Sennheiser HD560S Review: The New Standard - NOT!

I wonder if the timeframes involved have anything to do with it. A lot of attributes that "enhance" the sound of a headphone can really impress initially... maybe even be juuust right for the right kind of music, but that is to say it can take some time to suss out the notion that anything is off. Once it clicks, you know and its no longer so enjoyable.

And Im sure it works out. Reviewer plugs them in and puts some hours on em. Takeaway is "Wow, sounds amazing." And then people who watch and buy based on that have the same experience the moment the headphones go on their head. Ime that feeling doesnt last. I dont wanna generalize too much, but I think if someone is going to youtube reviews as a primary info source, maybe they just havent been in this game for very long.

 

I always thought the 598 was pleasant for general use by family and friends who aren't real into audio. I'm trying to figure out how this compares.

 

The HD595 and HD598 were deemed acceptable by some of my ProgRock-listening acquaintances in this hobby. That tells me enough because the ProgRock fans can be quite demanding. I am one of them.

If the HD560s does not get near the HD598, I must skip it anyway.

For Pop music a Koss PortaPro or good DJ headphone is enough.

 

I preordered. in the US, no idea when it will show up, don't care of anything anyone here says about it, really, willl chime back in when I get the pair

 

I think the 560S will be very popular for gamers and among the reddit/asr/youtube circles that will praise it to death. The initial batch sold out in the multiple of thousands. Makes me miss Tyll even more. Imagine thousands of DMS like channels praising shit back and forth and then you have Tyll among them happily in his chair with the 300th video from the same room and surroundings. No fancy camera work, no stupid intro, nothing. Just talking to us with his voice of god microphone.

Anyway, the comparison with the HD 600 was too easy when the treble kicked in. That was the immediate giveaway that the 5 is not just a number and Sennheiser knows what they are doing placing it there and pricing it accordingly. When voices came out slightly etched it was a bummer but it quickly ended all what was set in the above. I still think this headphone has a good future, it's just not for SBAFers unless they want something "cheap" for gaming and can't get a MA900 or fear sweating in their . The 560S fills that niche pretty good I think.

A few days ago someone from Sennheiser spoke about how the HD 600 took 5 to 6 years to develop and finalize back then. Now here we are over two decades later and they still shame most headphones up in the multiple of thousands with better timbre, FR in general (above subbass levels) and transitions from mids to treble etc. The r&d paid off big time.

It's obviously still not an easy task to get such a good tuning out of a modern product, else the HD 800S would sound different, wouldn't it? I might be naive too and underestimate marketing.

What I give the 560S vs the HD 600 is headstaging, the (even though "artificial") sense of clarity and the resulting gaming qualities it brings with all this. The lesser refined treble (and its elevation) will instill excitement and "detail", the overall leaner character clarity and openness where the bass can shine better than with the big brothers. It's probably the lesser masking effect what gave me the impression of better bass presentation.

In that context and the inevitable street prices I think this Sennheiser will do well. Since their gaming division has split off it's good for them to have a headphone like this. Now they need to release an inline microphone cable.


@purr1n Does the cabling of this headphone allow balanced outputs? It has 4 pins at least on the headphone side but I have no clue how the cable runs inside.

 

More likely mic-compatible than balanced - or would it work either way? The 6.3 cable has the same part number (572266) as the one that came with the HD 598Cs, which also came with a cable with an inline mic (this one, which can be seen together with the 6.3 in the photo here). The spares list for the HD 560S doesn't include this cable though.

 

Gamers should just get the new PC38x. It’s cheaper and has a built in retractable mic.
It’s a nice improvement over the Game One/PC37x.
The yellow accents doesn’t bother me too much.

 

Was about to ask how bright it felt relative to HD600, which does to me seem slightly bright but that's more a function of the crud I listen to haha.

Not as offensive as the Beyerdynamic standbys, maybe? Seems lower treble more than mid so presuming it's more hardness and base-of-ear ache than metallic tzing-ing.

Also IMO gaming headphones should definitely have good imaging and bottom end extension for cinematic cutscene immersion. Also definitely ability to process extremely busy passages without stumbling over itself.

 

This. Also cohorent (no 3 blob etc.) staging.

With multiplayer games skill, map knowledge and communications are more important than overall fidelity, staging etc.. It's very different when playing or enjoying singleplayer games. Fidelity is much more beneficial here.

"POS Sony supraaurals" would be a disservice to singleplayer games with good audio. Even back then when Aureal 3D and/or CMSS-3D were alive.

 

Most gaming headphones suck down low in frequency, they want to make them extend to the 30s and 20s while also tuning them to be v-shaped!. When an expulsion comes I cringe so hard that I lose all the immersion. That when I was playing on my brother's PC. I tried to give him some of my headphones but he hates wires... and apparently deaf to distortions below 80%.

 

Definitely the headstage thing too, but then again I've never really been into competitive games— far more interested in games with grand stories, engaging characters, and riveting plots haha. Heavy leanings into silly anime tropes helps too.

As for the distortion thing, maybe it's more a matter of having grown acclimated to a certain sound or not knowing what to listen for, as in the case of most people new to the audio hobby. Eh, maybe having them play a single player game where there's more attention paid to crafting a beautiful soundscape for an audience of one than in hectic battle royales may help.

On a tangential note Phasmophobia looks amazing. I'm rather hooked on watching other people play it just now.

 

Definitely.

Kinda sad that the majority of "gaming" headphones utterly fail at actually being up for a good, immersive experience. Instead you get lit-up, angular monstrosities with mics attached.

Don't even get me started with all of this crappy 'surround' stuff, packing up to 7 teeny-weenie drivers in there instead of... iunno, imaging really well with distinctive staging and just letting the wildly improved mixing in modern games handle the l/r, f/b effect. The stereo mixes are amazing these days - the bar has gotten quite high, with most games even having separate 'headphone' processing built right in. And it works!

I'm a firm believer that if you have a setup that just lets what's there come through, you're good! Plenty of great headphones out there can do that. But they don't say "gamer" on the box, sadly...

It's no wonder that many of the discussions among people looking for "gaming" headphones tend to look at the more accessible audiophile staples. To me, it's not all that different from music or movies. Ideally, you want all-around solid performance by the usual metrics, with perhaps a slightly different balance of strengths.

 

Something like the AKG K812 or K872 would be perfect for most gamers.

On the affordable side, scoop up a K601/612 and turn on the amplifier before the game starts: you are good to go.

The best test for gamer headphones: listen to live recordings of symphonic orchestras and pay attention to coughs, sighs, percussion and transitions in the music; the easier it is to trace all of them the better and you have found your headphone.

If you still do not like the FR of the headphone you can always apply some equalisation.

 

In what feels like a lifetime ago, I had recabled the HD598 to balanced and these are my pictures:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sennheiser-hd598-recable-single-sided-balanced.719661/

I didn't take a picture of it, but on the stock non-mic cable the L- and R- wires were tied to the ground sleeve of the 3.5 TRS plug.

On the stock cable with a mic, the 3.5 TRRS did not correspond to the 2.5 TRRS. Actually come to think of it, I think the 2.5 end may have only been TRS. Unfortunately I don't have that around to check anymore.

I have no idea if the 560 and 598 cables are the same, but hopefully this helps someone out.