[hibitec]

Quote:

Through personal experience i would say yes. The E17 does do a decent job driving the HD598. Will it scale up with better equipment? Yes! You will hear a noticeable improvement moving up to asgard, pan am and lyr. Lyr is quite ooverkill for the 598. The Asgard is more that enough, as the gains after that moving up will not feel like a justified investment.

Go for better cans first, then get something beefier to drive them. You might consider a schiit magni and modi combo or pair your e17 with the e09k, if the itch to upgrade is such that it needs scratching.

either option wont be a huge stretch for the price.

For disclosyre, I have no personal experience of the last three gadgets mentioned, only the ones mention at the start of my reply.

 
Quote:

Your E17 is driving them more than enough. Some people say that the 598 up scales well with better equipment. This very well could be, but there is no reason to spend $300 on a new amp when the 598 is so easily driven. The gain will not be enough to justify spending all that money. You would be better off saving your money for a headphone upgrade and then maybe upgrading your amp down the line when you have headphones that really will benefit from it.

I have never owned any expensive amps, just use fiio's, but I think too many people on here exaggerate the benefits of cable/expensive amp etc upgrades with efficient headphones such as 598 that don't even need an amp, but do benefit some from a little amplification. Spending twice is much as the headphones themselves cost on tube amps and expensive DAC's is a money hole that can be easy for newcomers to get sucked into because so many people on this site make a big deal out of cable, amp, DAC, magic fairy dust, etc upgrades for not that expensive headphones.

 
Thanks for the input. Both of you are suggesting new cans first but my fear is I'll buy new cans that the E17 won't drive and will be unusable, or at least not sound up to potential, until I can afford an amp to go with them. You are right that I am itching to upgrade something. I've had my setup for a year and looking for that next step that won't cost me $1000+. Maybe I'll wait until I can afford a new amp and cans together. Lots to think about.
 
Any other suggestions appreciated.

 

[iGREASE]

So I may be purchasing some 598s soon and I am wondering what amp to get. I am currently running my audio off of my asus motherboard. Would I need to get a soundcard first before I use a amp? My budget would be around $100, $120 max.

Thanks.

 

[tannerbnd]

I don't use an amp at all and they are very powerful and sound awesome

 

[NZheadcase]

Quote:

 
 
Thanks for the input. Both of you are suggesting new cans first but my fear is I'll buy new cans that the E17 won't drive and will be unusable, or at least not sound up to potential, until I can afford an amp to go with them. You are right that I am itching to upgrade something. I've had my setup for a year and looking for that next step that won't cost me $1000+. Maybe I'll wait until I can afford a new amp and cans together. Lots to think about.
 
Any other suggestions appreciated.

 
My vote goes to saving up for an upgraded headphone and amp/dac together. That's the path I took personally, and I have had no regrets so far.
 
Logically, if you only go for headphone upgrades, this might lend some perspective. I've listened to the HD 600 and HD 650, and while they are considered upgrades to the 598, I personally categorize them as different, not better with the current equipment you have. I was able to listen to the HD 600 and 650 (albeit only for about an hour each), and I prefer the HD598's signature. This is via FLAC files though laptop and E17. Of course those two can scale better with better equipment, according to the experience of people here. I have no personal experience of that, but it does make sense that they would.
 
Meantime, as it is only maybe $130-$140, get the FiiO E07K which will allow you to maximise the E17. That should tide you over until you save enough for a better pair of cans and an amp to drive it. I've read that the EO9K drives even the T1's to an OK level of volume and quality.

 

[chimmycham]

Quote:

So I may be purchasing some 598s soon and I am wondering what amp to get. I am currently running my audio off of my asus motherboard. Would I need to get a soundcard first before I use a amp? My budget would be around $100, $120 max.

Thanks.

Well. I use my HD598s with my 2011 Macbook Pro, and the sound card is good enough to make allow these pups to sound phenomenal.
I'm not sure what kind of sound card you've got..
 
The Fiio E17 should be more than enough. (You can et it for around $130 of J&R if they've still got that 15% coupon code).
 
I, myself, am going to buy a Schiit Magni/Modi stack in the next month.

 

[iGREASE]

Also I have another question. I have noticed people saying they have bought these headphones for as low as $179. Everywhere I have looked they are only $249 new or around $200 used. Where should I go to buy these?

 

[chimmycham]

Get them from Amazon.
 
When I bought them (2-3 weeks ago) they were $205, free shipping, new.
 
Right now, on Amazon, they are $225.48, free shipping, new.
 
This is not a bad price, but if you want them for closer to $200, just watch them on Amazon for a bit.
http://goo.gl/IioBq
 
I believe Amazon has a thing where if you buy something from them, and the price gets lowered within 30 days they'll refund you the difference.

 

[awtryau89]

Just continuing to love these cans. I am approaching 100 hours and I am still amazed. I have never been a huge break in guy. I always believed there was slight (very slight) changes but these just keep getting better. I have a set of V-Moda M100s for portables. Listening to the 598s at my desk them grabbing my M100s to run out is an eye opening experience. We are talking about a $300 closed back can that is supposed to be good. Actually it is a good HP but sound from the 598s is just on another level. 

 

[Sennheiser]

Quote:

Just continuing to love these cans. I am approaching 100 hours and I am still amazed. I have never been a huge break in guy. I always believed there was slight (very slight) changes but these just keep getting better. I have a set of V-Moda M100s for portables. Listening to the 598s at my desk them grabbing my M100s to run out is an eye opening experience. We are talking about a $300 closed back can that is supposed to be good. Actually it is a good HP but sound from the 598s is just on another level. 

 

[chimmycham]

I've had these 598s for about 3 weeks, and they just keep sounding better and better.

 

[jcx]

anybody that thinks "break in" can only improve sound doesn't have much appreciation of engineering, physics of sound reproduction, poor tolerances of common driver manufacture, or human perception, psychoacoustics
 
real mechanical effects can't be relied on to always change the driver response for the better
 
its pretty clear that the "keeps improving" part of break in is largely your brain accommodating to the headphone
 
this is a fundamental issue with long term  perception - our neural system is built to learn, does so at an unconscious level
 
and "just listen" is a prescription to "hear" differences -  controls - having a "stable" reference to compare, switching in seconds, level matching to 1% - much better than any human's "by ear" resolution of loudness are all necessary to turn our sense preceptions/impressions into usable data - months long recall of subtle audio detail is just not demonstrated when controls, blinding are used
 
 
mechancial break in examples - stress relaxation may bring the voice coil off center as easily as not - depends on manufacturing, material tolerances, built in stress
 
and I was just looking at a replacement diaphram manufacturer's pro compression driver distortion plots - after 100 hrs burn in harmonic distortion rose - attributed to work hardening of the surround

 

[HarlemRules]

Quote:

Also I have another question. I have noticed people saying they have bought these headphones for as low as $179. Everywhere I have looked they are only $249 new or around $200 used. Where should I go to buy these?

I notice that the price goes down in the evening - EST for me - and then jumps back up by the next afternoon.  Two nights ago at about 3 AM EST - they were down to $220 then by 11 AM they were back at $249.  If you do not mind buying refurbished - still with a 2 year warranty - they are $169 on Amazon.  Trying to decide if I should pull the trigger - I guess I should have come to this thread before I created one asking for advice last night -
 
Newbie error.  
 
But I will ask here again - have any of you who have the 598 have tried the 558? Would you buy the 558 new over the 598 refurb - if you could get them for about $70?

 

[Dillont3]

I have not heard the 558, so I can't attest to that question. However I received a pair of factory refurbished 598's from Sennheiser when I sent my 595's in under Warranty because of cracking. They looked and sounded absolutely brand new, so if they are refurbished by Sennheiser I would jump on the 598's at that price. Often manufactures put in new drivers and any other parts that need replacing in refurbs and put them through extensive testing to make sure they don't get sent back again so they are like new or better since they often don't test new products as extensively as they do refurbs. Just make sure if they are refurbished by Sennheiser and that you definitely still get the 2 year Warranty. Sennheiser usually only gives you a 90 day warranty on their own refurbs, unless the company selling them is providing a 2 year warranty.

 

[chimmycham]

Quote:

 
its pretty clear that the "keeps improving" part of break in is largely your brain accommodating to the headphone

That actually makes a lot of sense.

 

[musiclife]

Quote:

anybody that thinks "break in" can only improve sound doesn't have much appreciation of engineering, physics of sound reproduction, poor tolerances of common driver manufacture, or human perception, psychoacoustics
 
real mechanical effects can't be relied on to always change the driver response for the better
 
its pretty clear that the "keeps improving" part of break in is largely your brain accommodating to the headphone
 
this is a fundamental issue with long term  perception - our neural system is built to learn, does so at an unconscious level
 
and "just listen" is a prescription to "hear" differences -  controls - having a "stable" reference to compare, switching in seconds, level matching to 1% - much better than any human's "by ear" resolution of loudness are all necessary to turn our sense preceptions/impressions into usable data - months long recall of subtle audio detail is just not demonstrated when controls, blinding are used
 
 
mechancial break in examples - stress relaxation may bring the voice coil off center as easily as not - depends on manufacturing, material tolerances, built in stress
 
and I was just looking at a replacement diaphram manufacturer's pro compression driver distortion plots - after 100 hrs burn in harmonic distortion rose - attributed to work hardening of the surround

When you buy a new car, it is really not recommended to rev up the engine, because the mechanical parts are brand new, cut to the edge, and by friction they will smooth and "adapt" to each other.
 
IMO the same thing can happen with a mechanical driver in an headphone, even if the process is much simple.