GeekMystique
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2004
- Posts
- 8
- Likes
- 0
I thought it was about time I gave something back to these forums. After enjoying them for about a month I'll review both my HD-555 and M-Audio Transit USB. I can't really disconnect these two since i bought them at the same time and am almost constantly pairing them.
My background: I am not much of an audiophile, but I am very much into listening music. My ears are pretty sensitive and I can discern sources pretty easily, I'm just looking for satisfaction, which doesn't have to be perfection in my book.
All music i listen to is compressed, so you could call me an audio butcher. When I download my music i always try to download the best rips though. I hate listening to anything below 192 KBit and prefer music above that.
My musical tastes are pretty much all over the map. I enjoy Dr. Dre, Bjork, Elvis Costello, Gangstarr, RATM, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Two Lone Swordsmen, Curtis Mayfield, whatever, all depending on my mood. The only things I'm not quite ready for are classical and jazz.
My previous setup was a SBLive value card coupled with a open (~$50) Sony HD480 headphone. Now before i heard any 'real' headphones i thought the Sony was pretty decent, you could turn up the volume on it without distortion, and it had plenty of bass and highs. I did notice however, that connecting it to my mainboard's onboard soundcard produced a crisper sound (more well defined in low and high ranges, not as nasal as the sblive). Unfortunately this crisper sound was paired with pretty audible noise levels, also the drivers were buggy sometimes, so i mostly resorted to my SBLive.
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The actual HD555 review
The build quality of the HD555 pleasantly surprised me. It's a very solid design, but the headband is very soft and flexible. They also look better on your head (in normal people's language that would be 'slightly less dumb'), not the two big round halves of my previous sony's, a flat lean fit. They are pretty heavy compared the cheap piece of plastic Sony, and I do notice them on my head more. This said I think nothing compares to the cosily stuffed light as a breeze open air cheap-sony series.
The cable is very nice and thick, yet flexible. It regrettably ends in a large stereo plug which is useless for my purposes, but comes with an adapter plug (although of the 'pull-the-cable-and-take-the-audio-jack-with-it' variety).
When connecting the headphones at first I thought the cable was broken, because one channel would drop out any time i moved the cable. After troubleshooting it turned out the earlier described Sennheiser plug adapter was too loose. I was already planning on getting a cable-based adapter, so I took the libery of getting it earlier. I find it deplorable Sennheiser supplied me with a dud (and dangerous) cable adapter, especially since most people use devices with small jacks nowadays.
I was pleasantly surprised by how easily the HD555's were driven. All my soundcards drove the headphones to levels you could use them as speakers. Compared to my very easily driven CD480 set i think they need about 25-35% more juice to produce the same pressure. My beloved Iriver imp400 could drive it to reasonably acceptable levels (although not rock-out loud). I might still get a cheap amp in the future, as higher powered sources are believed to change the sound signature of headphones by some. Right now I just think the risk of buying an amp and coming to the conclusion the sound is not better only possibly louder is too big. The only real reason to get an amp would be portable use.
And now... The sound!
First off: This is a kind of comparison between the HD555 sound, compared to my old CD480's and 'what i should think my audio should sound like'. I just conducted the last test to confirm my earlier observations (for those who believe in burn-in). They have had about 100 hours of playing on moderate-to-higher volume levels. All observations are made on my M-Audio Transit with no equalization and Winamp with the MAD MP3 plugin.
The definition of sound is uncomparable to my old headphones. The stereo image created is wider and more detailed. The dynamic range of my music seems to have increased, echo effects used can easily be picked apart and small stereo details appear. Sadly they also highlight some of the crappier studio efforts I have on my harddrive. Underground hip hop sounds lo-fi even more than it did, and Garbage sounds more like garbage. This is of course in favor of these phones.
Bass is most certainly strong. The detail is also very nice, instead of having my ears monotomously tremble i now have more shades of bass. This new bass definition is a big plus for the techno/drum and bass music I play, although it can take the fake chrome shine of records like Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic'.
The only sonic complaint i have against the HD555s is the mids. I've noticed tones, especially hi-hats and the whitenoisesque 'lisp' sound some singers make can slight somewhat nasal and overpowered. Aimee Mann's 'singing' voice and Beck's Sea Change record suffered considerably from this. This might be attributed by the frequency response characteristics of MP3 as well. I do have the feeling the mids have slightly recessed after my hours of use, but whether this is due to mental or physical burn-in remains to be seen. Also, maybe the sonic changes an amp would bring could make a difference here?
Highs are very nice and adequately strong. Especially with my OGG and MPC compressed songs. The highs contribute a lot to the wide and more defined sound i described earlier.
I find these phones suitable for most of my music. Because of the neutral sound I do believe you should definitely not buy them for 'rocking out' with Rage Against the Machine or Nirvana. These songs do sound good but they are a little too contained for my liking.
Apart from the spike in the mids and crappy plug adapter I have no complaints against the Sennheiser HD555, i have the feeling i got a little more than what i paid for (115 Euros), which is definitely not what you'd expect when buying high profile brands.
In my utterly subjective rating system these headphones get an overall A-. sonically they get a B+, because i still think there could be improvement made (maybe in sources or due to burn-in).
--------------
M-Audio Transit USB
I bought a second hand M-Audio Transit USB audio adapter to compliment my new headphone aquisition.
The things I was most cautious of were the output power of the device and it's USB interface/drivers. Both concerns proved unneeded.
The output power of the M-Audio could easily power my HD555 to ear damaging levels. Although not as strong (~20% difference) as my SBLive it's still enough to drive any headphone you'd reasonable want to connect unamped. I downloaded the latest drivers and installed it (i never use cd's) and there were no problems in getting it to work. I've also done some gaming on it and it works flawless. Of course no 3D hardware acceleration whatsoever, but also no cracks or pops which I do get with an older USB audio solution i have.
As i described before, i found that my SBLive's output was worse than my noisy onboard soundcard in terms of the crispness and detail in sound. The M-Audio provided the crispness of the onboard sound without any noise. And when i say without noise i mean without noise, there was NO noise at all, no matter how high the output level. I have the liberty to use Transit in a quiet room on my silent thinkpad laptop, and I have zero complaints about its sound. It's strong, uncolored, undistorted and unforgiving.
The device has native 24 bit 96Khz audio support. Apart from the fact I really doubt i could personally hear the difference (knowing the scientific basis of what these numbers mean), i have had no way to test it. It's still nice to know you're hype-ready though
.
I find the Transit to be a simple, no bells and whistles low budget solution that's perfect for my usage. I can connect it to my laptop when i go to work or am out on travel, and use it at home on my workstation, and it only cost me 50 euros including shipping (second hand). I love the thought of not having to sacrifice sound quality anywhere, and at this price and size this is a killer solution for that goal.
---------
I've already had a lot of pleasure from my small investment. The only deplorable thing is that never ever will sound the same again. When i pick up my old headphones they feel and sound like crap. I think i should not buy any better ones because i'd refuse to go to concerts or talk to people in real life.
Yours truly,
Geek Mystique
My background: I am not much of an audiophile, but I am very much into listening music. My ears are pretty sensitive and I can discern sources pretty easily, I'm just looking for satisfaction, which doesn't have to be perfection in my book.
All music i listen to is compressed, so you could call me an audio butcher. When I download my music i always try to download the best rips though. I hate listening to anything below 192 KBit and prefer music above that.
My musical tastes are pretty much all over the map. I enjoy Dr. Dre, Bjork, Elvis Costello, Gangstarr, RATM, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Two Lone Swordsmen, Curtis Mayfield, whatever, all depending on my mood. The only things I'm not quite ready for are classical and jazz.
My previous setup was a SBLive value card coupled with a open (~$50) Sony HD480 headphone. Now before i heard any 'real' headphones i thought the Sony was pretty decent, you could turn up the volume on it without distortion, and it had plenty of bass and highs. I did notice however, that connecting it to my mainboard's onboard soundcard produced a crisper sound (more well defined in low and high ranges, not as nasal as the sblive). Unfortunately this crisper sound was paired with pretty audible noise levels, also the drivers were buggy sometimes, so i mostly resorted to my SBLive.
--------------
The actual HD555 review
The build quality of the HD555 pleasantly surprised me. It's a very solid design, but the headband is very soft and flexible. They also look better on your head (in normal people's language that would be 'slightly less dumb'), not the two big round halves of my previous sony's, a flat lean fit. They are pretty heavy compared the cheap piece of plastic Sony, and I do notice them on my head more. This said I think nothing compares to the cosily stuffed light as a breeze open air cheap-sony series.
The cable is very nice and thick, yet flexible. It regrettably ends in a large stereo plug which is useless for my purposes, but comes with an adapter plug (although of the 'pull-the-cable-and-take-the-audio-jack-with-it' variety).
When connecting the headphones at first I thought the cable was broken, because one channel would drop out any time i moved the cable. After troubleshooting it turned out the earlier described Sennheiser plug adapter was too loose. I was already planning on getting a cable-based adapter, so I took the libery of getting it earlier. I find it deplorable Sennheiser supplied me with a dud (and dangerous) cable adapter, especially since most people use devices with small jacks nowadays.
I was pleasantly surprised by how easily the HD555's were driven. All my soundcards drove the headphones to levels you could use them as speakers. Compared to my very easily driven CD480 set i think they need about 25-35% more juice to produce the same pressure. My beloved Iriver imp400 could drive it to reasonably acceptable levels (although not rock-out loud). I might still get a cheap amp in the future, as higher powered sources are believed to change the sound signature of headphones by some. Right now I just think the risk of buying an amp and coming to the conclusion the sound is not better only possibly louder is too big. The only real reason to get an amp would be portable use.
And now... The sound!
First off: This is a kind of comparison between the HD555 sound, compared to my old CD480's and 'what i should think my audio should sound like'. I just conducted the last test to confirm my earlier observations (for those who believe in burn-in). They have had about 100 hours of playing on moderate-to-higher volume levels. All observations are made on my M-Audio Transit with no equalization and Winamp with the MAD MP3 plugin.
The definition of sound is uncomparable to my old headphones. The stereo image created is wider and more detailed. The dynamic range of my music seems to have increased, echo effects used can easily be picked apart and small stereo details appear. Sadly they also highlight some of the crappier studio efforts I have on my harddrive. Underground hip hop sounds lo-fi even more than it did, and Garbage sounds more like garbage. This is of course in favor of these phones.
Bass is most certainly strong. The detail is also very nice, instead of having my ears monotomously tremble i now have more shades of bass. This new bass definition is a big plus for the techno/drum and bass music I play, although it can take the fake chrome shine of records like Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic'.
The only sonic complaint i have against the HD555s is the mids. I've noticed tones, especially hi-hats and the whitenoisesque 'lisp' sound some singers make can slight somewhat nasal and overpowered. Aimee Mann's 'singing' voice and Beck's Sea Change record suffered considerably from this. This might be attributed by the frequency response characteristics of MP3 as well. I do have the feeling the mids have slightly recessed after my hours of use, but whether this is due to mental or physical burn-in remains to be seen. Also, maybe the sonic changes an amp would bring could make a difference here?
Highs are very nice and adequately strong. Especially with my OGG and MPC compressed songs. The highs contribute a lot to the wide and more defined sound i described earlier.
I find these phones suitable for most of my music. Because of the neutral sound I do believe you should definitely not buy them for 'rocking out' with Rage Against the Machine or Nirvana. These songs do sound good but they are a little too contained for my liking.
Apart from the spike in the mids and crappy plug adapter I have no complaints against the Sennheiser HD555, i have the feeling i got a little more than what i paid for (115 Euros), which is definitely not what you'd expect when buying high profile brands.
In my utterly subjective rating system these headphones get an overall A-. sonically they get a B+, because i still think there could be improvement made (maybe in sources or due to burn-in).
--------------
M-Audio Transit USB
I bought a second hand M-Audio Transit USB audio adapter to compliment my new headphone aquisition.
The things I was most cautious of were the output power of the device and it's USB interface/drivers. Both concerns proved unneeded.
The output power of the M-Audio could easily power my HD555 to ear damaging levels. Although not as strong (~20% difference) as my SBLive it's still enough to drive any headphone you'd reasonable want to connect unamped. I downloaded the latest drivers and installed it (i never use cd's) and there were no problems in getting it to work. I've also done some gaming on it and it works flawless. Of course no 3D hardware acceleration whatsoever, but also no cracks or pops which I do get with an older USB audio solution i have.
As i described before, i found that my SBLive's output was worse than my noisy onboard soundcard in terms of the crispness and detail in sound. The M-Audio provided the crispness of the onboard sound without any noise. And when i say without noise i mean without noise, there was NO noise at all, no matter how high the output level. I have the liberty to use Transit in a quiet room on my silent thinkpad laptop, and I have zero complaints about its sound. It's strong, uncolored, undistorted and unforgiving.
The device has native 24 bit 96Khz audio support. Apart from the fact I really doubt i could personally hear the difference (knowing the scientific basis of what these numbers mean), i have had no way to test it. It's still nice to know you're hype-ready though
I find the Transit to be a simple, no bells and whistles low budget solution that's perfect for my usage. I can connect it to my laptop when i go to work or am out on travel, and use it at home on my workstation, and it only cost me 50 euros including shipping (second hand). I love the thought of not having to sacrifice sound quality anywhere, and at this price and size this is a killer solution for that goal.
---------
I've already had a lot of pleasure from my small investment. The only deplorable thing is that never ever will sound the same again. When i pick up my old headphones they feel and sound like crap. I think i should not buy any better ones because i'd refuse to go to concerts or talk to people in real life.
Yours truly,
Geek Mystique
