Leeco
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2003
- Posts
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Hi guys! I thought I would post a review to one of the most loved/hated headphones here on head-fi. Maybe because this headphone will soon be replaced by its +5 point brother, maybe because there wasn’t any review on it with Equinox cable, maybe because I just have time …
Please bear with me that these opinions are my own only, and my tastes differ from anyone else. I believe that everyone has it’s own “perfect” something, be it the sound, girl or a beer. So I will give you some of the background info on how I got into this “money hungry hobby”
in the first place. Anyone who is interested only in the headphone performance please skip a paragraph or two.
Introduction
I discovered this place about two year ago, when I was starting appreciate good sound. At that time I thought a Koss KSC-35 were ultimate portable headphones and I was VERY happy with them using them. Was introduced to this place and bought Senn HD590 to use with a portable. To keep the long story short, I preferred ksc35! They were cheaper and gave me musicality and fun I wanted. Knowing only 1% of what I know now at that time, I thought it was ludicrous to pay about $200 for a set of cans that didn’t provide isolation from outside world and weren’t that much better than koss’s. My main gripes with HD590 was recessed midrange and not enough slam
. I returned them and bought Grado SR80, which I didn’t start listening to until my koss clips died on me (after 3 years of heavy usage). Luckily a friend of mine bought HD590 and we could compare them to each other. HD590 had much higher detail in music, but I liked my Grado’s more. They were exciting and musical to me. I guess I would choose musicality over detail on most of the days. (I bought Ety ER-6 for detail and travel. Living in Europe, ER4 would cost around $400+ for importing and have more microphonics, that is why ER6!) Jumping to the more current time and going through a couple of amps and sources, I ended up getting headache from my beloved ER80 after 1 hour of listening. Either the treble or the mid-bass hump did something to my brain. So I sold them and started my search for the new full sized cans. Going through a higher Grado’s didn’t appeal to me so much (mid-bass hump, $$), so I decided to go with the most “gentle & relaxing” cans (according to head-fi): AKG501. Everything was true: silky vocals, refined highs, underpowered bass, nuclear amp needed….
Unfortunately they didn’t “made love” to most of my CD collection, which consist out of trance, trance influenced jazz, rock, some pop and some others. They were incredible with UNamped music like live recordings. Norah Jones CD was one of a few CD’s that truly showed what the cans are made off. Classical CD’s were nice, but I don’t listen to them too much, only when I try to relax. I do most of my listening to inspire me. Plus, 501 were BIG, I mean HUGE: Sony’s CD3000 seemed a lot smaller. But the strangest thing happened – I started to get headache after 15 minutes listening to AKG. One good thing did happen: they made me realize that my Pioneer SX-F21 amplifier had a very respectable headphone out, and that it blew JMT’s great MINT out of the water. (I know that 501 require at least a jet engine powered amp!) I returned them to Todd, and just thought “I wish I could try that HD590 with Equinox again…” I guess my prayers were heard, as in a few days I saw them on Sale forum for a great price.
(finally) HD590 review
I have to say that auditioning in the HiFi store (I know it is not that accurate) I always preferred HD590 to HD600. Being a Grado (ex-Grado
) fan, HD600 sounded like bass, mids and treble were disjointed. I guess it was a source and not the phone problem, but I just want to point out where I am coming from. Between Beyerdynamics cans, the one I liked most was DT531 (very musical). Other Beyers had IMO overblown bass or piercing highs or another “not to my liking” combination. HD590 always sounded right comparing to those. Please note that the source of the store might have been bad or didn’t have synergy with other cans.
People who don’t know, HD590 was “supposedly” a replacement for HD580 IMO, but after it didn’t get favorable reviews from big name magazines, lost its appeal as a successor, and became “weird experiment” of Sennheiser according to some and a “fresh design” according to others. Having read huge battles between both camps here on Head-Fi
(very entertaining & educating) it seemed that the main difference was between people using a stock cable or aftermarket one (like Equinox).
HD590 is open, light and designed for comfort, the “clamping your head factor” is much smaller than HD580/600 family or closed (isolating) phones.
My source is: Daewoo DVG-5700N progressive DVD/CD player (I know it should suck, but I really like the clean sound of it, plus it has same specifications as Philips 963 – only without SACD, This is NOT(!) DVG-5700 and doesn’t look like it, plus is only available in Japan I think – I moved to Japan 6 months ago).
Amp: Pioneer SX-F21 amp (old heavy amp with headphone out that made me sell Meta MINT next day. While MINT is nice and flat, SX-F21 amp has liquid warm sound to it and produces detail between notes that make a MINT feel clinical and cold)
CD’s used: Narah Jones, Groove Armada, Seal, Dead Can Dance, Jamiroquai, (Hotel) Costes CD’s (jazz trance), Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Quincy Jones, some trance remixes.
I would describe Sennheiser HD-590 sound with a stock cable as somewhat upfront AND laid-back at the same time. The upfront characteristics are: somewhat bright treble and very pronounced bass that seems overpowering, but never muddy as in the Koss 35/PortaPro series. Not being able to A/B this phone with Grado SR-80, and doing the comparison from the memory, I would say that the bright character of this Sennheiser phone resembles the Grado with less graininess than in SR-80. The lower notes are more pronounced, without the Grado mid-hump. I get the impression that Senn did elevate mid-bass (to a lower degree than Grado), but also elevated low-bass response, which is missing in Grado SR-80 IMO. The vocals/mid- frequencies are laid-back to a degree that is very noticeable on vocal live recordings and rock. I would recommend any Grado to HD590 for rock music with a lot of vocals. If however you listen to a lot of trance/remixes/techno recordings, these phones will give you very nice sound.
So, how do Equinox / stock cable HD590 sound?
It does take some time to notice how great the Equinox cable really is. Upon the first listen, the first thing I noticed was the bass seemed to go much lower. But as with every high quality component, one needs to spend considerable time to really HEAR the difference in quality, and when we do, our wallet tends to shrink…
Here are what AudioArt says about the Equinox and their older Vision 1 cable for HD590: "There is quite a big difference between the two. The Equinox is much more flexible and give a richer, fuller presentation when used with the HD590's. The Vision 1 is more like a high performance version of the Sennheiser stock cable - similar balance just does everything better. "
My impressions after a month of listening to the Equinox “powered” HD590:
The bass response seems to bloom: it opens up like a flower, showing the beautiful texture of lower octaves in full color. I would say that adding Equinox cable to 590 is like changing source from portable to a home cd player with dedicated amp. Playing a test CD with a variety of low frequencies, HD590 was able to go down to 25Hz without noticeable roll-off, while with the stock cable the changes occurred from 35Hz.
The mids are probably the most criticized aspect of the HD590 (at least in my eyes), as they seem to be too laid back with the stock cable, while other frequencies are very in your face. And I agree with everyone on the stock cable and even I used to tell how much the cans s*cked because of recessed mids. The stock cable gave me a picture of a stage where the band was making music, while the vocalists were at the back of the stage, sometimes drowned by everything else that was going on (much like some of the bad configured life concerts). So, what happens with the sound by adding the Equinox cable? It is like a singer makes a few steps towards the audience (and the volume adjusts accordingly to the position). The result is very subtle in the beginning, but becomes huge when your ears get accustomed to small details. The difference is easy to hear even with mine ‘not so HiFi source’. That being said, Equinox didn’t make Senns reproduce the vocals like silky smooth AKG 501. While 501 gave me an impression that the vocals are always in front of all the music, like the tip of the arrow; HD590’s vocals are always surrounded my music, like in a small acoustic room with speakers around you and the singer being in the middle.
What about the high frequencies? Well the effect is very subtle upon the first listen, but Equinox does make a difference. Maybe it’s because the lower and mid frequencies are much stronger, but the sharp edges are mellowed down quite a bit. Especially during the long listening sessions it made a huge difference. I also auditioned CD3000 (in not ideal surroundings), which was way too bright for me. Be careful here, the highs ‘can’ still get to you if you prefer more mellow sound or Grado’s are not your thing. Bright sources would probably not compliment this can.
I would love to listen to a tube amp and a very good source with this combo someday…
(my wallet says: “NO, you don’t!”
)
Conclusions? Equinox does not transform the general character of HD590 into HD600, but it does improve A LOT of what was good into great and fixes some of the bad characteristics. That being said, if you listen to a lot of unamped music, I would strongly recommend trying AKG 501. I noticed that the absence of low bass improves some of the music genres. I can see why some people prefer 501 to 600.
For the rock fanatics
, I would strongly recommend any of the Grado series before auditioning HD590. If Grado deserves the best rock can, I would like to nominate HD590 as one of the best trence/techno headphones.
Still, the Equinox is not enough on some of my rock CD’s to bring the vocals more forward, which made want to stop listening to rock and put another trance CD.
Going back to stock cable is a pain for your ears and can make you reach for the wallet to buy another can. And I didn’t believe before that cables can make such a difference.
At the end: I really do like the (trence) combination and am going to stay with it... at least until I can affort something in R10 league with a good source.
So, that is my story. I hope you didn’t curse me to death while reading it.
P.S: Thanks for bkelly, markl and LTUCCI1924 for their feedback here on HeadFi, without whom I would never retry and hear those cans sing like they were supposed to sing.
Please bear with me that these opinions are my own only, and my tastes differ from anyone else. I believe that everyone has it’s own “perfect” something, be it the sound, girl or a beer. So I will give you some of the background info on how I got into this “money hungry hobby”
Introduction
I discovered this place about two year ago, when I was starting appreciate good sound. At that time I thought a Koss KSC-35 were ultimate portable headphones and I was VERY happy with them using them. Was introduced to this place and bought Senn HD590 to use with a portable. To keep the long story short, I preferred ksc35! They were cheaper and gave me musicality and fun I wanted. Knowing only 1% of what I know now at that time, I thought it was ludicrous to pay about $200 for a set of cans that didn’t provide isolation from outside world and weren’t that much better than koss’s. My main gripes with HD590 was recessed midrange and not enough slam
(finally) HD590 review
I have to say that auditioning in the HiFi store (I know it is not that accurate) I always preferred HD590 to HD600. Being a Grado (ex-Grado
People who don’t know, HD590 was “supposedly” a replacement for HD580 IMO, but after it didn’t get favorable reviews from big name magazines, lost its appeal as a successor, and became “weird experiment” of Sennheiser according to some and a “fresh design” according to others. Having read huge battles between both camps here on Head-Fi
HD590 is open, light and designed for comfort, the “clamping your head factor” is much smaller than HD580/600 family or closed (isolating) phones.
My source is: Daewoo DVG-5700N progressive DVD/CD player (I know it should suck, but I really like the clean sound of it, plus it has same specifications as Philips 963 – only without SACD, This is NOT(!) DVG-5700 and doesn’t look like it, plus is only available in Japan I think – I moved to Japan 6 months ago).
Amp: Pioneer SX-F21 amp (old heavy amp with headphone out that made me sell Meta MINT next day. While MINT is nice and flat, SX-F21 amp has liquid warm sound to it and produces detail between notes that make a MINT feel clinical and cold)
CD’s used: Narah Jones, Groove Armada, Seal, Dead Can Dance, Jamiroquai, (Hotel) Costes CD’s (jazz trance), Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Quincy Jones, some trance remixes.
I would describe Sennheiser HD-590 sound with a stock cable as somewhat upfront AND laid-back at the same time. The upfront characteristics are: somewhat bright treble and very pronounced bass that seems overpowering, but never muddy as in the Koss 35/PortaPro series. Not being able to A/B this phone with Grado SR-80, and doing the comparison from the memory, I would say that the bright character of this Sennheiser phone resembles the Grado with less graininess than in SR-80. The lower notes are more pronounced, without the Grado mid-hump. I get the impression that Senn did elevate mid-bass (to a lower degree than Grado), but also elevated low-bass response, which is missing in Grado SR-80 IMO. The vocals/mid- frequencies are laid-back to a degree that is very noticeable on vocal live recordings and rock. I would recommend any Grado to HD590 for rock music with a lot of vocals. If however you listen to a lot of trance/remixes/techno recordings, these phones will give you very nice sound.
So, how do Equinox / stock cable HD590 sound?
It does take some time to notice how great the Equinox cable really is. Upon the first listen, the first thing I noticed was the bass seemed to go much lower. But as with every high quality component, one needs to spend considerable time to really HEAR the difference in quality, and when we do, our wallet tends to shrink…
Here are what AudioArt says about the Equinox and their older Vision 1 cable for HD590: "There is quite a big difference between the two. The Equinox is much more flexible and give a richer, fuller presentation when used with the HD590's. The Vision 1 is more like a high performance version of the Sennheiser stock cable - similar balance just does everything better. "
My impressions after a month of listening to the Equinox “powered” HD590:
The bass response seems to bloom: it opens up like a flower, showing the beautiful texture of lower octaves in full color. I would say that adding Equinox cable to 590 is like changing source from portable to a home cd player with dedicated amp. Playing a test CD with a variety of low frequencies, HD590 was able to go down to 25Hz without noticeable roll-off, while with the stock cable the changes occurred from 35Hz.
The mids are probably the most criticized aspect of the HD590 (at least in my eyes), as they seem to be too laid back with the stock cable, while other frequencies are very in your face. And I agree with everyone on the stock cable and even I used to tell how much the cans s*cked because of recessed mids. The stock cable gave me a picture of a stage where the band was making music, while the vocalists were at the back of the stage, sometimes drowned by everything else that was going on (much like some of the bad configured life concerts). So, what happens with the sound by adding the Equinox cable? It is like a singer makes a few steps towards the audience (and the volume adjusts accordingly to the position). The result is very subtle in the beginning, but becomes huge when your ears get accustomed to small details. The difference is easy to hear even with mine ‘not so HiFi source’. That being said, Equinox didn’t make Senns reproduce the vocals like silky smooth AKG 501. While 501 gave me an impression that the vocals are always in front of all the music, like the tip of the arrow; HD590’s vocals are always surrounded my music, like in a small acoustic room with speakers around you and the singer being in the middle.
What about the high frequencies? Well the effect is very subtle upon the first listen, but Equinox does make a difference. Maybe it’s because the lower and mid frequencies are much stronger, but the sharp edges are mellowed down quite a bit. Especially during the long listening sessions it made a huge difference. I also auditioned CD3000 (in not ideal surroundings), which was way too bright for me. Be careful here, the highs ‘can’ still get to you if you prefer more mellow sound or Grado’s are not your thing. Bright sources would probably not compliment this can.
I would love to listen to a tube amp and a very good source with this combo someday…
(my wallet says: “NO, you don’t!”
Conclusions? Equinox does not transform the general character of HD590 into HD600, but it does improve A LOT of what was good into great and fixes some of the bad characteristics. That being said, if you listen to a lot of unamped music, I would strongly recommend trying AKG 501. I noticed that the absence of low bass improves some of the music genres. I can see why some people prefer 501 to 600.
For the rock fanatics
Still, the Equinox is not enough on some of my rock CD’s to bring the vocals more forward, which made want to stop listening to rock and put another trance CD.
Going back to stock cable is a pain for your ears and can make you reach for the wallet to buy another can. And I didn’t believe before that cables can make such a difference.
At the end: I really do like the (trence) combination and am going to stay with it... at least until I can affort something in R10 league with a good source.
So, that is my story. I hope you didn’t curse me to death while reading it.
P.S: Thanks for bkelly, markl and LTUCCI1924 for their feedback here on HeadFi, without whom I would never retry and hear those cans sing like they were supposed to sing.
