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I went between them for a few hours and i'd say its closer than it should be but the HD600's still win. Less bass on the 600's and flat but everything is obviously there. The 599's are so smooth one may prefer them for detail and a bit of fun. The 600's are still technically better. Classics for good reason. Holding the headphones up side-by-side, it is clear that they have vastly different designs. The Sennheiser HD 559’s headband is made mostly of plastic. It also has a super soft cushion on its underside that is coated with a light velvet material. Oh the other hand, the Grado SR80e’s headband is made of metal and is coated with leather. It doesn’t have any significant padding. However I found it to be more comfortable than the HD 559’s headband. Why, you ask? The HD 559 is heavier than the SR80e and hugs the head tighter. The SR80e is incredibly light and doesn’t squeeze my delicate head. While everything I said above about the HD 559 is true--the sound stage, the resolution, the scaling, the speed, punching way above their price point, etc., I need to make a correction.
Sennheiser HD 559 - Specs and Review | HiFi Specs Sennheiser HD 559 - Specs and Review | HiFi Specs
While there are various storage cases available separately, these headphones don’t fold flat. That can cause strain in some commuting environments. Carroll is a headphone junkie residing in Brooklyn. He's a huge fan of Grado, UK hip hop, and the English Language in general. When not testing audio equipment or writing, you'll find him taking photographs or fiddling with circuit boards. Like the other review said, this kind of tuning with recessed lower treble will be much more forgiving to flaws in mastering compared to a neutral or bright headphone which can give the sensation of piercing your ears with some music. Clamping force is on the high side and combined with the fact that pads are rather thin and hard, it can be a bit uncomfortable to some. But compared to other systems, I would say this is one of the very good ones. It's defintely wider than the HD 650, and most definitely wider than the HD 569. I'd say the sound stage is about on par with the LCD-2F. There's no 3-headed blob here. Sounds pan left and right very nicely. There's no congestion, either. The torture test I put them through is Brian Eno and David Byrne's "Home." The HD 559 passed with mostly flying colors. I also play Rush's Tom Sawyer to hear how the drums pan right to left. No issues here. In lesser headphones, they pan from your right ear, over your head, to your left ear. With the HD 559, they pan through your head. Impressive.As already stated, don't expect the sound signature on these to be neutral (at this price I would not expect this anyway). While not very far from neutral, the recessed lower treble and missing sub-bass rumble are obvious. The 559 comes in a standard Sennheiser box. Inside, you’ll find the headphones, a detachable headphone cable, and a warranty booklet. These are without a doubt the best headphones I have ever bought. So comfortable worth every penny to the point. Said to myself to give it some time to break-in and see if there was a difference after a couple of days.
Sennheiser HD 559 vs Sennheiser HD 599 - Versus Sennheiser HD 559 vs Sennheiser HD 599 - Versus
I used to be active on these forums for years, and I thought I did a decent job of building a mostly endgame system for myself within my budget: Teac HA-501 amp, Schiit Gumby mulitbit, HD 600, HD 650, Shure 1540, DT990/600, and LCD-2F. I even had a Trafomatic amp in rotation before it developed a static. Still never got that repaired, mainly because the Teac sounded so good to me. Another thing I immediately noticed was it sounded kind of muffled, like vocals were recessed from the rest of the spectrum. The Sennheiser HD 559 ear pads are over-sized and covered in a soft velour fabric that gently rests around the entire ear. You can easily replace them if they get worn-out. This pair of headphones is a relatively new member of the HD 500-series. This series is well known for its reliability and quality performance.
Next day, after cleaning the headband and pads a bit, I decided to give it a listen on one of my cassette walkmans. I would not use it much with a DAC/amp or a DAP, as for serious listening I have much better pairs. The impedance seemed high at 50Ω, but I said to myself that I can use the power amplifier which I had connected to my computer as that has a 6.3mm headphone output. These are great headphones for using with your high definition home entertainment system or enjoying the depth and detail in your music. It should be noted that some instruments can seem a bit harsh in the upper register, especially with lower quality amps or digital music files.
HD 559 | Sennheiser HD 559 | Sennheiser
These headphones definitely need to be run on an amp with extremely low output impedance. Don't attempt to use these on an OTL tube amp or a home AV receiver with a stop down resister on the main amplifier. These need a good dampening factor, otherwise I suspect these bass flaws will get worse as the amp loses even more control over the driver. I searched and couldn't find a dedicated post reviewing the Sennheiser HD 559, so I started my own. I apologize if I missed one.My initial impression was rather bad, in fact it was considering returning it at some point. It seemed to be hard to drive compared to what I was used to and would also distort bass pretty bad relatively early. Compared to my expectations anyway, in practice it's not really that bad but neither is it as good as other more expensive Senheiser 5xx. It's not really a big deal, but at this low price you will need to add ~20euros for a new cable if you need it. As expected, these are a reasonably comfortable set of headphones with the plush velour earpads perfectly sized to fit around my largish ears, providing good comfort.
Sennheiser HD 559 Review - Any Good for Home Listening? Sennheiser HD 559 Review - Any Good for Home Listening?
Anyway, where do these headphones fall on the spectrum? The bulleted list I provided above, or the muddy junk some reviewers would have us believe?
The earpieces have a foam surround with a velvet feel to the material and the same stuff is used under the head band. EQ can make this headphone close to neutral sounding, apart from the sub-bass region. Elevate the sub-bass in EQ and distorsion will rise exponentially, allowing you to only listen at low to medium levels. I decided I needed to get some new headphones to use in my newly revived system. I'll eventually replace the pads in my HD 600, Shure 1540, DT990, and LCD-2F, but they're not a priority right now, especially if I don't end up using my headphone system as much as I did in the past.