[DangerClose]

  Any chance I could pull off wearing these off at my office with a person at cubicle next to me about 4 to 5 feet away.

 
No chance.

 

[Badbeams]

,Quote:

I hear slight sibilance in poorly recorded tracks, so it's not very apparent. Funny what great engineering can do, eh?! I believe the open back and shape of our ears help attenuate the sound and it feels less hyped than measured, but that's just a possibility.
You know what, I just realized that! On graphs where the L/R is averaged, the hyped treble stays quite linear until the drop at ~9k I believe (on phone, can't see it).

On the VST eq that I used that has a beautiful eq that can make the FR curve damn near perfect, it shows the same results as those two measurements (all 3 done by 3 different "professionals") with the VST only being averaged L/R between a couple sets (not just one). I can post a screenshot later for those who are interested.

 
It takes a more advanced EQ to correct the response when there are differences between left and right drivers in the mix. I saw a video about the making of the HD-800. As part of the building process, Each driver is analyzed for it's response. Some are totally rejected. The rest are mated up with another that has a similar response...so flaws between left/right drivers are at least similar allowing for a person to EQ out the response with relative ease. Lower models are not driver matched. Bit of a lottery. Do you feel lucky...lol. But that problem, I imagine, is across all brands I would expect. 
 
To my ears, my 598's are reversed from the chart. My left side seems to have a harsher more pronounced sound in the upper mid range. It rises up to much. The right side sounds smoother, not so harsh. Still hopeful of some break in magic. Ran them all night. Still have them running fairly loud in another room...with the door closed so as not to bother anyone.

 

[fallrsk]

Yeah, no amount of burn in can fix unmatched drivers though. Mine feel pretty balanced together.

Also, ears aren't made perfectly either, although your brain adjusts and creates a mental compensation I assume, so there's no telling unless you really test your own individual set. I just can't complain about my set, sorry guys! Lol.

 

[Letmebefrank]

Just wondering how many hours you have on them?

I would say around 30 hours of gaming and maybe 15 hours of music. They don't sound noticeably different than when I first put them on though.

 

[fallrsk]

So, here's a graph from sonarworks, including the eq curve to flatten the FR.
 
Not too sure if this is allowed to be post, but being they give anyone and everyone free access to the trial, I couldn't imagine this being an issue. If it is, I'll delete immediately. Anywho, notice the slightly sucked out mids and hyped treble again, yet it has an odd hump from 100-1k which I don't really hear (or it's just hidden well). There is a +-3dB accuracy though, so keep that in mind.

 

[Bansaku]

  Any chance I could pull off wearing these off at my office with a person at cubicle next to me about 4 to 5 feet away.
 
For comparison on volume, with iPod earbuds on my 4th generation iPod, I have audiobooks at 50% volume (8/16) and music at either 25% or 31.25%  (4/16 or 5/16).

It all depends on how loud you have them, and how nice your co-workers are.

 I use my HD598 almost exclusively for gaming and I am sitting at the computer  5' behind my wife who is on the couch watching TV, and she does not hear much of anything coming out of my headphones (I just literally asked her, and she replied " Unless I see you with them on, I have no clue you are using them; Sometimes I start a conversation not realizing you don't hear me "). To be honest, even at loud listening levels you WILL hear more of the outside world than they hear the HD598s. That said, I am sure between you will be fine with Audiobooks not bothering anyone.
 
With an iPod (see my sig, I have lots) you will need to have the volume at max volume, or pretty darn close to the max for highly compressed modern music to get any enjoyment out of the HD598. If you are listening to any Telarc or Chesky recordings you will need an amp. For Audiobooks I am going to say you should be fine.
 

 

 

[Bansaku]

For anyone concerned that your HD598's drivers are un-matched, remember this:
 
MADE IN CHINA
 
I an certain that Sennheiser does not match the drivers up at the factory before shipping them off to China to be inserted into the cans...assuming the drivers are made in Germany. My HD598s are a smidgen off in favour of the right side, though not by much. My warranty replacement pair of Momentums, while sonically identical, the volume of the left driver is a whomping 14% quieter than the right (which doesn't bother me as I can correct this with Neutron).
 

 
P.S. Peaky sibilance, harsh treble? No way. Have you ever compared the HD598 to a beyerdynamic DT 770, the T 70, or ANY Grado?

My ears hate upper-mids/lower treble due to sensitivity and to me the HD598 are smooth as silk and pretty laid back. 

 

[SirMarc]

I'm not getting the peaky treble thing either. The highs and mids are very smooth and slightly laid back to me. If I had to complain, it would be about the mid bass. Its a little too boosted and loose. I'm at around 60-70 hours now and overall impressed for what I paid...

 

[LazyListener]

   
Hyped treble, 598? No fricken way. I had them for a month, and along with those charts, there is no way that the treble is harsh or sibilant. In fact they were one of my most laid back HPs.

That's how I felt about the beige/ivory 598s I had for about a month.  However, the black 598SEs sound slightly thinner and brighter to me, with less bass and slight sibilance and harshness on some songs.  Still hoping they'll improve with more break in time.  As some have suggested here, it could just be slight variations in manufacturing, as no 2 pieces are made identically the same, or it could be Sennheiser made some small design changes. I think even a slight thickness change in the material covering the drivers could change the sound.  Or maybe it's all just in my head, but I'm doubting that right now.  Never heard any sibilance or harshness from the beige ones.  Would have been obvious if I had.

 

[LazyListener]

  For anyone concerned that your HD598's drivers are un-matched, remember this:
 
MADE IN CHINA
 
I an certain that Sennheiser does not match the drivers up at the factory before shipping them off to China to be inserted into the cans...assuming the drivers are made in Germany. My HD598s are a smidgen off in favour of the right side, though not by much. My warranty replacement pair of Momentums, while sonically identical, the volume of the left driver is a whomping 14% quieter than the right (which doesn't bother me as I can correct this with Neutron).
 

 
P.S. Peaky sibilance, harsh treble? No way. Have you ever compared the HD598 to a beyerdynamic DT 770, the T 70, or ANY Grado?

My ears hate upper-mids/lower treble due to sensitivity and to me the HD598 are smooth as silk and pretty laid back. 

My complaints of sibilance and treble harshness is relative to the beige 598s I had, and only on some songs.  Overall, the 598SE are still rather warm and laid back, but I'm not loving them like I did the beige 598s.  I haven't heard the DT 770, but I have heard the DT 880 32 ohm, which I thought had too much treble making them sound unnatural, but the quality of the treble was very good, not harsh or sibilant.  I had a pair of Grado SR80i for a while and those were just too bright for my tastes.

 

[LazyListener]

   
It takes a more advanced EQ to correct the response when there are differences between left and right drivers in the mix. I saw a video about the making of the HD-800. As part of the building process, Each driver is analyzed for it's response. Some are totally rejected. The rest are mated up with another that has a similar response...so flaws between left/right drivers are at least similar allowing for a person to EQ out the response with relative ease. Lower models are not driver matched. Bit of a lottery. Do you feel lucky...lol. But that problem, I imagine, is across all brands I would expect. 
 
To my ears, my 598's are reversed from the chart. My left side seems to have a harsher more pronounced sound in the upper mid range. It rises up to much. The right side sounds smoother, not so harsh. Still hopeful of some break in magic. Ran them all night. Still have them running fairly loud in another room...with the door closed so as not to bother anyone.

 
 

Yeah, no amount of burn in can fix unmatched drivers though. Mine feel pretty balanced together.

Also, ears aren't made perfectly either, although your brain adjusts and creates a mental compensation I assume, so there's no telling unless you really test your own individual set. I just can't complain about my set, sorry guys! Lol.

 
 

  For anyone concerned that your HD598's drivers are un-matched, remember this:
 
MADE IN CHINA
 
I an certain that Sennheiser does not match the drivers up at the factory before shipping them off to China to be inserted into the cans...assuming the drivers are made in Germany. My HD598s are a smidgen off in favour of the right side, though not by much. My warranty replacement pair of Momentums, while sonically identical, the volume of the left driver is a whomping 14% quieter than the right (which doesn't bother me as I can correct this with Neutron).
 

 
P.S. Peaky sibilance, harsh treble? No way. Have you ever compared the HD598 to a beyerdynamic DT 770, the T 70, or ANY Grado?

My ears hate upper-mids/lower treble due to sensitivity and to me the HD598 are smooth as silk and pretty laid back. 

I want to thank you guys and others here for all the useful posts.  I'm beginning to think that the reason my 598SEs sound different than the beige 598s I had is most likely due to variations in manufacturing, as you say that no 2 drivers are identical, and Senn obviously can't check FR response and do driver matching on its cheaper models.  If that's the case, I need to contact Amazon and have them send back the exact beige ones I returned because those sounded damn near perfect to me!

 
Thanks again!  You guys are awesome!

 

[fallrsk]

 
It all depends on how loud you have them, and how nice your co-workers are.

 I use my HD598 almost exclusively for gaming and I am sitting at the computer  5' behind my wife who is on the couch watching TV, and she does not hear much of anything coming out of my headphones (I just literally asked her, and she replied " Unless I see you with them on, I have no clue you are using them; Sometimes I start a conversation not realizing you don't hear me "). To be honest, even at loud listening levels you WILL hear more of the outside world than they hear the HD598s. That said, I am sure between you will be fine with Audiobooks not bothering anyone.
 
With an iPod (see my sig, I have lots) you will need to have the volume at max volume, or pretty darn close to the max for highly compressed modern music to get any enjoyment out of the HD598. If you are listening to any Telarc or Chesky recordings you will need an amp. For Audiobooks I am going to say you should be fine.
 

 

+1 on this. Simple test: Block the inside of the cups with your hands (or a pillow, if you feel so inclined) and test the sound leak. It's actually not that bad if you ask me; mix in the level of background noise at your office and you might get lucky. Gotta play around at home and if then you still feel up for it, bring it in to the office for a day and have your neighbor let you know if he hears anything.

 

[Badbeams]

I downloaded an 10 band equalizer onto my chromebook (Acer 720p, touchscreen). I thought it would be a joke mostly. BUT...after playing around for several hours with the settings...I'm totally amazed. ALL the issues I had are now gone. It did in a couple hours, what hours of break in time did not seem to be doing. I can say these now sound awesome. I had a 12 band (per channel) equalizer way back in the 1970's...lost to the sands of time. And it also worked magic back then. But I had forgotten about them, and what they could do. And I'm shocked that some downloaded thing would work so well. Bass, mids, highs...super clear, clean and natural sounding. Sounds perfect now to my ears. Flawless to me.
 
Big relief for me as I really like the general sound signature of the open back Sennheiser's. And was really getting frustrated and disappointed.
 
I found very small moves did the trick, very small, save for a larger one at 4k (boosted). I'm really thankful to the poster who put up the 598 graph...as that made me start thinking about EQ'ing.

 

[ztreb185]

I didn't do much extensive comparing between my beige and newly arrived black hd 598s, but I did notice audio on the black ones did not sound as good as my beige ones. But I think this is mostly due to lack of burn in and not giving time for the drivers to settle in compared to the hundreds of hours I've put into my beige ones. Everything sounds just a tad loose and some songs are slightly sibilant, but I fully expect them to sound exactly the same as the beige ones after burn in.

I think it's because when people were first introduced to the original hd 598s, you are hearing a brand new distinct sound never heard before and appreciate the sound signature even more. After being so familiar with it and letting those headphones' drivers settle in, it's easy to be critical of the new black versions with trained ears.

 

[Bansaku]

  I want to thank you guys and others here for all the useful posts.  I'm beginning to think that the reason my 598SEs sound different than the beige 598s I had is most likely due to variations in manufacturing, as you say that no 2 drivers are identical, and Senn obviously can't check FR response and do driver matching on its cheaper models. 

 
Just want to add for everyone who didn't know, but for the HD600 and above, everything is manufactured and rigorously tested in-house in either Ireland or Germany. This is both reflected by the price and craftsmanship. Sennheiser even provides a certificate of Quality Assurance.