chadh
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2005
- Posts
- 104
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- 10
I've owned a pair of Senn HD580s for a couple of years. I bought them for an office system that never got much use, so they've been lightly and infrequently used.
I've recently decided to move to PC based audio though and decided to rejuvenate my office headphone system. So I bought a new pair of AKG K501s as they were so cheap. Well, I took them out of the box, plugged them into my Sugden headmaster and thought they sounded pretty nice. Then I swapped in my HD580s, and they sounded much worse.
It wasn't as though I just preferred the K501 style - there was NOTHING about the HD580s that sounded as nice as the K501s. Even the K501 bass was better. Most notably, though, the HD580s just sounded so shrill and nasty in the treble. I imagined that the K501s would sound horrible at this stage as they needed to be broken in, but they just sound much smoother and musical than the 580s.
Is it possible that the 580s really need breaking-in again, due to their lack of use? (They probably haven't been used at all in a year or so). Or is there reason to believe that there is something wrong with the phones?
Just to be clear: I'm not surprised by the fact that I might like the 501s more than the 580s. But I imagined that they would be of comparable quality, simply with different characteristics. Furthermore, the relative harshness of the treble was not really something I felt people associated with the Senns (sometimes criticised for sounding a little too laid-back or veiled).
Any thoughts?
Chad
I've recently decided to move to PC based audio though and decided to rejuvenate my office headphone system. So I bought a new pair of AKG K501s as they were so cheap. Well, I took them out of the box, plugged them into my Sugden headmaster and thought they sounded pretty nice. Then I swapped in my HD580s, and they sounded much worse.
It wasn't as though I just preferred the K501 style - there was NOTHING about the HD580s that sounded as nice as the K501s. Even the K501 bass was better. Most notably, though, the HD580s just sounded so shrill and nasty in the treble. I imagined that the K501s would sound horrible at this stage as they needed to be broken in, but they just sound much smoother and musical than the 580s.
Is it possible that the 580s really need breaking-in again, due to their lack of use? (They probably haven't been used at all in a year or so). Or is there reason to believe that there is something wrong with the phones?
Just to be clear: I'm not surprised by the fact that I might like the 501s more than the 580s. But I imagined that they would be of comparable quality, simply with different characteristics. Furthermore, the relative harshness of the treble was not really something I felt people associated with the Senns (sometimes criticised for sounding a little too laid-back or veiled).
Any thoughts?
Chad