New headset

[T}{OR]

Originally Posted by Les

Thanks for the video, good to know the 555's can be modified so easily, but it does annoy me when companies do stuff like that to differentiate between their upper and lower end products. The headphones should be the same price if those pieces of foam are the main point of difference between the models. IMO they shouldn't be charging more or less for different sounding headphones when their basic structure is so similar.

Trust me, many many companies do this kind of stuff. Basically wrap the same product in a fancier design to sell them to 'professionals'. The more high end product you get, there is less and less difference or should I say money value for the higher price included.

But, instead of buying 555's I intend to go with 595's because they include headphone holder and - maybe the same driver, but this driver definitely passed higher tests to qualify for high end 5** series model. Also, when people say 555's are very similar to 595's, I take that with a grain of salt. As it all depends on what equipment you're using them with and what you are listening. Fortunately I have a more or less trained ear and decent audiophile system nearby.

I would like to see someone test the 555's drivers weather they can reach 595's frequencies.

The main point of interest in HD 595's for me is the extreme wearing comfort. I have found people 'complaining' about various stuff (how the sound is neutral etc.) but no one ever said anything against their comfort. Almost everyone says you can forget that you have them on your head. Open design is a must for long periods of listening, but does leak a lot of sound out of the cans. This isn't a problem for me, on the contrary.

The purpose I intend to use them for is also important. And this translates to mostly music playback and gaming - albeit only simulators and maybe occasional FPS like Arma 2 or America's Army 3.0. Thus their 'neutral' sounding is just what I need here.

With the new model around the corner, their price range is just perfect for me for what they offer. If I wanted to spend money on HD 598's price range, I would go with series 6** models.

Originally Posted by Les

Thanks for that. Even if you have stereo headphones there's quite a bit of spatial separation to be had there. Someone should do a binaural version of that to push the sounds even further out.

I just sold my Sharkoon X-Tatic True 5.1, so I can't test this with a 5.1 headset. They were more or less ok for gaming but terrible at music reproduction.

Even still, as you say - there is quite enough spatial separation. I was pleasantly surprised when Oleg said SoW will support binaural audio.