Massdrop Sennheiser HD58X - Official Thread

The HD-580 isn’t that hard to drive. I was able to drive it just fine with the base Airhead and with Electric-Avenue’s tiny portable amp. @Bret had a home-built amp that fit into an Altoids tin, and used 2003 vintage Burr-Brown op amps that drove it very nicely. All these are pretty vintage compared with what’s available today.

Both the Dragonfly Black and the iFi xDSD drive it plenty well.

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OK, I’ll bow to your experience. The JDS Labs Atom looks good. Thanks for the recommendation!

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I have an O2 Amp amongst other things and whilst it is a good little Amp it can be a little in the brighter side of things. It’s also getting quite long in the tooth now and has been replaced by the Atom. I have an Atom on order so cannot give you a comparison between the two yet but would be able to do so shortly. Hope that you find what you’re looking for.

Just to complicate your decision, the HD6XX is available on Massdrop again :slight_smile:

OK! Well, I have 7 days to decide. I’m going to need it.

Well, the bright side of things is the last thing I want when trying to dial in guitar from a modelling amp. I’ll definitely go with the Atom. Thanks!

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I haven’t worn these in over a week, and I just got a haircut, but man… the clamping force is really bothering me right now. Also the pad depth as well. The last time I had this feeling was when I used the Audeze Sine with stock pads or the Sennheiser Momentum (on-ear and over-ears)

HD 58X best headphones ever.

image

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First thing I did, even before EQ, was to loosen the clamp by pulling the cups all the way out and gently bending the metal part of the headband to reduce the pressure.

Hehe. I’m currently borrowing an HD800S and of course can’t help but compare it with my LCD2C and HD58X. IMHO the HD58X are not the “best headphones ever”, but they’re pretty amazing for the price. I’ve only had limited exposure to more expensive headphones, but I’ve noticed that at low listening levels it’s hard to tell a difference between the HD58X and something much more expensive. It’s only when I turn up the volume to 75dB SPLA or above that the differences become clearer. I used to make a habit of listening pretty quietly and I still do for background listening, but when I want to really enjoy the music I treat myself to slightly louder levels and I’m finding the more expensive stuff appealing for this.

All that said, the HD58X is great. For some genres, like folk rock or singer-songwriter stuff, I’d actually pick it over anything else I’ve heard, just because of the wonderfully realistic timbre and intimate vocal delivery.

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They’re definitely the best headphones I’ve ever heard … at least that have “HD58X Jubilee” printed on the side and that cost $149.

To be fair, they do sound inordinately good for their price. And are a relative bargain for what they can do.

I’m not sure how much of their impressive clamping force is to blame for the tooth I broke today. It could have been a really stubborn piece of gristle in the burger I was eating. But I was wearing the HD58X at the time … so who knows …

:wink:

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@Torq are you on the good stuff? Lol. Broken teeth are no bueno! Also well said

Lol

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Fortunately it only hurts if let anything touch where it broke. So as long as I don’t eat, or drink, or breathe through my mouth, I’m not currently in any pain.

Which is not to say that I didn’t invent a whole navy’s worth of new profanity the moment it DID break …

And I suspect that once I leave the dentist in the morning that I could be in a good deal more discomfort than I am right now. Even if it’s only my wallet that takes a beating …

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That … or the unsanctioned boxing

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A matter that is complicated by the unlicensed marsupial I keep around for practicing …

In that vein …

The ducks in the bathroom are not mine

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The only marsupial natively found north of Mexico is the possum, known for its involuntary reflex of feigning death when frightened. Or were you perhaps referring to a non-native marsupial?

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Definitely not-native.

And mostly the product of a deranged imagination.

Much like the ducks in the bathroom.

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I recommend a diet of room-temperature* single malt until your Dentist’s visit. Prevents infection, and supports invective.

*room should be located in a Scottish castle, in October.

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@pwjazz and @TylersEclectic

This was ages ago now, but you were talking about Ottmar Liebert and some springy, reverby sounds you kept hearing. I’m not sure if you ever figured out what it was.

It’s the guitar. I’ve played guitar for almost 30 years now. That sound is caused when the string vibrates at a particular rate and basically starts slipping off either the nut or the bridge. It could also be fret buzz (the vibration barely makes contact with the fret rapidly).

TLDR: What you’re hearing is the guitar, it’s not something wrong with a pair of headphones. If you can’t hear it or it doesn’t get annoyingly grainy with a pair of headphones, they’re probably not very good in that frequency range.

I could totally see thinking that it’s your headphone driver acting up. In fact, I’ve had headphone drivers make similar noises. In this case, it’s totally natural and is in the recording.

I’ve always hated that noise, as well as fret buzzing, which you can hear both of throughout all of these tracks in various places.

It’s one of those tradeoffs you have to make as a guitarist. You can get better playability with lower action, slinkier strings, etc., but you’ll get things like buzz or the like for doing so.

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