taymat
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2004
- Posts
- 564
- Likes
- 12
Hi I've listened to the hd595 for a lot of time today (and been burning it in with 20-20 sweeps) and I think I can now tell you how they sound to me.
Particular instruments that sound good:
Pianos, Trumpets/Saxophones, Spanish/Acoustic electric guitars (you know that liquidy sound they love in Jazz) and Female Voices all sound good. There's a smooth, slightly warm sound to all of them but it's never muddy. Saxophones and pianos in particular sound smooooth and you get the whole body of the piano as well as the initial notes as well. Jazz lovers will like this headphone, especially with modern recordings. Cymbals sound great, detailed and airy without being over-sweet although the lower treble treble is a bit muted.
The bad:
Deep Bass sounds present and correct, never exagerrated but always there, mid and upper bass is very poor though. There's no impact, no drive, nothing. It's as flat as a Desert and just as interesting. Anything but *the* bassiest recordings sound bass light to my ears and this makes nearly all rock music redundant. I mean it's really poor for this, my akg k240s maul it in all but deep bass and they aren't really punchy or bassy, at least not to me.
Distorted Electric Guitars: Sound dulled and cut off in the high end. It's like they lack presence and sharpness. The distortion details are there but there's little strumming sound, your hearing the guitar in the next room rather than close to you.
Drums: Due to the lack of mid and upper bass there's not much snap or drive, especially to the Kick drum which is almost absent. This makes them slightly easier to follow, but it means there's less liveliness so when listening to rock music, they aren't hard hitting enough.
Soundstage: Ok this is where you're music really matters because recordings with a soundstage sound great. Right now it's like there's a sax a few metres in front of me, slightly above my head, with instruments either side of that at diagonals to my head. It's very deep and wide, sounding more speaker like in this respect than any other headphone I've heard. There are downsides to this presentation though, any recordings with one channel instruments sound just like that with no L/R to C mixing at all. If there's little sound in the centre channel with speakers, you'll just get l and r with no centre on the 595s. This is accurate I suppose, but I like a smaller soundstage which makes instruments blend together more, rather than separate them.
Final thoughts:
Jazz is good, rock is bad, classical is mediocre, gaming is fantastic if you don't need overblown bass. These headphones aren't for me really, and it's a shame it's taken me £113 to find that out. However I will keep them still, as I've just tried them for gaming and they're fantastic, equal to my rs-1s with bowls but more refined. They're easy to drive and the soundstage really helps you out in FPS games.
BTW I heard no graininess that some people complained about, though I do hear a definite upper midrange roll off, little mid/upper bass and little presence/snap to any sound. The midrange also sounds a bit airless sometimes, but sibilance is well controlled.
Edit: Just a final note about comfort as it's very good. My ears are a bit wide and just fit in, but there's plenty of height and they never get overheated. Overall construction is ok, the frame feels a bit plasticky in places but then it is so I can't complain too much. Also the stand that comes with the 595 is sturdy and works well, I've got the headphones hanging in between my pc and tv.
Particular instruments that sound good:
Pianos, Trumpets/Saxophones, Spanish/Acoustic electric guitars (you know that liquidy sound they love in Jazz) and Female Voices all sound good. There's a smooth, slightly warm sound to all of them but it's never muddy. Saxophones and pianos in particular sound smooooth and you get the whole body of the piano as well as the initial notes as well. Jazz lovers will like this headphone, especially with modern recordings. Cymbals sound great, detailed and airy without being over-sweet although the lower treble treble is a bit muted.
The bad:
Deep Bass sounds present and correct, never exagerrated but always there, mid and upper bass is very poor though. There's no impact, no drive, nothing. It's as flat as a Desert and just as interesting. Anything but *the* bassiest recordings sound bass light to my ears and this makes nearly all rock music redundant. I mean it's really poor for this, my akg k240s maul it in all but deep bass and they aren't really punchy or bassy, at least not to me.
Distorted Electric Guitars: Sound dulled and cut off in the high end. It's like they lack presence and sharpness. The distortion details are there but there's little strumming sound, your hearing the guitar in the next room rather than close to you.
Drums: Due to the lack of mid and upper bass there's not much snap or drive, especially to the Kick drum which is almost absent. This makes them slightly easier to follow, but it means there's less liveliness so when listening to rock music, they aren't hard hitting enough.
Soundstage: Ok this is where you're music really matters because recordings with a soundstage sound great. Right now it's like there's a sax a few metres in front of me, slightly above my head, with instruments either side of that at diagonals to my head. It's very deep and wide, sounding more speaker like in this respect than any other headphone I've heard. There are downsides to this presentation though, any recordings with one channel instruments sound just like that with no L/R to C mixing at all. If there's little sound in the centre channel with speakers, you'll just get l and r with no centre on the 595s. This is accurate I suppose, but I like a smaller soundstage which makes instruments blend together more, rather than separate them.
Final thoughts:
Jazz is good, rock is bad, classical is mediocre, gaming is fantastic if you don't need overblown bass. These headphones aren't for me really, and it's a shame it's taken me £113 to find that out. However I will keep them still, as I've just tried them for gaming and they're fantastic, equal to my rs-1s with bowls but more refined. They're easy to drive and the soundstage really helps you out in FPS games.
BTW I heard no graininess that some people complained about, though I do hear a definite upper midrange roll off, little mid/upper bass and little presence/snap to any sound. The midrange also sounds a bit airless sometimes, but sibilance is well controlled.
Edit: Just a final note about comfort as it's very good. My ears are a bit wide and just fit in, but there's plenty of height and they never get overheated. Overall construction is ok, the frame feels a bit plasticky in places but then it is so I can't complain too much. Also the stand that comes with the 595 is sturdy and works well, I've got the headphones hanging in between my pc and tv.
