Bass is too heavy on the Sennheiser HD 598 Se

[Eric_The_Red4]

Hey guys! This is my first post, so excuse me if I make any mistakes. I have a pair of Sennheiser 598 Se's which I find have too much bass for my liking. I almost exclusively listen to jazz music, and I find that the double bass sounds muddy and is too loud in these headphones. From my computer, the bass is too loud but not unbearable. I have a Teac AI 101 DA speaker/headphone amplifier/dac that I can plug them into, but the bass is even louder when plugged in to the Teac. Could this issue be solved with a different headphone amp or dac, or is this just a characteristic of the Sennheiser hd 598 Se? Thank you!

[r4tch3t]

Look for a dac/amp that has bass and treble controls.

You can also use an equalizer in the program you're using.

[cj09beira]

Thanks now i know which haedphones to buy.

[SSL]

It's the sound signature of the headphone. Return or sell it if you can and get something with more flat low-mids and bass.

[Eric_The_Red4]

2 hours ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Sennheiser's sound sig, and especially the 598s, are known to be pretty neutral. You sure it's not on the other side? Maybe try it with another device, making sure the EQ is turned off?

I have tried it using my iPhone 6, and it sounds more neutral. I have the aforementioned teac and an MSI motherboard with the Realtek 1150 codac. I think I'll try to play around with EQ. If that doesn't work, would you happen to know if there are any dacs or amps that aren't too expensive that would lower the bass? 

 

Update: I have changed the EQ settings in iTunes and it sounds perfect now. Thank you for your help anyways.

[Eric_The_Red4]

46 minutes ago, SSL said:

It's the sound signature of the headphone. Return or sell it if you can and get something with more flat low-mids and bass.

Ok, I think I'll play around with some EQ first, but I might have to sell them. Are there any other headphones you would recommend with my desired sound signature (not too much bass with more pronounced upper mids) around $150? Preferably open back, as I love the enormous soundstage of my current headphones.

[H0R53]

2 hours ago, Eric_The_Red4 said:

Hey guys! This is my first post, so excuse me if I make any mistakes. I have a pair of Sennheiser 598 Se's which I find have too much bass for my liking. I almost exclusively listen to jazz music, and I find that the double bass sounds muddy and is too loud in these headphones. From my computer, the bass is too loud but not unbearable. I have a Teac AI 101 DA speaker/headphone amplifier/dac that I can plug them into, but the bass is even louder when plugged in to the Teac. Could this issue be solved with a different headphone amp or dac, or is this just a characteristic of the Sennheiser hd 598 Se? Thank you!

You can make analogue filters out of different types of paper. Carbon paper works for filtering highs and less dense things like coffee filter type material can help filter out the lows.

[SSL]

1 hour ago, Eric_The_Red4 said:

Ok, I think I'll play around with some EQ first, but I might have to sell them. Are there any other headphones you would recommend with my desired sound signature (not too much bass with more pronounced upper mids) around $150? Preferably open back, as I love the enormous soundstage of my current headphones.

 

Maybe the AKG K612 Pro. What frequencies are you talking bout when you say "upper mids"?

[SSL]

40 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

You're saying HD 598s are particularly known for their exaggerated bass?

 

They're on the warm side, and if they're anything like the HD 650 I can kind of see where the OP is coming from.

[Pomfinator]

1 hour ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

You're saying HD 598s are particularly known for their exaggerated bass?

It's the first time I've ever seen someone say a 598 has too much bass.  They have quite a lot of bass rolloff past 100hz.  What I do understand is the double bass sounding muddy since it has lots of distortion down low.  Too loud is just weird to me.

[Eric_The_Red4]

12 hours ago, Pomfinator said:

It's the first time I've ever seen someone say a 598 has too much bass.  They have quite a lot of bass rolloff past 100hz.  What I do understand is the double bass sounding muddy since it has lots of distortion down low.  Too loud is just weird to me.

It could be my dac, amp or preamp. The acoustic bass is muddy on the low end, and it is fairly loud. It also could just be the recordings I listen to as I have listened to some more modern folk rock recordings (I listen to mostly 80s or earlier jazz) and it sounds more balanced.

[Pomfinator]

4 hours ago, Eric_The_Red4 said:

It could be my dac, amp or preamp. The acoustic bass is muddy on the low end, and it is fairly loud. It also could just be the recordings I listen to as I have listened to some more modern folk rock recordings (I listen to mostly 80s or earlier jazz) and it sounds more balanced.

May I ask what are you directly comparing the 598 to? Makes alot of difference if we know what gear you're coming from.

[Eric_The_Red4]

Just now, Pomfinator said:

May I ask what are you directly comparing the 598 to? Makes alot of difference if we know what gear you're coming from.

I'm coming from the sennheiser hd 449. The 598s have a better soundstage and clarity overall, but they seem much more bass heavy. The hd 449 did seem a little light on the bass, but the 598 seem too heavy. Maybe it's just that I don't like bass very much

[Pomfinator]

3 minutes ago, Eric_The_Red4 said:

I'm coming from the sennheiser hd 449. The 598s have a better soundstage and clarity overall, but they seem much more bass heavy. The hd 449 did seem a little light on the bass, but the 598 seem too heavy. Maybe it's just that I don't like bass very much

Sounds like it tbh, I'd say go for something from AKG or Audio Technica's ADx line at this point.  Sounds like you might like bright headphones better.

[Eric_The_Red4]

58 minutes ago, Pomfinator said:

Sounds like it tbh, I'd say go for something from AKG or Audio Technica's ADx line at this point.  Sounds like you might like bright headphones better.

Thanks for letting me know. Would you happen to know of any open backed pairs in either of those lines with a big soundstage like the sennheiser 598?

[xtroria]

18 hours ago, Pomfinator said:

It's the first time I've ever seen someone say a 598 has too much bass.  They have quite a lot of bass rolloff past 100hz.  What I do understand is the double bass sounding muddy since it has lots of distortion down low.  Too loud is just weird to me.

Probably he doesn't like the sound of headphone with more mid-bass than sub-bass

[Pomfinator]

1 hour ago, xtroria said:

Probably he doesn't like the sound of headphone with more mid-bass than sub-bass

But a double bass clearly plays in the sub bass region, and that seems to be OPs problem, not the midbass warmth.

[SSL]

3 hours ago, Pomfinator said:

But a double bass clearly plays in the sub bass region, and that seems to be OPs problem, not the midbass warmth.

 

Not most of the time, and the harmonics will certainly not be in that range.

[Eric_The_Red4]

On 6/11/2017 at 10:02 PM, SSL said:

 

Not most of the time, and the harmonics will certainly not be in that range.

What I don't like is how boomy and how muddy the double bass is. It is a little loud, but if it was as clean as real life I wouldn't mind too much. It's just how boomy the sub bass is that devours all the other frequencies. I like the ~250-500hz range because thats what the low end of the tenor saxophone is and I play the tenor saxophone. The bass is not too loud in those frequencies. If the sub bass was clearer, it would be fine being at the volume it is, but it is not incredibly clear and I don't expect it to be for $150 headphones.

[SSL]

2 hours ago, Eric_The_Red4 said:

What I don't like is how boomy and how muddy the double bass is. It is a little loud, but if it was as clean as real life I wouldn't mind too much. It's just how boomy the sub bass is that devours all the other frequencies. I like the ~250-500hz range because thats what the low end of the tenor saxophone is and I play the tenor saxophone. The bass is not too loud in those frequencies. If the sub bass was clearer, it would be fine being at the volume it is, but it is not incredibly clear and I don't expect it to be for $150 headphones.

 

I think we're not on the same wavelength (ha) on terminology. "Boom" refers to the frequencies around 100-200Hz, while "mud" refers to to 200-400Hz. Boomy and muddy says to me that there is an excess of these frequencies, which is a fairly reasonable evaluation of this headphone, at least relatively speaking.

 

Maybe you're hearing distortion or something else going on in addition to the FR.

[Eric_The_Red4]

12 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

I think we're not on the same wavelength (ha) on terminology. "Boom" refers to the frequencies around 100-200Hz, while "mud" refers to to 200-400Hz. Boomy and muddy says to me that there is an excess of these frequencies, which is a fairly reasonable evaluation of this headphone, at least relatively speaking.

 

Maybe you're hearing distortion or something else going on in addition to the FR.

OK thank you for informing me. Sorry if I'm a little ignorant but I am fairly new to the higher end audio community. I think that they are mostly muddy, but also a little boomy.

[Dackzy]

TBH I would probably look into some K612 or AD900x, maybe also the AD700x. They seem to fit what you describe as the sound you want. 

[Eric_The_Red4]

14 hours ago, Dackzy said:

TBH I would probably look into some K612 or AD900x, maybe also the AD700x. They seem to fit what you describe as the sound you want. 

Yeah, after some research those seem like very good options. I'll look into getting my hands on them