I have the 558's, had it for about a month. Being my first "audiophile" headphones I didn't know what to expect neither did I know what I wanted from my sound. I've burnt them in for 110+ hours using a mixture of xbox, pc and some mp3 playing. Can't really say sound has changed much but again take everything I say with a grain of salt as my ears are untrained and I generally find it hard to remember what things were like.
One thing I do know however, is that these cans are not right for me. The bass is very lacking for my tastes, even with a digizoid ZO2, you don't get much impact. I listen to k-pop/j-pop and some J-rock so it's mainly synthesised sounds with a lot of bass and impact. If anyone listens to these genres or listens to music of this type I'd stay away from the 558's. It makes me listen to my music rather than enjoy it.
Soundstage doesn't feel that amazing either. Comparing it to my turtlebeach X41's (which are closed) with dolby headphone I don't really feel that the soundstage increases by that much. The TB's give me the same sense of spaciousness and range.
Some people say with open headphones it sounds like the sounds are coming from outside the headphone, I can't say I feel this effect. Everything I hear comes from inside the headphones. That's not to say it sounds cramped. It does separate sound well, but the overall soundstage isn't big at all.
I am pretty sure the 558's I got don't have the crack issue, I purchased them 2 weeks ago, I have heard people say with the ones that have the cracking issue you can hear creaking sounds when you move the headphones left and right or stretch them a little bit, I hear absolutely nothing, I am still going to get the best buy 2 year warranty for 30$, I got these for $161.99 at BB
Pretty soon I will have these headphones as well . . . hopefully I like them so that I can throw in an appreciative post of my own!
EDIT: I was gonna buy these headphones used from da(h/k)mart on amazon but I saw some bad things about them . . . I will instead buy the HD 518s new from headroom I think.
got the hd558 about 2 weeks back, modded them too, the soundstage is really good, used poweramp 10 band software eq and a balanced portable amp to tune them to suit my taste better, about almost a hundred hours put into them so far, love them
I have decided that (if my Incase Sonics sell . . . I am trying to sell to a friend) that I will buy the HD 558s NEW instead of used. I WAS gonna buy the 518s after I saw the bad stuff about da(h/k)mart and also buy a sub-$100 portable amp (to keep as a temporary amp until I had funds to buy a better/more expensive amp) like the FiiO E11 but I have decided to put off buying an amp until Christmas/holiday time so I will have more money to go towards headphones.
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