[OpTicaL]

It sounds more like you have a bad pair of cans in your hand than the 595's sounding poor.

 

[Davesrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OHPC /img/forum/go_quote.gif I guess AKG 501 would be a good bet, what do you think?

blah....the 595s actually have a very similar tonality to the k501, but have a smaller soundstage: so you feel more like the conductor with them. The k501s have too little bass to have a soundstage that would be considered good for the first two rows of an auditorium IMO. The k701s are supposed to be better about that.....but if you're liking the HD595s, then you need to stay in the Senn camp: HD650 or HD700 when it comes out

The HD650s are great for symphonies and offer more dynamic range and soundstage good for staying in the front rows of an auditorium

RE: burn-in....nope, it doesn't take 100+ hours to burn-in. Or maybe I should say that you enjoy them even more

 

[OHPC]

Well, I think I should add I hear to many genres of music: rock, jazz and classical. Not into thrash/speed/black/death metal (or whatever they call these genres), not into hip-hop/rap/r&b, mostly good old rock, from hard-rock to nice pop. Jazz? Mostly pianists like Keith Jarrett, Herbie Han**** or guitarists like Pat Metheny. And classical - mostly everything, from medieval era to 20th century music. Pretty eclectic. And I absolutely LOVE my HD595 in all these genres, even out from the box. I can't imagine myself liking it more, if you understand what I mean.

I am a little skeptic about "burn-in" having a tremendous effect, I suppose something will change in the sound, but not dramatically.
Even before I ordered these cans I was already sure I would like them, from what I had read here. I am not sure I will need something better, at least for my tastes, reading some threads and seeing opinions I was led to believe HD650 will be great, but maybe not the right choice for me. Besides, I can't afford to spend more in another piece of hardware right now. I have a family, you know.

If I want to keep it I need to stop spending money in audio... I think everybody knows what I am talking about.
Erm... OpTicaL... Maybe you misunderstood my point. I love HD595, and I was thinking it would be fun to hear an AKG 501 someday, maybe have one if I like it.
Davesrose: I saw some of your posts and I see you are a great fan of HD650, maybe if I have the money, who knows? My wife would kick my ass probably, but who knows?

I saw the AKG 701, but isn't it too expensive? I need to check...
Thanks for the comments, people!
I am just listening to Thomas Dybdahl "One day you will dance for me, New York City" album... Man, it is amazing. I was thinking right now "who is playing the piano?". Since I am the only here who plays piano I was surprised to hear somebody playing (track 3, if you wanna check) the piano, it seemed somebody had entered my own house, then I realized it was in the song. Can't get more real than that...
Thanks to Head-Fi for helping find me this amazing piece of hardware. I already hate you all for making me spend so much time and money in all my headphones.

 

[Davesrose]

Well I was going to say how the HD650 can be better for symphonies....but meh. You love your current setup and don't want to spend any more money! Everything else stinks!!!!

But seriously, the HD595 is a great headphone. It's a better all in one headphone then the HD650 IMO. If anyone tells you it can't scale up, they're wrong. I still like them on my current rig

 

[Slides]

Anyone know about Senn's warranty?

 

[Davesrose]

it's a 2 year: Sennheiser says to go through the reseller that you got them through AFAIK.

 

[Slides]

I bought them from bhphotovideo.com (14 day return), so I will have to contact Sennheiser. Let's see.....

Thanks for the help.

 

[captainbrendo]

hey malos, what exactly is a high current amp? I don't know much about amps.

OHPC, I'm also a musician/composer/former conductor! I play clarinet and guitar. I still have bad dreams about my miserable piano class from music school...... You got any recommendations for good piano music?

I'm likin the 595 more and more. It's startin to make me fall out of favor with big phat subwoofer bass in favor of the more realistic bass presence of the 595!

 

[MaloS]

No real differentiation we can go by I guess but I believe that tubes can provide lots of current more easily than solidstate? (correct me if I am wrong Davesrose). Thats kinda of a whacky example, but with amps that have their rating provided you can take a look at their current output into various impedances (in mA), or power output (in mW). if you have power output, converting to amperes is relatively easy.
Power = Current^2 * Impedance
simple conversion to get current:
squareroot(power/impedance) = current.
since its proper to do this in SI units, mW need to be used as W, ie mW * 1/1000, and that equation will produce amperes, to get mA multiple by 1000.

Basically to elaborate. If I drive my hd595 with my Porta Corda - nothing magical happens, porta corda gives as much current as a typical computer sound card. Put in a bigger chunkier amp with strong output (good wattage/current) - and it improves the edges of the frequency response where people usually deem hd595 to be weak. I am under impression from other users that C&C Box happens to be a high current amp and hence work well with hd595. (its a small portable).

 

[donunus]

The thing I hate about the 595 is that It has a crap in crap out sound. although it's a little soft and smooth, its pretty darn detailed

 

[MaloS]

Don't feed it crap =] Wouldn't eat rotten meat even with enough spices to cover up the taste would you?


I actually found it sometimes forgiving depending on the amplification used.

 

[donunus]

hahaha nothing can save joy division recordings I guess or some old john peel sessions stuff

 

[OHPC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by captainbrendo /img/forum/go_quote.gif hey malos, what exactly is a high current amp? I don't know much about amps. OHPC, I'm also a musician/composer/former conductor! I play clarinet and guitar. I still have bad dreams about my miserable piano class from music school...... You got any recommendations for good piano music? I'm likin the 595 more and more. It's startin to make me fall out of favor with big phat subwoofer bass in favor of the more realistic bass presence of the 595!

You mean good music or good recordings?

Just kidding...
Well, we are talking about piano, lemme think.
If you like jazz, Keith Jarrett is a great place to start - all his records are released by ECM, and Manfred Eicher (the engineer, producer, owner, whatever) is amazing - most of Keith Jarrett records are perfectly recorded. If you can cope with all the noises he makes - he sings, puffs, hums and moans while playing. Brad Mehldau is also a fine pianist, and his recording are very original - he even recorded Radiohead, piano solo, so you can figure he has lots of courage among jazz pianists.
Classical? Well, besides the school pianists like Horowitz and Rubinstein (his recording of César Franck's "Prelude, Choral and Fugue" is a masterpiece), who have been nicely remastered, I would pick: Nelson Freire (not many recordings, he does not like the studio but finally decided to record again), Kristian Zimerman (his album of Chopin Ballades is for me the single best piano album in whole history), Ashkenazy, Pollini, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Sviatoslav Richter (the man is a genius, but the recordings are old), the complete set of Beethoven Sonatas played by Wilhelm Kempff (9 cds)... Too many to list, actually. But these would be a nice start. Besides, they will all sound amazing with your HD595.

Davesrose: From what I hear I also thought the HD595 was going to be "a better all in one headphone then the HD650", this was the reason I chose it, besides the price. I have read some threads about the dreaded Sennheiser "veil", but if there is any "veil" in Sennheiser HD595 I love it. I would even make a "dance of the seven veils" at this right moment.

 

[Arothorn]

I just received my HD595's on Monday. Out of the box they sounded incredible! (compared to my Koss portaPro's or UR40). They are extremely comfortable (I would have to turn off the sound to talk to my kids and would forget they were on). Bass was excellent and accurate with a slight 3dB roll-off between 20 and 40 hZ (measured using SPL meter and frequency generator). I'll post a review once I have some time, but they sound great with everything I've put through them! I haven't heard the so called "veil"... everything is clear, detailed and has great soundstage.

The HD595's are great in hearing the capabilities of an amp. One thing I did notice is that with different amplifiers the sound can be very different. For example, when I hook them up to my HP computer the sound is rather, uh, soft and noisy (the veil?) no dynamic range... But it's my computer not my headphones. I unplug them from the HP and plug them into my iPod and the sound is incredible...

Some of the music I pumped through them:
Beethoven's 5th symphony (2nd movement, Berlin Philharmonic) - For accuracy, sound stage and dynamic range
Pink Floyd (Time and Money) - Separation, clarity and bass
Eagles (Hotel California) - accuracy mainly on voice and guitars
Patsy Cline and Elton John - voice accuracy

Then a bunch of different classical, alternative and rock... all sounded freaking incredible.

Thank you Head-Fi for the suggestion on the HD595's! They are everything I wanted in a set of cans!

->Aro

 

[Davesrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaloS /img/forum/go_quote.gif No real differentiation we can go by I guess but I believe that tubes can provide lots of current more easily than solidstate? (correct me if I am wrong Davesrose).

Sorry to be contradictory, but I don't think that's right. Power or current is determined by how much current the amp's transformer is outputting. So a SS or tube amp can be high current. A vacuum tube is replacing transistors in a tube amp, to give the sound a more euphonic presentation. For the HD595s, a good tube amp like the Single Power SLAM gives them even more bass and soundstage

The SLAM also uses 5687 output tubes: tubes that can tolerate higher current then the non-SLAM, original PPX3 SP amp. So the SLAM is supposed to have been a real improvement for headphones that needed high current, but were lower impedence. The k701 is an extreme example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OHPC /img/forum/go_quote.gif Davesrose: From what I hear I also thought the HD595 was going to be "a better all in one headphone then the HD650", this was the reason I chose it, besides the price. I have read some threads about the dreaded Sennheiser "veil", but if there is any "veil" in Sennheiser HD595 I love it. I would even make a "dance of the seven veils" at this right moment.

You're asking the wrong person about veil because I've never heard it on any Senn. The only headphone that I finally understood what veil was was the DT770/80. I felt a huge suckout in musical information with those...as well as some monsterous bass. The HD595 keeps some of the HD580s sonic characteristics.....the FR graphs are almost the same, so the 595 has some softening of treble to give it some soundstage. But it's more upfront then the 580 series, and better for analyzing music IMO.