[Brava210]

Exactly. The HD560s have an extremely neutral tuning with a bit of a lift in part of the treble that adds some extra detail (it only sounded slightly piercing for the first two days before my brain got used to it and I came to love it), so they present everything almost exactly as it is from the source and recording.



You mean Evshrug's responses? That's not fair, Evshrug isn't actually a PR person or part of the marketing team, that's not what it means to be sponsored on here. He's really trying his best but has no actual control over what the people at Sennheiser do. He's a nice guy, so don't blame him for "typical PR responses," he's really making an effort. It's up to Sennheiser, not him, to look into this issue (which is honestly pretty uncommon anyway, even in this latest batch where the issue seems to have arisen) and figure it out.

We have people here now saying that this is "terrible" quality-control. Psh, as if. You know what's truly terrible quality control? Philips with their Fidelio line, but we have people here swearing by those while dissing the HD560s. At least the HD560s always have proper channel-matching/balance. I had to buy three pairs of Fidelio X2HR's before I got one with proper channel balance that didn't have an audible imbalance in the bass and low mids during music and movies. Solderdude from DIY Audio Heaven also had to get three pairs of the X2HR's before getting one with proper channel-balance, and only "recommends" them while noting that they're a gamble and people need to hope to get lucky. There are multiple people I've found online who went through as many as SIX pairs of X2HR's, ALL of which had channel imbalance, only to give up completely on Philips in the end.

Sure, people can get unlucky with the HD560s. But even with this latest batch in which some units have issues, every unit has proper channel-balance, and you're a lot more likely to get lucky with a good pair of these than to get lucky with some X2HR's or some HiFiMans or something.

People are only reacting this strongly and negatively because this is Sennheiser, who have a reputation for good QC. If this was Philips or HiFiMan, people would be like "oh well this is just typical and to be expected." HiFiMan, for one, has much higher levels of/more-common detective units than what we're seeing here even with their lines of headphones that cost over $400.

Here we go again.....my Philips Headphones are superior in every way.
I've only dissed the Sennheiser because of the buzz....twice within 2 pairs = 100% failure rate. Impressive

 

[Brava210]

WhatHiFi just awarded these best headphones under £1000, quite a change for them as Amiron and Grado have usually received these plaudits.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/sennheiser-hd-560s

I wouldn't trust any review by them...
Just my opinion...
I've bought stuff recommended by them which turned out be awful

 

[SBMonster]

Anyone tried Brainwavz pads on these yet? I've ordered an adapter ring from modhouse audio, so just waiting for that to arrive. I've got a selection of Brainwavz pads lying around (pleather and velour in the oval size), so curious to see how they sound with some deeper pads, but also tempted to order a set of micro-suede oval's (have the gel pads for my K7xx), so keen to hear if anyone's tried those yet

I'm curious about that. Please give us update after you tried them out.

 

[goodyfresh]

Here we go again.....my Philips Headphones are superior in every way.
I've only dissed the Sennheiser because of the buzz....twice within 2 pairs = 100% failure rate. Impressive

And on the flip side, there are many people who have gone through as many as two to SIX pairs of the Philips headphones only to find that every single pair has an audible channel-imbalance. I'm happy for you that you got lucky with the X2's... I myself had to buy and return two pairs of them before I got a third one without an audible channel imbalance. Even that pair actually does have a channel imbalance, but I can only detect it using sweeping test-tones, it isn't audible in music and movies. My HD560s, on the other hand, have perfect channel-balance. The first two pairs of X2's that I got had such bad audible channel imbalances that it completely messed up the imaging in music, movies, and games.

Your experience is a case of one person's anecdotal evidence from their singular case. But just go online and do searches for stuff like "X2HR channel imbalance" and "X2HR quality control" and you will find TONS of horror-stories, including one from Solderdude at DIY Audio, as I said before, who is a bona-fide expert on audio science, and who only "recommends" the X2HR with the CATCH "you have to get lucky with these." So yeah, the fact is that you got LUCKY with your X2's, and VERY UNLUCKY with your HD560s. But now you're using evidence from your one, singular case to make sweeping generalizations about both of these headphones. That's not how statistics works, you know.

But hey, at least neither of them are HiFiMans, right? HA

 

[Brava210]

I do not need to search for these Philips issues as I do not suffer from them, same as I do not Google issue with Sennheiser either.
I have had 2 issues with 2 pairs, so I send them back as not fit for purpose = Easy

 

[limaaa]

Has anybody tried HD560s for movies?

 

[goodyfresh]

Has anybody tried HD560s for movies?

Yes and I LOVE how they do movies. The soundstage is fairly wide; not HUGELY so, not QUITE as wide (maybe 80% as much) as the soundstage on my Fidelio X2HR's. But the directional imaging is very precise, significantly more-so than on the X2HR's, and the DEPTH and HEIGHT of the soundstage is quite a bit better than the X2HR's, remarkable really for anything in this price-range. Meanwhile, the extremely flat/neutral response makes it so that everything is presented exactly as-is; the common issue of whisper-quiet dialogue juxtaposed with ear-bleeding sound-effects is still an issue in action films (as it ALWAYS will be with headphones since movies these days are made with 5.1 and 7.1 speaker-setups in mind) like stuff from the MCU that I watch, but isn't nearly as bad with these headphones as with any others I've used due to how flat and neutral their response is. And their very good detail-retrieval and clarity make it so you can really hear every little bit of what's happening, even soft breaths and the slightest of footsteps.

I've found by using HeSuVi that if you pick the correct virtualization for your head and ears, these headphones are also AWESOME with virtualized surround-sound, like if you have Atmos or something. The sense of spacial imaging and the depth and breadth of the presentation can become epic if you pick the right virtualization for you.

From what people have said and my own limited experience with it (I'm not TOO much of a gamer), these traits also make the headphones a great choice for gaming.

 

[dbss]

But hey, at least neither of them are HiFiMans, right? HA

Hifiman has apparently gotten better. The driver failure issues with the Sundara was only a big problem for the first batches, they've made revisions since then. You can google it and find people who have owned their Sundara for years without issue

 

[gargani]

I wouldn't trust any review by them...
Just my opinion...
I've bought stuff recommended by them which turned out be awful

I agree ,I wouldn't put too much faith in their reviews, either.
This is not a critism of the hd 560s. It's my opinion of What High Fi.

 

[goodyfresh]

I agree ,I wouldn't put too much faith in their reviews, either.
This is not a critism of the hd 560s. It's my opinion of What High Fi.

I second this as well. WhatHiFi isn't a serious headphone-review website, I've NEVER taken them seriously. They put two of the Sony 1000XM noise-canceling series of headphones on their list of the "Best Audiophile Headphones 2021," and placed both of those above the Focal Stellia. They clearly have no idea what they're talking about. They have entire ranking-lists dedicated SOLELY to Beats headphones and no other brand. Most telling of all, they rated the flipping Apple Airpods Max as NUMBER ONE on their list of "Best Over-Ear Headphones 2021," seriously. Apparently they think that paying $550 for what's actually about $250 to $350 worth of sound-quality (by the standards of ANC headphones, that is) and noise-cancellation (that doesn't even compensate for loss of seal by glasses like much cheaper competing ANC headphones) is the best thing available right now. Yeah, okay

As for what they're saying about the HD560s: Yeah sure, the HD560s are amazing headphones for their price-class. But no, they do NOT beat EVERYTHING under 1000 GBP (almost $1400 if I'm not mistaken) as WhatHiFi claims, that's honestly a laughable idea. That's a HIGH price-range, and I'm sure that plenty of people here could, just off the top of their heads, name at least three headphones in that price-range that kick the crap out of the HD560s. Don't get me wrong, the HD560s are AMAZING, and alongside good pairs of the Fidelio X2HR's, POSSIBLY the best-sounding under-$200 (or maybe even under-$300) headphones on the market right now. But no, they do NOT compete with the BEST headphones costing even up to $500, let alone ones costing up to $1400 as WhatHiFi claims.

I was going to hold my tongue on this issue, but since other people are saying it now, I'll say it as well: WhatHiFi's headphone-reviews section is a complete joke and run by a bunch of... you know what, never mind, I should stop myself there before using overly-negative language. You guys get the idea.

 

[mvule]

Depends what you want from your headphones...

 

[goodyfresh]

Depends what you want from your headphones...

I'm gonna have to disagree with that based on how WhatHiFi rate the Apple Airpods Max as the "Number 1 Over-Ear Headphones" this year. That is objectively idiotic and wrong, even if someone is going for ANC headphones. The Airpods Max cost five-hundred and fifty dollars. But there are $300 ANC headphones like the Bose QC 35 II that perform better than them... the Sony 1000XM series headphones at $350 also perform better as long as you're okay with something that's bass-heavy unless you EQ the bass (which Sony has an app they provide to do so for those headphones). I could go into the details, but believe me as someone who has tried out many different ANC models back when I thought I wanted ANC: There's literally nothing about the Airpods Max that is good or competitive in any way even if they costed half of what they do.

Therefore, just based on their review of the Airpods Max alone, once can objectively prove that the people at WhatHiFi either have no idea what they're talking about, or are possibly being paid-off by companies (like Apple and Beats) for their reviews. WHF's heapdhone-reviews cannot be trusted, that's the bottom line.

I will also point out once again that they have whole ranking-lists entirely devoted to Beats, and consider a wide range of Beats products to actually be, you know... good. Ew.

Back to the HD560s: What WhatHiFi says about them is absolutely ridiculous as well. To say that they're the best audiophile headphones under $1400 USD is insane. Yes, they're amazing headphones for anything under $300 or maybe even under $350. But they can't compete with the best headphones that cost three to seven times more!

 

[TomD]

I noticed that Amazon UK have stock again so I placed an order. Would be nice to get some that didn't have the screw issue

 

[idsyphe]

I noticed that Amazon UK have stock again so I placed an order. Would be nice to get some that didn't have the screw issue

Don't be discouraged, you'll be very unlucky if you receive one with an issue

 

[mvule]

It's interesting how price seems to dominate discussions rather than the tuning of headphones...both in comparisons to other headphones and which gear might or is an appropriate match...