Sennheiser HD 560 S Over-The-Ear Audiophile Headphones – Neutral Frequency Response, E.A.R. Technology for Wide Sound Field,

9 reviews for Sennheiser HD 560 S Over-The-Ear Audiophile Headphones – Neutral Frequency Response, E.A.R. Technology for Wide Sound Field,

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Jacob Birkett – August 27, 2023

   
   The first thing you’ll notice is that they’re *very* tight on your head. For two days, I had a headache because it would press my glasses into my temporal lobe. I solved this by placing them over the cardboard box they came with for two nights, and they have been incredibly comfortable since. There is a bump in the back of each ear cup that bothered me at first, it would brush against my Ferengi lobes. I got used to this over time, and it no longer bothers me. If you have them positioned properly (I did not at first) you won’t notice the bumps.I took off a star for build quality, even though I still think they’re quite good. The plastic feels quite durable. They have survived the airport, I made sure to pack them carefully between clothes, and a few drops from when my dog snags the cord. No visible damage after a month.Now for the complaints: the padding on the headband seems to be sightly raised away from the plastic (picture attached). This makes sense though, as there seems to be a compliant mechanism inside that allows the plastic to be stretched. Nevertheless, what I don’t like is the fact that I can clearly see adhesive where the overlap occurs.The second complaint is that the left and right swivels feel different. I notice that the right is more loose. When I place them on my head, because the right has less resistance, the do not swivel to the same degree and I have to manually adjust them. No normal person would ever notice this though.As for sound: the high impedance but also high sensitivity make this easy to drive with a laptop or smartphone. I do think it is worth finding something of quality to drive these, because of the high sensitivity.Normally it accentuates the high-middle frequencies, but it is clear all around. It is pleasant for listening, but high frequencies can sometimes get irritating.It sounds excellent by itself, but I went the extra mile. I use this with and Qudelix 5K. Using that little DAC-Amp significantly cleans up the audio signal and allows these headphones to truly shine.Do note that the sensitivity on the box says 110 dBSPL/V while software is going to ask for dBSPL/mW. That measurement is going to be 100.78 dBSPL/mV, do some research on this to verify my calculation. Impedance is 120 ohms.Since I have the Qudelix, I started playing with the parametric equalizer. I discovered these headphones can sound even better and more accurate than they do from the factory. I ended up with a customized version of Oratory1990’s parametric settings for the Harmon target. I changed some of the gain levels in the upper-mids and highs to bring the headphones closer to the way they sound from factory, but to reduce the irritation and allow me to listen comfortably for longer. The preset I used definitely helps with the bass, and I left that alone.Don’t get these if you’re a basshead. That is not what they are meant for. The bass is clear and accurate, and just boomy enough for me.Imaging is, I would say, great, but the Philips SHP9500 beats them by a small margin. When playing video games, you can hear things in front, above, and behind you, but other headphones may be better.Overall, these are a great general-purpose pair of headphones. Combined with the Ablet Boom Microphone, they’re great for gaming, and with a Qudelix 5K, they’re great for music. Highly recommend. Would have been 5 stars if not for the visible glue on the headband and the sloppy swivel on the right ear cup.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Vale Rama – March 22, 2023

   
   The Sennheiser HD 560S are a clear and revealing pair of headphones. On my other headphones and IEMs, when I apply EQ (Oratory1990 results from AutoEQ on GitHub) the effect is immediately apparent, the music seems to have greater clarity. I would liken it to the feeling of clear breathing after one has blown one’s nose when waking up with clogged sinuses. The HD 560S, on my system, don’t seem to need any EQ for greater clarity. You can of course EQ them to taste, specifically those who want more bass. The HD 560S have bass that go deep and sound good but they aren’t boosted so those wanting a bass heavy tuning/signature may want to EQ by boosting the lows (or cutting the mids and highs depending on your approach to EQ). I find the HD 560S to be an excellent sounding pair of headphones. I use them a lot but not exclusively since I do have other headphones I also enjoy. Those looking to try a pair with that clear, revealing, linear sound should give these a listen.I generally use headphones with an amp but I’ve also used the the HD 560S with my Sony Xperia mobile phone and they aren’t hard to drive. I have the volume at about 60% on the phone at my preferred listening level. The 560S’s clarity helps here, I don’t need to have the volume so high in order to hear the details I want from the music. Though compared to my other current headphones these do need the most amplification, but not by a lot. On a song that I would have my headphone amp’s volume knob set at 10:30 for the Sony MDR-1AM2 or at 12:30 for the Philips Fidelio X2HR, the amp would be at 1:00 for the HD 560S (I try to volume match for vocals when listening to music).The HD 560S are comfortable enough for me to wear for extended periods. I do feel the clamping force on the sides of the head, surrounding the ear, but I don’t find the pressure to be uncomfortable. The pads are large enough to fully go around the ear and deep enough so the drivers don’t come into contact with the ear so no pressure is put on the ear itself. There is a little protrusion inside the cups that might touch the ears depending on how forward or back you have the headphones. I don’t find them bothersome and in fact I use them to set the headphones consistently on my head by having them just barely touch the rear edge of my ears.However, these Sennheisers aren’t a perfect set. For my purposes the cable is rather long. I use these at my desktop so a shorter cable would be better for me but others might be fine with the longer cable. They are open back in design so there is some sound leakage which might be an issue if you listen loud and share the room with others. Of course their open back nature is part of what gives them a less boxed in sound than the closed backed alternatives.I did encounter an issue that was easily fixed in my case. Out of the box I seemed to hear a channel imbalance. This was disappointing at first but I also noticed that the left and right ear pads of my set were not equally soft. I then swapped the left and right ear pads and the imbalance wasn’t there anymore. I’m now perfectly happy with my pair and can recommend them for their sonic qualities but buyers should be aware of possible issues. I have had other Sennheiser headphones over the years and this is the first such issue I’ve had with them.The build quality is good but there are less expensive headphones that have equal or better construction. At this price ($199 when purchased, it’s cheaper now) it would have been nice to have extra cables and a pouch. I got my MDR-1AM2 at a similar price and it has a more premium/luxurious feel, and includes two different cables (including balanced, since the HD 560S is wired for balanced it should have come with such a cable) and has a carrying pouch. The X2HR was about $50 less and feels like a more substantial set. Each of these headphones have different sound signatures and are good for diffent use cases but even though the HD 560S has really good sound (arguably better than others if that’s the sound you’re after) it doesn’t deliver the best value overall. Because of that (as well as the issue I encountered above) I can only rate these headphones at 4 stars. If, however, sound is all you care about then I could maybe give them 5 stars since I do enjoy using them quite a lot.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   joe – September 14, 2023

   
   I have had the same wireless Logitech headset for a few years since it was one of the first things I bought with my first paycheck from my first job. It was hard to find something that I could think would be as reliable but, I saw everyone talking about these headphones and thought I should try them. As soon as I got these I tried them out in game thought they sounded great. The open back allowing me to hear things outside the game like a family member is what is appealing to me. More so than even the gaming aspect was the music aspect. I am not an audiophile but when I listened to one of my favorite songs on this I had goosebumps and teared up a little. They are so good and I can’t recommend them enough.

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Tony G – September 14, 2023

   
   TL/ DR: pair these with a decent dac amp, even a dongle dac and you have excellent and clean bass (not bass head bass) with a mostly neutral presentation with great Soundstage and imaging for this price.Fit was excellent after about a few days on my size 7 3/4 dome. It expands and contracts well so even if you have a small head the earcups are comfy.They look all plastic in build which makes them look a little cheap but it actually is nice for long listening sessions due to less weight.These are great intros into a more stereotypical audiophile sound while still having fun listening to music and gaming with all but really the most bass intense needs. For reference played Forza, Starfield, Mlb the show, Destiny 2 and the newest Street fighter and all sounded amazing.

5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   El kratos Ω – August 30, 2023

   Suena excelente con un fiio k7
   Ahora que todo mundo quiere sonido en alta fidelidad y que los archivos flac están por todos lados, decidí darle una oportunidad a estos audífonos, por fuera parecen sólo unos audífonos comunes, no trae nada de botones los auriculares, absolutamente nada y la calidad de los materiales no parecen destacar.Lo único que tienen es la marca pero a simple vista no parecen que sean unos auriculares premium, por dentro supongo que deben traer lo interesante pero por fuera la verdad decepcionan, por el precio un estuche hubiera estado bien pero ni eso trae.Con respecto al sonido que es lo más importante y es el motivo por el cuál seguramente estás pensando si los adquieres o no, pues puedo confirmar que si mejoran la calidad, he tenido muchos audífonos gamer de gama alta de corsair, también los últimos modelos de Sony inalámbrico tanto el estilo in ear como cover ear, lógicamente tengo mucho material flac para poder verificar qué tan bien se escuchan y la verdad el sonido es muy bueno, es claro, no tiene exceso de graves, los agudos no molestan y puedes usar todo el volumen sin que se distorcione, todo esto lo he realizado sin dac, estoy esperando que me llegue el fiio k9 para poder realizar más pruebas. Pero así como vienen suena mejor que otros auriculares que he tenido. Puedes distinguir mejor los instrumentos de las canciones.Edito porque conseguí el fiio k7 es un dac con amplificador y suenan preciosos la verdad vale la pena. Estaba entre el k5 pro y k7 porque la diferencia no es mucho pero creo que el k7 tiene más entradas para otros propósitos.Para juegos pues la verdad puedes usarlos y aunque suenan muy bien no los recomendaría sólo para eso, sería un desperdicio porque brillan más para escuchar música, para videojuegos puedes usar alguno que tenga sonido 7.1 y más en shooters para identificar de qué lado viene el sonido, con estos no tienes esos detalles pero de qué se escuchan magnífico es indiscutible.En conclusión si realmente eres un audiófilo podrían interesarte pero si eres una de esas personas seguramente te interesen más los 660s aunque el precio se dispara mucho, si vas empezando con la música hifi son excelentes para no gastar mucho.Realmente los recomiendoEspero que mi reseña te sea útil.

6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   John C – June 21, 2023

   Sennheiser HD 560s
   This is the first open backed headphone that I have used. My interest is mainly in classical music. The sound quality is very pleasing to my ears. My portable CD player (iriver) has sufficient output to drive the headphones. Listening to various tracks on my Fiio X3 mk DAP the output is not loud enough and my old Fiio E06 headphone amplifier improves performance considerably. Perhaps my digital files have been ripped at too low a level. A prospective user might check the output levels of their devices.The sound insulation on these headphones is not great but that is the penalty one is paying for the great sound.

7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Alejandro J. – September 17, 2023

   Delicia
   La música se escucha genial. Muy recomendables

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Antonio C. – September 7, 2023

   Excelentes audífonos
   Excelentes audífonos con una gran calidad un sonido balanceado y claro brindan una experiencia musical de primer nivel.

9. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Alex – July 2, 2023

   Muy buenos audifonos.
   Estos son los primeros audifonos Hi-Fi que compro y la verdad creo que valen la pena, mis anteriores audifonos son unos sennheiser HD599 SE y la verdad es que estos me gustan mas, se escucha mucho mas detallado los instrumentos, aunque los 599 tienen mas bajos, yo principalmente los uso para escuchar musica, ver series o peliculas y para jugar y la verdad es que he estado muy contento.