HD 598

[GSTARR]

Is there anything you would recommend instead of the Sennheiser HD 598's for gaming and music? For about the same price

[IckleOP]

4 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

Is there anything you would recommend instead of the Sennheiser HD 598's for gaming and music? For about the same price

I know most people will disagree but if you pair Astro A40s with a good $30-50 sound card they sound amazing. I have owned both Audio Technica and Sennheiser and I ended up going back to my console headset just because they sound so damn good, I can wear them for 8+ hours without getting sore, and their customer support is amazing (I'll tell the story if you want). I know they are mostly linked with CoD nerds but I can not recommend them enough.

[alexyy]

HD558 it's just as good but cheaper!

DT880/990 also can option. 

[pas008]

8 hours ago, IckleOP said:

I know most people will disagree but if you pair Astro A40s with a good $30-50 sound card they sound amazing. I have owned both Audio Technica and Sennheiser and I ended up going back to my console headset just because they sound so damn good, I can wear them for 8+ hours without getting sore, and their customer support is amazing (I'll tell the story if you want). I know they are mostly linked with CoD nerds but I can not recommend them enough.

please tell us the story

and why do you need a sound card if you have mixamp?

[Unhelpful]

11 hours ago, IckleOP said:

I know most people will disagree but if you pair Astro A40s with a good $30-50 sound card they sound amazing. I have owned both Audio Technica and Sennheiser and I ended up going back to my console headset just because they sound so damn good, I can wear them for 8+ hours without getting sore, and their customer support is amazing (I'll tell the story if you want). I know they are mostly linked with CoD nerds but I can not recommend them enough.

That may be the worst suggestion I've ever seen on this forum. Holy shit.

[GSTARR]

52 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

That may be the suggestion I've ever seen on this forum. Holy shit.

You left out an important part there in your sentence

[Unhelpful]

1 hour ago, GSTARR said:

You left out an important part there in your sentence

I edited it to make it less mean and accidentally took out the crucial word lol.

 

I have 598's, they're pretty damn good. The HD558's are 95% the same headphones though.

[GSTARR]

31 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

I edited it to make it less mean and accidentally took out the crucial word lol.

 

I have 598's, they're pretty damn good. The HD558's are 95% the same headphones though.

do you know offhand, specifically what that 5% difference is?

Like the actual difference?

[Unhelpful]

1 minute ago, GSTARR said:

do you know offhand, specifically what that 5% difference is?

Like the actual difference?

Well the 558's and 598's are practically the same headphone. And you can close that minuscule gap by doing the foam mod to make them literally the same headphones.
 

 

[Guest]

22 hours ago, GSTARR said:

do you know offhand, specifically what that 5% difference is?

Like the actual difference?

 

About 3dB in the upper mid-range.

[Trollbot]

I disagree that the HD 558 is as close to the HD 598 as other people claim; however, you can get a similar quality listening experience (if not better) from the Philips SHP9500, which I've seen as low as $57.99.

[Dackzy]

8 hours ago, Trollbot said:

I disagree that the HD 558 is as close to the HD 598 as other people claim; however, you can get a similar quality listening experience (if not better) from the Philips SHP9500, which I've seen as low as $57.99.

uhm what? You can see this right? 

[Trollbot]

12 hours ago, Dackzy said:

uhm what? You can see this right? 

I have seen this graph, but I also know what I hear, having owned both at one point. Bias can always be a factor, but I felt strongly that my HD 598 was significantly less veiled than the HD 558. I sold my HD 558 to a friend. The same friend modded them and brought them to my LAN party. They still sounded more veiled than the HD 598 and, plugging them both into a Micca OriGen+, he agreed; of course, there's also always the potential for there to be some variation among the same model, something I can't discount. I also don't believe a frequency response graph tells the full story. It objectively measures but one aspect of what contributes to a headphone's unique sound signature.

[Dackzy]

35 minutes ago, Trollbot said:

I have seen this graph, but I also know what I hear, having owned both at one point. Bias can always be a factor, but I felt strongly that my HD 598 was significantly less veiled than the HD 558. I sold my HD 558 to a friend. The same friend modded them and brought them to my LAN party. They still sounded more veiled than the HD 598 and, plugging them both into a Micca OriGen+, he agreed; of course, there's also always the potential for there to be some variation among the same model, something I can't discount. I also don't believe a frequency response graph tells the full story. It objectively measures but one aspect of what contributes to a headphone's unique sound signature.

a sound signature tells you about the sound signature, there is no way around that. I have also done those readings with the HD558 and HD598, my teacher thought that it would be a funny thing to end the school year with and if you didn't know that they were different headphones, then the readings were so close that you would think that it just sat a bit different on the machine or maybe the pads were a bit diffent in wear. It is insane how close they are, I think this is the closet you come to two "different" headphones with almost the frequency response, they both use the same driver, so no wonder they are that close.

[Trollbot]

5 hours ago, Dackzy said:

a sound signature tells you about the sound signature, there is no way around that. I have also done those readings with the HD558 and HD598, my teacher thought that it would be a funny thing to end the school year with and if you didn't know that they were different headphones, then the readings were so close that you would think that it just sat a bit different on the machine or maybe the pads were a bit diffent in wear. It is insane how close they are, I think this is the closet you come to two "different" headphones with almost the frequency response, they both use the same driver, so no wonder they are that close.

I'm just telling you what I hear and what I hear is a distinct difference in clarity between my two pairs.