[erich6]

I have to say I like to play my music loud but 100db and 15db bass boost is definitely over the top. 
 
I haven't detected any distortion on the HD 598 Cs at any volume my ears can tolerate for more than 10 seconds.

 

[Mad Max]

  I found some interesting news. According to some headphone store representative, the open HD598 are being discontinued look in the comment section in this 599s review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw3CfC5Jqnk

 
I'm pretty sure everyone aware of the new HD5x9 line knows about HD5x8 being discontinued.  

 

[LazyListener]

   
I'm pretty sure everyone aware of the new HD5x9 line knows about HD5x8 being discontinued.  

Yes, but the question is when.  When will Sennheiser stop making them and when will the last batch be on retailers shelves?

 

[Shawn71]

Lower end Sennheisers have this problem. My first Sennheiser hd449 was rattling with bass heavy content, especially with action movies with heavy sub bass scenes. With eq it was horrible. HD598 also had this. Dt990 had this, but at really high wolumes or with heavy sub bass content. T1 maybe rattled if i remember correctly if you push them to the very extreme volumes. HD8 DJ, HD650 and HD800S was never rattled even with extreme scenarios like +15db bass boost + Fiio e12 bass boost and with a wolume at above 100db. HD598 drivers doesnt have big excursion or simply put drivers didnt have much space to move inside.

I second that on 449....they rattled when they are driven beyond a point. But the 429s took them and even better than 449,the soundstage,openess etc,imo.

 

[KopaneDePooj]

   
And we have a winner! Congrats to  KopaneDePooj  for deciphering Head-Fi!

That too, we aaall have problems

 

[MRK1]

These 598c can blow my eardrums at 25+ out of my PC and 50+ out of my phone. The first day I got them I raised the volume a bit too much (25 to 30 out of my PC with loud music) and I felt my ears a bit clogged the entire following day.
 
This guy who used max volume and +15db on bass is probably deaf now.
 
By the way I'm starting to like them to be honest. I used nothing but these for a week and I think I appreciate the soundstage and crisper sound. I still find the volume either too harsh or too low. I can't find a middle ground for some reason. Maybe because I'm not used to this kind of sound that's heavier on the mids.
 
By the way I tried the bass test on http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php and I don't have any rattle on mine. I even tried maxing the volume (of course I wasn't keeping the headphones on during this test) and I didn't hear any rattle.

 

[stellarelephant]

  Anyone else experiencing bass problems with the regular HD 598?

Whenever I crank up the volumes, the bass starts overpowering the song and distorting the vocals, it's super strange.
I had the same thing when I first ordered the headphones a year ago. Sent them back because I thought the drivers were damaged and got refunded.

Now I tried to give them another chance and the same problem occurs which makes me think this is something common, but I've never read anything on this forum about it.

 
What type of distortion are we talking about here?  I've never heard my open 598 SE buzz or "fart" like a woofer does when overwhelmed with bass.  With a woofer, you get those nasty noises when the cone reaches past its excursion limits and slaps the voice coil behind it.  Headphone drivers are designed differently, and while some of them do create this obvious, buzzy, over-excursion distortion when pushed too hard, I have never heard my 598 cans do this.  
 
There is no doubt in my mind that the 598 DOES DISTORT when challenged by very loud, bassy material. But the way the 598 distorts is pretty elegant...what I experience is not buzzy at all.  It's more like a compression of the sound.  If you know what a hard limiter plugin sounds like...think of that.  It's just like the amplitude of the bass hits a ceiling, so that much of the bass information beyond that point will be lost.  Higher on up the frequency spectrum, there is similar a loss of precision and detail.  I believe this is because the driver is vibrating so much, and dedicating so much of it's surface area to try to produce the bass, that it can't really render the mids or even the treble with precision either.
 
So listen for a compression of the bass amplitude along with a muddying of detail, which extends up the frequency spectrum to some degree.  That's how the 598 distorts to my ears.
 
At moderate listening levels and with decent amping, I think the 598 handles bass well, even though there isn't much low bass without the help of EQ.  I enjoy a 3 dB boost via a low shelf at 50 or 60 Hz.  Even with the boost, the 598 won't distort until the volume is cranked high.  And, yeah, I suppose if you set your volume to deafening leavels, I assume even the buzz-averse 598 would enter the farty bass territory, as any driver of any type probably will.  Never tried it!

 

[LazyListener]

My early impressions of HD 650 compared to open 598 here:  http://www.head-fi.org/t/197776/sennheiser-hd650-impressions-thread/36840#post_13070071

 

[LazyListener]

Deleting accidental double post.

 

[Spider fan]

The Cs are on lightning deal till 7pm est for $99 again on US Amazon.

 

[Gammon2004]

Sorry if this has been discussed on other threads, but I tried the 598 Cs from the Black Friday deal and thought they were just terrible,  They don't sound anything like my regular open 598s at all.  They just sounded like cheap midrangey headphones, I think my $20 Monoprice headphones are definitely better.  So I returned the 598Cs.  Are there any general opinions on closed cans that sound most similar to the open 598?  

 

[Shane D]

I bought the HD598 C's and love them. I find they are similar to B&W P5's (Gen 1).
I have never listened to open back phones. To me it seems like it would negate the main benefits of hp's (making no noise). I am curious what they sound like though.

Shane D

 

[LazyListener]

  Sorry if this has been discussed on other threads, but I tried the 598 Cs from the Black Friday deal and thought they were just terrible,  They don't sound anything like my regular open 598s at all.  They just sounded like cheap midrangey headphones, I think my $20 Monoprice headphones are definitely better.  So I returned the 598Cs.  Are there any general opinions on closed cans that sound most similar to the open 598?  

I don't know about closest in sound to open 598, but the best sounding closed cans I've personally tried are PSB M4U 1 and NAD Viso HP50.  The PSB are a bit more mids-forward, whereas the HP50 are more neutral sounding with slightly boosted bass.  Both cans are "cousins" and were designed by the same engineer, but each sound a bit different.  Both cans have pretty good soundstage for a closed back, but I doubt any closed back with give you the soundstage of open 598.  Plus, both play quite loud.  No standalone amp needed.

 

[LazyListener]

I bought the HD598 C's and love them. I find they are similar to B&W P5's (Gen 1).
I have never listened to open back phones. To me it seems like it would negate the main benefits of hp's (making no noise). I am curious what they sound like though.

Shane D

Open backs, by allowing the sound to escape into your nearby environment give the impression that the sound is coming from slightly outside of or around your ears.  There is more space around each instrument and things like distance between instruments (foreground sounds vs background sounds) are easier to perceive.  With closed backs, sounds sound more contained inside your ears or even like they're coming from inside your head, and the difference between foreground sounds and background sounds is harder to hear.  With closed backs, there is less perceived distance between sounds and they all sound like they're more or less coming from the same space.  These are generalizations and sometimes a closed back can will have a bigger soundstage than an open back can, but that's the exception to the rule.  If you listen primarily to highly compressed and electronic music (rap, hip-hop, pop, EDM, etc.), closed backs provide better low bass due to sealed enclosure, but sacrifice soundstage (spaciousness), which isn't all that important for electronic music since most has very little soundstage recorded into it in the first place.  If you listen primarily to music made with real instruments (rock, classical, jazz, etc.) that is typically recorded in a physical space like a recording room or venue, a good recording will capture the ambient sounds of the room in which the music was recorded and possibly the positions of the musicians and their instruments.  A good open back can like the open 598 will allow you to hear this "space" to some degree as if you were listening in that room during the recording.  I have fairly sensitive hearing and with my open 598, I can hear the acoustic resonances of the rooms in which some songs were recorded.  The open 598 are pretty remarkable in this way, provided your hearing is sensitive enough to pick up on it and you appreciate that sort of thing.

 

[Tuneslover]

Need to say it...HD598se sounds awesome with my Vali 2/Bifrost 4490 setup.  Very good system symmetry.