Sennheiser HD 595 -- the orchestra on your head

Depending on who you talk to, the Sennheiser HD 595 headphones are either (a) the best headphones on the planet, (b) a benchmark headphone that is just a bit too smooth, or (c) they have no idea who Sennheiser is. Having picked up a pair before Winter Break, I decided to see how they stack up against a discerning ear.



The cans

The Sennheiser (“Senn” for short) HD 595 headphones have been on the market for a couple of years and incorporate Senn’s proprietary E.A.R. (Eargonomic Acoustic Refinement) technology which focuses the sound directly into each ear for a more pristine and direct presentation.

Structurally, the 595 has a swooping, Art Nouveau design that is unique; not retro, and not exactly modern either. The open earcups (meaning, the speakers are not sealed inside the cups) are enormous and on the inside are covered in soft padded velour. Included in the box is a 1/4” to 1/8” adapter and a stand that clamps onto a shelf.

From a technical standpoint, the headphones have a manageable impedance of 50 ohms, and a frequency response of 12 - 38500 Hz with nearly flat response across the entire range. They have a maximum Sound Pressure Level of 112 dB, which can (and will) do damage to your hearing.



How do they sound?

How do these so-called “audiophile headphones” stack up? Let me put it this way; you have to hear them for yourself. The presentation, soundstage, and quality of the sound are amazing; irrefutably the best sound I have ever heard from any speakers. Period. IMAX is duller, multiplexes are sad, and even the best home theater pales compared to the Senns.

I A-to-B’ed the headphones on a variety of songs and movies, sweeping as many genres as I could take in; hip hop, R&B, rock, jazz, classical, electronica, dance, and techno for music, and on the movies side, The Bourne Identity series, The Incredibles, and Battlestar Galactica, and on the gaming side, Call of Duty 2. While no speaker set is perfectly tuned for every single genre, this set comes pretty dang close.

Presentation

Sennheiser headphones are tuned to a characteristic “Senn sound,” which is best described via analogy. Imagine that you’re paying attention to a particularly engaging professor, he’s gesturing and hooting and hollering and wild. While you enjoy the class and get all of the material, it’s kind of force-fed through his sheer exuberance. Now, imagine that you’re watching another professor, this one more subdued, yet obviously brilliant; the kind that engages you simply through being that cool. He lectures on the material as a matter-of-fact, succinct, concise, and just as engaging as the first guy, but in a very different way. He presents the same amount of information in a way that, to you, seems more competent and less in-your-face.

The 595s are the second professor. Both the Senns and a more impact-oriented pair of phones play the same music, but the Senns have a much more competent sound. Like a truly immaculate orchestral performance, the Senns present the sound in the most professional of manners and through its perfection it is distanced and directed, haunting and warm, abstract and concrete, desolate and lush. These cans produce a true wall of sound; a pair of speakers where an equalizer of any sort kills the balance and is worthless in the strongest possible meaning of the word.



Soundstage

Those of you who do a lot of listening via speakers that you attach to your head (even the so-called “surround sound headphones”) know that a lot of the sound seems to be coming from inside your skull.

Not with these.

Due to their open design, the Senns avoid the closed-tube resonance that is so commonplace among closed-ear cans and have a soundstage that is comparable to an excellent 3.1 system. Sound seems to come from three distinct locations; the right, the left, and center, with a sub thumping away when necessary.

At first, this is a disorienting effect, even dizzying at times. But, upon acclimation, it leads to a new level of auditory detail.

Quality

The fidelity of the sound produced by these phones is unbelievable. I could hear everything, and I mean everything. On The Doobie Brothers’ song China Grove, I could hear the finger-fret noise on the electric guitar (this is common on acoustic recordings, but exceedingly rare on electric). On orchestral scores, picking out instrumentalists by hearing each one take a breath was exceedingly easy.

Of all the areas, the 595s are startlingly realistic when projecting vocals. When listening to Monty Python’s Spamalot, I felt like I was back at The Shubert, listening to Sara Ramirez wonder why she hadn’t had a song since the first act. No kidding. That good.

The spatial separation of the drivers in these headphones creates a truly immersive cinematic experience. Watching The Bourne Supremacy was a completely engrossing experience, so much so that I (nearly) forgot to finish a project due the next day.

For gaming, just as in all other areas, the 595s create a detailed soundstage with the characteristically detailed sound to boot. However, this is the one area where Senn’s trademark laid-back sound is a touch inappropriate; a little more “oomph” would be great.

Troubles in paradise

These headphones, while excellent and deserving of their benchmark status are not without their own quirks. First, at Rose in particular, it is nearly impossible to find a place for the headphone holder; either you clamp it to your desk shelf or the side of your desk or on a cabinet or on your roommate; any way you cut it, it’s a bit of a hassle.

As is common with all Senns, these headphones require an extensive “burn-in” period before coming into their own. I don’t know why the headphones need this treatment (which involves letting them play music at slightly louder than listening level for 10+ hours), but I am a believer in the burn-in process. After more than 100 hours of listening, I’m sure that they sound better now than when I first opened the box.

As an open-eared headphone, not only can others outside of your head hear the sound, but you can hear your environment as well. Perhaps this doesn’t bother you, but again, if you’re looking for the most immaculate sound possible, this environmental leakage into your listening space will prove to be a problem.

Also, like any high-end purchase, you can’t just buy the headphones; there are some hidden costs involved. (Well, you could, but then you’d only be releasing about 60-75% of their full potential.) The problem is this; your iPod and computer both have potent little amps built in, but not strong enough to drive 50 ohms easily. Your music will become muted, muddy, and will clog quickly (and you’ll be wondering why you dropped $300 on cans that sound worse than those ubiquitous white earbuds all the kiddies are wearin’). You will need a dedicated headphone amplifier to unleash these babies.

Speaking of audio fidelity, there’s no point in having a pair of high-end headphones if you’re still plugging into that worthless 1/8” jack on the side of your computer. To get the purest signal, you’ll also need an external digital-to-analog converter to avoid digital noise (or a magnetically shielded soundcard).



Conclusion

The reason, pure and simple, that you buy these headphones, is for the fidelity of the sound. The detail, richness, and pristine quality of the sound the 595s produce can only be described as auditory nirvana.