[mvule]

Well, that's certainly a bit strange, the idea that the sound of the 560s is affected by glasses while the 800s isn't. I wear glasses, and I notice NO difference in the bass-response (which is what would be affected by seal loss) with or without glasses. And measurements support this: Solderdude at DIY Audio Heaven measures the frequency-responses of headphones with or without a seal-breach (including that caused specifically by glasses). He found only the most tiny, negligible change (about 1dB in the deepest sub-bass) in the FR of the HD560s with a seal-breach by glasses, and a MUCH BIGGER change in the bass of the HD800s with glasses/seal-breach. The measurements from rtings.com also support this, as they found up to 3dB to 4dB variation in bass-response from the 800s depending on seating/seal on the head, while they found NO variation in the bass-response of the HD560s (although they did find SIGNIFICANT treble-variation from the 560s depending on seating-position and almost no treble-variation from the 800s, but that has to do with how the drivers are positioned relative to the ears rather than with seal).

I do believe, from having listened to various cans at audio-meets and at local audio stores, that the HD800s are far from the best dynamic-driver headphones available in their price-range at this point in time, except perhaps when it comes to soundstage. Personally, I'd rather get a pair of Focal Clears if I had that kind of budget (HA, I WISH), or just ditch dynamic-driver tech entirely and get some planars or electrostats.

Perhaps it's my head size and specific glasses, plus ears of course.
Something that won't show up on those measurements but they are welcome to look at their graphs and I'll listen to music with my ears!

 

[idsyphe]

Soundstage is a very subjective thing, for me hd560s has less soundstage that hd650

Comparing this to my K7XX, I feel like the soundstage is an odd one, I'm perfectly happy with the width, but I feel like the detail retrieval can sometimes highlight directional issues, I guess this is the 'blob' effect, where as the K7XX is a bit smoother which leaves a more airy stage.

 

[goodyfresh]

Perhaps it's my head size and specific glasses, plus ears of course.
Something that won't show up on those measurements but they are welcome to look at their graphs and I'll listen to music with my ears!

I listen with my ears too, obviously! But that doesn't mean that measurements don't have some value. In this case, my ears CONFIRM the measurements: The HD560s and X2HR's both measure as having remarkably-unchanged sound-signatures with seal-breaches, on two entirely different measurement-rigs.

I HAVE confirmed this with my actual ears because as someone who NEEDS my glasses ALL the time, this is a VERY important issue for me: I need headphones that sound the same with or without glasses, and for this reason I literally cannot even consider closed-back headphones at all. Listening to sweeping bass-tone tests, as well as more importantly to bass-heavy music like EDM with a LOT of sub-bass content, I've found that the HD560s and X2HR's both sound exactly the same with or without my glasses; I can also take off my glasses and even push the earcups gently downward to perfect the seal, and the frequency-response remains completely unchanged as far as bass-extension goes. With the HD560s, even a far bigger seal-breach doesn't change the bass; I can stick the actual tips of my pinky-fingers in between the pads and my face where my glasses usually go, and the headphones still maintain exactly the same bass-extension with no reduction at all.

I'm honestly tired of how whenever I mention referring to measurements, people assume that I only "listen to graphs" and don't actually listen to music and movies and such with my own ears to figure out what's actually going on as far as what I can hear. I'm not idiot, of course I listen with my actual ears to see how things sound. So can people stop acting like I'm some kind of moron just because I refer to measurements and do things like tests with sine-tones? In this case I HAD to look at those measurements: Because many headphones lose sub-bass with glasses, I did a lot of research to make sure the headphones I got were ones that have an unchanged signature with glasses, and that's how I arrived at the X2HR's and HD560s; signature-changes with glasses are always a concern for me.

 

[TomD]

Update on the rattle / buzzing problem: I received my second pair of HD 560s today and was very disappointed to hear the exact same rattling. It only happens with the right driver, just like what I found with my first pair. I decided to take off the right earpad and stick a screwdriver into the three screws directly underneath where the earpad is. The screws weren't extremely loose but they were definitely not tight, so I tightened them.

After putting the earpads back on and playing some bass, I found that the rattle has completely disappeared!

I also took off the left earpad and tightened the three screws there as well for good measure even though it wasn't rattling. It seems like the screws are not tightened properly out of the factory. It's fairly easy to fix, at least, but it pains me to imagine how many pairs of HD 560s are out there with rattle issues (causing distortion) which would probably never get fixed because it's not obvious that the three loose screws underneath the earpad is the culprit. The rattle was also very difficult to hear unless the volume is loud so most HD 560s owners with this problem will probably not even know about it.

@Evshrug

I received my HD 560s today and I have the exact same issue as you. I noticed the buzzing straight away. I took the earpad from the left driver and one of the screws was totally lose and I couldn't even tighten it up. It was just spinning. I have a replacement coming tomorrow and I hope they won't have this issue, but if they do I will return for a refund

 

[lowrider007]

I'm interested in giving these a listen being that are so cheap, they are pitched by Sennheiser as being "For the analytical audio enthusiast", would you guys say that is the case?, are these more analytical sounding rather than neutral?, I'm asking this specifically as people seem to conflate the two when they are very different sound signatures.

 

[dbss]

Soundstage is a very subjective thing, for me hd560s has less soundstage that hd650

Tf. You're probably the only person who will claim this. Are you sure you understand what soundstage is?

 

[dbss]

I received my HD 560s today and I have the exact same issue as you. I noticed the buzzing straight away. I took the earpad from the left driver and one of the screws was totally lose and I couldn't even tighten it up. It was just spinning. I have a replacement coming tomorrow and I hope they won't have this issue, but if they do I will return for a refund

@Evshrug add this to the list. I feel like a lot of people with the HD560s also have this problem, they just don't realise it because they never play only bass. It's not easy to notice when playing music normally.

 

[Willy 2 Streams]

It's crazy how this guy, in his review of the 560s, said the soundstage was just so so and on par with the 6xx Senn line yet DIY-Audio-Heaven said the soundstage was much wider and almost reach hd800. This kind of contradicting impressions is one of the reasons that makes this hobby so frustrating lol. Our ears seem to hear things so differently from person to person. You'll never know what a pair of headphones sounds like until you try them yourself. And for people like me who don't have the luxury of good return policy or unlimited budget, it's tough.

Yah!...and why'd he chose the 579 to compare it to? Seems like the 599SE would be the closest to compare to...

 

[lowrider007]

Tf. You're probably the only person who will claim this. Are you sure you understand what soundstage is?

Really, and I mean this in the most polite way possible, I doubt very much that they do, the more time I've spent on here the more absurdities, or rather inaccuracies I hear from some people. We are seeing a lot of new people enter into this hobby lately, and I imagine YouTube has a part to play in that, with (imo) a lot of inexperienced content creators picking up the latest pair of headphones and 'reviewing' them without the audio vocabulary and experience to back it up, you have the likes of Zeos gaining a lot of traction on YouTube who says so much and so little at the same time. Like I said in the APM thread, anyone can listen to headphones and enjoy music, but analysing it and being able to convey to others what you're hearing, and do that well, is another thing entirely, it's not just down to different perceptions, yes that plays a part, but ultimately it's a skill, it's not that dissimilar to people that love and enjoy food, that doesn't make them all chefs with a critical pallet, but they can learn.

 

[TomD]

@Evshrug add this to the list. I feel like a lot of people with the HD560s also have this problem, they just don't realise it because they never play only bass. It's not easy to notice when playing music normally.

I also took off the earpad from the right side, and the right side had the same issue with the lose screws. They were all spinning apart from 1 screw. It seems that they've used the wrong screw size on this... Maybe it's too short of a screw. This seems really bad QC for a headphone of this price

 

[Brava210]

I also checked my screws, they were spinning too.....Back they go.

 

[TomD]

I also checked my screws, they were spinning too.....Back they go.

When did you buy yours and where did you buy yours from? Mine were from Richer Sounds

 

[dbss]

I also checked my screws, they were spinning too.....Back they go.

See: this is the benefit of using those scary "bass tones" and freaky "sine waves", it lets you catch problems. If the screws are spinning, you will definitely get buzzing/rattling when you play bass.

 

[mvule]

I listen with my ears too, obviously! But that doesn't mean that measurements don't have some value. In this case, my ears CONFIRM the measurements: The HD560s and X2HR's both measure as having remarkably-unchanged sound-signatures with seal-breaches, on two entirely different measurement-rigs.

I HAVE confirmed this with my actual ears because as someone who NEEDS my glasses ALL the time, this is a VERY important issue for me: I need headphones that sound the same with or without glasses, and for this reason I literally cannot even consider closed-back headphones at all. Listening to sweeping bass-tone tests, as well as more importantly to bass-heavy music like EDM with a LOT of sub-bass content, I've found that the HD560s and X2HR's both sound exactly the same with or without my glasses; I can also take off my glasses and even push the earcups gently downward to perfect the seal, and the frequency-response remains completely unchanged as far as bass-extension goes. With the HD560s, even a far bigger seal-breach doesn't change the bass; I can stick the actual tips of my pinky-fingers in between the pads and my face where my glasses usually go, and the headphones still maintain exactly the same bass-extension with no reduction at all.

I'm honestly tired of how whenever I mention referring to measurements, people assume that I only "listen to graphs" and don't actually listen to music and movies and such with my own ears to figure out what's actually going on as far as what I can hear. I'm not idiot, of course I listen with my actual ears to see how things sound. So can people stop acting like I'm some kind of moron just because I refer to measurements and do things like tests with sine-tones? In this case I HAD to look at those measurements: Because many headphones lose sub-bass with glasses, I did a lot of research to make sure the headphones I got were ones that have an unchanged signature with glasses, and that's how I arrived at the X2HR's and HD560s; signature-changes with glasses are always a concern for me.

Seem to remember the bit about glasses wasn't the main part of my original post anyway! Lol!

I appreciate your view and the research you did.

 

[Brava210]

When did you buy yours and where did you buy yours from? Mine were from Richer Sounds

Mine were from Richer Sounds too through Amazon