Sennheiser HD 480 Pro

[Feelas]

I think the low end could come up a bit but that's an easy fix, and I'm conflicted on the build quality. On one hand, it's a lot of plastic. On the other hand I think you kind of have to use plastics to get headphones this light.

As for this, does the plastic that they used feel more substantial/durable or sort of flimsy?

 

[jean-benoit]

i think the HD480 built quality is great. sure its plastic but its put together well and feels very good. everything is tight and the construction is top notch. nothing feels off or strange. my fiio ft1 feels rubbish against the sennheiser.
just dont throw it around, but i would never do this with any headphone anyway…

 

[beeface]

Plastic gets a bad rap sometimes, but it's a totally valid material when used appropriately. Given this is a studio headphone I'm sure Sennheiser considered durability in their design

 

[pdfield34]

As for this, does the plastic that they used feel more substantial/durable or sort of flimsy?

More substantial / durable - contributes to light weight, sleek, one cohesive unit. Build is a plus (among many others).

 

[LiveTek]

As for this, does the plastic that they used feel more substantial/durable or sort of flimsy?

Seems fine, some parts might have been better as metal.

Plastic gets a bad rap sometimes, but it's a totally valid material when used appropriately. Given this is a studio headphone I'm sure Sennheiser considered durability in their design

I don't seem the holding up to abuse as well as my hd558. I have treated like those crap for more than 10 years and they just keep going.

I have decided I hate the coily cable so I made my own. had some mini xlr lying around.

 

[Bookbear]

Sound is very useable out of the box. Nothing that sounds off, though they are clearly not completely neutral for me. I've added some EQ based on measurements (I can't for the life of me work with sine sweeps) and spent several evenings listening to classical music on them without feeling the need to grab my normal go-tos for that (Dan Clark Audio E3, HD800 with EQ).

What EQ settings did you use?

 

[LiveTek]

This is my current EQ. I find the headphones lack in the lower mids/upper bass. They have plenty of sub bass which is nice, but it could honestly be dialed down.

The mid and highs are a little hard to judge EQ wise, need to get a pair to Amir or something so we can get a more EQ'able graph. Seems to be some pretty big variations between measurements out there so I just had to judge the top end by ear. The difference in mixes between tracks makes the 6-9khz range kind of tough to judge, on some there is too much bite, on others it's too dull. I like the headphones a lot more with EQ, without it they're kind of harsh and thin sounding for just listening. They're awesome for tracking as is I have to say.

Also apparently the round part of the cups are plastic, but the curved plate on them is actually metal.

I will say, my various $20 IEM's with goodhertz canopener sound as good, if not better than the hd480 pro lol. IEM's aren't comfortable for me at all though so I only wear them when I need to and can't really sing with them. I'd like to get customs one day but not until I see data on them that is actually good. All the ones reviewed here were junk.

 

[creo]

I got these today... I initially struggled with them as I'd used dt880pros around 15 years ago. Circumstances forced me to get closed back, I was going to get noire xs but it felt like a lot of money to spend before trying something else. 480 pros have so many good reviews... I've grown used to them over the past few hours and find them pretty decent. I tried messing with the eq at 4khz and adding 180hz 1db 2eq but they made almost zero difference to me. I only noticed it when playing those frequencies alone on youtube. My taste encompasses all genres, everything sounds good, although not as good as a real open back obviously. I do feel like they should be slightly cheaper given the materials it is made out of. I grabbed the non plus for £300, I think around 200 to 250 would be a better spot.

edit:
urgh as you can tell im a noob, I put pregain to 0db and could actually tell the difference tweaking 180 and 4k, 3db q1.41 on 4k and 180 3db q2 seems okay. still playing

 

[creo]

This is my current EQ. I find the headphones lack in the lower mids/upper bass. They have plenty of sub bass which is nice, but it could honestly be dialed down.

The mid and highs are a little hard to judge EQ wise, need to get a pair to Amir or something so we can get a more EQ'able graph. Seems to be some pretty big variations between measurements out there so I just had to judge the top end by ear. The difference in mixes between tracks makes the 6-9khz range kind of tough to judge, on some there is too much bite, on others it's too dull. I like the headphones a lot more with EQ, without it they're kind of harsh and thin sounding for just listening. They're awesome for tracking as is I have to say.

Also apparently the round part of the cups are plastic, but the curved plate on them is actually metal.

I will say, my various $20 IEM's with goodhertz canopener sound as good, if not better than the hd480 pro lol. IEM's aren't comfortable for me at all though so I only wear them when I need to and can't really sing with them. I'd like to get customs one day but not until I see data on them that is actually good. All the ones reviewed here were junk.

I didnt like this eq config at all

 

[LiveTek]

I didnt like this eq config at all

Cant imagine most will, it was made for my ears. I don't find the change that big personally.

As good as they are, they're still closed headphones and probably won't ever match what open can sound like. Crossfeed helps.

 

[Feelas]

I got these today... I initially struggled with them as I'd used dt880pros around 15 years ago. Circumstances forced me to get closed back, I was going to get noire xs but it felt like a lot of money to spend before trying something else. 480 pros have so many good reviews... I've grown used to them over the past few hours and find them pretty decent. I tried messing with the eq at 4khz and adding 180hz 1db 2eq but they made almost zero difference to me. I only noticed it when playing those frequencies alone on youtube. My taste encompasses all genres, everything sounds good, although not as good as a real open back obviously. I do feel like they should be slightly cheaper given the materials it is made out of. I grabbed the non plus for £300, I think around 200 to 250 would be a better spot.

edit:
urgh as you can tell im a noob, I put pregain to 0db and could actually tell the difference tweaking 180 and 4k, 3db q1.41 on 4k and 180 3db q2 seems okay. still playing

Give it 2-3 weeks to accomodate, seriously.

 

[creo]

Okay, will do.

 

[creo]

Cant imagine most will, it was made for my ears. I don't find the change that big personally.

As good as they are, they're still closed headphones and probably won't ever match what open can sound like. Crossfeed helps.

Yeah this is something I'm just going to have to accept unfortunately! I think I'd feel a bit better if they were a bit cheaper.

 

[LiveTek]

After some more time with the headphones, I find this chart I found closest to what I hear with a few differences. It appears this is compensated for the reviewers own ears?

They definitely need that little mid bass hump brought back in. I also find them a bit lacking in the lower mids, so a 300hz broad peak filters helps fix that otherwise I find them to sound thin. The 2.5khz peak annoys me for sure. The 10khz peak super annoys me but is easily knocked down. I also found reducing 1khz can help take vocals out of the head so to speak, and more in their own space. I would adjust to taste. I do not feel the 4khz range needs brought up at all despite the dip in the graph. I have also reduced 6khz a bit as it felt a tad harsh.

I required a little extra bass, and I feel if one tackles all those issues above with EQ, the headphone is amazing. The 2.5khz and 10khz peaks make the biggest difference to me, without them taken care of the headphone is kind of harsh.

I am pleased with the headphone, while not exactly the "needs no EQ" I was hoping for, I don't know if that even exists in the closed world. I will say the headphone responds very predictably and favorably to EQ. Some headphones do not, as the closer the get to neutrality, the more the unfixable flaws are revealed such as a DT770's mid range null. The price is easy to eat when one remembers nearly every other closed headphone is worse than this. One can spend more than double on a Dan Clark pair and still need EQ. It is what it is.

 

[Feelas]

After some more time with the headphones, I find this chart I found closest to what I hear with a few differences. It appears this is compensated for the reviewers own ears?

View attachment 559378

They definitely need that little mid bass hump brought back in. I also find them a bit lacking in the lower mids, so a 300hz broad peak filters helps fix that otherwise I find them to sound thin. The 2.5khz peak annoys me for sure. The 10khz peak super annoys me but is easily knocked down. I also found reducing 1khz can help take vocals out of the head so to speak, and more in their own space. I would adjust to taste. I do not feel the 4khz range needs brought up at all despite the dip in the graph. I have also reduced 6khz a bit as it felt a tad harsh.

I required a little extra bass, and I feel if one tackles all those issues above with EQ, the headphone is amazing. The 2.5khz and 10khz peaks make the biggest difference to me, without them taken care of the headphone is kind of harsh.

I am pleased with the headphone, while not exactly the "needs no EQ" I was hoping for, I don't know if that even exists in the closed world. I will say the headphone responds very predictably and favorably to EQ. Some headphones do not, as the closer the get to neutrality, the more the unfixable flaws are revealed such as a DT770's mid range null. The price is easy to eat when one remembers nearly every other closed headphone is worse than this. One can spend more than double on a Dan Clark pair and still need EQ. It is what it is.

2-4kHz is highly variable since IIRC it's the ear canal resonance freq (not accounted here if in-ear mic is used) which is very individual. As for the 10kHz peak, do you find it going away with reseating the headphones/tilting forwards?

 

[LiveTek]

2-4kHz is highly variable since IIRC it's the ear canal resonance freq (not accounted here if in-ear mic is used) which is very individual. As for the 10kHz peak, do you find it going away with reseating the headphones/tilting forwards?

10khz feels like it's blasting away at my ear no matter where I position the headphone, so I have it cut.

 

[Feelas]

Will be joining the HD 480 PRO gang soon, price on Amazon was too good to overlook.

 

[Feelas]

as a side question, @solderdude - since you had a look at 560S, HD 480 Pro and HD 490 Pro, do you think that HD 480 Pro is using the same driver as those? I'm not willing to disassemble when I receive mine, but I took a look at video from 0dB.pl website and the pic for HD 480 Pro driver is the one below. Does it ring a similarity with HD 490 Pro?

In HD 490 Pro article you mentioned specifically IE 00576672 which looks fairly similar to what is visible on this driver here...

... so it would follow, that we actually have HD560S, HD400 Pro, HD 480 Pro and HD 490 Pro (and NDH30 supposedly?) all on the *exact* same driver with wildly ranging price points.

Since HD620S is not the same, it would follow that HD 480 Pro is the actual closed-back HD560s... I wonder whether they struck gold with a novel design for HD560s (which now seems to be well-received and adaptable platform), or if actually any older HD5xx series pairs used the same construction, especially when they changed the recommended earpads for 560S, that they eventually took out of the closet, retuned and it turned out to be very useful. Just shows how much damping and tuning is important instead of only the driver.

I bet nobody has HD569, HD599, etc. all at the same time to disassemble and look for the driver code, but it would be an interesting endeavor nonetheless.

 

[solderdude]

The drivers are all built on the same chassis (magnet assembly) but have different rear damping so interchangeable they probably are not.
Especially the NDH 30 driver is substantially different in damping and driver positioning.

While the membranes and voice-coil assembly is the same due to the damping, acoustic resistors, driver angle, baffle layout, driver position and pads the systems differs.
HD 560S and HD 400 PRO are the exact same headphones b.t.w. the extra set of pads and cables (and colorway of the logo) differs and thus increases the price.
The HD 560S driver even had a (silent) revision over time and even more than just the driver itself.

Also one should remember that the pro and consumer part of Sennheiser are different but of course use same components.
Both the HD 480 PRO and HD 490 PRO have very different enclosures, pads etc and will not have similar sales numbers which increases the price.

Take the HD 490 PRO for instance... the HD 560S (HD 400 PRO) sits tonally exactly between the HD 490 PRO with the different pads.
Same driver chassis ... different tone only difference for HD 490 PRO: pads and damping.

But... has very different comfort and build quality as well as handy features in mechanics and for instance choice of cable entry left and right and higher quality plugs (min XLR-4).
Its something you pay for... including the different tuning.

That does not make all of these models 'HD 560S in disguise'.
As for the driver membrane ... and motor ... why change a winning team ?

 

[LiveTek]

After about a month or so of use I'm just really gelling with the headphones, something about the lower mids just sounded like they're in a box (they kind of are). It was very apparent when playing piano, could be some sort of inner cup thing, not there with IEM's. Doesn't really matter, just doesn't sound right to me. A $400 headphone should really blow you away everytime you put it on but these don't really do that for me. I'm not really sure any closed headphone can just by nature of what they are. I put my old hd558's on and they sound fine every time, never feel like I need to EQ. Perhaps my ears just don't like to be enclosed.

Another reason I returned them is that I'd like to put the money towards some custom iems which will probably serve me a bit better for what I do.