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Hmm, well that certainly is a strong push for me to get the 558's then. As far as competitors, would you find it's fair to say that were I to want a noticeable upgrade from the 558/598, I would need to go into the $250+ area, and the headphones that would compete would need some decent amps to drive in order to bring out the qualities in them that make them superior to the 558/598?
And unamped bass a little weak huh...well hopefully my Asus Xonar D2 can at least give the sound a little kick for now, I'll upgrade eventually.
For the first part of the question, yes, you would definitely need to go far over 250 dollar mark to get a noticeable improvement that would make you go WOW!!! like when you go from cheap 50$ headphones to 200-250$ ones for the first time. I heard HD600, HD650, recently Beyers DT880 and AKG Q701, all of those are close to $500 and need an amp that costs almost that much, but honestly, comparing them to HD558's or 598's, I cant say any of those are much better, even with amps. Like, IMHO, HD598's offer 95% of what HD600's or HD650's offer. They are different in their sound signature, yes, but not much better.
You definitely can forget about being highly impressed by headphones after you try something in 200-250 price range. You'd probably have to go to $1000+ models to feel a big difference again. I find that as you go up in prices, differences in SQ get smaller and smaller, and once you hit the mid/high end, headphones start to sound "different", not necessarily "better" compared to other models in price range, and it depends more on your personal preference than the sound quality itself. I mean...yes, HD650's for example are slightly more refined than HD558's, sound more "expensive", have smoother and more realistic bass response, but then again, hd558's have a wider and bigger soundstage, are more comfortable, more engaging, they present details in music more effortlessly, so in then end, when you mix all the pro's and con's, you end up with two headphones that are DIFFERENT. You will like one more than another because of your personal preferences, but you can't point your finger at one or another, and say: "These are definitely much better".
Let me put it this way, when you go from BMW 1 series to BMW 7 series, there is a HUGE difference , but when you go from BMW 7 series to Rolls Royce Ghost, which is almost 2 times more expensive, differences are much smaller, even though price difference was much greater than when jumping from 1 series to 7 series. Its just that they are different cars, with different philosophies. Those who want to cruise in silence and comfort while drinking champagne in the back seat with buy a Rolls, those who like to drive trough the twisty alpine roads or break speed records on autobahn will buy a 7 series.
Also, don't forget that HD558/598's are one of the newest mid/high end audiophile headphones on the market, and most headphones that are "one step up" in the ladder, are old...like HD600/650, Beyer DT7/8/9 series, Akg k701's, they've all been around for almost 10 years, almost unchanged.
For the second part, plugged directly into my Asus Xonar D2X (which is basically a D2 with more features) HD558's get pretty loud, and sound great, not bass weak. Plugged into ipod or mp3 players they sound kinda dull and bass light. But amp still increases performance levels compared to using them with sound card only.
