For the last couple of years I have been focusing on trying to acquire the highest quality bluetooth headphones - I decided the technology was sufficiently advanced enough for bluetooth headphones to completely replace wired ones. Some of the bluetooth headphones I tried were actually very good and certainly up to becoming my primary listening device for a lot of the time. In particular I have grown very fond of the rather excellent V-Moda Crossfade Wireless - I know they’re extremely coloured in their sound but they really come into their own when used with older rock recordings.
I recently purchased a new mobile phone. The superb LG V20 which features hi-fi headphone capabilities and really comes into its own when driving headphones with higher impedance than you perhaps would normally use with a mobile device. Amazon had the Sennheiser HD598’s at an excellent price and, after reading countless reviews, decided that they had to be purchased.
The HD598’s are well packaged and come with two cables - a conventional cable tipped with a standard mini jack for use with portables and a longer, more conventional one tipped with a full-sized jack plug for grown up listening. The cables feature a twist-lock mechanism for attaching to the headphones similar to that found with the Audio Technica ATH-M50x models (but not quite as positive when it comes to the twist lock mechanism). They also come with a converter to change the long leads tip to micro plug again.
These are the first open-backed headphones I have used in a very long time. In the distant past I used to own a pair of Sennheiser HD40’s, PX-100’s and even briefly tried their PXC-550 bluetooth headphones (which are closed headphones and I didn’t like because they just couldn’t go loud enough for my tastes). I had become completely used to closed headphones. My first thought when putting them on was ‘where’s the bass gone’. They are very comfortable with none of the insides of the headphones touching my ears. Again, this did take a little getting used to as I’m used to on-ear rather than completely over-ear with full sized cans. The 598’s can definitely be worn for a long time.
After listening to a wide range of different genres with these through the V20 I realised that the bass was clearly there and deep - it’s just a different bass to that found with closed back headphones. Listening to genres like chillstep, trance and rock can as satisfying on the 598’s as it is with more bassy headphones like the M50x. However their open design prevents the headphones from reproducing the lowest of bass notes with enough punch to truly satisfy when it comes to certain genres of music - but it also allows for a wider sound stage than that normally found on most closed back headphones and again, this does take a little getting used to - especially the fact that other people in the house can clearly hear what you’re listening to. The end result is that the Sennheiser’s are perhaps the closest to a loudspeaker experience in a headphone.
In addition to my V20 phone I have also tried the 598’s out with a couple of dedicated MP3 players and the excellent Acer Chromebook 14 laptop and they work absolutely fine with those as well. The >50 ohm load means that the V20 goes into high impedance mode (which is another reason why I bought them by the way) and can push them loud but my other players also were more than capable of driving them to high levels. In fact the only player which really didn’t drive them well was the Ipod Nano 6th Generation. The 598’s sounded anaemic and lacked much of the quality than makes these headphones great. Generally speaking though I don’t consider them to be hard to drive with any serious playback electronics.
Where the 598’s really shine though is in the additional detail and space between instruments. These are the sort of headphones where, if you want to concentrate on just the drummer or bass guitarist, you can do this effortlessly without having to concentrate. I have a few headphones in my collection which can do this - the best ones being the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10's. I've never experienced this degree of detail in full-sized headphones before.
Perhaps their weakest aspect has to be the bass which although accurate in my opinion, just feels slightly constrained. Truth is that it's just about right for virtually all genres of music. It's just a different kind of bass - having less overall power but much better resolution than the V-Moda Crossfade Wireless for example. I like it for some bass-related music but I must admit I sometimes like to rock-out with my V-Moda Crossfade Wireless as these work really great on pretty much all the tracks which the 598’s feel a little lacklustre in the bass and ‘drive’.
Is this a headphone to beat the rest? I think personally that it’s not. It very nearly is but the lack of deep punchy bass means that sometimes I just don’t feel satisfied with the Sennheiser’s when it comes to playing certain genres
This review was written some time ago and things have changed somewhat. I still have the Sennheiser's and I still love them - even more now though because I've fitted them with a balanced cable and feed them from the Fiio BTR7 Bluetooth headphone amplifier. This has improved the sound considerably - especially when it comes to the bass performance. The pleather finish on the headband started to peel so I decided to help it along and removed as much of the pleather as I could. This hasn't made any difference to the sound quality but does make them look a little scruffier.