Sennheiser HD 598 Bad Audio?

[ujard]

Hello. I'm a bit confused about my new headphones. I've always used gaming headsets in the past and my Corsair H2100 is starting to break. I never really liked them to begin with so I wanted to buy new ones. I came to realize that I really don't need a mic, and people keep saying how much better real headphones are so I thought I might as well buy that. I did some research on what headphones would be the best for my budget and setup.

It came down to either Sennheiser HD 598 or Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro. But since I do not have a soundcard, AMP or DAC, I picked the HD 598. I was able to get refurbished ones for 165 dollars, where new ones would be around 188 in Sweden.

Anyways, I'm not at all impressed with them. I'm using them with a USB soundcard that came with the Logitech G430. I can't get my motherboard sound to work, and I've heard that the USB soundcard is better anyway.

Without EQ, the mids actually hurt my ears when listening to somewhat high volumes, regardless of the genre. I was able to get them to sound decent after EQing. But only decent. Right now they sound almost identical to my Corsair HD 2100 , which is a cheap wireless gaming headset. Both in terms of audio quality and soundstage. Shouldn't the HD 598 be light-years better?

Any idea why I'm experiencing this? I didn't buy them from ebay or amazon. Bought them on CDON.com, which is one of the top electronic sites in Sweden. So i know they're not fake.

I've tried to use them on my PC, Macbook air and my Samsung Galaxy S4, and its all the same.

Will getting an AMP + DAC dramatically improve the overall sound quality? I'm listening to lossless music btw, although I don't even know if there's any benefits to it with my setup.

 

I am not an audiophile and i probably don't have any idea what i'm talking about.

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, ujard said:

I've heard that the USB soundcard is better anyway.

No!

[Dackzy]

3 minutes ago, ujard said:

SNIP

Maybe you don't like the sound signature and there is a nice pinned post about amps and dacs that you can read.

[SSL]

First thing you can do is stop using the Logitech dongle. That may be the main cause of the issue. Other than that, it's very possible that you just don't like the sound. No headphone "should" sound better than any other, necessarily.

[ujard]

I'll try to get the motherboard sound working. It's so weird, it just says "Not plugged in" on Realtek High Definition Audio.

Thanks for the help!

[ohitsluca]

What exactly is the problem with the sound?

I just recently got the HD598s and tried them with my onboard audio, and they sounded pretty bad especially in games. The low end sounded really distorted and positional audio was basically nonexistent. I bought a Fiio E10k AMP/Dac combo and it sounds a lot better now. The low end is cleaned up, postional audio is better, and music sounds great. I have no issues with them now.

 

This may or may not be your problem, just sharing my experience.

[ujard]

I'm not able to pick up exactly what it is. I guess they don't sound... premium? Idk. It does have zero positional audio, and they just sound like any cheap headphones to me.

I was actually thinking of getting a Fiio E10k. I'm now aware of how bad that Logitech USB soundcard is, and i can't get the onboard audio working to save my life.

[BrightCandle]

One possibility is that you have been buying gamer headphones and are used to Dolby Headphone or some other surround sound implementation that comes with the drivers of those headphones. Its one of those things that gamers really notice when its gone. My Sennheiser HD 598's produce excellent positional information when combined with a Soundblaster Z and SBX on, but I get no positional information out of DX and the default windows implementation. I think you need to go down the positional audio rabbit hole. Here is a video to listen to, pay attention to positional information and work out which is best for you and those headphones:

 

 

[ujard]

My last two headsets had virtual surround that you could turn on in the software, but i never really used it.

[SSL]

1 hour ago, ujard said:

My last two headsets had virtual surround that you could turn on in the software, but i never really used it.

 

Yeah, it's trash. BrightCandle worships at the alter of Virtual Surround because it works for him, I guess, but it degrades audio quality and generally sounds worse to most discerning listeners.