short cable work well together and sound great to my ears. I've spent lots of hours listening to a wide variety of music at work (mostly on Spotify), but some from ripped WMAs from my own CD collection.  The HD-518s have met my expectations so far.
 
For those who might be interested in the replacement cable, the Sennheiser item number is 5X8SHORTCABLE. See this head-fi article for more info on the cable.

-Al

I paid $65. for these, and thought they sounded as good or better than headphones I've heard that cost twice that.  Now, you can get them on Amazon for $50., which makes them a great deal.  One warning -- as these are over the ear headphones, glasses can become uncomfortable to wear with them for a long time.  When they start to bother me, I just pull them up above the earpads.  It doesn't seem to effect my ability to read, which is all I use glasses for.  Anyway, if you are looking for headphones with a lot of soundstage, that can thump on the bass, and that won't hurt your pocketbook,  you are looking for these.  When the price went down, I ordered another pair for my girlfriend.  At that price, it didn't hurt at all.  Sennheiser makes great headphones in general, and these are about the cheapest audiophile quality headphones you are going to find anywhere.  I do boost the midrange a little on my pc, to give them a little extra punch, and after I do, it's like aural candy listening to stuff that really tests them, like classical or modern electronic.  But I'm mostly a classic rock sort of guy.  Pink Floyd Echoes and CCR sound amazing.  Just listened to Big Brother & The Holding Co. live, and it sounded like you were there.  What more could you ask for in moderately priced headphones?

EDIT Jan 2020: The review below was written when I just got into the hobby. Needless to say after 4 years of listening to other, better phones I have to say that this headphones do leave a lot to desire. Fortunately, they respond very well to equalization and a little bit of skewed v-shape treatment pretty much close those gaps for me.

This cans are not that expensive, but I'd say the sound quality is already in or very close to the 'audiophile' range.

The first few hours will not impress you, but once you get used to it, you will understand what you've been missing all this time and you won't settle for less. You would also want to crank up the volume to actually enjoy them and to discern the differences.

The transient response is amazing. Music sounds detailed and reproduced with an agility I've never heard before on a sub-$100 set of cans.

Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, and the likes sound stellar on these.

Bass is just about the right amount, but it's a little bit sloppy and this is not the strong point of these headphones.

Comfort is very good for its size. Soundstage and instrument separation are good.

If you're really budget-conscious, don't bother buying the more expensive HD 558 and 598 since all HD5*8 use the same drivers.

If you like the sound and feel of Sennheiser's most famous full-sized open-back headphones (HD600 upwards) but are constrained by budget, these babies are able to some extent replicate the experience with a fraction of the cost and without the need for additional amplification.

If you are new to headphones this is the one to get if you also don't want to spend too much!

These cans offer great multilayer-ed sound especially in comparison to entry level headphones. As I am upgrading my gear in a linear fashion, my last cans are HD448 just a step below these.I believe you already have a decent idea of how these cans sound if you frequent here often, for variety sake, I will try to base review in context to my prior experience ie what such an upgrade brings to the table.
 
When I put these for first time, I was disappointed. After plugging in amp, they sounded as muddy as my $10 earbuds. I had heard these cans needed short break in which was absolutely spot on. In less than 10 hrs, sound started taking its place.
 
These cans are clear upgrade over hd448. Sound is 3 dimensional, multilayered, which I believe brings biggest improvement. It enables much better instrument separation, does justice to each one of them and bring in a lot more detail. A higher end can like HD650 may do a better job at doing this, but thats why you pay more for those.  HD650 are described by many as dark cans having great bass, smooth mids and good sound stage when used with right amp.
 
I will use similar adjectives to describe these except these are much more lenient in amp requirement. Sound stage and open sound is a given no matter the source. Though a portable amp must be used. Bass is punchy and mids are well rounded. So I find these to be great all rounders suitable with all genres I tried. Sibilance is  not a problem as these are dark sounding cans.
 
I think I like this sound signature so upgrade path is clearly paved unless I venture around for variety sake.
 
All in all I did'nt gave it a 5 star cause I don't wanna come back and reduce rating after hearing a much better can. 
 
Edit 1: Some observations after extended listening:
 
Moderately diffused presentation: Instruments sound like in a mid sized room and a bit distant. They don't sound close or in your face at all.
 
Slow and laid back: Really good if you listen to them to relax.
 
Smooth, not utterly detailed: Micro details are a bit of mixed bad. Some time they come out note to note, sometime it doesn't. Overall smooth sounding.
 
Tend to hide some instruments when a lot is going on.
 
Black backgrounds on my amp. Good contrast between instruments.
 
Thick sounding and rather natural mid range. Bass is extended but texture varies from song to song.
 
So not an end game headphone but extremely enjoyable. You will love what you hear if you are just enjoying music instead of looking for technicalities.
 
Edit 2:
 
After owning these for 2 years, I have very clear cut use for these hps.
 
Best hps for relaxing. Period. Nothing is better.
 
Why I say that? A no of reasons:
 
1. Relaxed treble. These are some of the darkest hps I have heard. Treble is just enough to give a them a natural and relaxed presentation.
 
2. Diffused airy presentation. Not a focused presentation. Dissipates energy in songs gives a natural presentation.
 
3. No hyper resolution. Sound is grainy, does not have very high resolution. But instruments are well defined, according to price range. imo this contributes to their relaxing character.
 
Now all these aspects may read like negatives to you, it all depends on what you are looking for. I find all these make them ideal for non critical listening.

I purchased the HD518s for a good price lightly used, and have been very satisfied with them. They are darker Sennheisers, and have the signature Senn smooth sound. I have never owned Senns before, so these were my first pair. I am fairly used to how AKGs sound, so when I first listened to the HD518s, they initially wowed me with how smooth their mids and highs were, and how strong the bass was. There definitely is a "wow" factor when you first listen to them, especially if you listen to brighter, leaner sounding headphones. They are all plastic, but feel well made. They have that Sennheiser vice grip on the head, but you get accustomed to the grip, they do not present a comfort problem. The earpads are fairly stiff, but do not munch my ears whatsoever, and the cups absolutely deep enough that my ears have never touched the drivers and never will. The headband has some cloth padding, and hasn't given me any problems. They have a detachable 10 foot cable, so that is a plus. The standard plug is a 1/4 inch stereo plug, but they come with a 1/8 inch adapter. The problem is that with the adapter on, the jack becomes absurdly long, and presents a hazard of sheering off when connected to a laptop, iPod, iPhone, ETC which use 1/8 inch headphone jacks, and require use with the adaptor.


 


Sound wise, the HD518s are dark and smooth, so they are easy to listen to brighter music with for longer periods of time. Their bass impact and open back design also makes them excellent for watching movies with, as well as playing video games. Soundstage for music isn't very wide, however. The HD518s have a polished sound, but this may be problematic to some. The highs don't have the sparkle to them that I am used to with AKGs, for example. They have stronger bass, but the problem is that the bass is a little obese and loose, and tends to have its main impact in the lower mid-bass region. That makes the HD518s sound as if they have somewhat indecisive, slightly confused bass. The mids are a little too smooth and veiled, and tend to lack a lot of musicality. Vocals are fairly veiled, and tend to be a bit too thick and unemotional to my ears. They do every genre competently, but tend to excel at darker, downtempo music with a strong bass impact. RnB, Quiet Storm, Chillout, Liquid Funk (downtempo Drum n' Bass), and smooth jazz sound great on the HD518s. Genres that require a quicker, more transparent and leaner sound do not sound their best on the HD518s. 


 


Don't get me wrong. The HD518s are great headphones. They are just a little bit too veiled in the vocals and obese in the bass to be my everyday headphones for music listening. A bit too vanilla sounding for my tastes, but I can completely understand why people like the Sennheiser sound, and why Sennheiser has such a loyal customer base. I strongly recommend anyone looking for good starter open backs for a variety of genres, or want good headphones for video/computer games as well as movies, and do not have a higher end equipment to drive headphones with, check out the HD518s.  

So I was recently in the market for a pair of open back headphones, and after hearing praise of Sennheiser for their offerings, i decided to purchase the HD 518 with my budget of about 100 dollars. 
 
I think that the design is something you love or hate, and personally i love it. The louvered sides look quite nice to me, and the Sennheiser logo in the middle just looks elegant. The earpads are made of what i can only think are some sort of cotton material, and they're exceptionally soft. They aren't the largest however, so if you have ears that stick out they might touch the drivers, but i didn't find this to be an issue. The headband is made of the same soft cotton material, and is just as comfortable as the earpads. I didn't find these headphones hot in any way (longest listening session this far being about 3 hours).
 
The sound, again, is something i think some people would love, but others might dislike. It's a very rich sound, not a reference type sound in any way, but it still sounds outstanding. The bass isn't overpowering, and isn't at all floppy. The highs are clear and detailed, and don't leave much (to me) to be desired, especially at this price point.
 
The mids, however, are where these headphones shine. Compared to the other frequencies, the mids are slightly elevated, which makes for a rich, warm sound, and very natural sounding vocals. Acoustic instruments like guitar and piano sound great on the HD 518, and I found myself listening to songs with these instruments more and more, because they sounded so good. Overall, the soundstage was average, but the separation of different instruments and sounds in music was better than I expected, and overall i'm very pleased with the sound on the HD 518.
 
My only minor gripe is the included cable, which is incredibly long (about 10 feet) and has a goofy 3.5mm adaptor for using on devices with that size jack. However, since the cable is removable, you can simply replace it with either a shorter cable directly from Sennheiser, or any number of aftermarket cables available on Amazon. 
 
Overall, i don't think that you can go wrong with the Sennheiser HD 518, especially if you can get it for under 100 dollars. And if you're a fan of mids, like myself, than i really don't think there's a better option at this pricepoint.

Hello,
 
I would like to share my impressions of my first a bit more decent headphones - Sennheiser HD-518. I'm no audiophile, so this review will be more for a "normal" people, who want to use it not just for music, but for games and movies too.
 
Build quality and design
 
  Headphones is all plastic, so no suprises where. It have strange grills that could look a bit silly, but hey, you will not go out with them outside. You could and I did it few times, but cable is just too long, you end up in wire mess + headphones are open, so no isolation from outside noise, you just don't enjoy your music with these outside.
  Pads are made just for me. They just perfect, they are a bit stiff, but this is what i like, you can wear them for hours and just forgot you have headphones on your head. I usually listening for music while I'm laying in bed, no problem with these being on your head ( I fall a sleep few times with headphones still on my head, glad didn't brake them ). They fall few times from a table, still in one peace. They are ready for some brutal force.
  Cable. Cable is long, 3m to be exact. I can walk around in my room with no problems at all, and I live in not that small of a room. I can see having a problem using a laptop, but these are perfect for a stationary pc use.
 
Audio Quality
 
  I must say, then I first heard hd 518, I thougt I just wasted my money. They sounded dirty and kinda bad. I was disappointed. But I read about burn in thing, so I said I give them a chance. And my God they sound wonderful now. I had quite a journey these headphones, so read on if you wanna know that a life changing journey I had. I will talk about music, games and movies.
  Music. As they advertise, sennheisers have deep bass. And yes, yes they have. The bass is thigt and pretty bad ass. If you looking just for a bass, look elsewhere, at closed headphones, because the bass is there it should and is not overwhelming. After going to sens from closed headphones it was strange at first, but i'm loving it now, it is big then should be, like in electromusic, but then listening to AC/DC for example, it doesn't overwhelm other instruments. Lets say bass knows its place . The soundstage is big and wide, if you wanna know that people talking about, then they talking about soundstage, listen for these headphones . But it took headphones(or me to get use to the soundstage) to open up, because just recently I started to enjoy my music in all different way. It was quite an exiting journey too, to rediscover all the music for the third time. As good as these headphones sound in a music department, then we talking about instruments, but they have one big flaw for me, and it is vocals. To describe how vocals sound in hd 518, it will be if the band is all in one room with you and singer is behind the wall singing. It sounds a bit distant, a bit too quite, sometimes hard to understand. I guess you can fix it with a EQ, but I had no luck. Everything else changed in these headphones dramatically from a day I bough it, but vocals stayed the same way, distant, and a bit hard to listen to. I read few other reviews saying the same, so it is not just me.
  Games. Games sound wondifirus. You can hear everything around you. In skyrim I never got attacked from a back. With these your oponents don't have a chance to attack you from behind. Explosions in company of hereos sounds powerful(deep) and i will never getting tired to listen to machine guns shooting at enemies. So for games, I say YES to HD 518. But keep in my mind it is not a gaming headset, if you looking just for it, look at gaming companies like razor or such. Games sound good and open design helps a lot, but I imagine on dedicated headphones it will sound even better.
  Movies. Strangly enough, I don't have any problems with actors sounding bad, as singers sound in music. You can hear everything. I mean I watched scott pilgrim vs the world for the 5th time with these. I can say it was like I watching it for the first time. So many things I missed just because I watched it with cheap headphones. You can hear everything clearly, every little sound Edgar Wright placed in where. And now, with new XBMC Frodo realese and new audio-engine, that reproduce 5.1 surround in a way it should sound and opened soundstage of sens, I can hear everything so clearly it makes me cry .  While watching transformes I could pin point from that side every explosion coming from and it really makes you appreciate sound in movies. For movies these headphones gets a HELL YES from me.
 
Conclusions
 
It was a great jorney with sennheisers and now, then they reached the point of a maximum performance(if not, edit is coming), they are just amazingly amazing. Yes, these are my first mid-fi headphones, not even high-fi, but I'm guessing I will not change my headphones for a long long time. So if you are like me, want a great quality and don't wanna cancel your christmas, get these and don't look back. For a closer, I will say a quote that made me buy these: " If you wanna buy high-fi headphones just because they are high-fi and you really don't know that are you going to do with them, don't waste your money and just buy sennheiser hd 518". Quote might not me that accurate 
 
EDIT 2013-07-20
 
So I ended up the university and now I can delete my windows partition and use linux all time ( damn you ms office). So I had a time to play with sound of my sennheiser in linux and pulse audio is a bitch. But then you get it right, YOU GET IT RIGHT. And guest what? They sound even better than they sounded on windows. MUCH better. In  a bass department they now have a real "oouf" in their sound, you can feel it. It is pretty nice. While watching Dark knight rises I felt like in a cinema. For a moment I was afraid drivers might explode. As for my biggest complain with singers voices, it is finally fixed. Voices of singers doesn't sound behind and distant, they feel closer more intimate and smoother sounding it just flows now.. Finally i can enjoy my favorite female singers voices from metric to the cardigans. So i guess the conclusion is it wasn't headphone fault, but windows fault . And other conclusion would be, that these headphones is very sensetive to source and equalizing. You need to really play with them do get the best out of it. I'm planing on upgrading my creative card to asus ST, so another edit might be coming in maybe three-four month, depending on how my budget will be
 
EDIT 2014-03-04
 
So instead of asus ST I get  a fiio e10. First impressions - not a big difference from creative sound card. BUT when I think to myself, that I equalized my creative sound card to "perfection", so I should do the same for my fiio 10. So I did. Soundstage opened up and got even wider, vocals got a bit foward and sounds very clean, bass tightened up ( I use bass boost on fiio e10). Without mentioned changes, sound itself that e10 reproduce is very clean, probably because it is far from computer hardware which created a small hiz when listening to my creative card. Also, it is now powered properly.  Sound card really struggled to power 518, I had almost always to set volume to max. Now it is around 5 on e10 and 50 proc. on my volume in OS and it is very noticeable. It is hard to explain, but it gives a life to headphones and also to music. It sound more lively. If you feel your sound card struggles to power sens 518, you have your volume in windows, mac or linux set up high, I will recommend you to upgrade to e10. If not, well if you expect to be blown away by an dedicated amp vs your sound card, it is not going to happen. It will sound a bit better, but not "OMG AMAZING" better  

Design - The louvered design is something people will either like or hate. I personally like it since it gives it a very engineered look, just like a German car. The color combination is stylish and gives it a high end feel, very nice use of graphite and black with some silver highlights. I personally prefer these colors versus the 598.
 
Comfort - The velour pads have an edge in the inside but are still very comfortable, but the 558 pads are still a little bit better, they're rounded on the inside edges and are not as 'springy'. I can still listen to these cans for hours on end though. I also wanted to add that one of the reasons (I assume, aside from making it more affordable) Sennheiser chose to use plastic versus metal, is because it has less weight and therefore has less stress to the head and neck resulting in hours of listening pleasure.
 
Audio Quality - The mids and highs are clear, the sound stage is excellent! You can actually hear the little nuances in the different instruments being played (Have a listen to the Cure's - A Forest, the acoustic version or something similar) and where they are positioned. In terms of bass these cans actually have good bass, albeit more on the laid back side (also one of the reasons these headphones are not tiring to the ears when listening for hours) when played without an amp. Speaking of amps, when used with one it starts to really shine. I used my fiio E11 and the overall sound becomes warmer and tighter, the bass becomes fuller and deeper. Remember this still has the Sennheiser signature 'veiled' sound but with more presence.
 
Value -  For it's current price of $120 I think it's a winner, though if you could get these for somewhere around the $100 mark you're golden! It sounds fantastic and with the sound quality you won't feel like you over paid (unless you're a bass head that just wants deafening lows). Another plus with these cans is it can be powered by a portable amp with no issues like the Fiio E11. Once paired, you can't go wrong! Remember though, even without one as long as you setup your EQ properly it still sounds excellent (not for bass heads though)!
 
 
EDIT (Jan 6, 2013 update): After 100+ Hours of burning in these headphones, they have definitely improved in the low frequency area making the the bass sound tighter. This applies to people who use no amps at all with these headphones.
 
For people who use amps, please note that there can be a difference how the low end is delivered. My example would come from my experience with the Fiio E11 versus the ZO2. I personally prefer the ZO2 with these headphones since the bass is definitely tighter and it helps the headphones literally cover all music genres I listen to (alternative, rock, classic rock, rap, hip-hop, r&b, punk, dub step, electronica, classical, some pop artists). For the comparison between amplifiers it's broken down into the two below:
 
 
Fiio E11:

Overall sound
Darker and warm overall while giving the HD-518 oomph in the lower frequencies
 
Bass:
When listening to these types of music: Jazz, Pop, and Classical it is perfect and no muddling happens. The bass presented is tight and responds well. It has a tendency to be muddled when listening to R&B (Mary J. Blige), Rap (Dr. Dre and Snoop) and Linkin Park.
 
Mids:
Still presented very well and retains the HD-518 personality here, which is mid forward.
 
Highs:
Still presented very well but slightly recessed and retains the HD-518 personality.
 
Soundstage:
Overall the sound stage is retained with very little loss in placement.
 
Pros:
It helps retain the overall Sennheiser signature while givng it some low end oomph. Awesome for Classical, Pop, Rock, Classic Rock, Metal, Vocals and some Alternative music.
 
Cons:
It muddles the bass when listening to R&B, Rap and some Linkin Park and the likes.
 
 
ZO2:
 

Overall sound
Warmer and fun overall making the HD518 shine in all types of music
 
Bass:
No muddling of Bass happens here, the issue I had with the E11 when listening to Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre , Snoop and even Linkin Park disappeared with this amp!
 
Bass response was quicker so the Linkin Park songs sounded nicer when the lower frequencies were presented. Bass oomph I wanted when listening to R&B and Rap were tighter and faster with no muddling, making Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre and Snoop music when low frequencies were presented sound outstanding!
 
Mids:
Still presented very well and retains the mid forward Sennhesier signature.
 
Highs:
Still presented well and slightly recessed.
 
Soundstage:
Overall the sound stage is still there but not as open compared to the Fiio E11.
 
Pros:
It makes the HD-518 a perfect all rounder. With this combination I can definitely listen to any type of music genre and be happy with how the High, Mid and Low sound. Bass is tighter and no muddling happens! Makes the HD-518 fun cans to listen to!
 
Cons:
It slightly changes the sound of the HD-518 reducing the veil sound signature of the Sennheiser. Not powerful enough (volume is limited when using LOD) to drive HD-518 and higher impedance cans when using LOD. You need to use the headphone output to drive to make the headphone and the amp shine.
 
 
 
NOTE: These cans (as with most 500/600 series HP) tend to highlight poorly recorded or low bit rate recordings. You will hear the imperfections in the track if you don't use flac.
 
Overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars

I was initially confused between HD 558 and HD 518 at the time of buying, but then some articles and forums on Head-fi helped me to decide for HD 518 as these were best bang for the buck and HD 558 did not justify their cost premium over these in terms of quality.

Design : Cord is detachable. Body is made up of plastic, so they are very light when you compare them with their looks. Plastic used for these is good quality plastic. Head band gives a little scare but It's not delicate, just not as strong as it should be. The grilled design is unique and looks good to me.

Comfort: Head Band cushion and ear pads are very soft and you won't feel sweaty or uncomfortable for listening sessions even more than 3-4 hours. So pretty much comfortable.

Audio Quality: 10/10 for the price. Sounds overall a tad bass heavy for audiophile standards but not much.

Value: 10/10 again without a doubt. Currently at 60 USD. so no brainer.

Bought refurbished and well worth the money