[Ricat]

Befitting of my life, I just jumped through a bunch of songs and I really couldn't tell you what I was complaining about. The tube's been on a couple hours at this point, I don't know if it takes that long? It does seem like the more I listen the better everything gets.
 
Honestly, I am talking a little larger than my experience. I did get pretty excited about finally joining Head-Fi. I just tried swapping from onboard to DAC with FLAC of Cult Of Personality by Living Colour, and the DAC does sound warmer and fuller and less.... Like it's in a hollow metal tube. I definitely noticed that. What I've read is that this is actually a tube-buffered DAC, and the amp inside is solid state.
 
Are the 598s really that much better? If Amazon would let Canadian buyers buy electronics on .com, I'd have them already. In USD the 598s were at the price of the 558s in CAD. Would be more, but not the $100 difference in CAD. I could have afforded it, but I decided not to because I heard they aren't THAT much better...

 

[Ricat]

 
People that say there's not enough bass might just be more used to more bass output from their cans or IEMs, especially if they're comparing to closed cans. I even feel like sometimes it could be lacking some bass in in comparison to my GR06s, but those are very warm and have quite a bit of bass. Also, my experience might be different from yours since I've read that you'll get a little warmer response out of tube amps and I'm running a solid-state amp. And yeah, things do sound infinitely better when it's not coming from a radio!

. On my setup, the mids seem plenty present to me, but vocals aren't always quite as there as I'd like. It depends on the music for me sometimes. I think some of the time it depends on the production of the music you're listening to.
 
And welcome to Head-Fi!!!

Thanks!! Quick edit: You as well, Bansaku! 

 
Been forever since I was on a forum. You're right, it's less the mids and more just the vocals, but depending on the song and I guess maybe the warmup of the tube sometimes they just sound like everything else is pushing them too far away from me to hear detail. And production is a big one. I've noticed how much people favour the right channel in more modern music. I hate when my right ear is a wall of guitar or something and the left has barely anything to fill it. A lot of classic rock does stereo so much better.

 

[Midgetguy]

  Befitting of my life, I just jumped through a bunch of songs and I really couldn't tell you what I was complaining about. The tube's been on a couple hours at this point, I don't know if it takes that long? It does seem like the more I listen the better everything gets.
 
Honestly, I am talking a little larger than my experience. I did get pretty excited about finally joining Head-Fi. I just tried swapping from onboard to DAC with FLAC of Cult Of Personality by Living Colour, and the DAC does sound warmer and fuller and less.... Like it's in a hollow metal tube. I definitely noticed that. What I've read is that this is actually a tube-buffered DAC, and the amp inside is solid state.
 
Are the 598s really that much better? If Amazon would let Canadian buyers buy electronics on .com, I'd have them already. In USD the 598s were at the price of the 558s in CAD. Would be more, but not the $100 difference in CAD. I could have afforded it, but I decided not to because I heard they aren't THAT much better...

Things sounded so much better after I went from onboard audio to a combo DAC/amp. As for the 598s, I've heard that it wasn't quite worth the price hike to get a set over 558s. That's part of why I got the 558s. Other major reason is I hate the color scheme of the 598s; beige just isn't my color.
Don't worry about the experience thing, I'm probably talking more than my experience most of the time too, but luckily, we've got some really experienced people here on Head-Fi that are more than happy to politely correct and educate you if you have things that need to be clarified.
Personally, I think in the Sennheiser range, the 558s are that point at which going beyond gives diminishing returns. Didn't stop me from getting a pair of HD600s though lol. Very happy with them and they've become my main pair now. I'm on HD600s 5 days outta the week and the HD558s on the weekends.

 

[Ricat]

 
Things sounded so much better after I went from onboard audio to a combo DAC/amp. As for the 598s, I've heard that it wasn't quite worth the price hike to get a set over 558s. That's part of why I got the 558s. Other major reason is I hate the color scheme of the 598s; beige just isn't my color.
Don't worry about the experience thing, I'm probably talking more than my experience most of the time too, but luckily, we've got some really experienced people here on Head-Fi that are more than happy to politely correct and educate you if you have things that need to be clarified.
Personally, I think in the Sennheiser range, the 558s are that point at which going beyond gives diminishing returns. Didn't stop me from getting a pair of HD600s though lol. Very happy with them and they've become my main pair now. I'm on HD600s 5 days outta the week and the HD558s on the weekends.

 
Hmm. I also bought the 558s because they were what everyone recommended for gaming. Which holy crap they are great for as well.
I wondered about the diminishing returns thing. I really wonder what a better pair sounds like with this same lossless audio. Maybe one day I'll get one of the high end sets. The T1 could handle it easily as I understand. Read lots here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/633006/aune-t1-usb-tube-dac-amp-discussion-thread-see-first-post-for-faq 
Was thinking about getting another pair of closed Senns for using outside, but I'd have to decide which... I'm also very curious about Grado and other manufacturers, but currently don't have the spare cash to throw around at a collection of cans haha.

 

[Midgetguy]

  Thanks!! Quick edit: You as well, Bansaku! 

 
Been forever since I was on a forum. You're right, it's less the mids and more just the vocals, but depending on the song and I guess maybe the warmup of the tube sometimes they just sound like everything else is pushing them too far away from me to hear detail. And production is a big one. I've noticed how much people favour the right channel in more modern music. I hate when my right ear is a wall of guitar or something and the left has barely anything to fill it. A lot of classic rock does stereo so much better.

I love it when artists produce it as if you were standing in a specific spot and stuff isn't necessary a single channel, but made so that instruments don't sound like it's directly in front of you or to the right, but maybe like mostly in front of you, but a little off to the right or something. That stuff sounds SO GOOD when you've got a set of cans that do positioning well, orchestral pieces especially.

 

[Ricat]

 
I love it when artists produce it as if you were standing in a specific spot and stuff isn't necessary a single channel, but made so that instruments don't sound like it's directly in front of you or to the right, but maybe like mostly in front of you, but a little off to the right or something. That stuff sounds SO GOOD when you've got a set of cans that do positioning well, orchestral pieces especially.

I actually have issues with this. I don't know if my brain is broken but for some reason everything that is supposed to sound like it's in front of me usually gets positioned ever so slightly behind me by my brain. I don't know why or if I can fix it at all. 

 

[Midgetguy]

   
Hmm. I also bought the 558s because they were what everyone recommended for gaming. Which holy crap they are great for as well.
I wondered about the diminishing returns thing. I really wonder what a better pair sounds like with this same lossless audio. Maybe one day I'll get one of the high end sets. The T1 could handle it easily as I understand. Read lots here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/633006/aune-t1-usb-tube-dac-amp-discussion-thread-see-first-post-for-faq 
Was thinking about getting another pair of closed Senns for using outside, but I'd have to decide which... I'm also very curious about Grado and other manufacturers, but currently don't have the spare cash to throw around at a collection of cans haha.

As far as I was concerned, if I got a good set of cans for music, it'll be perfectly adequate for gaming. In fact, gaming sounds even better because the music in it actually sounds GOOD. As for diminishing returns, HD600s are more than twice the cost of HD558s, but overall, it's just a cleaner, clearer, and more refined musical experience as far as I can tell. Incrementally better, yes, massively better, depends on how sensitive you are to the change in music. Was it worth it? To me it was because the HD600s are a bit better in SQ, but they're also built and look quite a lot nicer! So yeah, I deemed the over package worth it, but it depends on the person. I hear the Momentum over-ears are pretty good closed cans. Grados seem to be very treble-centric from what I've read and they look more on-ear than over-ear, which I just can't deal with because I find on-ears uncomfortable. I've been trying to get a hold of a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50s from a friend, but he's just been forgetting to bring them to me so I haven't been able to listen to those yet.

 

[Ricat]

 
As far as I was concerned, if I got a good set of cans for music, it'll be perfectly adequate for gaming. In fact, gaming sounds even better because the music in it actually sounds GOOD. As for diminishing returns, HD600s are more than twice the cost of HD558s, but overall, it's just a cleaner, clearer, and more refined musical experience as far as I can tell. Incrementally better, yes, massively better, depends on how sensitive you are to the change in music. Was it worth it? To me it was because the HD600s are a bit better in SQ, but they're also built and look quite a lot nicer! So yeah, I deemed the over package worth it, but it depends on the person. I hear the Momentum over-ears are pretty good closed cans. Grados seem to be very treble-centric from what I've read and they look more on-ear than over-ear, which I just can't deal with because I find on-ears uncomfortable. I've been trying to get a hold of a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50s from a friend, but he's just been forgetting to bring them to me so I haven't been able to listen to those yet.

 
That's exactly how I shopped for mine. Maybe one day I'll do 600s. They have an allure to them. Yeah, I dunno about Grados.
 
As for the Momentums, I researched them quite a bit. I found them before the 558s. I decided not to buy them because I saw a lot of complaints that they're actually really small and become on-ear for a lot of people. And if not on-ear, then sweaty-ear. Sucks because I love the way they look.

 

[Bansaku]

  As for the Momentums, I researched them quite a bit. I found them before the 558s. I decided not to buy them because I saw a lot of complaints that they're actually really small and become on-ear for a lot of people. And if not on-ear, then sweaty-ear. Sucks because I love the way they look.

 
Try before you buy. Not certain about your place of residence, but I don't know of a single store in my city that sells headphones that does not have a pair of Momentums on the rack to try.
 
Anyway, glad you are enjoying your HD558s, especially for gaming. I just went through the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare using nothing but my HD598s and simply put, amazing!
 

 

[Ricat]

   
Try before you buy. Not certain about your place of residence, but I don't know of a single store in my city that sells headphones that does not have a pair of Momentums on the rack to try.
 
Anyway, glad you are enjoying your HD558s, especially for gaming. I just went through the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare using nothing but my HD598s and simply put, amazing!
 

 
This is true. Between jobs recovering from graveyards currently, but once I have another job going I might grab a pair. If they do fit over my ears I'm sure I'll love them. Vancouver area, I imagine Headphone Bar would have a pair but if not maybe Future Shop or something, haha.
 
These things are just great. Finally listening to Ten by Pearl Jam, and as well the RHCP album Blood Sugar Sex Magik--holy cow on that one. My old copy of it is apparently VBR MP3 (ick) and the 24 bit version I got ahold of.... Magik. Who even knew there was a piano in the left channel of Mellowship Slinky, or that there was even a mouth harp in Give It Away? I don't know if this album is exceptionally mastered or what, but it's a huge standout on this setup thus far.
 
Advanced Warfare I'll buy on sale, currently I'm playing Crysis 2 and pretending it's AW.

 

[Midgetguy]

  Try before you buy. Not certain about your place of residence, but I don't know of a single store in my city that sells headphones that does not have a pair of Momentums on the rack to try.
 
Anyway, glad you are enjoying your HD558s, especially for gaming. I just went through the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare using nothing but my HD598s and simply put, amazing!
 

The places I've seen Momentum sold near me were usually the on-ear version and not the over-ear or I woulda given then a quick listen as well. Never a fan of leather pads though but I'm sure that fixable. I went through the campaign of Advanced Warfare a couple of days ago too! Ran with HD600s. Gotta say, the guns didn't really sound great at all, kinda numb and all fairly similar sounds. The music was pretty standard fair CoD, but the footsteps sounds were fantastic! Which is funny because you don't get to see your feet haha.

 
Advanced Warfare I'll buy on sale, currently I'm playing Crysis 2 and pretending it's AW.

Good choice, Crysis 2 was great! More importantly, the soundtrack is REALLY GOOD! I've got the soundtrack in lossless and they really got the atmosphere down.

 

[Ricat]

   
Try before you buy. Not certain about your place of residence, but I don't know of a single store in my city that sells headphones that does not have a pair of Momentums on the rack to try.
 
Anyway, glad you are enjoying your HD558s, especially for gaming. I just went through the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare using nothing but my HD598s and simply put, amazing!
 

Tried on some Momentums yesterday. Are there two variants or am I just crazy? The only ones they had at future shop were on-ear. They actually fit around my ears, albeit barely. But they look comically small next to what I imagined. And the display the unit was locked into was broken, so I had no way to test audio quality.

 

[imackler]

  Tried on some Momentums yesterday. Are there two variants or am I just crazy? The only ones they had at future shop were on-ear. They actually fit around my ears, albeit barely. But they look comically small next to what I imagined. And the display the unit was locked into was broken, so I had no way to test audio quality.

 
Sounds to me you're actually describing the over-ear version. They barely fit around the ears. 

 

[Ricat]

   
Sounds to me you're actually describing the over-ear version. They barely fit around the ears. 

Weeeeeird. The only boxes they had were of on-ear ones. The display could have been over-ear. There was no marking to indicate. Are they really that small? To the YouTubes!

 

[Bansaku]

  Tried on some Momentums yesterday. Are there two variants or am I just crazy? 

 There is the black (originals), brown, black with red, and ivory. Not crazy!