New headphones; Suggestions? Sennheiser HD58x?

[dizmo]

Ok, so I'm looking for a pair of headphones. I'm probably buying a new DAP and it'll have pretty amazing potential so I figure I'll dive back in once...but I'm going to start off small.

I haven't been that big of a headphone person, but I'll be moving for a practicum and I won't be bringing my speakers. So looking at other options.

 

Right now the one I have most in mind is the HD58x. Affordable, doesn't look awful, decent upgrade options.

The 177x Go is also on my radar, but they're quite a bit more expensive.

Meze 99 is also open for consideration but I haven't looked too far into that one yet.

I'm definitely open to other options though. Here are my criteria:

• Must be able to swap the ear pads, or at least come with excellent leather options; I hate velour.
• Must be able to be run balanced.
• Must have detachable cables.
• I love bass. So headphones that will give me bass are what I'm after.
• Excellent build quality. I know there are some great headphones with shoddy builds and that's not what I want.
• Priced below $400.

I've had the AKG 701s and I was not a fan. I'm not sure if it's because they were open back, but the ear pads were a definite annoyance.

 

[LIGISTX]

13 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Ok, so I'm looking for a pair of headphones. I'm probably buying a new DAP and it'll have pretty amazing potential so I figure I'll dive back in once...but I'm going to start off small.

I haven't been that big of a headphone person, but I'll be moving for a practicum and I won't be bringing my speakers. So looking at other options.

 

Right now the one I have most in mind is the HD58x. Affordable, doesn't look awful, decent upgrade options.

The 177x Go is also on my radar, but they're quite a bit more expensive.

Meze 99 is also open for consideration but I haven't looked too far into that one yet.

I'm definitely open to other options though. Here are my criteria:

• Must be able to swap the ear pads, or at least come with excellent leather options; I hate velour.
• Must be able to be run balanced.
• Must have detachable cables.
• I love bass. So headphones that will give me bass are what I'm after.
• Excellent build quality. I know there are some great headphones with shoddy builds and that's not what I want.
• Priced below $400.

I've had the AKG 701s and I was not a fan. I'm not sure if it's because they were open back, but the ear pads were a definite annoyance.

 

HD6xx is the go to.

 

Personally, I did side by side comparisons with a couple thousand dollar tube amp and a bifrost DAC, of all the headphones me and my buddies had I liked the 6xx’s the second best, and ZMF Eikons best.

 

We had:

hd800s

hd700

hd650

hd6xx

fostex tr-x00

fostex tr-x00 purpleheart

some thousand dollars paid of Sonys I forget the name of

some decent planar magnetic cans I also forget the name of

Point is, the 6xx’s don’t get enough credit. They scale AMAZINGLY well when properly driven. On my Schiit lyr 3, I like my fostex tr-x00’s more most of the time, but they also cost twice as much. That said, I still grab my 6xx’s often over the fostex, just not as often ;).

 

On my buddies much better amp/dac setup I preferred the 6xx’s over my fostex, only beaten by the Eikon’s which I also prefer over all others on my Lyr 3 as well. But considering 6xx’s only cost 200 when I got them, 220 now looks like, they are an amazing value imo. 
 

My brother also has a pair of 6xx’s and has a schiit stack and it sounds fantastic there as well. 

It’s very subjective, and I can’t say we had a 100% perfect way to A B test, but the above is my opinion with what we had at our disposal to test. My two other buddies had different opinions but they also remarked at just how well the 6xx’s scale, and they made both of their top 3 or 4 iirc. And remember, they were less then half the price of the next cheapest option (except the 650, which is really just an older version of the same thing).
 

The 800s’s are a much wider sound stage and much more clear, but honestly I found them extremely fatiguing just for reference. For every day listening I wouldn’t ever want a pair of them. They are amazing, but just hit my cup of tea. 

[OfficialTechSpace]

Can't wholeheartedly recommend the HD58X given my experience with it. I daily-drove it for the better part of a year, but not exactly because it was impressive by any means. That headphone was my first step into "Hi-Fi" and I was frankly unimpressed. It has narrow staging, poor imaging, and carries the typical Sennheiser veil. Pretty much all it has going for it is the tuning (which is okay, not great), and the reliable Sennheiser build. Despite being made entirely of plastic for the most part, it feels like it'll last aside from the pads. Pads need to be replaced at least once a year, and that's fairly typical of most Sennheiser's. It also borrows drivers from the HD580, not the HD600-series which some have mistaken. The HD580 was released in 1991 and remains largely unchanged besides some retuning by Drop. It audibly sounds old, as does most of Sennheiser's lineup.

 

HD6XX is also pretty narrow, and not spectacular at imaging, although the tuning is much better. HD560S has more soundstage, and improved imaging, but a marginally less desirable tuning. Still not great, both B-tier headphones. The HD58X is probably a C+.

 

177X GO was a reasonable consideration a few years ago, but not in todays climate. The HiFiMan Edition XS blows it out of the water for a similar price. Not to mention, the 177X GO is also a closed-back can so staging won't be great.

 

If you want speed, detail, and soundstage... then planars are the direction to head. The Edition XS is probably the cleanest sounding headphone you can get under $500, and it still maintains a good bass slam while faithfully reproducing recordings (not overemphasizing anything). I currently daily-drive the Ananda's, which the Edition XS is pretty much a retuned version of (also lacking the headstrap).

4 hours ago, dizmo said:

I've had the AKG 701s and I was not a fan. I'm not sure if it's because they were open back, but the ear pads were a definite annoyance.

Probably because our ears aren't circular, but the pads are. We need ear shaped pads, or oval at the very least.

 

[dizmo]

4 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

HD6xx is the go to.

 

Personally, I did side by side comparisons with a couple thousand dollar tube amp and a bifrost DAC, of all the headphones me and my buddies had I liked the 6xx’s the second best, and ZMF Eikons best.

 

We had:

hd800s

hd700

hd650

hd6xx

fostex tr-x00

fostex tr-x00 purpleheart

some thousand dollars paid of Sonys I forget the name of

some decent planar magnetic cans I also forget the name of

Point is, the 6xx’s don’t get enough credit. They scale AMAZINGLY well when properly driven. On my Schiit lyr 3, I like my fostex tr-x00’s more most of the time, but they also cost twice as much. That said, I still grab my 6xx’s often over the fostex, just not as often ;).

 

On my buddies much better amp/dac setup I preferred the 6xx’s over my fostex, only beaten by the Eikon’s which I also prefer over all others on my Lyr 3 as well. But considering 6xx’s only cost 200 when I got them, 220 now looks like, they are an amazing value imo. 
 

My brother also has a pair of 6xx’s and has a schiit stack and it sounds fantastic there as well. 

It’s very subjective, and I can’t say we had a 100% perfect way to A B test, but the above is my opinion with what we had at our disposal to test. My two other buddies had different opinions but they also remarked at just how well the 6xx’s scale, and they made both of their top 3 or 4 iirc. And remember, they were less then half the price of the next cheapest option (except the 650, which is really just an older version of the same thing).
 

The 800s’s are a much wider sound stage and much more clear, but honestly I found them extremely fatiguing just for reference. For every day listening I wouldn’t ever want a pair of them. They are amazing, but just hit my cup of tea.

Wow, thanks for the write up! That is a wack of headphones.

 

I just can't get over the ear cup fabric of the 6xx unfortunately, and unlike the 58x they don't seem to offer replacement ear cups for them. Most people seem to be against pad rolling on them as it affects the sound. I have a feeling I might be more of a Beyer guy than a Sennheiser as far as tuning goes?

 

Curious, what did you think of the Fostex pair? They can sometimes be found quite affordably.

 

I don't think I'd ever get something like the 800s, for that kind of money I'd rather get a nice pair of speakers. If I'm at home I don't really need to have headphones on.

1 hour ago, OfficialTechSpace said:

Can't wholeheartedly recommend the HD58X given my experience with it. I daily-drove it for the better part of a year, but not exactly because it was impressive by any means. That headphone was my first step into "Hi-Fi" and I was frankly unimpressed. It has narrow staging, poor imaging, and carries the typical Sennheiser veil. Pretty much all it has going for it is the tuning (which is okay, not great), and the reliable Sennheiser build. Despite being made entirely of plastic for the most part, it feels like it'll last aside from the pads. Pads need to be replaced at least once a year, and that's fairly typical of most Sennheiser's. It also borrows drivers from the HD580, not the HD600-series which some have mistaken. The HD580 was released in 1991 and remains largely unchanged besides some retuning by Drop. It audibly sounds old, as does most of Sennheiser's lineup.

 

HD6XX is also pretty narrow, and not spectacular at imaging, although the tuning is much better. HD560S has more soundstage, and improved imaging, but a marginally less desirable tuning. Still not great, both B-tier headphones. The HD58X is probably a C+.

 

177X GO was a reasonable consideration a few years ago, but not in todays climate. The HiFiMan Edition XS blows it out of the water for a similar price. Not to mention, the 177X GO is also a closed-back can so staging won't be great.

 

If you want speed, detail, and soundstage... then planars are the direction to head. The Edition XS is probably the cleanest sounding headphone you can get under $500, and it still maintains a good bass slam while faithfully reproducing recordings (not overemphasizing anything). I currently daily-drive the Ananda's, which the Edition XS is pretty much a retuned version of (also lacking the headstrap).

Probably because our ears aren't circular, but the pads are. We need ear shaped pads, or oval at the very least.

Yeah I kind of got the feeling that they were more of a bargain offering, especially at the pricing you can sometimes find them. Good to know though, I'll probably avoid going down that route.

 

I haven't really looked into planars before, but maybe I should. Are there any that have exceptional bass? That aren't overly hard to run, as it'll be run off of a DAP most of the time, not a desktop amp.

 

From what I've found closed back offers better bass, perhaps at a loss to staging, but if I have to have one or the other, it's bass every single time.

Are there any other planars that are a bit cheaper that are more bass focused? Have you tried the DCA Aeon Closed X? From the few reviews I've seen on that one it's supposed to be quite good; the Edition XS is apparently missing a little when it comes to bass. How about the Hifiman 560 IV?

 

Haha, no it's the fabric they used. I absolutely hate it.

[LIGISTX]

7 hours ago, dizmo said:

Curious, what did you think of the Fostex pair?

I liked the tr-x00’s so much I bought a pair. I own them and 6xx’s, and the only headphones I liked more out of the bunch were the Eikons, which were basically just the fostex but better in every way. 
 

I love the tr-x00’s, and I’d highly recommend them. 

[rice guru]

I think their a little over priced but maybe what your looking for the harmonicdyne Zeus is pretty good really wide soundstage and tight but very present bass due to the beryllium drivers. I don't reccomend planars if you like the traditional bass sound planar bass is different and doesn't hit the same as what kore people are used to and imo no cheap planar really delivers it well without modding and plenty of power which DAPS typically don't deliver.