Sennheiser HD 599 Around-Ear Open Back Headphones - Ivory

Tested with ifi Zen DacThese are just amazing, they are very light and with little clamping force, it is easy to forget you have them on and you can wear them forever with no discomfort, the pads a re the first I have ever owned that do not touch my ears at all. They even look gorgeous in ivory and brown. There is no wireless option here, nor any noise cancelling, you just get amazing sound from them.At 50 Ohms, these are easy enough for a phone to drive but you may also want to consider a headphone amp to really give these phones the best signal to work with.Sound wise, the sound is very relaxed, I was concerned that after previous Sennheisers, these would have a very boomy bass, they don't, they have sufficient bass though they probably wouldn't be suited to bass heads. mids and highs are relaxed which I like for the evening when I am just listening. I have headphones and earphones which have far livlier highs but these I find to be tiring. One thing to note is they are not forgiving at all of poorly recorded or mastered tracks. You can stream the high bit rates from spotify or tidal and they will sound great but if there is source is poor and has too much dynamic compression these will let you know about it so things like China in Your Hands will sound like garbage even from vinyl or SACD.The sound stage is not the widest I have heard but things do exist outside your head whilst listening, I have sometimes found myself wondering and checking that my speakers were not also playing the music.As these are open backed, you will hear the world around you and they will hear your music, so they are best listened to alone.I listen to most types of music and have found that whilst most types do well on these, classical really shines out on them and you can picture the instruments around you. These are not heaphones for dancing with, or wearing for a workout. They are also not really suited for analytical work in the studio but they don't try to be for any of those things, they are for relaxing in comfortable chair with a glass of good single malt whisky and for that purpose they are amazing.Update, can I make these 6 stars? They have an undocumented feature, in that they are internally wired as balanced, and if you can find a compatible balanced cable teh sound goes to the next level, it is incredibly clear and the sound stage is wider. Search around for a cable (warning some that claim to be compatible may need slight modification to make the groove in the 2.5mm plug deeper) and you get great sounding balanced headphones for a ridiculously low price.

Clear, detailed and solid sound stage, at least with most of my music collection.I have been buying various forms of the cheaper Sennheiser headphones for many years, my favourites were probably the portable PX100-II unfortunately no longer available and not very durable. I also had a pair of HD 495's back in the day, very low price and perfect, only Sennheiser do not offer replacement pads etc for them, still have them just in case I find suitable replacement parts. These are all open back and provide clear relatively undistorted bass, detailed mids, especially vocals, and some reasonable higher frequencies.These headphones are almost perfect, mids and very solid and appear exactly where they should be on the sound stage when I am using higher quality source material, well pressed vinyls, well sourced high res audio and even some masters played on Youtube.What is surprising is that it is forgiving with some lossy compressed content, but the bass seems a little out of control with even the the highest quality content. I don't think the bass rendition is accurate, but it is pleasant with some content and just lacks precision at times.I have used driven these phones using:My PC, headphone jack, on an AORUS X570 Pro. This is a high quality device, sound section has been designed with gamers and audiophiles in mind, DAC up to 192khz 24bits very low noise (I wired the jack myself to ensure the lowest noise). Just about anything I play on this sounds great as long as the source material is good. Have not done much with gaming to comment.Behringer UMC202HD, used with Laptops while working on tests with various turntables and cartridges and other audio sources. This device provides DAC and ADC support for up to 192khz 24bit sampling, have had some great results listening to my vinyl collection, capturing the audio to add to my digital library.PiFi DAC+ clone, using a Burr-Brown PCM 5122, still experimenting with this. Have actually driven these phones directly from the 5122, probably not a good idea, but they still sound great. Use this as the main way to access my music library.Supplied with two cables, a 1.2 meter with 3.5mm plug and a 3 meter with 6.3mm plug with an adapter to take it down to 3.5mm, the adapter is large does not sit well in most devices offering a 3.5mm socket. if anything rubs or taps on the cable I can hear it very clearly on the left, very annoying! Worth finding a replacement cable, still have not found one.These are good headphones IMO, but for the price I'm not sure, also if you are looking for a good clear accurate punchy bass, going by other reviews I think I would consider the HD 560S, wish I had!

I wanted a pair of over the ear headphones as I was beginning to be intolerant to wearing my regular ‘on ear’ ones due to the pressure on my head. I had some Sennheiser Momentums which have served me well over the years, so when I found these I watched some Youtube videos which were positive and also the majority of the comments here on Amazon were also positive. The ivory is very attractive and they look good. I was a little concerned, having a small head, that they would not be snug enough but happy to report that they are with a fully adjustable headband which is tight enough for me. They are very comfortable to wear and I am able to tolerate them for a longer time that the ‘on ear’ type.When I listened to them for the first time they seemed to produce what I’d call a warm, mellow sound and brought a new quality to some of my more in depth albums; for instance, Soul Cages. They come with two cables with different cable jacks one of which is a 3.5mm for an MP3 player. If you want to change the cable you twist the cable to the left and pull gently. Very happy with these.