[axus]

Hi,

This is my first post on these forums.

I'm interested in getting myself a pair of mid-range cans for about $200-250.
I own an SB! Live Platinum sound card (pretty old I know but it's a decent card) and I have no headphone amp for the moment, but I am looking at purchasing one at a later stage. Most of my music is on Mp3's however I will be buying more and more CD's as I get into this hobby so that shouldn't be a deciding factor. I mostly listen to rock and early heavy metal... some alternative rock here and there. My favourite bands of the moment are The Killers, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Radiohead (some of their music), Placebo, Metallica (80's and some early 90's songs by them - I don't like their new music) and some System of a Down (where their whole on/off thing is less apparent). Guitar would probably be my favourite instrument so how the headphones make it sound is very important.

I have narrowed my choices down to the Sennheiser HD 595's and AKG K 601's but other suggestions are welcome. What would you suggest I get?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TheSloth]

The 595 will be much happier than the 601 straight from your soundcard. AKG's are much harder to drive than their impedances suggest. When you get a headphone amp, you can always change.

 

[axus]

I heard a friend's Senn HD595's yesterday and I was surprisingly disappointed. The bass seemed to be a tad distorted and the highs were rather buzzy for my liking. Can anyone who has heard both these pairs of cans tell me if the 601's are significantly better in these two areas? It could just be my hearing and what is pleasant for my ear... or it could be that my friend's cans are rather abused - he has listened to them at nutoriously high volumes for a while...

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by axus I heard a friend's Senn HD595's yesterday and I was surprisingly disappointed. The bass seemed to be a tad distorted and the highs were rather buzzy for my liking. Can anyone who has heard both these pairs of cans tell me if the 601's are significantly better in these two areas? It could just be my hearing and what is pleasant for my ear... or it could be that my friend's cans are rather abused - he has listened to them at nutoriously high volumes for a while...

In the coming week I will be able to tell you how the K601 compares to the HD555. Both unamped and amped (Gilmore Lite).

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by axus I heard a friend's Senn HD595's yesterday and I was surprisingly disappointed. The bass seemed to be a tad distorted and the highs were rather buzzy for my liking. Can anyone who has heard both these pairs of cans tell me if the 601's are significantly better in these two areas? It could just be my hearing and what is pleasant for my ear... or it could be that my friend's cans are rather abused - he has listened to them at nutoriously high volumes for a while...

Does he have an EQ active?

 

[axus]

No, he doesn't.

 

[Zorander]

Strange. From your description of the sound, I'd have suspected over-aggressive EQ behind the scene (I used to this long ago so I'm familiar with the kind of distortion you get). It's also possible that the cans are somewhat damaged, as you said.

There is something regarding the K601 you should keep in mind though. The bass is on the lean side (quality-wise is very excellent though) and may be too 'polite-sounding' for your types of music. I imagine a Grado will serve you better. I suggest getting a SR-225 or, if you can score one at the upcoming TTVJ sale, HF-1.

Regards.

 

[axus]

I do seem to have a very sensetive ear for distorted bass and buzzy highs, it has always been there. Politeness may not be such a bad thing...

 

[axus]

I've been listening to my brother's Sennheiser HD 201's. At first I thought they were appaling and the sound got a bit annoying. After getting the feel of them here is what I thought of them:

They are a bit too bright for my liking - that is the first thing I noticed, the trebble was almost offensive. They lack mid-bass (maybe a bit closer to mid - 200Hz to 800Hz) to the extent that you can hear it and it is annoying - I picked it up when listening to a few songs and then looked at the frequency response diagram for them which confirmed it. Between 80Hz and 180Hz they were solid, but there was a slight lack of volume in the lowest of frequenices. According to Sennheiser, they hit 21Hz but they really begin dying out much sooner (maybe 70Hz). When listening to slow acoustic guitar I feel that the strings die out unnaturally quickly. Apart from that, they have a bit too much distortion for my liking when the music gets fast - and most of the music I listen to is fast - (< 0.7% according to Sennheiser). I don't know if this is just a headphone thing altogether, but they didn't seem to set the stage too well. I obviously didn't expect them to at $20 from HeadRoom but I'd like to know if the higher end headphones do it well. I may seem to be ripping these headphones apart but I really am not - they are great in terms of detail and value for money, I also really enjoyed slower music like Placebo on them - I'm just criticising the things I didn't like about them that I would expect when spending $200 on headphones. Based on my impressions, do you guys think that I'd prefer the Senn HD595's or the AKG K601's?