There's one at around 4300-4400hz that you'll see in all measurements and that I and some friends also easily noticed on my sample, so it's likely that you'll experience it as well. This one seems very much an intrinsic feature of the headphones. You can EQ it out fairly easily.
Above that as far as I'm concerned the HD560S interact with my anatomy in a way that makes for quite a few peaks and dips of enough magnitude that they're easy to notice running sweeps and may sometimes make the trebles a little smeared, grainy and occasionally harsh with some records. It's nowhere near as bad as many other headphones I've tried but definitely something that I feel the need to carefully EQ, but that's where my main problem with the HD560S is as I find frequencies past 5000hz difficult to EQ in general, and the HD560S is no exception. As FR curve above 5000hz or so is quite significantly dependent on the interaction of the headphones with your own anatomy this is one area where it might be better for you to try them for yourself if you can.
The treble-spike seems to be from about a little over 4Khz to about 5.5 or 6Khz, but yeah, it's not as bad as many people make it out to be. As far as peaks/dips in the treble go, measurements and my own hearing-based testing show that they tend to vary depending on the placement of the headphones, which you've noted before is a common issue with treble past 5Khz in-general, and is part of why treble in that region is hard to EQ. The character of different treble-frequencies changes depending on the placement of the headphones. The Fidelio X2HR have that same issue, as do
almost all headphones that I've tried.
As for "grainy" treble, it still has fewer peaks/dips than the X2HR has, or most Beyers or AKG's (let alone Grados). Lack of smoothness in the treble is a VERY common (nearly universal) issue in headphones under $300 or so (not counting Massdrop), and over time my opinion of the treble on the HD560s has come to match
Crinacle's opinion in his review: Yes, there are some flaws, but they're
much less severe than the flaws in treble tonality exhibited by
most headphones anywhere near this price-range.
In Crinacle's words about the upper-mids and treble: "As I compared with more and more headphones, it was far less egregious than other models which had far more destructive quirks handwaved off by the general populous. Make no mistake, the HD560S is no HD800. Or DT880. Or any other mainstream Beyerdynamic, really.
My litmus test for you is this: if you can handle the Hifiman Sundara, you can handle the HD560S."
I have been using my HD560S for over a week and, though I haven't used them for movies yet, I have used them for listening to music, gaming and while watching football (soccer). They have been fine for these purposes. I enjoy the sound of these headphones, and the treble spike that people talk about has never bothered me or interfered with my enjoyment of whatever I've been doing.
Hi guys,
Thinking of buying HD560s for movies. Just wondering would that be a good option? What about treble spike when watching movies?
Thanks!
I love the HD560s for movies and TV! The treble-spike is never bothersome in movies (although granted I often use them with EQ anyway) and
never even seems audible in movies to be honest (I use them without EQ for movies and TV much more commonly than I do for music). Meanwhile, their decently-wide soundstage with plenty of height and depth, combined with their excellent clarity and ability to resolve lots of fine details, makes movies and TV sound WONDERFUL. For example, the incredibly hectic final battle in Avengers: Endgame certainly sounds
fairly great with my Fidelio X2HR's, but all the stuff going on at once can kinda blend together making it hard to discern the finer positional cues when using the Fidelios. By comparison, I find that with the HD560s, I get more separation and more precise imaging, so that if I close my eyes and listen to the scene I can really point my finger in a direction and say "This is where Iron Man's beam-attack is right now." Sure, it's not AS good for such a thing as say, an HD800s, but for something under $340 (not $350 since the Sundara is an upgrade) it's honestly
mindblowing. At least to my own ears, this is the best positional imaging and detail-separation within the soundstage that I've ever heard in this price-range. But keep in mind that
your mileage may vary as everyone's HRTF is different and as a result people hear soundstage and imaging differently. Meanwhile, the bass-extension is great enough (much more than usual for open-back headphones) to really hear the rumble in explosions, building-collapses, etc., and the perfectly ruler-flat mids render dialogue extremely realistically.
I've also had good experiences with using Virtualized Surround Sound options like Dolby Atmos for Headphones (although I don't actually have the paid versions of anything, I use the HeSuVi plug-in for Equalizer APO) with movies and TV with the HD560s, although I just as often find that the virtualized surround makes things sound weird and unnatural and end up turning it off, which seems to depend on the movie rather than on the headphones.
Keep one thing in mind though: There will
always be an issue when watching movies with headphones, which has to do with how most movies are mastered these days. Namely, the dialogue is often whisper-quiet while special-effects-heavy action-scenes are incredibly loud, so you'll find yourself constantly turning the volume on your amp up and down during scenes. This is unavoidable, it's just how movie-audio is mastered these days, and it's
most emphasized with headphones. Since the HD560s are extremely tonally accurate and have GREAT dynamics, they can make this issue (the overly-huge dynamic-range of movies) even more noticeable than with less-accurate headphones. That's the price we pay for extremely accurate near-neutrality and completely non-compressed dynamics.
a youtube channel (BadSeed Tech) says he uses this headphone for gaming/movies because of sound signature instead of other 600 series headphones.
