As my first Massdrop purchase, I bought the Sennheiser 58X headphones. The 58X are my very first headphones. I received them via Fedex 4 days ago.
I was concerned about how good and accurate they would sound and if they would have adequate bass response. I was also concerned about my equipment and if what I had to drive them would work or if I would then need to spend more money on a headphone amp. My other big concern was if my new cell phone would be able to power them properly and if the phone would have good sound quality. So, besides wondering how the headphones would sound, I had several other major questions to be answered. The online reviewers either praised or berated the bass response, the mids, and the treble! It was almost like watching tennis. The reviews went back and forth with their praises and criticisms.
I’m satisfied with the overall sound quality. The headphones are accurate and musical, they have deep, punchy bass, good mids and treble. Comparing them to my living room bookshelf speakers (Polk Audio RTI A3s) they seem to have a little fuller sound. Comparing them to my home theater Polk Audio RTI A5 small towers and a JBL 10” sealed sub 550P, the bass and mid response is not as full. I like the towers better. The 550P bass response is much superior both in depth and quality and has NO distortion. I was able to distort the bass response on the 58Xs with some tracks by Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson and especially the title track from Bela Fleck and the Flectones, “Flight of the Cosmic Hippo.” That track has many musical, prolonged, deep and powerful bass segments. But these distortions are the exception, not the rule. Overall, I am very pleased and surprised by the bass response, especially after some of the reviews I read.
The 580X headphones are easy to drive. I have used the headphone out on my Yamaha R-S500 stereo receiver, my Yamaha Aventage 2060 AVR, and the headphone out on my USB DAC/amp (HiFiMe Sabre 9018). All three amps can EASILY drive the 58Xs to ridiculously loud, full and accurate levels with PLENTY of head room to spare. I listen to all three at well less than half power.
The big surprise for me was that my inexpensive Samsung J3 Prime cell phone can easily drive the 58Xs at less than 40% volume. And the 58Xs have a full, not thin sound when powered by my cell phone. The phone has surprisingly good audio quality. In the settings, I have a slider control to adjust the volume and I have a sound quality control that has 3 DSP programs, an 8 band equalizer, and many preset equalizer settings. Many of the reviews I read said I would need a dedicated portable headphone amp, not a cell phone, to fully drive them. These reviews over generalized. I bet just about each and every cell phone has different sound, volume, power and performance properties. So, I don’t need to buy a dedicated DAC/Amp for my cell phone and I can stream Spotify to it since it does WiFi. I also have no pressing need for an expensive DAP. I was going to buy some ear buds for my phone, but the 58Xs sound much much better than cheap ear buds.
I’m happy with and heartily recommend the Sennheiser 58X. The 58Xs provide a high quality, enjoyable, and musical listening experience. Since I already have invested in 2 stereo receivers with headphone out jacks, a DAC/amp, and a cell phone, I especially like the fact that I right now have quality listening experiences with each of these devices and do not need to spend more money on other equipment to enjoy my new headphones. I can stand pat and simply ENJOY the music. In the future I may or may not feel the bug to upgrade and buy additional equipment and headphones, time will tell.