Sennheiser HD595 Replacement

[Scooby_WR1]

Hi guys,

One of the ear pieces has snapped off my 595's, i know i can get them repaired but i see this as a good reason to upgrade.

I use them for gaming but mainly for music and they are run off a Fiio E9.
What do you guys recommend for a budget of £300?

 

[rids57]

Sennheiser HD650

 

[DinAlt]

Sennheiser HD650

Careful doing this because you'll find the HD650 very subdued after the 595 (I made exactly this move). However, once you get used to them you won't regret it - they're far more musical then the 595s - possibly not the best choice for pinpoint 3D for FPS games but I'm definitely glad I changed.

Some other points:

Build quality - unlike the 595s they actually have some - Sennheiser should be ashamed of the build quality on the 595s.

Design - the 650s are not closed so there's a lot more sound leakage - on the other side of the coin they're much, much more comfortable for long sessions - they don't overheat anyway near as badly. The headband is more comfortable too but the difference wasn't so great.

Other alternatives are definitely available but if you like Sennheiser the 650 (at the right price is a good bet).

Now all I have to do is get my 656 Ovations repaired

 

[Marsman]

They should be ashamed especially when they bumped the price up, but the plastic cracking kept happening. Goldring DR range also had a problem with the extenders breaking, but they were terrific value and went down in price, unlike the HD5** which went up.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Hi guys,

One of the ear pieces has snapped off my 595's, i know i can get them repaired but i see this as a good reason to upgrade.

I use them for gaming but mainly for music and they are run off a Fiio E9.
What do you guys recommend for a budget of £300?

Get yourself hyper x cloud 2's for gaming

and HD650 or HD600's for music

you could then in future upgrade the clouds to akg k702's.

 

[mrk]

Careful doing this because you'll find the HD650 very subdued after the 595 (I made exactly this move). However, once you get used to them you won't regret it - they're far more musical then the 595s - possibly not the best choice for pinpoint 3D for FPS games but I'm definitely glad I changed.

Some other points:

Build quality - unlike the 595s they actually have some - Sennheiser should be ashamed of the build quality on the 595s.

Design - the 650s are not closed so there's a lot more sound leakage - on the other side of the coin they're much, much more comfortable for long sessions - they don't overheat anyway near as badly. The headband is more comfortable too but the difference wasn't so great.

Other alternatives are definitely available but if you like Sennheiser the 650 (at the right price is a good bet).

Now all I have to do is get my 656 Ovations repaired

I find them great for games, especially in BF1 where I can hear footsteps in the exact position they actually are.

Positional audio is excellent. I'm running through a USB DAC/Amp though, so perhaps this helps here.

Depending on your amp, try them in games where positional audio is very obvious, and hear for yourself.

 

[Scooby_WR1]

I did look at the HD 600 and 650 when I first noticed that the 595 had started to crack so I have ordered the HD 650 today.

Looking forward to hearing them. Do they sound good out of the box or do they require a burn in period?

 

[rids57]

I think any burn in will occur within the first few minutes due to the extremely high rate that the driver diaphragms vibrate but your brain may take an hour or two to adjust to the new sound signature. On initial hearing, I thought they sounded muffled and dull but that was coming from an AKG K702 which is a very bright headphone. My brain adjusted within about an hour and the result was something of an epiphany, the drums came first, I couldn't get over how good the imaging was and everything else followed. After that I really didn't see them as muffled or dull, they were in fact very detailed and resolving with excellent imaging and a sound stage that was larger than a lot of people give them credit for.

I use mine for both gaming and music, lots of music.
I do have a collection of DACs and Amps but I also use a Xonar STX, which uses the same headphone driver op-amp as the K9 and the sound is very good indeed.

 

[darreny]

How do you find the stx compared to dacs and amps. I have the 650 and stx and only found out the other day it doesn't support dts when trying to watch a film

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I did look at the HD 600 and 650 when I first noticed that the 595 had started to crack so I have ordered the HD 650 today.

Looking forward to hearing them. Do they sound good out of the box or do they require a burn in period?

HD650 is a big downgrade in the gaming department but a HUGE upgrade in the music department.

I would complement them with the cloud 2's or k702's for gaming use if you can.

 

[Disco_P]

I use the 650 for gaming, I had a pair of cloud 2s as well but it's easier to not constantly swap headphones and there definitely isn't a big downgrade.

I'm not even sure what makes something good for gaming. Virtual surround always sounds trash so I just stick to stereo.

 

[rids57]

HD650 is a big downgrade in the gaming department but a HUGE upgrade in the music department.

The HD650 is only a downgrade if your gaming consists of nothing but competitive FPS, any other gaming works just fine.

 

[Sc00p007]

Gaming but mainly music...
I'd say you will be happy with the 650's.
Seems a lot of agreement that they're an upgrade for music. I have never tried the 595's but i can't imagine the 600 or 650 to be a HUGE downgrade in gaming. I own the 600's and used to own the 650's, and have no trouble in fps games. I also have 800's that are said to be very good in fps and have no trouble with the 600's. If i'm lazy, the 600's stay on, no problem. My go to gaming set is the 700's but i would not recommend them as they seem to be like marmite, especially for music (i personally like them a lot).

 

[mrk]

The HD650 is only a downgrade if your gaming consists of nothing but competitive FPS, any other gaming works just fine.

Exactly this. There is absolutely nothing wrong with gaming on them. I am speaking from experience having owned the AKG K7XX/Q701 and HD595 and 555 (modded), as well as Fidelio X1 and X2.

IMO the HD650 is the jack of all trades compared to all of the above mentioned. I play BF1 with mates in a squad most nights of the week.

 

[RSR]

I have nothing but positive things to say about the HD650's, I use this for gaming and whole host of other things and they never fail to impress.

 

[Ryanr1987]

I find the HD650 good for gaming. Sure it's no HD800 when it comes to clarity and depth but I find the 650 to have fantastic depth, engaging and full. It really depends on what type of headphone gamer you are, some like full and bassy, intimate for dialog, immediacy while others like my self prefer an open, more spacious, distant headphone to try mimic an open environment. I will switch back between headphones depending on my mood. I always hear people mention the HD500 series as having a wider stage but I don't think so. I've been guilty of falling for the airy, leaner sound as being more spacious but it's not always the case. The HD650 once you get past it's more full sound has a decent sized, equal width to depth staging and is comparable to the 500 series here with having better imaging and technically performs better in speed, balance.

 

[Scooby_WR1]

They have arrived today so once I get home I'm going to try them.
I have a Fiio e17 too so I'm going to try them with the sound card and e9 then with the e17 and e9 to see which sounds better to me.

 

[DinAlt]

I'm sure you'll love them - they're not as immediate as the 595 but so much more accurate and musical - I can (and do) wear mine for hours at a time and with some types of music they really are wonderful (oh and I have no problem in games I wear mine for everything

 

[bledd]

If/when my 595 break, I'll be getting 599.

Looked at the 650, but I'm really put off by having 2x cables.

Or I'll look to Beyerdynamic

 

[rids57]

2x cables?