[drummerman1]

And its' contents...

 

[gavinfabl]

That should be a tale of two very different headphones. Looking forward to your thoughts.

They are indeed. The FT5 with classical and female jazz vocalist is the only one that can move me emotionally. The FT5 also have more bass slam.

 

[Fegefeuer]

Whenever something Sennheiser's comes up people get their hopes up only to be shot down. These will never beat a well driven HD580/600/650.
It feels Sennheiser's resting too much on their momentum (ha!) instead of going all in and release a HD 900 (as a proper HE90 trickle down) instead of doing these
560S salvage projects.

 

[Rob80b]

It feels Sennheiser's resting too much on their momentum (ha!) instead of going all in and release a HD 900 (as a proper HE90 trickle down)

With the consumer side...lets just say it's complicated......
https://www.sonova.com/en/sonova-0

instead of doing these

...... the HD490 Pro comes under separate entity...
https://www.sennheiser.com/en-de/catalog/products/headphones

 

[CammyFi]

Quick impressions for the producing pads only.

Firstly, the build is fairly solid, on first impressions some might think they feel cheap. They don't. The plastics are very rigid being made from glass fibre-impregnated nylon and Sennheiser has elected to use a metal spring band that takes most of the stress, this also means that the clamp is an order of magnitude lighter than say the HD560s.

Producing pads:

Bass:
Not gonna sugarcoat this, it's warm and decently extends... but it's also a tad bit limp, Not much impact though it's not completely dead. I'd possibly describe it as mushy and somewhat compressed; it's a kin to the likes of DT900 Pro X. But again, not the worst as it still has a bit of life and texture to it.

Lower mids and Mids:
the warmth extends into the lower mids and gives stuff like pianos some body, although with very dry transients. I'd describe the mids themselves to be very Sennheiser like still, however, the timbre is kind of off, if I had to describe it I'd say it's like you're looking through frosted glass in a way.

Upper mids and Treble:
In the upper mids we have a somewhat drastic scoop, not a glaring issue but if you're not used to it, this will make the likes of female vocals sound lifeless for example, however, presents a greater illusion of width to the stage, treble is smooth enough but depending on your ears it COULD be a bit much, I'd personally prefer less, but it's definitely not the most offensive.

If you're into your technical stuff, please run away. What most consider "detail" is nowhere to be found, I'm going to use the frosted glass example again. It has a touch of grain to it and somewhat sounds like stuff is smeared over. You again have the limpness and compression.

Stage and imaging is decent for Sennheiser standards but nobody is going to get excited by it, placement is fine? However, my unit does have a bit of channel imbalance past 1k.

 

[headstef]

I think that the little coil of the cable near the headphone end is a very clever solution for microphonic noise (= noise by friction on the cable surface) and also protects from sudden tensions. Maybe someone in Sennheiser is reading Head-Fi carefully? (just saying, lol)

eliminating microphonic noise

 

[spruce]

Quick impressions for the producing pads only.

Firstly, the build is fairly solid, on first impressions some might think they feel cheap. They don't. The plastics are very rigid being made from glass fibre-impregnated nylon and Sennheiser has elected to use a metal spring band that takes most of the stress, this also means that the clamp is an order of magnitude lighter than say the HD560s.

Producing pads:

Bass:
Not gonna sugarcoat this, it's warm and decently extends... but it's also a tad bit limp, Not much impact though it's not completely dead. I'd possibly describe it as mushy and somewhat compressed; it's a kin to the likes of DT900 Pro X. But again, not the worst as it still has a bit of life and texture to it.

Lower mids and Mids:
the warmth extends into the lower mids and gives stuff like pianos some body, although with very dry transients. I'd describe the mids themselves to be very Sennheiser like still, however, the timbre is kind of off, if I had to describe it I'd say it's like you're looking through frosted glass in a way.

Upper mids and Treble:
In the upper mids we have a somewhat drastic scoop, not a glaring issue but if you're not used to it, this will make the likes of female vocals sound lifeless for example, however, presents a greater illusion of width to the stage, treble is smooth enough but depending on your ears it COULD be a bit much, I'd personally prefer less, but it's definitely not the most offensive.

If you're into your technical stuff, please run away. What most consider "detail" is nowhere to be found, I'm going to use the frosted glass example again. It has a touch of grain to it and somewhat sounds like stuff is smeared over. You again have the limpness and compression.

Stage and imaging is decent for Sennheiser standards but nobody is going to get excited by it, placement is fine? However, my unit does have a bit of channel imbalance past 1k.

Thanks, this is helpful! Seems like at least a few valid user reports of not so ideal timbre, which is what I’m chasing after.

 

[MadHiFi]

Quick impressions for the producing pads only.

Firstly, the build is fairly solid, on first impressions some might think they feel cheap. They don't. The plastics are very rigid being made from glass fibre-impregnated nylon and Sennheiser has elected to use a metal spring band that takes most of the stress, this also means that the clamp is an order of magnitude lighter than say the HD560s.

Producing pads:

Bass:
Not gonna sugarcoat this, it's warm and decently extends... but it's also a tad bit limp, Not much impact though it's not completely dead. I'd possibly describe it as mushy and somewhat compressed; it's a kin to the likes of DT900 Pro X. But again, not the worst as it still has a bit of life and texture to it.

Lower mids and Mids:
the warmth extends into the lower mids and gives stuff like pianos some body, although with very dry transients. I'd describe the mids themselves to be very Sennheiser like still, however, the timbre is kind of off, if I had to describe it I'd say it's like you're looking through frosted glass in a way.

Upper mids and Treble:
In the upper mids we have a somewhat drastic scoop, not a glaring issue but if you're not used to it, this will make the likes of female vocals sound lifeless for example, however, presents a greater illusion of width to the stage, treble is smooth enough but depending on your ears it COULD be a bit much, I'd personally prefer less, but it's definitely not the most offensive.

If you're into your technical stuff, please run away. What most consider "detail" is nowhere to be found, I'm going to use the frosted glass example again. It has a touch of grain to it and somewhat sounds like stuff is smeared over. You again have the limpness and compression.

Stage and imaging is decent for Sennheiser standards but nobody is going to get excited by it, placement is fine? However, my unit does have a bit of channel imbalance past 1k.

May I ask you what is your favourite HP in thas price class? Your review sound quite negative, so I would like to understand what Hp is a good one, I would like to try it and understand your critics

 

[Hengstenberg]

Found this on a YT comment section - interesting if true


"Sennheiser sold off their consumer audio division and with it their consumer audio products, HD600 included, to Sonova. This comes from their pro division, which is still family owned. It explains some of the design decisions and why it seems to cannibalise/compete with the 6XX platform so directly. It's very much intentional.
It is called the "Pro" because the HD490 already exists."

Can someone confirm this?

 

[maegnificant]

Found this on a YT comment section - interesting if true


"Sennheiser sold off their consumer audio division and with it their consumer audio products, HD600 included, to Sonova. This comes from their pro division, which is still family owned. It explains some of the design decisions and why it seems to cannibalise/compete with the 6XX platform so directly. It's very much intentional.
It is called the "Pro" because the HD490 already exists."

Can someone confirm this?

It is no secret that Sennheiser is owned by Sonova. I am pretty sure it's the whole company though, since they just moved the whole company to Ireland, as far as I understood.

 

[LobalWarming]

Found this on a YT comment section - interesting if true


"Sennheiser sold off their consumer audio division and with it their consumer audio products, HD600 included, to Sonova. This comes from their pro division, which is still family owned. It explains some of the design decisions and why it seems to cannibalise/compete with the 6XX platform so directly. It's very much intentional.
It is called the "Pro" because the HD490 already exists."

Can someone confirm this?

Confirmed. Years ago. See the Sonova announcement from 2021.

 

[Hengstenberg]

It is no secret that Sennheiser is owned by Sonova. I am pretty sure it's the whole company though, since they just moved the whole company to Ireland, as far as I understood.

..but if the "Pro division" is still family owned, , that would be new for me.

Confirmed. Years ago. See the Sonova announcement from 2021.

Sure, but the thing is, the "pro division", where the HD 490pro is coming from, is still family owned? that would be new for me

 

[LobalWarming]

It is no secret that Sennheiser is owned by Sonova. I am pretty sure it's the whole company though, since they just moved the whole company to Ireland, as far as I understood.

No, it was only the consumer audio division. Sennheiser Pro audio is still in the family - and still owns/operates Neumann. And recently purchased Merging Technologies who manufacture pro audio interfaces.

 

[LobalWarming]

..but if the "Pro division" is still family owned, , that would be new for me.

Sure, but the thing is, the "pro division", where the HD 490pro is coming from, is still family owned? that would be new for me

Only new to you... Sennheiser Pro Audio never stopped producing headphones for the pro audio market. Or microphones, wireless performance products and more.

However, it is confusing to have the 'same brand name' owned by two different entities, marketing to two different, but overlapping markets. At the time, Sennheiser was losing money on the consumer side and chose to selloff the consumer division and invest in their pro audio division.

 

[Hengstenberg]

Only new to you... Sennheiser Pro Audio never stopped producing headphones for the pro audio market. Or microphones, wireless performance products and more.

However, it is confusing to have the 'same brand name' owned by two different entities, marketing to two different, but overlapping markets.

Not just me, many people didn't know that. I thought Sennheiser sold everything to Sonova incl. the Pro Audio incl.
That also explains why the HD490 pro is a amazing headphone and the HD660/II stinks.