RockStar2005
Headphoneus Supremus
**UPDATE: I HAVE SWITCHED OVER TO THE BOWERS & WILKINS P7. See here for more details.**
After reading various pro and customer reviews about how great these sound, I went ahead and bought myself the Sennheiser HD1 Over-Ear headphones (HPs) in the ivory color. The HD1 is the upgraded version of the Momentum 2.0 headphones by Sennheiser. They feature the exact same award-winning (2017) sound signature of the Momentum 2.0 headphones, but with added comfort. Sennheiser found out a year or so ago that the name "Momentum" was already trademarked, so they decided to rename this line to "HD1" in order to avoid a lawsuit.
Price: I paid $250 for these on Amazon + $25 tax, so a total of $275.
Looks/Design/Features: These are some really nice premium-looking HPs. Though the ear cups are plastic, the rest of the phone is all metal & genuine leather all the way! In between ear cups & the ear pads are gold metallic accents, which give the phone a more luxurious look. They are quite light, not bulky by any means, and so they are also quite portable. A big part of their portability also comes in the form of the "fold-in" feature (see pic below) which the original Momentum 1.0 did not have (though the 2.0 did).
The cable for the phone is a regular (non-braided) cable which features an in-line remote and mic. Though the phone is "Made for iOS", the only thing lost on Android phones with this remote is the volume feature really. The pause/play button works just fine, and I believe the same button can let you take and/or disconnect phone calls as well. The length is 1.4 meters, which is about 4.5 feet. I am happy with anything around 4 feet, so this is just fine with me. The part that connects into the HD1 features a "twist & lock" option as well, and it goes into the right side of the HD1. It takes a BIT of effort to twist and pull it out, but not too much really. I will prob just leave it in most of the time unless traveling long distances.
The HD1 also comes with a suede-like super-soft carrying case AS WELL AS a black hard case! Sennheiser held back nothing here! You usually don't get both, so this was a welcome surprise. The hard case has enough room in it so that you can even leave the cable connected into the HD1 w/o worrying about it (this is how they come actually too).
Comfort: I found these to be one of the most comfortable HPs I've ever worn! They remind me a lot of my old Sony MDR-1A 'phones actually, which were the most comfortable ones I've ever worn, though these may be equal to those or an extremely close second? Due to the HD1 being so light, and because of their smaller size, you don't have much pressure on any part of your head at any given time either. The headband is genuine leather with some padding on it. Not a ton, but the truth is it really doesn't need it IMO. The ear pads feel like giant super soft marshmallows against your ears. They had been enlarged since the Momentum 1.0 due to customer complaints, and it's good to see that Sennheiser listened! Even with glasses on, these still felt super comfy to me! I have average-sized ears, and so I never felt my ears touching the speaker driver covering at all either.
The oval shape of these ear pads also have other advantages. One of which has to do with volume and potential hearing loss. Rounded ear pads let more of the sound leak out, which in turn forces the listener to raise the volume up, which can put the listener at increased risk for (unnecessary) hearing damage. But oval-shaped ear pads isolate sound better, and therefore less sound is likely to leak out, and the urge to raise the volume up higher vanishes immediately!
Sound: Many have said the HD1s sound great out of the box and don't need EQ'ing. For the MOST part I agree with this statement. They did sound great out of the box, but I felt they could sound even better, so I tried to come up with a custom EQ for the HD1s. But oddly enough it was the custom EQ I used for my now former Meze 99 Classics that made them sound their best! It opened up the sound to give it more "air" and also less congested (with respect to instrument separation) & less overly bassy on some songs as well. So these comments are based on the use of my Meze 99 Classics w/ the Brainwavz ear pads custom EQs (3 total), which can be found here. They were made for use in the Poweramp music app, so make sure to get that for best results!
**UPDATE: I found that using the EQs from that link for the STOCK 99 C ear pads gives me a more open and "airy" sound, so I suggest using those instead. They are the FIRST group that's listed on that link. OR, just go ahead and see the newly renamed EQs down below that I just added to this post.**
Sennheiser HD1 (Main EQ):
Senn HD1 (Bass Xtra) EQ:
Senn HD1 (Bass Lite) EQ:
Without any EQ, the HD1 still sounded great! Better than most out-of-the-box perhaps? But with my custom EQs, they sounded even better!
Oh and the soundstage was pretty wide, especially when you consider that these are closed-back HPs! This of course lends to the extra airiness and improved instrument separation as well.
Conclusion: Since these sounded so fantastic, and were even more comfortable than my 99 Classics (and slightly cheaper), I've decided I'm going to keep the HD1 after all! I HIGHLY recommend these headphones and suggest you try them out too if you are looking for something new.
After reading various pro and customer reviews about how great these sound, I went ahead and bought myself the Sennheiser HD1 Over-Ear headphones (HPs) in the ivory color. The HD1 is the upgraded version of the Momentum 2.0 headphones by Sennheiser. They feature the exact same award-winning (2017) sound signature of the Momentum 2.0 headphones, but with added comfort. Sennheiser found out a year or so ago that the name "Momentum" was already trademarked, so they decided to rename this line to "HD1" in order to avoid a lawsuit.
Price: I paid $250 for these on Amazon + $25 tax, so a total of $275.
Looks/Design/Features: These are some really nice premium-looking HPs. Though the ear cups are plastic, the rest of the phone is all metal & genuine leather all the way! In between ear cups & the ear pads are gold metallic accents, which give the phone a more luxurious look. They are quite light, not bulky by any means, and so they are also quite portable. A big part of their portability also comes in the form of the "fold-in" feature (see pic below) which the original Momentum 1.0 did not have (though the 2.0 did).
The cable for the phone is a regular (non-braided) cable which features an in-line remote and mic. Though the phone is "Made for iOS", the only thing lost on Android phones with this remote is the volume feature really. The pause/play button works just fine, and I believe the same button can let you take and/or disconnect phone calls as well. The length is 1.4 meters, which is about 4.5 feet. I am happy with anything around 4 feet, so this is just fine with me. The part that connects into the HD1 features a "twist & lock" option as well, and it goes into the right side of the HD1. It takes a BIT of effort to twist and pull it out, but not too much really. I will prob just leave it in most of the time unless traveling long distances.
The HD1 also comes with a suede-like super-soft carrying case AS WELL AS a black hard case! Sennheiser held back nothing here! You usually don't get both, so this was a welcome surprise. The hard case has enough room in it so that you can even leave the cable connected into the HD1 w/o worrying about it (this is how they come actually too).
Comfort: I found these to be one of the most comfortable HPs I've ever worn! They remind me a lot of my old Sony MDR-1A 'phones actually, which were the most comfortable ones I've ever worn, though these may be equal to those or an extremely close second? Due to the HD1 being so light, and because of their smaller size, you don't have much pressure on any part of your head at any given time either. The headband is genuine leather with some padding on it. Not a ton, but the truth is it really doesn't need it IMO. The ear pads feel like giant super soft marshmallows against your ears. They had been enlarged since the Momentum 1.0 due to customer complaints, and it's good to see that Sennheiser listened! Even with glasses on, these still felt super comfy to me! I have average-sized ears, and so I never felt my ears touching the speaker driver covering at all either.
The oval shape of these ear pads also have other advantages. One of which has to do with volume and potential hearing loss. Rounded ear pads let more of the sound leak out, which in turn forces the listener to raise the volume up, which can put the listener at increased risk for (unnecessary) hearing damage. But oval-shaped ear pads isolate sound better, and therefore less sound is likely to leak out, and the urge to raise the volume up higher vanishes immediately!
Sound: Many have said the HD1s sound great out of the box and don't need EQ'ing. For the MOST part I agree with this statement. They did sound great out of the box, but I felt they could sound even better, so I tried to come up with a custom EQ for the HD1s. But oddly enough it was the custom EQ I used for my now former Meze 99 Classics that made them sound their best! It opened up the sound to give it more "air" and also less congested (with respect to instrument separation) & less overly bassy on some songs as well. So these comments are based on the use of my Meze 99 Classics w/ the Brainwavz ear pads custom EQs (3 total), which can be found here. They were made for use in the Poweramp music app, so make sure to get that for best results!
**UPDATE: I found that using the EQs from that link for the STOCK 99 C ear pads gives me a more open and "airy" sound, so I suggest using those instead. They are the FIRST group that's listed on that link. OR, just go ahead and see the newly renamed EQs down below that I just added to this post.**
Sennheiser HD1 (Main EQ):
Senn HD1 (Bass Xtra) EQ:
Senn HD1 (Bass Lite) EQ:
Without any EQ, the HD1 still sounded great! Better than most out-of-the-box perhaps? But with my custom EQs, they sounded even better!
Oh and the soundstage was pretty wide, especially when you consider that these are closed-back HPs! This of course lends to the extra airiness and improved instrument separation as well.
Conclusion: Since these sounded so fantastic, and were even more comfortable than my 99 Classics (and slightly cheaper), I've decided I'm going to keep the HD1 after all! I HIGHLY recommend these headphones and suggest you try them out too if you are looking for something new.
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