Just thought I'd put in a few words about these. Let me say first that I owe headphone fans an apology - I really didn't take yous guys seriously. I've spent a lot of time tinkering with speakers and diy and for the life of me just didn't understand what was so great about headphones beyond casual use. Before the Sennheisers the most I spent on headphones was maybe $40 (Superlux) and I demo'd a bunch up to $120-ish from Amazon including the venerated Sony MDRs and Audio Technicas and some others. I just wasn't that impressed.
Recent life changes pushed me to consider headphones so I figured let's check out pricier options just so I can say I did it. So I tried out:
Meze 99s
HiFiMan 400s
Fostex-TH50RP
Sennheiser 598s
There was another one but I don't remember which.
I do not have a fancy head amp. I used a CMOY for some modded dacs I had lying around or direct from a DF Red. All of the headphones delivered in a way I was not expecting. Sounding WAY better than the <$120-ish I had previously heard. The presentation I preferred most was the 598. I hung with that for a while then decided I'd get the 599.
I was very glad I did. For all these comparisons I use my speaker setup as a reference. It's an MTM with SB Acoustics drivers. Sure I'm no Danny Richie, but I think I did okay. It sounds excellent. The 599s sound very, very similar; slightly warm, really clean midrange and high frequencies without being brittle or over the top. I was genuinely shocked that headphones could deliver on that level (or rather, for such low cost. I would assume $1k+ would HAVE to compete).
And the open-backed thing. Man, I love the presentation.
So, better late than ever. Yum.
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