SennheiserHD 560 S Over-The-Ear Audiophile Headphones - Neutral Frequency Response, E.A.R. Technology for Wide Sound Field, Open-Back Earcups, Detachable Cable, (Black) (HD 560S)

From the dawn of time, every headphones set ever made has faced the same challenge: how to faithfully reproduce bass so the listener can clearly hear the beat without overpowering the mids or vocals, which muddies the audio. Nearly every review I've read online complains about these headphones' lack of bass. Those reviews are wrong. There's plenty of bass in these *if you drive them with the right source*. Their impedance is 120 ohms, which is much higher than even the legendary Sony MDR-7506's 63 ohms. Thus, if your source has insufficient power (which probably includes most phones and many laptops) you won't hear much out of them. However, they sound just right on my desktop PC through my Creative Sound Blaster AE-7 PCIe sound card. They're the 1st headphones of any kind in over 20 years I haven't had to boost the bass on at the source. At the same time, vocals are crystal. In fact, I'd say these headphones have the best vocals and definitely the best combination of bass and vocals of any pair I've owned. They're also super light, which is great for long periods of listening. I've seen some reviews questioning durability, but if you're physically breaking headphones the problem is YOU, not the headphones. Build quality (fit and finish) are superb. The velour earpads are super comfortable, though I worry about them getting stinky and grimy over time from sweat and skin oil. I really think AirWeave would have been a better choice at this price point, but I've only ever seen that material used in aftermarket pads.I really struggle to think of any drawbacks with these, but here are some: there's no carrying case for the headphones and nowhere to put the 1/4 inch adapter when it's not attached to the cable. Both are odd omissions on a ~$200 product in this category. Some people might not appreciate the plasticky feel, but again headphones are supposed to be on your head, not in your hand, and everything that comes in contact with your head is plush. As these are open back headphones, sound isolation isn't guaranteed. Others will be able to hear your music (though it's not as loud as you might think), and you might be able to hear them (cranked to the max, it's likely you won't).I'd comfortably call these the best headphones at their price point and perhaps up to $300, as they easily trump my Audeze Maxwells. If you're on the fence, have an amp, receiver, or dedicated sound card, and don't mind their open back config, pull the trigger. You'll love them.

I'm not an audiophile or headphone expert. I played drums as a teenager and later took guitar lessons for 10 years, still play the guitar almost daily, and love music in general. Hard rock has always been my favorite genre. I use headphones with my PC while watching YouTube music videos and concerts and also while playing video games like Cyberpunk 2077, Skyrim, Diablo IV, etc. I also have a pretty big library of old and new music on a 7th gen iPod Touch (now discontinued) and do some critical listening with that. I had been using budget headphones like the Koss KTXPro1 and Logitech G333 gaming earbuds, but always wanted to try something considered as "audiophile" headphones.My son is somewhat of a headphone expert, so I reached out to him for buying guidance. His ideal headphones would be completely neutral, with no emphasis on either highs or lows. To start, he gave me a FiiO K3, which is a DAC/headphone amplifier. I didn't know I needed one, but he insisted. He also convinced me to download and install the open-source Equalizer APO application and its companion Peace UI component. It's a bit daunting for a newbie to get started with the headphone amp and equalizer software, but there are plenty of YouTube tutorial walkthroughs available.In a few hours I had the headphone amp and the Peace interface working, and had separate configurations saved for the Koss and Logitech headphones. I downloaded pre-configured settings for each pair of headphones, which are set with the preferred "Harman Curve". I had no idea about any of this stuff previously. By the end of that day, I had learned how to tweak and save additional configurations, and now could choose between multiple pre-sets for each pair of headphones. For example, I created a pre-set that boosted the bass, another that boosted the highs, and one that boosted both bass and highs while leaving the middle frequencies at the standard Harman curve settings. That allowed me to experiment and decide my own personal preferences for music listening.Just a primer - the headphone amp connects to the PC by USB, and it disables the built-in PC audio chip with a more powerful and clean signal. Then you plug your headphones into the headphone amp instead of the PC headphone input jack. Windows audio and volume is bypassed, so now the volume is controlled by the volume knob on the headphone amp. (You can turn off the headphone amp to listen through PC speakers or with the standard PC headphone jack.)With the headphone amp and equalizer software, both my Koss and Logitech headphones sounded better than ever and I was hearing details that I wasn't hearing before. I had heard of headphone amps before, but never thought they were necessary. I couldn't imagine not using one now.Then my son lent me his AKG K702 open back headphones to try. He likes them because they are pretty neutral. As he puts it, "you hear the music as the producer and engineer intended it to sound." The AKGs were the best headphones I had ever tried, hands down. I downloaded the pre-configured parametric EQ file for them and listened for a few days. I learned that I preferred a more bass-heavy sound, especially with the hard rock I usually listened to. (I am currently obsessed with a band named The Warning, but like many other artists including Spiritbox, Breaking Benjamin, Band-Maid, Evanescence, Muse, and older classic rock like Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Hendrix, and Van Halen.) Given that I liked a bit more bass emphasis, my son suggested the Sennheiser HD 560S.I love them. With the standard EQ configuration, the low bass is a little lacking for my taste. I want the bass drum emphasized. So I created a pre-set with the bass boosted at 52 Hz and left the rest of frequencies alone. Perfect! I created another pre-set with the same 52 Hz boost and an additional boost at 5K Hz. I have some high frequency hearing loss, so this compensates for that, and allows me to hear the cymbals a little better. Normally I listen with the bass boost pre-set only and can hear everything fine.The only minor gripe I have with the Sennheiser HD 5600S phones is the comfort level. The ear pads are soft and comfortable, and the clamping force isn't too much. But the headphones are somewhat bulky, especially compared to the Koss which are feather light and have almost zero clamping force. The Logitech earbuds are another story since they weigh virtually nothing and there's no clamping force. That said, I have used the Sennheisers for hours at a time and they're fine. You do forget they're on once you're immersed in the music or the game. I'll definitely choose the Sennheisers every time for critical listening. Occasionally I will use the Logitechs or Koss when watching non-music videos like interviews or product reviews, for the improved comfort level.Here's a good website for scientifically tested objective headphone ratings: https://www.rtings.com/headphonesDefinitely recommend the HD 560S as an entry level audiophile headphone. They're a tier above sub-$100 headphones for sure.