Sennheiser Hd 598 Over-Ear Headphones - Ivory

Sennheiser HD 598 Over-Ear Headphones - Ivory

• Premium, audiophile-grade over-ear, open back headphones
• Lightweight with luxurious velour ear pads for extreme comfort
• Compatible with virtually every audio device including phones, tablets, computers and stereo components
• Detachable 3m cable (includes 3.5mm adapter plug)
• 2-year limited warranty only when purchased from an authorized dealer.
• Open-back headphones allow ambient noise for a more natural sound experience. The cable is a bayonet type mount that must be firmly inserted into the input on the ear cup and twisted clockwise until it locks to make sure the connection is intact. Manufacturing website http://en-ie.sennheiser.com/global-downloads/file/717/542504_Audiophile_Spec_GB.pdf

Buy Now : Sennheiser HD 598 Over-Ear Headphones - Ivory

Brand : Sennheiser Consumer Audio
Category : Electronics,Headphones, Earbuds & Accessories,Headphones & Earbuds,Over-Ear Headphones
Rating : 4.6
Review Count : 3904
SalesRank : 0

Sennheiser HD 598 Over-Ear Headphones - Ivory

• The Sennheiser HD598s are fantastic headphones! BUT... they may not be for you. These phones are built for whom I would refer to as the \"Mature Listener\". If you want the experience of a dance/hip-hop/rap/rock or whatever club strapped onto your head these are not the cans for you. If you want to feel like you\'re front and center at a Metallica concert these are not the cans for you. If you like your music (dangerously) loud, very heavy on the bass, or seriously colored and unnaturally equalized these are not the cans for you. If you want to rediscover your music, if you want to discover new music, if you want to learn to really \"listen\", and if you want to do it without breaking the bank, then these are the phones for you.I had been eyeing up these phones for some time, and when I saw that they were available for $190 I immediately hit buy. They\'re everything I expected them to be and more. I got them 4 days ago, and they\'ve been on my head at every opportunity possible (Unfortunately, I did have to go to work). I\'ve been tearing through my music collection and listening to lots of diverse selections to ascertain the 598\'s strengths and weaknesses. Because I listen to so many different types of music I\'m really not able to settle on a single pair of phones. I have a set of V-Moda Crossfade LPs that I use when I want some serious bass (yes, I know they\'re not all that good for much else, but hey, they\'ll make my teeth rattle). Chastise me if you must, but they do work pretty well for a lot of the current popular music, and they can really bump without playing all that loud. I have a set of Audio Technica ATH M50s that I use when I want to listen to a wide variety of music genres and I don\'t want to disturb everyone around me. The M50s are just a really great all-around set of phones, and I really enjoy listening to them. I have some Sony MDR-V6s that were my primary phones for what I would call \"reference listening\". I\'ve had them forever (I believe I\'m on my 5th, maybe 6th, set of earcups), and I really like their sound, even though they can be quite bright sometimes. I also have a wide variety of buds I use from time to time. My primary listening setup consists of my computer (a Toshiba Chromebook 13) and Google Play Music (streaming nothing less than 320kbps), or my Onkyo C-7030 CD player feeding into my Nuforce Icon DAC/Headphone Amp. I should also note that no equalizer used or even available in this configuration. I can say without reservation that these 598s will be taking the place of the Sonys for my reference listening, but because of the open design I probably won\'t be able to use them at times.I know I haven\'t been using the 598s that long, but I doubt that my opinions will change (for the worse anyway) as these things have sounded great right from the beginning. My goal is really about making sure people know exactly what they\'re getting with these phones, because most of the negative reviews seem to be coming from those who don\'t understand what type of cans these are. I don\'t claim to be some sort of expert, I haven\'t auditioned countless sets of phones and other equipment, and the only bit of audio testing equipment I\'m using is my ears.DESIGN AND COMFORT: The design on the 598s is definitely polarizing; and where I didn\'t care for it at first, I have really come to like it. They really do have that Euro Luxo Car look about them. I only wish that the cord was more complimentary of the phones themselves. It sort of cheapens the look though it is nice and light weight. But comfortable! These things are incredibly comfortable. Like I said earlier, I have had these on my head at every opportunity possible over the past 3 days (5 hours straight last night) and I have never felt one ounce of fatigue from wearing them. I read a review where someone was complaining about the fit and was saying they were itchy, but unless you have a major skin condition, an allergy to velour, or some crazy hypersensitive nerves in your head you will love how these phones seem to practically disappear when you put them on. Call me strange, but I would argue that the comfort of these phones adds tremendously to the overall aural experience. I would qualify this by adding that I had purchased a pair of Grado SR225i headphones a little over a year ago, and had them boxed up and sent back the same day because they were sooooo uncomfortable. I would never have been able to enjoy my music with those things on my head and they were also so poorly constructed it was embarrassing. The 598s are very well built and it is evident from the first time you hold them in your hands. I was also surprised by the way they conform to fit because they look very rigid in the pictures. Sennheiser certainly got this right.SOUND (What it\'s really all about): Great design is nothing without great sound, and I doubt that I could find a better sounding set of phones at this price point than the 598s. Part of the reason I\'ve been engaging in my marathon listening sessions is because I\'m like a kid at Christmas who just got a whole catalog of music to rediscover. For the true music lover there is nothing better than getting a piece of gear that has you tearing through all of you music and hearing something new in almost every recording, and the 598s are that kind of gear. Great sounding cans have also helped me to discover genres of music and different artists that I probably wouldn\'t have given the time of day to in the past, but the quality of the recordings, and the ability of \"audiophile\" phones like these 598s to deliver the artist\'s intent means I have made many great new personal music discoveries. Of all the headphones I have owned or tried over the years, I always seemed to go back to my Sony MDR-V6s for reference listening, classical, jazz, adult contemporary, singer-songwriter; pretty much anything outside of rap/hip-hop, hard rock/heavy metal or a lot of the bass heavy top 40 stuff (not that they can\'t handle those). There is a reason why they have been on the market for decades, and it\'s because they really do sound great. But, it only took a few minutes and a couple of my favorite evaluation tracks to realize I had found the Sony\'s replacement. There are several factors that I feel make the 598\'s sound superior for listening to music. The biggest has to be the 598\'s soundstage, something that really does require open phones to maximize. The easiest way for me to test this personally is to play a particular piece, relax, and close my eyes. The Sonys, with their bright sound, do have a nice soundstage, but even with my eyes closed I still feel that the sound is squarely inside my head. With the HD598s, closing your eyes feels like you\'ve stepped into the space where the recording took place. And as I said earlier, combine this amazing soundstage with the phones incredible comfort, and things just start feeling surprisingly real (do you get me?). The whole \"being there\" effect is also enhanced by finding that perfect volume level. Not too loud, and not too soft either; just that sweet spot where you start to feel like you\'re there. Which brings me to my second factor: dynamics. I think the dynamics on the 598\'s are excellent. I remember when CDs started coming out and everyone was talking about the improvements to the dynamic range available in the recordings. There were often warnings on the CDs themselves about sudden changes in volume that CDs were capable of. After a few days of listening I started to take notice of the 598\'s impressive dynamic range, which really adds to the realism of recordings. I am very impressed by the 598\'s ability to reproduce small details in a recording during the quietest parts, the loudest parts, and everything in between. The final factor that I feel contributes greatly to the whole listening experience is the tone, or dare I say \"color\", of the phones. My MDR-V6s are very impressive in this regard; sounding incredibly natural (especially for personally recorded video playback), and there\'s a reason why you see these, or their fraternal twin 7506s, on the heads of people in various sound production/recording/broadcasting businesses (I especially notice this when watching behind-the-scenes featurettes on movie disks). So, why do I feel that the 598s are better in this area. It\'s because for music listening, the Sony\'s are just too bright too often. Yes, their tone is really great, but the strong presence of the high end of the sound spectrum can get fatiguing after even a short while, and especially when listening at that natural volume level I tried to describe earlier. The 598s are just much better suited to music playback, and they don\'t seem to wear me out, even after many hours. If you understood what I have been talking about in this section they you will certainly appreciate the HD 598s.WEAKNESSES (Yes there are some): I\'ll try to be brief here. As many others have stressed in their reviews; these are open design cans, so you will hear the world and the world will hear you when you use these. This means the 598s don\'t travel well, and you really need a private (quiet) space to fully enjoy them. While these 598s will play fantastic and without distortion at comfortable/natural listening levels, they do have a pretty low distortion threshold relative to my other phones. So, if you like to turn it up (I\'m talking UP!) I would recommend something different (and I would recommend not listening like this also). My NuForce Icon DAC can drive my V-Moda Crossfades, Sony MDR-V6s, and Audio Technica ATH-M50s to some incredible heights and they\'ll take it all in stride, but again, these 598s are for listening at more natural levels (not talking rock concert levels here) and they will distort if pushed too hard. And even though I list this as a weakness, it\'s really more so that people understand the 598\'s place. I have read some reviews here that used the words \"thumping\" and \"booming\" to describe the bass these 598s are capable of, and let me say for the record that their bass response is neither of those. It is tight, it is defined, and it is natural, but it isn\'t for the serious bass enthusiast. Crossfade LPs will rattle your jaw while they\'re bouncing on your cheeks (without distortion), and that\'s more my definition of \"thumping\" and \"Booming\". The only other weakness I would list, and again it\'s more of a \"design side-effect\", is that these cans will reveal (and highlight) any weakness in your listening configuration. Bad recordings/poor production, low bit-rate digital music, cheap soundcards, poor DACs, electrical noise, and insufficient amplification just to name a few. Buying the Nuforce DAC/amp was one of the best investments I made. It has the power to drive any phones, and it really works wonders with today\'s digital music. It took my listening to the next level. I even have a smaller Nuforce Icon uDAC-3 (for traveling) that works great with these 598s as well (and for just over one third the price).I hope that if you\'ve made it this far my review has helped you. If you feel that you\'re ready to become that \"mature listener\", or if you\'re already there, I would highly recommend these HD 598s. If you are looking for that one pair of phones that are perfect for everything, you\'ll probably never find them. If you want to add another fine workhorse to your stable, I highly recommend these Sennheiser HD598 Headphones.And hey,if you want a case for these, the  CASEBUDi Headphone Case - Large  is a decent case and a perfect fit.I\'m going to update this review from time to time with some of the incredible music I have discovered/re-discovered while listening to these phones. I have a Google Play Music Unlimited Access subscription and it\'s paying off in a huge way.5-1-2014: Just listened my way through the \"Intro to Jazz Rock\" playlist and it was awesome! A phenomenal collection of music that really highlights what the HD 598\'s are capable of. Stunning!5-5-2014: I know that many of the reviews mention the need to be in a quiet environment to really enjoy these phones, and that has proven to be absolutely true. If you are doing any sort of critical listening or you want to truly escape with these 598s you need to be in a quiet place. I am shocked by how much my enjoyment of whatever it is I\'m listening to is curtailed by environmental noise. I also want to recommend the soundtrack from any Tarantino movie if you want to have some fun with these cans. Kill Bill 1&2 and Pulp Fiction were tops.5-12-2014: I\'ve been listening to the 598s exclusively for the past couple weeks, but last night I plugged in my Audio Technica ATH-M50s and WOW was I shocked. I couldn\'t believe how colored the sound of the ATs seemed to me, how \"inside of my head\" they sounded, and how much the \"enhanced\" bass muddied up the overall quality of the sound. Now don\'t get me wrong. I\'m not saying the ATs are bad phones; because I do still like them for those times when I want more bass. The swap just highlighted the amazing quality of the 598s. I also highly recommend this cable if you want something shorter, in a design that really compliments the 598s 1.2m NEW Replacement Audio upgrade Cable For Sennheiser HD598 HD558 HD518 Headphones
• Let\'s start with what\'s important. Me. And I love these headphones! Most say they lack in bass. Being a bass head and having to turn off bass boost on my headphone amp, I can safely and accurately say they are full of it! No, they don\'t always rumble. They only do that when they are SUPPOSED to. (will get back to that later)I got these for Gaming first and foremost. Now I never play without em. For reference I have a hand selected 5.1 system in my living room. Sony 7.1 hdmi trueHD and DTSHD with 200 watts peak per channel. The smallest speaker in my setup is the center. It is a 3 way yamaha monitor w/8 inch woof, and not only does voices (needed) but in my gaming gunfire and on screen sound effects perfectly. Most centers are so poorly designed most game makers these days just skip in and mix that into the 2 mains. That makes me sad. My surrounds are some 1980\'s sony floorstanding speakers w/10 inch woofs. Not the sleek design of the glossy look these days, but in their time they were part of a $950 stereo setup. They still sound great and were made in a time when they didn\'t try to make little speakers sound big. Most of the \"big\" sounding little speakers I have heard are garbage. I\'m looking at those golfball sized cubes, BOSE! As of today they are all that is left of that setup. The cassette player/recorder was the last to die. My mains are mid 90\'s Technics w/12 inch woofs. Again they made big speakers for big sound and it worked. It\'s like cars today, NO 4 cyl will ever pump out the raw power of a true hotrod. The sound is actually quite matched considering the different brands of speaker. When a sound moves from one speaker to another it is a nice transition. There is no difference in the way something sounded in one speaker or another. The .1 is a new Sony 12 inch 120 watt sub. (nice for my houses acoustics, probably too weak for most setups though) There are times where I check to see if my system is muted. These headphones sound just like my frikin 5.1 system and that is worth the $200 (ish) price all by itself. And I\'m not trying to blow up the neighbors at 3 a.m. lol.I started my headset hunt buying the PC 350s and teamed it up with the astro mix amp for drooling results. Sorry turtle beach and Tritton, there is no comparison. Even so the PC 350s were sort of \"dark\" which I\'m guessing is the infamous Sennheiser veil people are talking about on the Internets. I can\'t describe it logically. I will just say if the sound was a tv\'s picture it was like a crystal clear HD blu ray with the brightness a tad too low. Turn out the lights (in this analogy, turn up volume) and the picture is amazing! But during the daytime it just isn\'t satisfying. This was very bad on the pc 350s with low volume, even amped properly. Not the HD 598\'s. Everything is crystal clear and bright at the faintest volume. Even the rumble fueled hip hop thundered at volume of 1. (out of 60, I use ~20 most of the time. Fiio E7) This \"dark veil\" mentioned is nonexistent on the HD 598\'s. They may lose some neutrality for this, but I can\'t complain.I am in no way a classical music fan, but recently I have started listening to it. And ONLY because of these headphones. I went through my G-ma\'s CDs and even LP collection looking for gems. I would like to repeat, me no likey da classical music. But one thing I do love is accurate sound reproduction. I thought that made me an audiophile by translation, but apparently I have to spend a few million dollars on speaker wire to get that title. (pft) When I hear any song featuring a well recorded/produced ride cymbal (on a drum kit its the big heavy one that will break your stick if you hit it like I do) it sends chills down my spine. The good ones like when you see that triple overtime added on your paycheck, not the bad ones like when a ghost touches you. Ooops I\'m digressing slightly. Where I\'m going with this is that with these cans I love well recorded classical music. You can hear the violin strings vibrating, not just the note being played. You can hear the bass drum echo throughout the stage so vividly that I had Daredevil\'s superpowers I could probably read nametags of people sitting in the audience! (lol) So considering the fact that I grew up listening to Nirvana, KoRn, Sepultura, and Eminem, never once could stomach classical music, I think the fact that I willingly seek out and listen to it only because I like how it sounds in these cans is a positive example of how good they are for classical. (sorry for poor sentence structure, I honestly don\'t care where commas and semicolons are supposed to go to the point that I have totally forgotten what an independent clause is and never intend on relearning ;)Jazz, oh I am so picky about my jazz. I only claim to like it out of fanboy-ism of Buddy Rich. (I R drummer) And the only real test I have given jazz wise was an old (pressed in the 60\'s) yet properly stored Buddy Rich LP. Recorded live, ~50 years degradation, and my bottom of the line $50 sony turntable was truly awe inspiring. Sure it popped and clicked a LOT compared to todays 24 bit HQ recordings, but the sound that came out of that LP was amazing!! The horns cut through the atmosphere with incredible clarity. The reeds vibrated with such accuracy. I haven\'t heard a sax in real life since 9th grade band class, and that for me was 15 years ago. The sound they made was so accurate I could only describe it as nostalgic. Every nuance of Buddy\'s performance was reproduced with transparency. I honestly don\'t know too many headphone terms, I\'m still new to this. But when I heard all his accents and whatnot I instantly knew what transparent meant, at least I think I do lol. If it was seeing the analogy would be that I could see it so clearly. Like if you had a smudgy window (iphone earbuds in this analogy) and you were to not only clean it, but remove the glass altogether. That\'s how clear these are. You could hear audience members chatting in quiet parts to the point where I actually made out someone asking a lady if her drink was good, he was thinking of getting one too. lol. And no this wasn\'t a bad recording, I had to turn it up loud (oooh risky) to hear that and at that volume Buddy\'s kick drum would have probably blown my senn\'s drivers right into my head. My only other test jazzwise was a track I got for free from Hdtracks.com. It was this 1930\'s jazz night club number with a band, piano, and female singer. Quality wise it was great. The singer\'s voice was amazing! That\'s one thing I have noticed after a month and a half of use is that female voices all sound great through these. That may be cause by the eq of the driver being slightly colored or not neutral. (more on that later)Rap/ hip hop. (I said I would get back to the rumble right) If anyone says these cans are bass shy, they have never heard \"Whoomp! There it is\" through em. HEHE. No joke that song absolutely RUMBLES these bad boys. They rumble so much, and even so the kick is still tight and voices are clear. No matter how much you get em to rumble, they will never distort any frequency. Your amp/pc soundcard/mp3 player/smartphone may distort during those times, but these cans will not. And as far as I can tell I\'m using a dirt cheap headphone amp. (fiio E7, highly recommended also. USB to PC and it\'s a soundcard too so that could help all sorts of other audio related problems, digression...) It was the 2nd song (as a bass test) and the reason I turned my bass boost off forever. No distortion, no matter how loud I went. And I went uncomfortably loud even for me. I actually only did it to try and make em distort, I have yet to actually make them distort and have given up on that quest. Yeah even though my musical tastes have refined as I get older, I like well produced rhymes. Not a hardcore fan at all, my preference is one of two things. Good production or comedy. (both doesn\'t hurt) My fav production wise is Dr.Dre hands down. The attention he spent to making to MUSIC to his first solo album was incredible. As far as his rhymes go... I like his music ;) Flutes in gangster rap?!? His music brought a credibility to the genre that changed it forever. Quick note on the latter. Ludacris and Eminem were my 2 fav \"funny\" rappers. They have both been recently replaced as my fav by Mc Chris. He worked for adult swim on cartoon network for a while. He wrote some later episodes of sealab, and voiced in multiple shows on that network. I would like to say that I think Mc Chris is the only rapper that could make Eminem choke in a rap battle. Heck just listening to him can sometimes leave me speechless!Rock/Alternative/Metal/hardcore, yes I\'m that derp that is gonna group all these genres together. As far as the cans are concerned they should be grouped together cause they all nail the same types of frequencies. And one of the main reasons I group em together is they all will have a distorted guitar in them. This music being my favorite type personally I was kinda hesitant to try them out. Like hip hop/Rap\'s bass line rumbles, this distortion can get heavy enough to distort other frequencies and cheaper drivers. Like those 4 inch 1 way drivers in the now extinct boom box. It could \"color\" vocals and other types of mid frequencies. As far as hardcore goes, all I have tested so far has been unearth and stretch armstrong. Even those one album wans\'t very well produced (the first unearth) but everything I tried sounded great! Even though it was a crappy production you could hear that the recording was better quality. That is a positive example of the way these cans can point out good from bad recordings or mixings. The kick drum thwacked with that rubbery slam that gives me goose bumps. (good thing) But it was mixed so horribly that it basically killed the soundstage of the senn\'s. Everything was either in the middle or way off to one side and you could literally hear a blank \"space\" between the middle sounds (vocals and stuff) and the out to a side sounds.(note: The only system I have used to turn stereo to surround sound has been pro logic in my high school days. I went into 5.1 asap and never looked back. I know these cans are stereo. I know what stereo/pro logic/5.1/true HD is so don\'t try correcting me on this. You will be right, I can tell you already. this is only what I hear, I could never prove it in a court of law, nor should I have to. ;) For most of my listening experience it sounds like these cans have 4 channels per side. I\'m guessing this is the soundstage people are talking about. 2 channels sound like they are coming from slightly above your head facing you very close to each other. This is always where the vocals go. Other sounds as well, mostly ones mixed to where they would come out of the center in a pro logic setup. They always play identical sounds therefore these two \"channels\" aren\'t in stereo. Then there are 2 channels directly to either side facing you. These are the sounds that would be played on the main L and R channel in a pro logic setup. They usually play the same sounds at undetectable volume differences, so as not to bleed into the center channel of a pro logic set up. This is where your main musical components go. For example this is where most drums/bass guitar/lead guitar sounds get mixed in a stereo and even a 5.1 mix. These 2 channels are in stereo (duh) and clearly sound apart from the \"center\" channel and the other 2 channels (per side) that are spread out going towards the extreme end of each side. What this means is you can CLEARLY tell exactly where that sound was mixed in stereo. When a sound goes from the far left side the other you can hear it start way to the left, then slightly \"closer\" to your left ear, then right next to your left, then over your head, then right next to you..., on the right, then slightly farther to the right, then to the right\'s extreme. Did that make sense? LMAO. I hope so because I doubt I could go into much more detail. =DThese are not 100% neutral as some have stated, I\'m assuming this is correct although with my burnt out drummer ears (I have never used earplugs and played for over 14 years) I couldn\'t tell you if this is true or not. I can say that I can easily double blind a CD to 128kbps mp3 any day of the week with even an iphone\'s earbuds. But details that minute (how flat the eq of the driver is) escape me. So for the record I don\'t claim to have golden ears, I only claim that I have the want and willingness to listen very closely to sounds. Honestly it seems to me that 99.5% of the worlds population lacks that want and this is why most can\'t tell a difference between decent and great production in most music. I only wish they could hear it the way I do. :\'(Anyways I hope this review can talk someone into buying these headphones, because they would then be grateful to me for the rest of their life. /horriblelaughEdit: I noticed quite a few typos after this got published. I do apologies for this. It was typed out on an iPhone and the auto correction feature is a beast. I skimmed through and fixed a few in the short time I had today. :( -Dawg

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