[carefullistener]

First of all, let me give you guys a bit of background. I am a music slave, but have not been too keen on audio quality until this year. I play classical piano for nearly 14 years and have a good ear for detail.

I was looking for a pair of new headphones for pc gaming, and accidentally stumbled upon the sennhesier brand, and after that one thing led to another putting me in the audiophile position im in now.

I got the sennheiser 555s because they were only 84 bucks on amazon brand new, and I kept reading that they were the best for the price.

Needless to say while waiting for them to come, I poured endless information into my brain. I had the pink noise ready to go as well as over a terabyte of FLAC format hq music files.

When I first got them, I was underwhelmed with the bass but remembered to keep off judgement until after break-in. I notice many people say breakin is not real....

Speakers all have a break in period, and since these headphones are open air, they are basically tiny speakers that produce sound in a similar way.

After break-in I not only proved to myself that the break-in is real, but the sound quality was a huge step above what it was when I first tried it. The heavy kicking deep bass finally appeared, but without being overwhelming. I am very impressed even right now listening to how good and clear my music sounds, and yes I listen very very closely. I can see how people are sucked into this hobby quickly, since I am already imagining what the other sennheiser models sound like considering this one is so great.

Pretty much Ill have to agree with the crowd, and say that these cans are the best hands down in their price range, and even compared to many cans double their price. I still cant believe these were only 84, unreal.

I use well appointed PC, only 2 months old with powerful hardware. Only thing is I skimped out on getting a good sound card to get a better graphics card. I have the realtek high definition audio (most likely built-in on motherboard) so first question.

1) How good would you say this soundcard is? To me it sounds more than just good, but from my experience its really hard to tell the difference in sound cards by just listening. What do you think?

2) How LOUD do you crank up your 555s? I cannot bear to listen to them above 50% of windows volume (while using foobar2k with wasapi output and 100% volume on fubar). At 50% they still sound clear, even when I tried to see if there would be any distortion at 60%, there was none...just very loud clear music. So how loud can this phone go by windows vista volume setting as the indicator? My ears sometimes hurt from this 50 volume setting, other times it sounds just loud enough without causing pain. Normally I listen to them at 30-40 windows vol. What volume do you listen to your 555s?

3) I am trying to keep these in perfect audio quality shape for a long time, is it bad to play a lot of bass heavy songs at 50% windows volume? I listen to all genres, with lots of trance and dance/techno that has a lot of very high frequency and very low frequency sounds, so my question is will this kind of use shorten the life of the cans?

4) How does skin oil or very mild sweating affect the cans? I get the feeling that the oil that comes out of my skin is being absorbred by the ear pads and possibly even the netting inside the headphone which separes your ear from the driver. Am I just being paranoid? Do things like these have a risk of doing damage to the cans? The mild sweat I mention is not a whole body sweat, but just a feeling that the area where the earpads touch your ears and the area around it feeling not as dry as when you first put them on.

5) I use the phones for 8-12 hour sessions at a time occasionally on weekends, this is why I ask about skin oils, as thats a long time to have headphones on your head not moving at all. Do long sessions make the cans less durable?

6) How do people blow out their audiophile headphones considering how loud these are without distortion at even 50 volume? I would dare use these at 80-100 or even 70 volume without thinking I surely did some permanent ear damage, with hearing loss. If the phones are set on 100% volume by accident without me knowing, and something plays like a windows sound, can this cause damage? Or does the sound have to be played for a little while at max volume before it starts to damage the drivers? Basically im asking if you had your phones at 100% without knowing, and say the windows sound played when windows started but it was freakishly loud. Does this little bit cause any damage or is damage only possible with long use at that volume?

7) I never wear the phones until I take a shower right before putting them on, because it makes me feel like im better preserving their cleanliness and therefore their life span. Just how durable and long lasting are these supposed to be? Can I get 3 years out of it with using it as I mentioned at 100% fubar with 50% windows volume through wasapi?

8) In fubar2k while using wasapi, I have the soundcard set to 24bit 96k format, and foobar also at 24bit 96k. The pppHS resampler is at 96k with ultra mode on, does ultra mode make any difference? and, Did I set up these options correct? I turned 24/96 across all the boards as far as I know. Does the upsample to 96k take place within foobar before going to the soundcard? or at the card?

Many people say that there is no point in turning on 24bit and upsampling beyond 48hz, but I can hear a big difference and the individual sounds in each song sound more well defined. Also, I notice that the frequency visualization is alot tighter and compact at this mode, compared to 44hz setting. At 44 the visual takes up the entire top area of the horizontal splitter, but at 48hz the outer edges where the high freqs are seems to be pushed in from the edge, as if this upsampling is causing there to be less frequencies playing. What is the deal here?

What is your opinion on what I do here? Do you resample? What do you use and are my settings ideal for best quality and clarity?

Is there anything else I can do to improve the sound quality any further considering my hardware available? What options or settings (if any) should I change?

Any answers are highly appreciated. I searched the forum a few times but couldnt find the answers to these Qs, so any information you can give would go a long way. Especially if you are knowledgeable about headphones, and it doesnt matter if you have the 555s or not, since some questions can be answered which are general inquiries about headphones and their useage.

 

[carefullistener]

Also, the 555s have user replaceable wire and ear pads. Where do I buy these parts? and at what point does one know that they need to be replaced?

If the wire is not ripped and the earpads not punctured or ripped, is there any need for a replacement in the interests of extending the durability? or are the inital ear pads intended to last indefinitely?

 

[carefullistener]

I hope some of these questions dont seem like they are something I should already know, but at my beginner status I am trying to get informed correctly the first time around. There can be a lot of contradictory info on the web, with one saying no and other saying yes. Case in point: headphone break-in.

This forum seems to be the most reliable source for the info I am looking for, so if you think some of my questions are common sense ones, say it is so as that would help tremendously.

Thank you! and if anyone is up for it, share your method of using the 555s. What type of music do you play on them? Do you use my setup or do you have something different?

Oh and lastly, I read that this particular can does not gain much with an amp over the pc soundcard connection. WASAPI bypasses all the volume settings except the windows main setting, so what would be the point of an AMP with any future headphones running on this machine?

If windows main volume is set at 100% during wasapi, does this ensure a better reproduction than if the sound is much lower? This forum says that the media player volume distorts the sound when it is not at 100%, but does the main windows volume control also cause this distortion since it is software based?

Thats all I could ponder up, thanks for everything!

 

[pp312]

Wow, I think you've probably overwhelmed the majority of posters with questions most would never have ever thought of. Without answering anything specifically, let me make a couple of observations.

First, you have bought the best cans for the price, especially if you're a careful listener. Second, those cans can be essentially upgraded to 595 status quite easily by the simple removal of a couple of pieces of foam/rubber within the phone itself, but you'd have to do a search ("555 foam mod") for instructions. This is by no means essential for happy listening though, and there's nothing to say you wouldn't prefer the phones as they are.

Third, stop worrying. You seem very fastidious, and fastidiousness can give you warts. No wait, that's not right...at any rate worrying takes years off your life. Don't worry about replacing leads and pads at this stage (the leads aren't replaceable anyway). Don't worry about taking a shower before listening; just listen and enjoy. Also, don't listen for those very long periods you mention or you'll end up with tinnitus. Give your ears time to rest.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

[carefullistener]

Thanks! and I will heed that warning.

I apologize if I typed too much or asked too many questions, I just wanted to get them all in at once instead of making multiple threads over days. In hindsight I shouldve made the questions more clear cut, but at any rate I understand what you are saying.

I wouldnt say im worried so much as trying to achieve best possible results. Ill make sure to take breaks if working on 12 hour long sessions (I dj mix). Never had ringing in the ears, but im sure that can change with repeated abuse.

 

[Szadzik]

As pp312 said, stop worrying and enjoy.

I bought these cans recently too and am enjoying them a lot.

 

[pp312]

The 555s are extraordinary value for money. The trick to fully enjoying them is to not read threads about what might be better, or what amp you should get. The 555/595(there's not a huge difference between them) are as good a headphone as most people would ever need; but owners start reading these threads and discontentment sets in and the music doesn't sound as good anymore. Shame really.

 

[roker]

I had some time so I decided to answer your questions:

1) Yes.
2) No.
3) Maybe.
4) B.
5) Both A and C.
6) On Sundays.
7) None of the above
8) ABSOLUTELY NOT!

 

[jp_zer0]

Why worry about damaging your cans? The 555's are pretty cheap, there's better things to be worried about.

About ear damage from unexpected volume, I wouldn't worry about that either. At a certain volume the cans won't actually get louder afaik, just distort. The ear can also handle short db spikes pretty well.

 

[pp312]

I think the relevant word here is "afaik". At the point where the phones are distorting, your ears will be ringing their boss to complain. Do take care.