Sennheiser HD 558

easyrider

easyrider

easyrider

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They have a Surround Reflector for Extended Spatial Sound Field

At £115 would these make good gaming Headphones?

I'm avoiding Goldring and have decided on a pair of Sennheiser's

With that many to chose from I'm a bit stuck.

Input please :)
 
Cheapest I have seen is £80, or there abouts. HD558's are superior according to some comments I have read, but they are still overpriced really, same as the HD555's. £50 used to buy you a pair of HD555's. £30 price increase for phones that are not as good as Goldring's DR150's. :/

DR150's come fairly close to the HD595's, most prefer the Senn's though. There are some who think the DR150's are better. Are the HD595's worth £70-£80 extra? Not IMO. Although I suppose one is also paying for the better build quality of the Senn's.

Just read some guys comment on the HD595 vs HD598. He has both and is struggling to notice much difference, and the 598's are £165 at cheapest!? **** sake, the 595's used to sell for £90, before Senn decided they would like to screw people for more money.

I suppose if you take into account the HD595 mod, at £80, the HD555's aren't too bad.
 
The HD555s do have an 'internal sound reflector'.

As for the price of £70 - I definitely found some at that price at the time I posted my reply. I used Google shopping, and found somewhere with 2 pairs in stock for £69.99. Now for whatever reason, I can't find that particular seller (wasn't hard to find first time around either).

A cheaper, well regarded alternative is the Superlux HD668B, which can be had for about £40. I recommended them to a colleague who just got a pair for Christmas, and he's very pleased with them. Have a look for reviews on HEadfi if you're interested.
 
Easyrider - are you still after headphones for Dolby Headphone? Both the internal sound reflector and angled drivers are designed to give for speaker-like presentation. This is precisely what you don't want, as it replicates some of the Dolby Headphone effects.

Senn HD5*** series also have problems with cracking plastic - possibly just as bad as Goldrings in that respect.

Senn HD580 (2nd hand) and HD600 do not have angled drivers or reflectors. Both are more suitable for Dolby Headphone as long as your amp is adequate but I wouldn't recommend running them off the Xonar D2. Your AV receiver might do OK though.
 
Uriel said:
Easyrider - are you still after headphones for Dolby Headphone? Both the internal sound reflector and angled drivers are designed to give for speaker-like presentation. This is precisely what you don't want, as it replicates some of the Dolby Headphone effects..
Click to expand...

For gaming and music and movies


Senn HD580 (2nd hand) and HD600 do not have angled drivers or reflectors. Both are more suitable for Dolby Headphone as long as your amp is adequate but I wouldn't recommend running them off the Xonar D2. Your AV receiver might do OK though.
Click to expand...

The HD600's are 300ohm and my DT100's @ 400ohm struggle with my amp.

What Senns at around 100 new would you suggest without angled drivers?
 
£115 is not bad for the HD558, I paid £149 for mines and don't at all regret it. Superb headphones, I use mines for music/gaming running off an active speaker amp + xonar ds, but soon purchasing a FiiO e7+e9 combo.
 
easyrider said:
What Senns at around 100 new would you suggest without angled drivers?
Click to expand...

Not sure. I tend to stick to recommending or warning people off stuff I've tried and not tried many of Senn newer models.

If the HD600s had a little brother, it would be them. The Goldring DR150s are much closer to that description than anything in Senn's HD5** line.
 
With a decent pair of circumaural headphones, you don't need any of this dolby headphone nonsense.

Is it just me or does pretty much every one of these DSP features on sounds cards destroy sound quality?
 
titaniumx3 said:
With a decent pair of circumaural headphones, you don't need any of this dolby headphone nonsense.

Is it just me or does pretty much every one of these DSP features on sounds cards destroy sound quality?
Click to expand...

Mostly they do, but not in the case of Dolby Headphone with headphones that have decent synergy with it. It just makes it sound like speakers (from stereo to 5.1, or even 7.1 when combined with prologic II).

But yeah - Dolby Headphone makes cans that don't suit it sound a lot worse.

Every other surround virtualisation DSP or Generic HRTF has not been convincing for me.

Edit: for most people headphones are a compromise. Most audio is mastered and mixed for speakers. I used to be a 'speaker purist' and the 'in head' soundstage of headphones bothered me. Dolby Headphone isn't perfect but it's a lot closer to hearing a mix as intended (stereo or surround) than using headphones alone is.

Of course if stuff was actually recorded (e.g. binaural) or mastered for headphones Dolby Headphone should most definitely be left off - games aside.

It definitely benefits games. I have never heard an in game headphone mode that I would regard as natural sounding (i.e. doesn't sound like headphones) with headphones. Most games don't have one at all anyway (although Valve have at least made an effort).
 
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titaniumx3 said:
With a decent pair of circumaural headphones, you don't need any of this dolby headphone nonsense.

Is it just me or does pretty much every one of these DSP features on sounds cards destroy sound quality?
Click to expand...

I will be doing some serious testing on Dolby Headphone. Up to now with my Senn 415's DH sounds worse than stereo if I'm honest.

Playing Half life EP 2 in normal mode the sound is very clear and crisp but still with enough "space" to work.

With DH 1 its "reverby" and contrived.

Will update when I get my HD 555
 
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