Upgrading HD 558

[wNdRkNd]

Hello,

 

for the past 7 years I've been using my Sennheiser HD 558 as my daily driver, using it for pretty much everything (competitive Shooter, Rythmn Games, listening to music, ...). But I feel like it is time to upgrade since listening to music with my Audioengine A5+ is way more fun (I know comparing speaker and headphones lol) but I can't always terrorize everyone around me with my music. So I am looking for a nice pair of headphones with a great overall performance, good comfort. I enjoy listening pretty much all the music genres.

 

I already had the DT 770 Pro in the past which I personally didn't like very much (I tried them as an experiment because I had no reference for closed headphones, but the bass that I expected wasn't there and the closed design with that in mind wasn't worth for me)

 

I've read lots of good stuff about the HD650. Currently I am driving my headphone with an Audient iD4 MKII. Would that be a good match?

 

 

Sorry for my jank english.

 

 

 

[Analog]

4 minutes ago, wNdRkNd said:

Hello,

 

for the past 7 years I've been using my Sennheiser HD 558 as my daily driver, using it for pretty much everything (competitive Shooter, Rythmn Games, listening to music, ...). But I feel like it is time to upgrade since listening to music with my Audioengine A5+ is way more fun (I know comparing speaker and headphones lol) but I can't always terrorize everyone around me with my music. So I am looking for a nice pair of headphones with a great overall performance, good comfort. I enjoy listening pretty much all the music genres.

 

I already had the DT 770 Pro in the past which I personally didn't like very much (I tried them as an experiment because I had no reference for closed headphones, but the bass that I expected wasn't there and the closed design with that in mind wasn't worth for me)

 

I've read lots of good stuff about the HD650. Currently I am driving my headphone with an Audient iD4 MKII. Would that be a good match?

 

 

Sorry for my jank english.

 

I was recently in the market for new headphones so did some research and tried several different pairs when possible. For me, the best sounding headphone in that price range was the HD 660s. If you can, definitely give those a try. Unfortunately I needed a closed back set so I wasn't able to get it. Tried the DT 770, they came highly recommended by some friends and people on the forum, didn't like them though. 

[rice guru]

I feel the most direct upgrade  from the 558 is is the 58x or for more money the hd 660 personally as you retain a it more of that nice bass response and smooth warm sound less so for the 660 as it's slightly brighter and a bit more detailed than the 58x but it's not too far off I reccomend looking into the differences between the 58x and 660 as the price gap is pretty large.overall though what is your total budget and what do you want to improve from the 558? are you looking to get something more fun than the 558?

[wNdRkNd]

25 minutes ago, rice guru said:

I feel the most direct upgrade  from the 558 is is the 58x or for more money the hd 660 personally as you retain a it more of that nice bass response and smooth warm sound less so for the 660 as it's slightly brighter and a bit more detailed than the 58x but it's not too far off I reccomend looking into the differences between the 58x and 660 as the price gap is pretty large.overall though what is your total budget and what do you want to improve from the 558? are you looking to get something more fun than the 558?

My budget would be around 350-400€, but I would rather not buy from drop.com because I live in Germany and with taxes, import fees, and all the other potential hassles... - Preferably from an eu vendor like https://www.thomann.de/.

To be honest, I don't really know what I am looking for since I only have these 2 headphones mentioned in my original post as reference. What I have listened to though are very expensive loudspeakers, since my father was selling these for decades. Beautiful Love - Shirley Horn is a song I still have pretty good in mind and my current headphones just can't replicate it (again stupid comparision because of the huge difference in price).

I read that the 660s are the next version from the 650 but lack some in the lowend which the 650 still had. But that doesnt mean all that much to me because I can't put it in reference with my hd558.

[rice guru]

16 minutes ago, wNdRkNd said:

My budget would be around 350-400€, but I would rather not buy from drop.com because I live in Germany and with taxes, import fees, and all the other potential hassles... - Preferably from an eu vendor like https://www.thomann.de/.

To be honest, I don't really know what I am looking for since I only have these 2 headphones mentioned in my original post as reference. What I have listened to though are very expensive loudspeakers, since my father was selling these for decades. Beautiful Love - Shirley Horn is a song I still have pretty good in mind and my current headphones just can't replicate it (again stupid comparision because of the huge difference in price).

I read that the 660s are the next version from the 650 but lack some in the lowend which the 650 still had. But that doesnt mean all that much to me because I can't put it in reference with my hd558.

The 650 when paired with some gooey warm sounding tube amps can get more extension in the bass region than the 660 but the 660 has more of a mid bass bump than the 650. Personally if you want a bit more of a speaker like or wider sound you could step away from sennheiser and go with a akg k712. Speakers are different animal though and it's really hard to match a good pair of speakers with anything else especially within your budget. Another good option that can easily be driven by the id4 is the beyerdynamic tygr  nice warm sound with wide presentation great soundstage and lacks the general treble heavy sound beyerdynamic is known for. The fidelios x2 hr has a pretty nice bass response as well as fits in your budget. From what I remember germany has generally pretty good return policies so I would try and maybe abuse that a little bit.

[wNdRkNd]

8 hours ago, rice guru said:

The 650 when paired with some gooey warm sounding tube amps can get more extension in the bass region than the 660 but the 660 has more of a mid bass bump than the 650. Personally if you want a bit more of a speaker like or wider sound you could step away from sennheiser and go with a akg k712. Speakers are different animal though and it's really hard to match a good pair of speakers with anything else especially within your budget. Another good option that can easily be driven by the id4 is the beyerdynamic tygr  nice warm sound with wide presentation great soundstage and lacks the general treble heavy sound beyerdynamic is known for. The fidelios x2 hr has a pretty nice bass response as well as fits in your budget. From what I remember germany has generally pretty good return policies so I would try and maybe abuse that a little bit.

Yes german return policies are good, thomann ontop has some additional satisfaction garantuees. Just ordered the 660s and now i am curious to test these in comparison to my hd558 - we'll see . I will keep the k712 in mind, but I had some Steelseries Siberia 10 years ago and I felt like the "headmount" (dunno how to phrase it) wasn't very comfortable with my bigger sized head. Anyway thanks for your time invested so far  

[rice guru]

4 hours ago, wNdRkNd said:

Yes german return policies are good, thomann ontop has some additional satisfaction garantuees. Just ordered the 660s and now i am curious to test these in comparison to my hd558 - we'll see . I will keep the k712 in mind, but I had some Steelseries Siberia 10 years ago and I felt like the "headmount" (dunno how to phrase it) wasn't very comfortable with my bigger sized head. Anyway thanks for your time invested so far  

the akg k712 is pretty comfy actually I too have a a large head, and the suspension straps are both higher quality and the headphones themselves bigger than the steel series.