Sennheiser HD559: your ears will love that! [listener’s review]

Today I had finally received my new pair of cans from a reputable German brand Sennheiser. And what I am gonna say will probably shock you: these are the most undermarketed pair of headphones that I had ever listened in my life. They sound 1000 times better than they are advertised! Moreover, these are the best Over-Ear headphones I had ever listened to. Believe me, in more than 15 years I had listened to many.

Koss Porta Pro, Koss Pro4A, KRK KNS8400, Brainwavz HM5, Philips SHP1900, Apple EarPods, Apple AirPods, JBL E55BT, Sennheiser HD201. I listened all of them! (favorites are underlined in italic). Well, let’s proceed to the actual review!

DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY

“Built like a tank!”

Yes, these are built to last for many years. Velour earpads, fully-breathing construction, quality plastic, thicc detacheable cable. That’s all I expect from high quality headphones! One thing if cans sound good, but the other one — will these last? Back in the days I was really tired of changing cushions on my Pro4A and repairing cables in Porta Pros. I want to listen to music without the need to visit the repair centers all the time for them to resolder cheap cables. And no, do not fall for “but for that price…”. NO. Headphones are the pieces of hardware that should not be either too expensive nor cheap. I do not consider HD559 cheap or “budget” (like some reviewers do!). These are premium. Not so premium as HD599, HD600, HD650, but to me their price is perfectly balanced. I don’t need 120, 250 or 600 Ohm pair of cans with “metal grills” on it’s cups. What I needed is a lightweight, supercomfy and good sounding model. What I got with HD559 is waay more than I expected.

COMFORT

I am writing this review as I listen to these headphones. When I searched for good headphones I put the comfort first. I was so tired of all these closed-back sweatshops. I wanted something light on my head and something that my earth won’t be hot. In fact, HD559 became my 2nd pair of open-backs (excluding Porta Pro) and my 1st ever pair of over-ear open-backs. And I can affirm you: these are soo comfy to wear on! Already enjoying my music for 2 hours and I DON’T REALLY WANT TO TAKE THESE OFF!

Velour pads feel especially cool on my skin. At first it was somewhat awnkward as the clamping force was a bit higher than on some of the closed back headphones I had listened before, but then I felt that while it was a bit tighter (now good! perfectly good), my ears were not hot or sweaty and there is no fatigue whatsoever.

Headband is adjustable and cups turn to fit for most people.

I can confirm: these are extra comfortable for long listening sessions.

SOUND

Equalizer? Throw it in a trash!

That’s how I will describe the sound signature of these headphones. I will tell about my setup in the end — it’s pretty simple and straighforward, yet I don’t need to use soundstage enhancer or EQ, Sennheiser tuned the sound to be perfect “as is”, from the box. And it does not matter what you listen to, be it rock, hiphop or trance, all these sound good.

Some reviewers say these cans are forgiving and mask the bad recordings so “it all sounds good”. I would say nope, it doesn’t. If you listen to crappy recorded audio — you will easilly hear it on these, if you listen to 24 bit .wav or .aiff files, vinyl rips, cd quality mp3s it will not be the same, you will surely hear the difference. The higher the quality — the more enjoyable your music will be. Yet, even with low quality “rare” tracks downloaded from Soundcloud you will be able to chill with HD559.

I am still testing these and going through my large collection. All genres sound great. I can’t find any sibilance, bass is good and controlled, mid frequencies are clear. I can hear all the instruments, where these are, reverbs, delays, distorsions used, humming in the vocals, vinyl subnoise. In other words, I can hear what I was not able to hear before with ANY of my previous cans, including the Studio-rated KRK KNS8400 (these died unfortunately). I can literally decompose every track with Sennheisers.

I already love these! Music sounds so natural and unbiased. It feels like it has a flat sound signature, though not rated as “studio”. Because all recordings and genres sound “as it was intended”.

What I listen to: mostly trance (oldschool, pre-2011), breakbeat (funky breaks, atmospheric), old rock classics, some oldschool hiphop, wave. It all sounds great, whether it’s Wicked Game by Chris Isaak, Kosmonova by Ayla or Wall of Sound by Armin van Buuren. What I hadn’t tested it with yet is metal, but I think it will sound good aswell.

By the way, I am also a music producer myself. I make music for 13 years already. You can listen to my tracks on SoundCloud or any streaming platform of your choice. I was not able to test HD559 as a studio headphones YET. But as soon as I make my first track with these, will post a review as well. But I suppose that these headphones have a good audio signature for bedroom productions and general home studio use. What I can say right now is that I will be able to sit in them for more than 3 hours which is more than I was ever able to be in any other headphones (except, probably, Porta Pros, but these ain’t studio at all and have “V-shaped” frequency response. Believe me, I tried to make music with Portas, but it all ended as bassless, thin and muddy mix).

Frequency response graph of the HD559 (credits: crinacle.com/In-Ear Fidelity):

Looks good, right? Balanced and clean. Believe me, it sounds way better than it looks due to it’s open-back nature.

SETUP

As I said before — nothing too fancy. MacBook Air M1. It has no problems of driving 50Ohm drivers of HD559. What I love in audio is to be as compact as possible. I hate dongles, external audio devices and preamps because you become tied to one place and cannot really change it much.

Tomorrow I also want to test these cans with other Apple devices (mostly old ones) — iPad Air 2, iPad 1St Gen, iPhone 6 Plus, Dell laptop with Waves audio internal DAC. I am sure it will sound good as well. Yet, even if all listed above will not have enough power to drive 559, I will not be discouraged cause I mostly use my Mac for everything.

OTHER

If you buy these, make sure the original Sennheiser package seals were not opened before. Box looks like this:

I am sorry for not providing my own photos. Currently my location is not perfect for photos. I think I will make some shots of my setup when I will be making the “studio review” of Sennheiser HD559.

I hope you liked my “unprofessional” review! Subscribe for more:)