Sennheiser 500A

[Newbie1]

Has anyone ever heard these headphones? They are a mix of the 500 and 590. It has the casing of the 500, but has insides made up of modified 590 parts. It also has velour earpads vs the regular 500s Vinyl earpads. Question is though, how do they compare to the 590?

Heres a link with info on it

http://www.hd500a.com/hd500a.shtml

Goes for $130 with free shipping in the US

 

[Eagle_Driver]

From those specs, it (the HD 500A) looks like a re-badged HD 575.

 

[Demolition]

The main page says that they're specially-made for listening to Therapeutic Listening CDs which are used to treat people with auditory dysfunction, autism, and other psychological disorders. I wonder what modifications are done to these headphones that makes them suited for that purpose?

Maybe you should send the Vital Sounds people an e-mail asking if the HD500A is suitable for listening to regular music with.

D.

 

[creyc]

Sorry for bringing up an old topic guys but I have a pair here right now. I'll be giving them a listen very soon!

 

[creyc]

I've not had much experience with Sennheiser in general, so forgive me if some of this is just "the sennheiser sound".

I found the HD500A's to be somewhat of a let down. Even going in with no expectations at all I felt like they performed mediocre at best. They are quite comfortable and light weight, not overly clampy but they stay in place. The earcups are giant sized, and this allows me to move them around on my head which can make them sound very differently depending on placement. Not good in my books. They are of course open, and the cups swivel slightly to conform to your head shape.

They have a light and airy sound signature to them. The absolute opposite way to describe them are "in your face!" headphones. Very restrained and "proper", they also have quite a bit of a veil to them. Upon first listening I called them muddy and heavily pushed back. With further listening much of the detail IS there, but its presented in a way that isn't at all exciting or punchy. Speaking of punchy, the bass is quite good with the exception that it's almost not present. :\ Its refined and very fast, but it's someplace off in the background. Perhaps I need a good amp for them to bring out the bass, but my Echo Indigo DJ is fairly powerful on its own.

One thing i must say is they are smooth sounding. They have a very open, airy feel thats nice for certain kinds of electronic music; trance, ambient and chill. And interesting feeling I got listening to them tonight is that they never quite go "all the way". I always felt like they sound shy, not hitting the very high notes and not going very low either. Dynamic range is poor, i would say, these cans definitely don't "shine" in my opinion, and I'm glad I didn't pay for them.

 

[creyc]

As Demolition mentioned, these are primarily used for the treatment of auditory dysfunctions and autistism. So accompanying these pair of headphones is a special CD, called Electronic Auditory Stimulation effect. Or EASe for short.

The back of the jewel case describes the disc: Quote:

Are you or someone you love ultra sensitive to sound? Auditory ultra-sensativity can be a painful and sometimes debilitating experience. The EASe music based Compact Disc series delivers short duration, transient auditory stimulation and can, in some cases, aid in the reduction of sound ultra-sensativity

I was quite intrigued, feeling brave, and so I gave it a listen.

How dumb could I get?

The first track started and I noticed it sounded a bit thin. There is no bass, no need apparently. Its "classical" music, all electronic and then heavily processed. Every cymbal crash and high note is absolutely blasted, and theres a bit of a "readjusting" to a normal level after this resulting in a choppy, nauseating effect. It's very VERY "stimulating", as they say on the product. 100% opposite of smooth. Its very rough and agitative. I think it's almost enough to drive me into some sort of dysfunction, all kidding aside!

I got through 2 tracks before i had to grab for the EQ dials. Perhaps the just mastered it poorly? No such luck, before long it was EQ'd to the maximum and still unnerving as anything. After the 4th track began I had to stop, by then my ears were literally ringing and I was suffering quite a headache. It wasn't even very loud, and yet i felt sick to my stomach. I tried it with the Senns instead, thinking they must work together somehow but it of course wasnt nearly enough. I find it odd to spec a Sennheiser, if a jarring, sharp sound is what they are after I would choose Senn as a last bet.

Regardless, I can no longer listen to music tonight. I wont be trying this again anytime soon. Perhaps the key is not to focus on the music, but as a Head-Fi'er it's difficult not to be analytical and to not listen critically. I feel bad for the kids with auditory dysfunctions, not because of their dysfunction but because of their treatment! hehe

Anyways, no, I wouldn't use the HD500A's to listen to music with.

 

[sgrossklass]

Given that neither the HD500 nor the HD590 tend to be thrifty on bass, maybe try something with a bit more oomph. A PCCard like the Indigo DJ isn't exactly the place to put phat capacitors in, and at 100 ohms (if good sensitivity) these cans do need some juice. Going by my HD590, I would expect recessed upper mids and elevated highs, and it looks like the 500A shares this.

 

[creyc]

Well I have a CMoy amp in pieces awaiting reassembly. I wasn't happy with it so I figured I'd start over and replace a few components with the experience I had gained from the project.

I'll give them another go after that, but if this is at all typical of the "Sennheiser sound" then I think I have another headphone manufacturer to cross off my list.

 

[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by creyc Well I have a CMoy amp in pieces awaiting reassembly. I wasn't happy with it so I figured I'd start over and replace a few components with the experience I had gained from the project. I'll give them another go after that, but if this is at all typical of the "Sennheiser sound" then I think I have another headphone manufacturer to cross off my list.

That series (500/570/590 and later 575/500A) was far from their best effort and shows signs of cost-cutting. (The accompanying HD400/470/490 models tended to fare yet worse, these were so bad that a HD495 presumably with HD570 drivers came out a bit later, which was quite well-received if not very comfy.) People tended to like the more neutral preceding models (525, 535, 545, 565) noticeably better, only the '590 actually is quite good if you like its sound (beats the '565 by a tiny amount then), plus comfort is top notch. The '570 seems to be half-decent provided you can live with a bathtub-like frequency response and have something that can drive these insensitive things. (The old 5x5 series apparently had 50 mm drivers throughout, with the HD525 using oldschool copper voice coils. For the '99 series, the '590 uses 50 mm drivers, the '570 has 40 mm ones and the 500 unknown, probably 40 mm with copper voice coils that may have been recycled from some preceding HD4x5 model.)

If you want to hear some *good* Senns, try a HD650. HD580s are a bit too cool/analytical sounding for my taste (thus the HD650, I guess) but quite competent cans otherwise. (I recently dug out my trusty old HD590s that I hadn't listened to in ages, and while I found the 580s to have the more convincing presentation, their coolness ultimately had me prefer the '590.) Their current mainstream offerings also are far from bad (OK, I wouldn't buy a HD515, the drivers of which appear to be based on the HD570's, but the HD555 and HD595 drives seem more related to the old HD5x5 going by their original 150 ohms), even though you probably have to like bass when looking at HD4xx models and the point of home cans with 50 ohms impedance (too low to be practical) with a 1/4" plug fitted (too bulky for portables) is somewhat beyond me.

 

[ourfpshero]

posting on old thread i know

i always wondered why the hd500a went for so much $$ on ebay (they aiction off for over 100$ sometimes). i finally got one for a good bid. the specs are 150 ohms, 18-30k. very much like the hd545/565 cans. after listening to them for a while, and comparing them against the hd565, i believe that the 500a has the same drivers as the 565, minor sound diffrences being due to headphone design.
of course this means the drivers are the same as the 545/580/600 also (all use same drivers). thats probably why they sell for so much!

 

[John Willett]

The HD 500A is a special version of the old HD 500 for listening to therapeutic listening CDs which are used to treat people with auditory dysfunction, autism, and other psychological disorders.

The main difference from the standard HD 500 is the "A" version has a different impedance.

They are not on general sale and sold when specified by the audiologist.

 

[SouthernBoy]

Those 500A's are special-purpose. They're for CHILDREN who are going through what occupational therapists call "Listening Therapy". They're sold (or were) through a company called Vital Sounds, who also sells the CDs used in the therapy. The idea is that the music has modified sections, (from what I can tell the mids and highs) which stimulate different parts of the brain, which is the point of the therapy. Anecdotally, the therapy works, as my daughter has used it, and it's resulted in changes in behavior and reduction in mental processing delays.

These phones are made for children, and therefore have a higher frequency response (according to the developers of the therapy, young children have a higher sensitivity to the higher auditory frequencies), and this is evidenced in the specs below. They're either ignoring the fact that CD's can't go to 30KHz, or the phones were designed this way to avoid rolloff attenuating at near 20KHz.

Anyway, here are the specs from the website:

Frequency Response: 18-30,000 Hz
Transducer Principle: Dynamic
Nominal Impedance: 150 ohm
Characteristic SPL: 1 kHz 102 dB
Total Harmonic Distortion: < 0.1%
Ear Coupling: Supra-aural semi-open aire
Weight (without cable): 7.35 oz
Connector: 1/8" stereo jack plug with adapter to 1/4" plug
Connection Cable: 9.8 foot detachable single-sided OFC (oxygen-free copper) cable
Ear cushions: Velour

Listening without an AMP on the headphone out of my Zune 30, I agree with creyc's analysis above. What bass there is is fast, but it sounds like the response in the lower frequencies is rolled-off. I'll have to give another listen after the kids go to bed, since they also sounded colored, but being open, I'm not sure the noise of the girls playing wasn't interfering with my perception of the music. I'll also try them on my receiver which should do a better job of driving the 150ohm phones than the Zune (though I guess we'll see when I try it).

 

[anne49]

Yes these are therapeutic headphones and they run about 140 new.  That listening therapy music does indeed sound strange, but it really works miracles.  My daughter isn't autistic, but had a mild but treatable sensory integration disorder.  Thanks to the listening therapy she can now enter a public restroom, go through electronic doors, go outside in the wind, and even flush the toilet.  This was unthinkable when she was 3 and by 4 it was all gone.  She'll still have challenges, but we're well on the way. FWIW I still have the headphones and I do use them for watching movies etc.  They don't sound great, but they're okay and VERY comfortable.  I think that's the main thing they have is comfort for kids who would really rather not have headphones on.  I wouldn't go out and buy a pair just for listening though.  The sound on my Grado SR60's is much better...but oh do my ears ache after an hour!