[marekm]

I use mine at the office

MacBook Air M1 (Tidal HiFi) -> iFi ZEN DAC v2 -> balanced cable -> HD 560s

 

[SchwizzelKick66]

Does anyone have a 2023 version with the fabric headband, instead of velour? If so can you post a pic of it?

 

[PlantsmanTX]

Does anyone have a 2023 version with the fabric headband, instead of velour? If so can you post a pic of it?

Here's a photo from Reddit. The picture is dark, but I think you can see the difference. Click the pic to expand it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/109kzd9/sennheiser_hd_560s_seem_to_have_made_an/

 

[Jet Black]

I received mine yesterday. It's still velour but with the new 1.8 meter cable terminated in a 3.5mm and there's a screwable 6.3mm extension which is already screwed in by default. WHICH Kinda what everyone likes that sennheiser definitely listened to do.

 

[mainguy]

I've had these for a few months now, interesting headphones.

I got them purely for playing guitar through amp sims, but have been listening to music a fair bit.

I find them a tad sibilant or grainy with certain sounds, vocals and cymbals don't sound great to me. I really like the staging and imaging, that's fab. I also like the bass, but overall I do think they are a flawed headphone, which is fine they were only £90. Or it might just be because I'm driving them with a Scarlett Solo, I'll move them and test them with normal gear at some point. Anyone else noticed these shortcomings?

I definately don't think these punch anywhere near as far above their weight as people say, personally I'd take an Elegia over these any day. Or an Elex. But for the price i think the comfort and staging make them an easy buy, plus they rock for gaming.

 

[Jet Black]

Same same reaction. This is the go to sennheiser headphone! Period! As DMS the YouTube reviewer says.

Just started listening to the 560S now from my iPhone and first word that came to mind was “masterpiece”. I obviously need more time with them, but what I’m hearing right now sounds game changing at this price point. I agree with those that have said these walk the line between clarity and outright brightness. For me they are in the comfortable range with no obvious offensive peaks, and I immediately went to some horn heavy tracks from Sufjan Stevens to test this. Seems like Senn hit this one out of the park. I’m hearing at least as much detail as I would on my 6XX, to my ears, but these are really effortlessly fast and they’re so even across the spectrum, just so pleasantly accurate. And the mids are there for me as well. They’re just not the centerpiece, as they fit in so nicely w the treble and bass. Really impressed so far!

 

[autoexec]

I find them a tad sibilant or grainy with certain sounds, vocals and cymbals don't sound great to me.

What headphone or IEM do you consider are great with vocals and cymbals? I like my vocals free from coloration and I think the 560S does a great job in reproducing vocals without any coloration at all. Almost sounding like Etymotic ER2SE / ER4SR. Some people are so used to colored mids and I can understand why 560S might be off-putting. Absence of extra girth or thickness in the vocals can be perceived as graininess/sibilance or if one is so used to scooped out mids it can sound very forward or even less "clear". I'm guessing it's the former for you since you mentioned sibilance / graininess.

 

[mainguy]

What headphone or IEM do you consider are great with vocals and cymbals? I like my vocals free from coloration and I think the 560S does a great job in reproducing vocals without any coloration at all. Almost sounding like Etymotic ER2SE / ER4SR. Some people are so used to colored mids and I can understand why 560S might be off-putting. Absence of extra girth or thickness in the vocals can be perceived as graininess/sibilance or if one is so used to scooped out mids it can sound very forward or even less "clear". I'm guessing it's the former for you since you mentioned sibilance / graininess.

Honestly for Vocals rn my go to is Focal Clear/Elex. Really loving the elegance and intimacy with which they present the mid range. But I've also enjoyed bowers PX8/P9 for vocals, and Verite Closed.

Idk the 560s wasn't really giving me much meat on the bone so to speak. I had it for a few months but have since sold it on and replaced it with an Elex for my music setup, and I have to say the Elex is much much better. Far better than the extra £160 I paid for it over the 560s anyway, at least to my ears.

 

[SchwizzelKick66]

Seems like these had a price increase? Seeing them new for $229 everywhere.

 

[PlantsmanTX]

Seems like these had a price increase? Seeing them new for $229 everywhere.

They were, but I just checked, and they're gone back down to $179.99. You can get a refurb from Sennheiser with a 2 year warranty for $129.99

 

[Gray 4]

They were briefly £113 new from Amazon UK - surely the best ever headphone bargain.
I paid £152 from Sennheiser Direct.
I've just compared them with the £1400 880S out of a Topping A90D (both models from its balanced output).
Even at full £169 rrp, the 560S are phenomenal value.

 

[Jasius]

I own HD555 I did the "remove foam mod" they sound OK, how much better are the 560s than that?

Also would anyone rather have the Tygr 300r than the 560s?

 

[Jasius]

This will be very long, because I want to answer your question as completely as possible:

I personally LOVE the HD560s as all-rounders for music, movies, and gaming. However, "fun" is in the eye (or ear, in this case) of the beholder. Personally, I find them very fun, but keep in mind that they add basically nothing extra (no "coloration") at all to the sound-signature/frequency-response. Except for a BIT of a spike in the treble around 5khz (that however isn't NEARLY as much of a treble-spike as what you get with most Beyerdynamics or AKG's, so don't believe the reviewers who act like the treble on these is some kinda horrible abomination), and a bit of sub-bass rolloff below 35Hz that is unavoidable for open-backs of course (but MUCH less roll-off than most open-backs, these have AWESOME bass-extension), these are possibly among the flattest/most-neutral tuned headphones ever created. They take nothing away from the original sound of whatever you play through them, but also add nothing to it. If what you're listening to or watching has a lot of bass, there will be a lot of bass; if it doesn't, then there won't be.

They are VERY detailed for anything in this price-range, and VERY accurate. Personally, I do find them very fun; I've re-watched a bunch of Marvel movies, some other action-flicks, watched some TV, and played Starcraft with them, and all of it was great! And I greatly enjoy music with them as well. They have very fast, precise, accurate decay, and VERY good imaging; the soundstage isn't the widest, although it's still plenty wide, but has a LOT of height and depth for a headphone in this price-range, and there's good separation/resolution of all the elements within the stage, with, as I said, VERY precise imaging. If you want accurate imaging for something like gaming, these could definitely be a great choice! I've honestly never heard the final battle in Avengers: Endgame sound this good on anything except the speakers in the actual movie-theater where I first saw it, if that tells you anything considering what a hectic/busy battle that is both visually and sonically. They also do AMAZINGLY well with VERY expansive staging and imaging if you use a virtual surround-sound implementation that works well for your particular ears and head (your overall HRTF), as I found out after playing around for a while with HeSuVi, as well as with binaural recordings. So if you play a lot of games that have virtual surround features, have a DAC with such a feature, or use something like Dolby Atmos and find that it works well for you, the HD560s could be a great choice.

In terms of all the technicalities like detail, resolution, separation, soundstage, imaging, speed, etc., the HD560s are a very straightforward and MASSIVE upgrade over the HD598 that you currently use. They have a much more neutral frequency-response as well, of course; the HD598 has a lot of extra mid-bass and low-mids that bleeds into the rest of the mids and highs making them sound somewhat "boomy, bloomy, and muddy," while the HD560s has a very neutral response with no bass-bleed.

I myself also considered the TYGR 300R's, but unfortunately there is very little information available about them anywhere... I decided against them simply because I could hardly find any info on them. It seems that as soon as something is marketed as a "gaming" headphone, it gets almost no interest on here and in other audiophile circles, unfortunately. The TYGR 300R and Senn PC38x threads on here are TINY compared to threads for non-gaming headphones that came out at the same times as them, you know? I wasn't able to find out whether the TYGR 300R experience any measurable sonic changes for glasses-wearers (even open-back headphones very often lose sub-bass with even a tiny seal-breach). There's also basically no measurements available for them except a frequency-response graph from Crinacle, which makes it impossible to know if their decay-properties (things like the CSD and spectrum plots or the aftermath of an impulse-response) are as good as those of the HD560s.

I would have gotten a Sundara except I decided against it because HiFiMan simply CANNOT be trusted when it comes to quality-control.

Have you tried the Tygr 300r since this? As a glasses wearer how is the sound with the 560s?

 

[Hofy]

I own HD555 I did the "remove foam mod" they sound OK, how much better are the 560s than that?

Also would anyone rather have the Tygr 300r than the 560s?

THe HD560s are way better than the HD555 even with the mod. So much better that I gave away the HD555 rather than try to sell them.

 

[Jasius]

THe HD560s are way better than the HD555 even with the mod. So much better that I gave away the HD555 rather than try to sell them.

Better how though? Thank you for the response, but could you give a little detail?