I am back for yet another edition of Awesome Stuff Week sponsored by YouTube.
This time it's awesome stuff unwrapped with the theme of holiday gifts for
others or that you can buy for yourself if you're into that sort of thing. And
they've even got this experimental new ad unit that allows you to buy the item
that's being featured through the video itself. Crazy, right? Anyway, Monday's
focus for Awesome Stuff Unwrapped is right in my wheelhouse. You guessed it,
makeup.
Corsair's RMI series power supplies feature premium components for great
performance with very low noise. Check out the link in the video description to
learn more. So, I was racking my brain for an awesome tech gift. I went, you
know what? I am really tired of seeing people buy crappy headphones for each
other. And when you combine that with the fact that I've never covered one of
the primo value audio file headphones out there, the Sennheiser HD598s, and
the fact that they just launched a black SE variant, not to mention that we
didn't have a lot of time to throw this video together, and I already have a fair bit of experience with this
product's very similar predecessor, and we've got ourselves a recipe for a
video. So, let's take a look at today's prize, Philly. Inside the box, you'll
find the headphones themselves with a cleverly locking detachable 3meter cord,
a headphone jack adapter, so you can use them with anything from your MP3 player
to your standalone headphone amplifier, and in the case of the SE, a shorter 1.2
meter cord that will likely be preferred by folks who want to use their new
headphones with a portable music player. On that subject, at 50 ohms, the HD598s
are a little on the high impedance side
to get the most out of them with any but the best portable amps. But with that
said, I didn't find them entirely lifeless with my Xperia Z5 Compact to
the point where I would entirely avoid them if you want to use them while
you're on the go sometimes without a standalone powered amp. Not that most
people are going to want to use the regular one while they're out and about
anyway. I can't think of too many outfits that would go with this
particular color scheme. So, I I don't
know. I guess it's hard for me to describe these physically any further
other than to say that well, they're headphones. Uh you'll find the 53mm
dynamic drivers angled strategically towards your ear canals in each cup
surrounded by velour pads. There are two hinges. You got your up and down and
your left and right to help the headphones fit on a variety of head
shapes better. And then between the cushioned headband and the ear cups
themselves is a regrettably plastic, but from my experience, still fairly robust
size adjust mechanism. Enough about those though. What else will I be
comparing them against? I still don't have an ABX listening setup,
unfortunately. Uh part of the reason why you won't be seeing me evaluate any amps
or DAXs, which are much more difficult to tell from each other until that
changes. So, I am stuck with adjusting my listening levels to 80 dB with a 1
kHz test tone and then just switching between headphones and giving you guys
my impressions. So, I went with a higherend lower reference point in
Sennheiser's signature sound, my old HD555s and my daily driver HD600's. And
then to represent similar tier models from other popular manufacturers, I've
got the K7XX from AKG and DT990 Pros
from Bear Dynamic. Let's talk fit first.
Since nothing in my test suite today falls into the uncomfortable category,
the HD598 has its work cut out for it
here. AKG's K7XX suspension and leather
head strap system works really well because their massive ear cups allow
sufficient clamping pressure to keep most of the weight off of the top of the
head without pressure points. While both Sennheiser and Bayer Dynamic take a
different approach here and feature velour cushioned ear cups and cushioned
pleather headbands. Compared to the DT990s, I wouldn't say I like
Sennheiser's approach better, but I'd call it more of a tradeoff. For the
headband, Sennheiser goes for a thicker kind of you can actually hear it airride
type system that I find doesn't distribute the weight on my head as
well, but is by no means uncomfortable. And then again on the ear cups, the
HD598s use a firmer foam and a a
shallower velour that is comfortable but
kind of lacks the warm hug from a friend on my head effect. The flip side of that
is that the HD598s keep my head and ears cooler while I am listening. So, from a
comfort perspective, there's really no loser here, except I would say the
K7XXs get edged out by both the DT990s
and the 598s. But with that said, I can wear any of these models for hours
without that, oh goodness, my head is finally free feeling once I remove them.
Which actually leads to another super positive thing I noticed here. The last
time I bought a new headphone, my HD600s
were secondhand from Sennheiser's openbacked audio file lineup was the
HD555s, and those things grabbed your head like a vice out of the box and only
started fitting like a a perfectly tailored glove after a few months. The
598s, on the other hand, are awesome out of the box. And while I'm actually
comparing them to the 555s, in terms of build quality, they're similar except
that the plastic at the hinge here, which on my 555s cracked like so many
others, seems to be a bit more robust.
Let's get into how they sound. I used a light harmonic geek out for all
listening today with my usual mix of top 40 music because that's what I listen to
and so do a lot of people. In a nutshell, the HD598s are worth every
penny of what the nonSE model is going for at the moment. Depending on where
you're shopping, and even at their MSRP, you're not going to be, you know, upset
that you got ripped off. Take that with a grain of salt from me, though, because
I'll be the first to admit that I've always loved the Sennheiser sound
signature, derisively referred to by people who don't like it as the
Sennheiser Veil because of the way their frequency response falls off a cliff in
the high-end. That has the undesired effect of reducing clarity or sparkle in
the high range. But with poor quality recordings, pretty common thanks to the
loudness war of audio mastering, it makes highfrequency instruments,
particularly percussion, less fatiguing
to listen to, which I personally prefer. By comparison, the K7XX and DT990 Pros
do a better job of retaining details in the highs with the DT990s also hitting
the bass a bit harder, but not to the point where, you know, anything that I'm
looking at today would be a bass headphone either. Overall, I think the
best way to describe the listening experience with the HD598s is smooth and
easy. And and I know those are stupid audio file words that don't really tell
you anything objectively, but if you were interested in objective data, then
headphone.com is the place to go anyway.
And honestly, I don't need that to reach the conclusion about this video.
compared to almost all of the more consumer oriented headphones out there,
even Sennheiser's own Urbanite line that did I did not get a positive review from
me about a year ago. Whether you go with the brown or black edition with the same
internals, the HD598s aren't going to knock your earrings out with thumping
bass, but they're a bang for the buck winner. If you or someone you know is a
budding audio file who wants to listen to his or her music the way it was
really meant to be listened
to. Speaking of listening to listen to
me talk about iFixit for $10 off your
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Anyway, um anyway, don't worry about the jokes or the product names. Worry about
heading over to ifixit.com/Linus and entering code techtips at the
checkout. So, that's pretty much it, guys. Thanks for watching. If you just
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