Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

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blackbox
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Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by blackbox » Sat Apr 30, 2016 10:55 am

I have a fairly basic setup currently:

Princeton Reverb II -> Suhr Reactive load -> audio interface -> DAW w/ownhammer IRs

I've been shopping around for headphones to replace my aging Sennheiser 380 pro set, and recently picked up a 598 set from Amazon. I was excited to try them, and I'm actually shocked at how bad they sound. I'm not using a headphone amp, just the headphone jack in my audio interface. Even if this would improve them, it's hard to imagine that it would make a big enough difference to matter. For replicating the sound of my amp through its native speaker, the 380 set is superior to such a degree, that it makes me wonder if there's something I'm missing. The 598 set does not sound like my amp: chords sound dull and lifeless. Where on the 380 set, chords breakup with a coherence that matches the smoothness of my amp through it's speaker, with the 598 set, chords on the exact same settings lack all cohesion...it's as if each note in the chord is so pronounced that it's impossible to get a smooth and punchy sound. I've never used a headphone amp, but I'm tempted at this point to buy one just to see if it makes a difference.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by andy_tchp » Sat Apr 30, 2016 9:15 pm

A stupid question, but aside from 'aging' what is the reason to replace the headphones you're clearly already happy with?


I'm not aware of any headphones on the market with the design goal of optimally reproducing the sounds/frequency response of a guitar speaker when plugged into an audio interface being fed by an amp output/fake load scenario; they would sound absolutely appalling for anything else, much like using a guitar speaker for home hi-fi duties.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
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blackbox
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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by blackbox » Sun May 01, 2016 10:31 am

I'm looking to replace them because they're old and breaking down. I don't understand why you're asking me to give you other reasons beyond this (at least you recognize that it's a stupid question). I was hoping to upgrade, but the supposedly better headphones (598) are markedly inferior, hence my post.
Last edited by blackbox on Sun May 01, 2016 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by noisepunk » Sun May 01, 2016 10:58 am

Hmm... that was a friendly response.

I think what he was getting at was: why not just get the same headphones again?

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by andy_tchp » Sun May 01, 2016 8:44 pm

Well, yeah. Quite the charmer, eh? ::)

Obviously 'don't believe everything you read about a certain piece of gear being better' would also be wasted advice on such an intellectual giant; I shall keep my further stupid suggestions to myself.

That they're different designs (open back vs closed) and designed for music reproduction (priced at audiophiles/enthusiasts) wasn't a giveaway that they'd sound different and not necessarily be great at 'sounding like a guitar amp', either...

...
Anyway, Good luck with it! :) I'm sure they could be offloaded without taking too much of a hit.
Last edited by andy_tchp on Sun May 01, 2016 10:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by Telliot » Sun May 01, 2016 10:07 pm

blackbox wrote:I'm looking to replace them because they're old and breaking down. I don't understand why you're asking me to give you other reasons beyond this (at least you recognize that it's a stupid question). I was hoping to upgrade, but the supposedly better headphones (598) are markedly inferior, hence my post.
Jesus. That was unnecessary. Now I see why you hate California: you're wound too tight. It wasn't a stupid question, he was being polite. You may want to give that a try. Or you know, don't. Whatever.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by andy_tchp » Sun May 01, 2016 10:12 pm

^ And that was the version edited after Noisepunk's response :D
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by jthomas » Mon May 02, 2016 2:39 am

andy_tchp's post might be interpreted as calling blackbox's original post as being "a stupid question."

Not as it probably was intended (I think) as andy_tchp calling his own post "stupid."

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andy_tchp
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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by andy_tchp » Mon May 02, 2016 5:40 am

No.

You'd have to go to great lengths to misinterpret it in such a way.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by Larry Mal » Mon May 02, 2016 5:49 am

A completely legitimate question Andy asked, as in, "What are you hoping for as far as improvement over your old headphones?"

But don't misinterpret this as me asking that question, I'm disinclined to help after the rude treatment Andy got.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by Telliot » Mon May 02, 2016 6:46 am

Exactly.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by blackbox » Mon May 02, 2016 7:34 am

Maybe I was a bit too pointed in my response.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by blackbox » Mon May 02, 2016 7:42 am

Actually, I'll just apologize. Graduate school stress added onto no sleep from having to grade a stack of asinine papers from Millennials who seem to believe they don't need to do the readings so long as they stick assiduously to progressive niceties had me a bit cranky.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by andy_tchp » Mon May 02, 2016 3:10 pm

All good here ;) . I worked almost 12 hours on Saturday and had been in a similar frame of narkiness for the rest of the weekend.

My only other suggestion depends on relationships you've developed with any of your local bricks+mortar gear shops - if you discuss your requirements up front and they understand that you are a serious customer and not a time waster they may allow you to borrow a pair for an afternoon/evening/weekend to make sure they work in your setup. Or maybe be understanding about a 'change of mind' return if you buy a pair and they don't sound quite right, knowing that they'll eventually get a sale (with repeat business, a happy customer and word of mouth recommendations due to the good service) at the end of it.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

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Re: Headphones for guitar - Sennheiser 598 disappointment

Post by Bothand Nether » Mon May 02, 2016 7:07 pm

It also might have to do with the Ohmage of the cans, possibly?
I kinda think today's amps are more for lower ohm headphones, even daw opamps.

Having had the pleasure of borrowing a Kemper KPA for nearly a Year,
I got a different set of headphones for referencing just guitar (specifically distortion)

I've used AKG K240s for referencing & casual tracking all My life, so I did a lot of research before I tried some new phones.
I ended up returning 2 different sets of open cans (Sennheiser & AKG), both were advertised as being for studio use.

Both sets were bass heavy compared to My studio 2.1 monitors, and seemed fairly lifeless to me above 1k, as well.

Then I tried a friend's set of electrostatic "Ear Speakers" & it's preamp thingy from Stax and got what I needed, frequency-wise.

I can't really afford a good Stax rig, but I did some more research and found out that
AKG once made a set of electrostatic/dynamic hybrid headphones that had traditional low end, but electrostatic mids/highs.

The original AKG340 (not the new earbud) are almost vintage,but may be worth checking out.
-if You really need to hear things differently than your current set.

They made a "bass heavy" as well as a mid & a high -favoured set, I got the mid fwiw.
Head-fi has a good deal of info on them.(as well as a guy that mods them, of course)

I got them on ebay and am quite happy with how they sound, needing as flat a response as possible.
& I like playing on the edge of distortion, so these help me when I need to listen closely to that edge.
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