devwild
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2004
- Posts
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An acquaintance of mine mentioned he had an old pair of senns he hadn't listened to in some time. The only thing he knew was that they came in a wooden box, and I couldn't think of what that could be at the time.
The other night he dropped them off for me to take a look at. Lo and behold, what do we have but a pair of HD540 Gold Reference headphones - Sennheiser's top headphone circa the late 1980s. I barely remembered mention of them in some odd head-fi posts, and they are definitely hard to dig up information about. Even harder to find pictures of, so I took some
Nestled in their wooden box, showing some age:
What a retro rofile:
Headband:
Closeup of the left can:
And the box - why don't the 650s get this treatment?:
The earpads had a thin pleather-like covering on the face which had deteriorated completely, probably with help from our crazy pacific northwest weather. You can just barely see in the pictures the white cloth underneath. Makes them a bit itchy to wear
. If anyone has any ideas where he could get replacement pads let me know, as sennheiserusa no longer appears to have them.
Sound wise, I listenned to them a little bit with my home setup. I doubt anything else I have could properly drive the 600 ohm beasts. My primary comparison cans were my FrankenSenns (HD580 driver, HD525 body), HD595, and SA5000s. I used the frankensenns since the 580 replaced these headphones, though they aren't a true representation of a 580. The first thing that struck me was the brightness. The 540s are bright, fairly forward, agressive, and somewhat grainy. They have more high end extension than the HD595 and a bit of sparkle up top at times. I don't have a Grado around anymore, but they stuck me as being closer to a Grado than what head-fiers consider a traditional Senn sound.
For rock/alternative (coldplay, pumpkins) they would be ok except that they fall apart on complex passages and heavy cymbals, getting sloppy all around. They actually do pretty well at instrumental solos and general dynamics. The graininess of the headphones seems to give a false sense of speed that you can see (hear) through if you know the recording. Bass is pretty good and balanced till you get to the far low end where it gets sloppy, but not moreso that I've heard from many other headphones.
For classical (beethoven - berlin phil.) they are actually quite engaging. They present a more intimate experience than my frankensenns or HD595. While the newer Senns are in the audience, and the SA5000s are in the orchestra, the 540s are in the front row. What I percieve as graininess on other music adds to the texture of the music, and also gives it something of a comforting vintage feel. They might sound better out of a tube setup than my current configuration.
I imagine that time and weather probably contributed to how these cans currently sound, but overall, it was an interesting experience. The newer generation is clearly much more refined, but it's eye-opening to see what Sennheiser thought of as "reference" 20 years ago.
The other night he dropped them off for me to take a look at. Lo and behold, what do we have but a pair of HD540 Gold Reference headphones - Sennheiser's top headphone circa the late 1980s. I barely remembered mention of them in some odd head-fi posts, and they are definitely hard to dig up information about. Even harder to find pictures of, so I took some
Nestled in their wooden box, showing some age:
What a retro rofile:
Headband:
Closeup of the left can:
And the box - why don't the 650s get this treatment?:
The earpads had a thin pleather-like covering on the face which had deteriorated completely, probably with help from our crazy pacific northwest weather. You can just barely see in the pictures the white cloth underneath. Makes them a bit itchy to wear
Sound wise, I listenned to them a little bit with my home setup. I doubt anything else I have could properly drive the 600 ohm beasts. My primary comparison cans were my FrankenSenns (HD580 driver, HD525 body), HD595, and SA5000s. I used the frankensenns since the 580 replaced these headphones, though they aren't a true representation of a 580. The first thing that struck me was the brightness. The 540s are bright, fairly forward, agressive, and somewhat grainy. They have more high end extension than the HD595 and a bit of sparkle up top at times. I don't have a Grado around anymore, but they stuck me as being closer to a Grado than what head-fiers consider a traditional Senn sound.
For rock/alternative (coldplay, pumpkins) they would be ok except that they fall apart on complex passages and heavy cymbals, getting sloppy all around. They actually do pretty well at instrumental solos and general dynamics. The graininess of the headphones seems to give a false sense of speed that you can see (hear) through if you know the recording. Bass is pretty good and balanced till you get to the far low end where it gets sloppy, but not moreso that I've heard from many other headphones.
For classical (beethoven - berlin phil.) they are actually quite engaging. They present a more intimate experience than my frankensenns or HD595. While the newer Senns are in the audience, and the SA5000s are in the orchestra, the 540s are in the front row. What I percieve as graininess on other music adds to the texture of the music, and also gives it something of a comforting vintage feel. They might sound better out of a tube setup than my current configuration.
I imagine that time and weather probably contributed to how these cans currently sound, but overall, it was an interesting experience. The newer generation is clearly much more refined, but it's eye-opening to see what Sennheiser thought of as "reference" 20 years ago.
