Hey guys,
I got back with a pair of new and shiny Sennheiser PC360. If you remember some time ago right driver in my 350 died, so upon discussing the issue with Senn representatives in my country I came to conclusion that buying a new pair of headphones will take less time and efforts. Actually I was thinking about new 350 but this item was out of stock in the store I usually buy. Since I did not want to wait and my wish to test 360 also was growing up so finally I ended with 360. Of course, I could not stop from comparing with PC350 and checking what's inside of a new and "enhanced" version of 350 and find out if they are better or worse and if they need any further improvement.
PC360 belong to open type, which automatically means bigger soundstage, more airy sound, and noise from outside. So, most significant difference, except the above said - PC360 comes with very comfortable velour earpads, mike can be turned on/off by simple moving it upwards/downwards, sound volume control is placed on the right can (it's cool but it's too lose, one may need to fix its position with a tape or something to avoid accidental volume change if take it to a lan party etc.), they seem to be not so heavy due to lack of metal parts, but sturdy. Overall build quality is basically the same as that of 350.
Sound quality. The most interesting part
. As we all know main disadvantage of unmodded PC360 was too "small" sound, so we had to release some air from the inner can (one more thanks to
Ourfpshero, great job man!). At the same time PC360 is an open type so in theory they should sound better by default. But here is when surprise comes, sound stage was definitely better, sound was bright and clear, very crisp with great positioning. Overall quality is somewhere in the middle between unmodded 350 and modded one. BUT, frequency response was quite close to 350 - highs and mids were obviously dominating, while bass tended to be not so emphasized which was really surprising as there should not be any closed inner can inside.
Upon some hesitating I opened them to see what actually influenced sound. I thought of two reasons - different type of drivers, or some structural "improvements" from Senn, like in case with PC350 or HD 555. The whole process of getting inside is basically the same, but even easier - working with screws and earpads. Inner structure of 360 is not so complex, as there was no need to seal everything due to open design.
First I checked drivers, and yes, they are the same, from hd 595 - same look and model number. That was good, at least I could expect that there is something that could be improved.
After studying the inner surface of the can I did not find anything that could influence sound, like extra foam pads in hd 555, so air cold go everywhere. However broken driver from pc 350 was lying in front of me and when I had another look at the driver from 360 I noticed that there was a subtle difference - 350 driver had a hole inside a magnet, while in 360 driver it was closed with some kind of adhesive paper. Wow, I thought, I bet this is what closes air inside the driver and then gently removed that paper and opened sealed hole. And I was right , except for the open design that was another thing that prevented PC360 from sounding better.
Opening hole in the driver and adding some cotton (I liked damped sound more) allowed to make frequency response more even, sound became more solid with no obvious dominating of highs and mids. I would say soundstage also became a bit wider although I'm not 100% sure since it was wide enough before. Bass response improved as well, but not to that degree that we got after modding PC350. Closed design has its advantages and punchy bass is one of them. I would tell bass sounded as if we did only one extra whole in pc350, something like that, but it was definitely better articulated than by default.
Conclusions: Both 350 and 360 are great, especially after modding. PC360 in total are more comfortable, especially it would become noticeable in hot summer like we had this year, as in PC350 my ears started to boil
Another good point of open design is that I can control my speech, because in 350 sometimes I talked too loudly while playing bad company 2 with my clanmates, and my wife definitely did not like that))
Both are definitely worth buying and modding, but first you need to decide if you like open or closed design more - a bit more bass vs. more open and crisper sound.
P.S. I can add some pictures to show what exactly I removed while modding PC360 when I get back home.
P.P.S Looking forward to your responses and questions