Sennheiser HD 559 Open Back Around Ear Headphone - Black/Anthracite

Product Information

Compared to my Koss phones that have a very bright sound with particularly good reproduction of the high end registers (and give an outstanding bass sound too by their design), I initially found these bass heavy and very little of the treble registers, but wait! At the same time, the more expensive model also covers the upper range better and literally opens up another level of airiness. These need a good dampening factor, otherwise I suspect these bass flaws will get worse as the amp loses even more control over the driver. The peaking shows the lower mids are emphasized and bass extension is not that good because of this upper-bass-lower mids boost.

The plot shows some lingering in the lows and around 700Hz but no problems in the higher frequencies (aside from 4kHz). From the specs above, we can gather that this headphone sports a standard frequency range and offers a decent amount of detail. But having a pair that is light, very comfortable and has spacious sound due to open-back design to use with vintage devices was an interesting idea to me. The time span is also bigger in the spectrum plots and expired time is shown from below to top where in the CSD the time is shown from rear to front.They have a little bit a rough edge to them, especially when compared to the HD 650, but then again, which headphones don't in that comparison? A few years ago, I could find no fault in these headphones, but tastes and experiences change, I guess. By opting in to our newsletter you will receive all educational articles, private events and early access sales. The successor to the popular HD 500 series , the new HD 5 series combines high quality and value in any aspect powered by Sennheiser’s proprietary transducer technology including the “ Ergonomic acoustic refinement” (E. My Teac HA-501 is also a pretty revealing amp, and has an adjustable output impedance, which I think further suggests these headphones scale well with better components.

After putting them on I can say they are a really comfortable pair of headphones, that's where the good things stop. Clamping force is on the high side and combined with the fact that pads are rather thin and hard, it can be a bit uncomfortable to some. IIRC, there are a few experienced players around here using the 559 so I assume it's a good pair of headphones. The plot above shows the level differences between the signal (upper trace around 85dB SPL) and the harmonics. Below the step response plot which, when the sound is balanced and well extended should show a rise to around 0dB, (indicating fast driver response) and should be slightly sloping downwards indicating bass extension.The Sennheiser HD559 Around Ear Headphones allow you to rediscover your favourite tracks and experience all that your home entertainment system has to offer. Perfect seal, seal broken with a thick arm pair of glasses and seal substantially broken by slightly lifting the bottom of the pads which can occur when not properly seated. Note: I think I overcame my bias as I found these to better than I was expected, and I'm very critical of headphones when I test them.