I am interested in the HD560S sound signature, but with higher build quality/comfort. I am looking to test the HD490 Pro vs. HIFIMAN Sundara vs. HD660S2. Does that comparison make sense? Or should I pick a different model to compare to?
At the moment I own DT880 Edition, Fostex TH610, DT770 ProX.
After testing them for a bit I can give some feedback on my observations:
The Hifiman
Sundara is totally not my thing. Build quality is okayish, comfort same, but the pads feel a bit cheap. For the Sound, it kind of felt off to me for the most part. But I was also under the impression that they might have a misbalance between both sides (left side being louder). But even without that, I would not consider such a headphone, the build quality is just not worth the money.
HD660S2 &
HD490 Pro: Build quality on both is kind of weird and not worth their price point when coming from a Beyerdynamic headphone. The HD660S2's headband feels cheap, no marking for headband extension and also the side markings are very small on the inside of the earpieces or on the cables. The HD490 Pro has a much nicer build quality for the headband the plastic has coarse coating and goes nicely with the metal headband, but the one sided cable is a tad bit to phonetic for my liking, when you move the cable a little bit you can hear it clearly in the right earcup. Sadly the earcups feel kind of cheap compared to HD660S2. The "mixing" earpads are disgustingly uncomfortable, so I can make not comment about their tonality. I really like the feature that you can place the HD490's flat on the table due to swiveling earcups. The HD660S2 are so weirdly build, when you push against the earcups from the outside or make biting movements with your jaw, you can hear the headphone making noises... its astounding because no other of the headphones I tried has this. The problem with this is, you can also hear sometimes when not making jaw movements, its just the build of the earcups. Maybe this is specific to the model I got, but thats a no-go for me. I am not sure I had the same problem with 560S.
In terms of sound I compared all of them to my momentary equipment with DT 880 Edition and a Fostex TH-610. And there certainly there was no wow effect, although the openness is really interesting of the HD660S2. I think it was the same openness which I liked about the 560S when I tried them. So all in all I expected this to a degree, my original intention was to get a higher buildquality HD 560S.
Maybe I will just get a refurbished 560S for 99€ and see if I can deal with the comfort and quality longterm.