Sennheiser Headphones

[NoSnipeLimit]

It's a pleasure, pity we couldn't have chatted a bit first, my wife didn't feel very well.  Would have loved to listen to those bad boys I'm sure they'll give you lots of joy!

[Vaughan]

Sent you a PM.

[Vaughan]

Guys, need your advice. I'm a little clueless about PC's or headphones as I don't really specialise in those fields. Recently bought a pair of Seinheiser HD558's. But they sound awful connected to my onboard sound card. Now I realise that onboard sound isn't optimal, but it's all I've got right now. Bass is way too light, treble is a bit harsh. Funny, plugging these cans into my notebook resulted in the exact opposite. Very muddy sound, too much bass, the treble sounded muted, etc.

So I need to know what my options are here for best results. Do I go and buy a proper sound card ? Or a dac ? Keep in mind this is for my PC set up, so I don't want to spend too much cash but at the same time would like to get the most out of these cans. What do you guys think ?

[cj]

you could fiddle with the sound card settings and the eq of your music player first, otherwise get your hands on a decent headphone amp or amp/dac combo unit. i use the pro-ject usb box dac(about R1200) and a headbox2( about R1400, but a replacement has been launched) and i love my 598's on that system, even when listening to some more compressed songs, the amp alone makes a massive improvement, didnt really need the dac add on, but i love my toys

[kamikazi]

Well if they are brand new you might still be experiencing burn-in issues. Headphones do vary quite a bit at the beginning. At this stage my Hifiman HE-500s range from sublime to downright crap while burning in. Your HD558s shouldn't require any amplification to sound decent so that wouldn't be a solution. A DAC/soundcard upgrade might be a worthwhile investment, but don't overspend on those! Try them out with an Ipod or something and see whether they still sound bad to your ears. A nice value for money soundcard would be the Asus Xonar DX with an integrated headphone amplifier for about R500.

[Vaughan]

Your HD558s shouldn't require any amplification to sound decent so that wouldn't be a solution.

So a headphone amp on it's own won't really improve things much ? Perhaps you're right. All I know is that these cans weren't cheap (relatively speaking), so I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that proper amplification isn't required. So you suggest a sound card + integrated head phone amp ? I did a search on the Xonar DG card and it's a headphone amp too, but not the DX (unless I missed something).

[kamikazi]

My apologies, it is indeed the Xonar DG which I meant. Should be a pretty good option for very little money. A better DAC would be a worthwhile upgrade, but you will find that amplification will make hardly any difference to the headphones. Perhaps a little bit better separation and soundstage, but very marginal. They were designed to work optimally straight out of iPod's etc. and are pretty efficient.

[Vaughan]

I think I'll consider the Asus DG card. Thanks for the advice.

[NoSnipeLimit]

For those still looking, I'll be back at work on Wednesday Feel free to pop me a PM and i'll get back to you. 

[Razr]

hi can you pm me the price on a hd 650

thanks

[Flappy]

Hi Looking for some Sennheiser cordless can you pm me price on the RS 120 and the next model up RS 170/180 if possible? ...also what you have in mid range corded? Tks

[NoSnipeLimit]

Contact currently overseas. Will let you know when he has returned.

[Flappy]

Ok Thanks!