Sennheiser HD 490 Pro Headphone Review

[Graph Feppar]

But we don't know the IMD of the 490 pro, do we ?
Among other articles, Harman themselves tried to evaluate the impact of various forms of non-linear distortion on listener preferences, the main article being this one (includes a Stax) : https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=17441
In that test IM did not seem to have a particularly significant impact on preferences. Generally speaking for most of the headphones that were recorded and then played back non-linear distortions were low enough to have little impact on preferences.

I'm all in for more perceptually relevant non-linear distortion metrics, but I am not certain that focusing on IMD is the best bet to make.

This is another common confusion I see in headphone/speaker forums, if you know the harmonic distortion levels of headphone or speaker, you automatically know the IMD levels too. Both harmonic and inharmonic distortion comes from same reason, the driver as a piston is not in precise position its supposed to be.

As the driver goes further, the restoring force pulling it back is higher so the error in position is bigger. Now if you have headphone with 1% THD at 100hz and lets say 0.01% THD at 7200hz, becose the driver excursion is much higher at the 100hz, the poor 7200hz that would otherwise be clean will be riding on top of the 100hz driver motion and pushed into the highly non-linear region, thus making it highly distorted too. And since this is time variable, depending on at what phase of the 100hz cycle the driver is at, it will create time variable distortion of the 7400hz sine, thus creating inter modulation tones

Its like waterfall plot and freqency/phase response graphs. If you know the frequency and phase response of a headphone, you can predict exactly how will fast will it decay across the spectrum in waterfall plot.

 

[solderdude]

becose the driver excursion is much higher at the 100hz, the poor 7200hz that would otherwise be clean will be riding on top of the 100hz driver motion and pushed into the highly non-linear region, thus making it highly distorted too.

I have to nuance this a bit.

Of course this only happens near the peaks of the low frequencies (large excursions) which are short lived. Most of the time the amplitude of the 7.2kHz (in your example) it will be fine and get some side-bands (7.1kHz and 7.3kHz) near the peaks. These will be largely masked by the 7.2kHz and, as mentioned, only present at the bass peaks.

 

[ciccio1378]

This is hardly worth twice the price of the 560S in my opinion ...

I agree with you.

 

[delta76]

It is too rash to draw such conclusions based on a review. Without personally listening to your favorite tracks and equalizer settings it is impossible to judge.

thing is, life is too short to try out every headphone. I have a list of headphones I would buy given right opportunity, and that is only ever growing. This has no advantage over HD560s even though it is double the price.

 

[Joachim Herbert]

There is zero excuse for a headphone not to be target compliant no matter the price, unless the manufacturer deliberately chooses not to follow the Harman curve.
What we're seeing in the graphs is simply a rather broken headphone in the lower regions that will be very bass shy and may produce very bass heavy mixes...

Sennheiser obviously does not feel this to be "a rather broken headphone". Not everyone is into boomboom.

 

[Count Arthur]

I've had a pair for a month or two. I'll give Amir's EQ settings a go, but I've been quite happy with the sound as they are straight out of the box.

With the velour pads, they are the most comfortable over-ears I've tried, although that isn't a huge number. They are the only headphones I've tried that are light enough and comfortable to the point that I can almost forget I'm wearing them.

I had some HD650s and I have some HD560s, both are also light, but for some reason I'm always aware that they are there and feel the need to adjust their position from time to time. I also have some Focals, which are pretty comfortable, but I'm always conscious of their weight.

 

[Mr Swing King]

If I want something perfectly natural or thereabouts, I’m reaching out for my HD580 or HD600.
If I want something a little different I’ll grab the 490. It sounds like a warmer and slightly more punchy Hifiman teamed up with a Sennheiser. I really dig the stock tuning - especially from the producer pads.
Sure if you’re looking for a perfectly captured Harman presentation, there are other better options out there…like fx the HD560S. It is however not nearly as comfortable as the 490 and doesn’t sport two tunings.
Personally I feel this new Sennie is the most comfortable headphone they’ve ever made…maaaybe with the exception of the HD590.

Get this if you love the sound signature of the Meze 109 Pro, eggy Hifimans, the HI-X65 or the Composer. Same sort of tuning but way cheaper and in most cases the Sennie sounds best…at least to these ears. I haven’t laid ears on the Composer as of yet though, but looking at a frequency response, it looks like a slightly better take on the HI-X65.

 

[IAtaman]

In this case, I EQed at 7.3 kHz bringing that peak down. While the effect is quite subtle, it counteracted some of the brightness that the lower treble boost provides. I call this filter optional.

Text says 7.3K peak was EQ'ed down but the EQ shows +4.0dB gain. A typo or a mistake in the EQ maybe?

 

[IAtaman]

No. You have written that you review in mono.

Ha! You created the account to make that comment didn't you. Did you take a screen shot and shared it with your friends on TikTok yet?

 

[staticV3]

No. My account is almost two months old. I have never used tiktok or any other social media.

As part of his reviews, Amir does listening tests of loudspeakers in Mono.
I don't think he does the same for headphones.

 

[staticV3]

Why would anyone have different reviewing methods.

What do you want Amir to strap subwoofers to his ears to listen just like he does with headphones?

Obviously different types of equipment require different methods.

 

[Robbo99999]

Seems like a quite impressive headphone from the measurements, the producer pads (1st graph) seem to be the one to use and I'm assuming based on his EQ that Amir listened to the Producer pads rather than the Mixing pads. It's got a pretty smooth frequency response that looks pretty easily EQ'able & combined with low distortion throughout the frequency range I'm thinking it should be really quite good after EQ. I was expecting a more glowing after EQ listening experience from Amir given the measurements I saw, especially in terms of the bass - I figured the low distortion would provide some nice detailed & impactful bass after EQ, but Amir seems to be describing the bass as a bit soft albeit he didn't use that particular word. Fairly expensive headphone though, and not getting a totally glowing listening review from Amir.....I'm having concerns re the abilities of this headphone in the bass given Amir's listening description of it, which I'm surprised about because I thought EQ'd bass on this was gonna be great from measurements. I'm gonna vote it "Fine" in the poll, a bit pricey & question mark over the bass. (I'm gonna go read all the previous comments in the thread now, haven't read any of them yet.)

 

[IAtaman]

What do you want Amir to strap subwoofers to his ears to listen just like he does with headphones?

Obviously different types of equipment require different methods.

If someone claims, on an internet forum of all the places, that they never used any social media, and that the headphones and speakers should be reviewed the same way, I'd say they are very likely to be trolling, wouldnt you?

 

[dfuller]

Honestly, I think I'd like these. I find Harman bass to be rather overblown in over ear headphones and a bit forward.

 

[ZolaIII]

I don't understand what social media has to do with this. Could you elaborate why one should be reviewed in mono and the other in stereo.

You put a single speaker on measurement rig and it measure it and afterwards as you have one placed you listen to that single one in mono. You put headphones/earphones on HATS and it does measurements and later you put same on your head and listen to them. Subjective part (listening and rant about it) is less important and more for verification purposes.

 

[solderdude]

I don't understand what social media has to do with this. Could you elaborate why one should be reviewed in mono and the other in stereo.

Amir has clarified somewhere about why he reviews speakers (not listens to for enjoyment) in mono (just one speaker so not 2 speakers in mono).
It has to do with comb filtering effects and stereo recordings with instruments panned more towards one side
Of course this is not the case for headphones.

Dr. Toole's comments in anticipation to his new book on Acoustics and Psychoacoustics

Hi all, I have borrowed the below text from a JBL thread at AVSforum.com Really interesting read from Dr. Toole. I especially liked the part where he discusses imaging and what affects it. Fascinating...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[usern]

Quite similar distortion with 560S:

 

[solderdude]

If comb filtering is such a big issue then why do people who work in studios who makes the music use stereo and why does speaker manufacturers recommend using stereo.

It is an issue for measuring and evaluating the speaker itself. This is well documented. This has nothing to do with studios and stereo recordings.

 

[ZolaIII]

I should have clarified that I didn't mean measuring. I don't agree that listening is less important.

Listening is subjective to; subject, it's bias, room, placement... measurements are not. No one does stereo measurements for speakers nor it ever will as simple phase shift impacts everything. I thought you have at least some objective objection, obviously that's not a case. Reed and read a lot in order to learn.
@usern 10 dB difference in distortion, similar profile and it doesn't make difference listening on normal mid 70's SPL level.

 

[solderdude]

I am not proposing this.
It is a procedure which is common practice in scientific circles (the measurement world).
You really should dig into scientific papers about this subject.

Those speakers then can be used in stereo systems. Again... this is not about using mono signals with 2 speakers in a stereo setup. But even in that case using mono signals is a good idea in a room where reflections/placement is problematic.

But to get this thread back on track.... this has NOTHING to do with headphones nor the HD490Pro and Amir does not listen to headphones in mono either.
Using mono in headphones could be useful for checking channel balance and FR balance issues b.t.w.