ModMax
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2012
- Posts
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Just got a pair of 560s yesterday. Been A/Bing them incessantly with my Sennheiser HD-600. I fancy myself a junior audiophile, but I don't master much of the lingo. That being said, I think my impressions would seem to be in line with what is known about these two:
- I find them both to be quite neutral headphones, but the HE-560 is a fair bit ahead in terms of bass and treble. I wouldn't say this makes their sound colored or V-shaped. It's just I'd never noticed the lack of treble energy in the Senns before because I had little to compare them with. As well, I'd never noticed how the bass on the Senns is not as precise as the HE-560, it sounds a bit muddled. You can make out distinct notes much more of the time on the 560, and it was a bit more bass impact as well. Not that that makes the 560 Beats-sounding or particularly impactful. It's just that bass on the Sens is okay/good, and on the 560 it's great;
- The mids are great on both, though I've now found out that the Senns are very mid-forward;
- I'm going back and forth on soundstage width, but they're similar enough, maybe a slight nod to the 560;
- For clarity and detail retrieval, the 560 wins hands down. Upon A/Bing, I do distinctly hear things in most recordings with the HE-560 that I don't when using the HD-600;
- The 560 are fairly harder to drive from my Centrance HiFi-M8. It drives the HD-600 with relative ease, you can even use the middle gain setting, while the HE-560 clearly require the high gain setting, as well as at least "2 o'clock" volume most of the time, if not 3 or 4 o'clock;
- Comfort-wise, I've found that the HD-600 are the most comfortable headphones I've ever used, and the HE-560 is only slightly behind;
So 560s better? Yes. A planar for HD-600 fans? For sure. I'm just not quite sold on them yet due to the, oh, $500 (Cdn) price difference I could get for either on the market...that I'm thinking about it is a testament to the HD-600. Though the HE-560 is unreservedly better, I just don't find myself wanting a whole lot more when I'm listening to my HD-600...that and the fact that my amp is working at 75-90% capacity most of the time with the HE-560 is giving me pause. Yes, I could scale up my amp eventually, but that's likely not in the cards for a couple of years... (and no, I can't keep both)
Thank you for sharing your impressions. I'm quite surprised the HiFi-M8 requires a 2-4 o'clock volume position to drive the HE-560. In anycase, my HE-560 arrive tomorrow and I hope my iFi Micro-iDSD is up to the task.
By the way, before you make your final decision on which headphone to keep, I've read that HiFiMAN recommends at least 150 hours burn-in on the HE-560. Those who have at least this number of hours on their HE-560s, correct me if I am misled.
