Sennheiser HD 598 High-End Open Circumaural Headphones

Like many music lovers, the arrival of children means that headphones are a must for me. Generally I'm not so keen, preferring the soundstage and impact of a really good set of speakers. I have worked as a semi-professional sound engineer in the past, so I like an analytical sound, but not so clinical that it detracts from the pace and excitement of the music.

I auditioned the HD598 against BeyerDynamic DT880s, AKG K701s and Grado SR125s - with a budget of around 200 pounds. Comparative auditioning was conducted mainly using the headphone output of my Cyrus Pre, with extended listening impressions for the HD598s using the headphone amplifier output of a Xonar Essence ST audio card in my media PC (with losslessly encoded CD rips as source).

For my personal taste I found the AKGs to be extremely analytical, but slightly 'thin' and lacking excitement. They are known to be difficult to drive, and I suspect that my Cyrus headphone output was not really up to getting the best from them. I suspect they would be astonishing for mainly Jazz listening with a dedicated headphone amp, but that's out of budget, and Jazz only forms about 10% of my listening. I would also add that they made poor mixes (I'm looking at you, Oasis) almost unlistenable.

The Grados were almost the polar opposite: a sound which immediately grabs you by the scruff of the neck, and sounded great with edgier material (Arctic Monkeys, White Stripes). I felt that they were rather coloured - they made a bit of a meal of Beethoven Piano in G Major, for example. Easy to drive, they make great rock headphones, and I nearly purchased them. I should note that I personally found them the least comfortable of the four pairs, and probably the least well constructed.

The DT880s were extremely comfortable and appeared very well put together. I liked the sound on more acoustic material such as 10,000 Maniacs 'In My Tribe', but lacking a bit of punch compared to the HD598s on the Arctic Monkeys 'Whatever people say, that's what I'm not'. I personally found the DT880s to be less analytical than the Sennheisers.

So to the HD598s themselves. First impressions are very good - I like the slightly 'retro' looks and colour. They are immediately very comfortable, and I have subsequently found that listening sessions of several hours are no problem at all.

Starting with Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue', the HD598s showed a very open soundstage - not quite what I get from my ProAc speakers, but outstanding for a pair of headphones (for me, the best of all of the auditioned 'phones), and without any sense of being 'artificial'. Moving to more acoustic material (10,000 Maniacs again), every element of the mix (which is a technically and musically outstanding piece of work) was revealed in detail, yet without this detracting from a wonderful 'foot tapping' sound. The Arctic Monkeys and White Stripes material showed plenty of attack and aggression - perhaps not to the same extent as the Grados, but there was more detail here as compensation.

I've had the Sennheisers for a month or so now, and have yet to find anything they don't cope with very well. I find them particularly well suited to rock, but (as I'd expect at this price) they are very comfortable with Jazz, acoustic and orchestral work as well.

One final point worth considering: compared to many phones at this price point, they are pretty easy to drive - they are quite acceptable with my iPod at lower volumes, for example.

In short, I am extremely pleased with my purchase, and would recommend them to anyone.

I Bought these a couple of months back, and now, having had time to fully test them, will present this review.

Just want to say first off that I have a musical background myself, in listening, composing recording and production, and recently just finished a degree in popular music. And BOY, do I wish these headphones had been around when I was doing my sound work in my course!!!! Ill do some pros/cons to get things going:

Pro's:

- For a start, VERY comfortable headphones. I CANNOT stress enough just how pleasant they are to wear. I often wear them all night with no pain or discomfort from wearing, which I could not say of any other headphones I have used in the past. This is due mainly to the "over ear" design, as opposed to "on ear" headphones, which can exert pressure on the cartilage of your ears. Ear pads and headband pad are very soft,it almost feels like you are not even wearing headphones at all.

- Extremely clear, and balanced sound. The 598's produce low, mid and high frequencies extremely well with great detail. They bring new life and detail to everything I listen to on them. The high end is beautiful, shimmering and very glassy, without being shrill or harsh. The mid-range is very comfortable, it will bring out guitar from a band mix very well, while not being too mid-heavy. The bass ranges from very subtle to surprisingly punchy powerful bass. The bass is very tight, and responsive... not rumble-ey or flappy in any way. The best thing I can say about the bass response, is that when listening to bass heavy music, the high frequencies are not compromised at all, the sound remains well balanced. (not sure of how else to put that really.)

Note, these are NOT designed to enhance bass in any way. If you are looking for headphones that do, you should try the Beats by Dre made by Monster.

- Surprisingly.. Versatile! I was surprised at just how many different kinds of music I can enjoy on the 598's. From solo piano music, all the way to electronic like trance, dubstep and everything in between. The 598's are very adaptable, they can sound warm and mellow for piano music, and loud and powerful for electronic music too. Film scores and classical music also are reproduced with remarkable accuracy. In other words, top notch stuff.

- Long cable, good to see. Most cans have cables that are faaaaaarrr to short. Even comes with a 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter which is a nice touch.

- They look lovely too, nice when you take them off after a good listen sesh, and think "aww yeahh, they look goooood"

- Replaceable cable, even though it has odd choice of connection. (see cons for more info).

- Construction is VERY solid. At first glance I expected the part where the neckband meets the speaker housing to be very fragile, but I was completely mistaken. The headband is flexible, but very well made. The cups even rotate up and down, and left to right slightly for an even better fit.

-Short "burn in" time. When I first began listening, the 598's sounded slightly unclear, with a lot of mid-range presence, however after about 4-5 hours of listening the sound improved dramatically.

Cons:

- No carry case included, minor niggle, but these are not really intended to be travel headphones anyway. Still, a carry bag is a feature found with lower end 'phones from sennheiser. (such as HD215)

- Proprietary cable connection. The cable IS replaceable, but the end which attaches to the phones themselves plugs into a VERY recessed (jack socket is far inside the actual casing) jack socket via 2.5mm cable, so a standard headphone replacement cable will not fit. The cable is held in place by a notch, which fits into a groove on the plug, which you twist to hold it in position.

- They spill a LOT of noise. These are not 'phones to use around others, or for travel. However, I believe this should not affect the review score, as the 598's were not designed to be travel 'phones. If you were buying them to use for travel, please do not be put off by this. You would discover first hand (or ear... :P) that they do not cancel external noise, so are not suitable for listening in a high noise environment.

As you can see, the "cons" of this review are not major issues, and do not detract from the quality of the headphones as a product at all.

HOWEVER (this bit is important)...

These headphones sound great when they are playing back high quality audio sources. By high quality I mean music from a boxed CD, or music ripped in WAV, AIFF, FLAC or any other lossless formats.

The artifacts and issues with compressed music sources are very noticeable with these headphones. Sometimes almost to the point where songs below 256 or 192Kbps become un-listenable. MP3's/M4a's at 256-320kbps sound good, but this is dependent upon the style of the music, and what was used to encode it. You may find that low quality mp3's encoded with older versions of LAME are full of glitches and do not sound good at all.

Strangely, this is not a negative thing. It is simply the nature of high end audio products. They work best with high quality audio sources. Some low quality music sounds perfectly decent on the 598's, it all depends on the genre and quality setting used.

I hope this review has been helpful and provided some insight into the quality and performance of the HD598 headphones.

Like most people my preferred listening is through good quality speakers. However, there are times ... late at night for instance ... when you may want to blow your own mind without having a similar effect on other household members or, worse still, the neighbours. For this we must seek the very best alternative available within our price range and, for me, the Sennheiser HD598s provide exactly that. It is only fair to point out that I have been very much a Sennheiser man for many, many years but, when considering new headphones on this occasion, I opened my mind and ears to to the ... often very worthy ... competition. For some time I have been using a pair of Sennheiser HD380PRO but was anxious to return to open back phones. I read dozens and dozens of reviews on the 598s, many of which were cautionary if not downright condemnatory. Significantly, however, the vast majority of unfavourable reviews were by people listening to rock and pop or computer games. Their requirements are very different to my own. That is not to say they are less worthy of consideration but it is important to recognise that difference.
For classical music I find the HD598s quite marvelous. Helped by the fact that they are open backed the sound stage is broad: instrumental groups and soloists can be accurately located and clearly heard within the greater orchestral landscape. Sound quality is excellent (I am not looking for exaggerated base or wild sound effects: my interest is music, not aural pyrotechnics) and these headphones certainly provide that. When an orchestra blasts forth at full volum,the HD598s handle it with panache and, if that same orchestra whispers softly they handle it with equal panache. These headphones are nothing it not versatile ... at least in the world of classical music where they are dealing with natural sound and not sound which has already been electronically enhanced. With the HD598s I can be in a large concert hall listening to a symphony by Beethoven or Mahler or a more intimate hall listening to a Schubert string quartet or a Chopin piano recital. When I put these wonderfully light and comfortable headphones on they guide me to the best seat in the hall and deliver the appropriate sound. All I need in additions to the headphones is a good recording of the work in question. And all hi fi equipment is dependant upon that!