Sennheiser HD560s Owner's Thread.

[Robbo99999]

They are £99 on Amazon UK (Sold By Amazon ) Possibly until Monday

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HNFV61M?psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Nice, very good price, totally worth it!

 

[DarrylG]

The original 560s earpads are available for $22 at the moment.

Ear Pads HD 559

Ear pads (black) for HD 559

global.sennheiser-hearing.com

 

[ArgusVolt]

Greetings!
I've recently got the Topping D50III. With its PEQ functionality, I've decided to try some EQ with the 560s. I have no prior experience with EQ, so I would appreciate any tips.
I've been testing Oratory EQ (v2.9 05.01.24) and at first, I liked it but there are some minor things bothering me. First, I just feel there's too much bass. Should I just decrease the gain at 105Hz to fix that? Would that take away the "warmness" that the EQ brought to the HD560s?
Lastly, in 'Touch' by Daft Punk, by the end of the song, when the children choir is fading back in, I just feel it got too laid back with Oratory EQ. Which frequency should I adjust to bring back the intensity those vocals?
Forgive me if any of this had been discussed before on this thread. If you have any other recommendation of EQ profile, please share! I listen to a lot of female vocal music and for a while I'm feeling the 560s stock just a bit fatiguing.

ps. I got the first version of the 560s, as soon as it was released, but had changed pads since then (got them from Sennheiser, I belive it is the same as the original pads, but I'm not 100% sure)

Many thanks for the help!

 

[solderdude]

As oratory always clearly states in his EQ suggestions... you can adjust certain bands to taste.

One has to realize the EQ is based on a specific industry standard measurement fixture. You ears (and personal taste) are very likely different from such a standard.

Sooo, use the suggested EQ settings as a platform to work from and adjust some bands to taste. Your ears, alas, do NOT comply to standards.

 

[unknownuser]

I'm using the HD560S since mid december and the HD6xx is mainly in the drawer, it's really good and the build quality is much better than my other 500 series which is quite squeaky plastic.
I'm using this profile below (probably it's from @Robbo99999 ) and does not always sound right but maybe just the albums I listened were bad sources, HD560S seems more revealing to me than the HD6xx. I'd thank any adjustment suggestions
Preamp: -6.75 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 20.0 Hz Gain 4.1 dB Q 0.50
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 160.0 Hz Gain -1.3 dB Q 1.00
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1173.0 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 2.00
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1813.0 Hz Gain 2.8 dB Q 2.00
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3320.0 Hz Gain -2.1 dB Q 3.50
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 3870.0 Hz Gain 3.6 dB Q 2.00
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 4520.0 Hz Gain -3.7 dB Q 3.00
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 5280.0 Hz Gain -2.3 dB Q 3.00
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 6800.0 Hz Gain 4.1 dB Q 2.00

 

[Robbo99999]

I'm using the HD560S since mid december and the HD6xx is mainly in the drawer, it's really good and the build quality is much better than my other 500 series which is quite squeaky plastic.
I'm using this profile below (probably it's from @Robbo99999 ) and does not always sound right but maybe just the albums I listened were bad sources, HD560S seems more revealing to me than the HD6xx. I'd thank any adjustment suggestions
Preamp: -6.75 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 20.0 Hz Gain 4.1 dB Q 0.50
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 160.0 Hz Gain -1.3 dB Q 1.00
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1173.0 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 2.00
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1813.0 Hz Gain 2.8 dB Q 2.00
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3320.0 Hz Gain -2.1 dB Q 3.50
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 3870.0 Hz Gain 3.6 dB Q 2.00
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 4520.0 Hz Gain -3.7 dB Q 3.00
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 5280.0 Hz Gain -2.3 dB Q 3.00
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 6800.0 Hz Gain 4.1 dB Q 2.00

Yep, that's my EQ but you got Filter #1 wrong. Just put it as a Peak Filter like you have for all the others. Following is a pic of the EQ for interest which would have been pictured in earlier posts (they're all Peak Filters).

I modify that EQ slightly by putting a linear tilt of -1.25dB onto that, meaning that 20kHz is -1.25dB below 20Hz and a linear slope adjustment inbetween - so it's just a subtle linear slope adjustment I use in addition to the EQ you see in the pic. You can do that using 3 High Shelf Filters, it's in an earlier post of mine. (It's like a Linear Tone Control Adjustment). (You should be able to find it, ask me if you can't & I'll take a look).

The pictured EQ's here in this post are all for New Version HD560s.

 

[unknownuser]

Yep, that's my EQ but you got Filter #1 wrong. Just put it as a Peak Filter like you have for all the others.

Thanks, fixed it. I can only have 8 PK filters that's why it ended up as LS I guess. Which one is ok to leave out? That 1.1 KHz -1 dB filter 3 is the one I left out for now. The low end sounded great with games after the fix, the rumble is there and I didn't notice distortion. I like to test bass with this Gears of War trailer, even the compressed YouTube audio sounds good.

 

[Robbo99999]

Thanks, fixed it. I can only have 8 PK filters that's why it ended up as LS I guess. Which one is ok to leave out? That 1.1 KHz -1 dB filter 3 is the one I left out for now. The low end sounded great with games after the fix, the rumble is there and I didn't notice distortion. I like to test bass with this Gears of War trailer, even the compressed YouTube audio sounds good.

Hi, given you've got limitation of 8 Peak Filters then I worked out just now what Low Shelf Filter would have a nearly identical effect as the 20Hz Peak Filter I used. So instead for Filter #1 use Low Shelf at 54Hz, +4.1dB at Q0.71. That means that you'll be able to reactivate the 1.1kHz filter.

 

[unknownuser]

Hi, given you've got limitation of 8 Peak Filters then I worked out just now what Low Shelf Filter would have a nearly identical effect as the 20Hz Peak Filter I used. So instead for Filter #1 use Low Shelf at 54Hz, +4.1dB at Q0.71. That means that you'll be able to reactivate the 1.1kHz filter.

I'm using this profile since your reply and going through many albums this is clearly improvement and now the sound is full and balanced, even some albums I thought are more compressed have greater dynamic range. No desire currently to use my HD 6xx, this is also comfy and good for everything.
Thank you for your EQ!

 

[Robbo99999]

I'm using this profile since your reply and going through many albums this is clearly improvement and now the sound is full and balanced, even some albums I thought are more compressed have greater dynamic range. No desire currently to use my HD 6xx, this is also comfy and good for everything.
Thank you for your EQ!

Excellent, pleased it's worked out for you!

 

[Dreamic]

What is going on at 7k on some of these 5128 measurements?
The dark blue line is avg of L+R from HypeTheSonics, if you look at their left channel it also drops like this.
One of the light blue or red is RTings and the other is I think Resolve.
Orange is an average of the measurements from Listener, which I don't think includes everything to date.
Green is SoundGuys.
No idea who pink is.
Also a lot of variance at 3k.
Light blue and red also way higher at 15k.

That 7k is a disaster though if some units are like that.

 

[Robbo99999]

View attachment 419782
What is going on at 7k on some of these 5128 measurements?
The dark blue line is avg of L+R from HypeTheSonics, if you look at their left channel it also drops like this.
One of the light blue or red is RTings and the other is I think Resolve.
Orange is an average of the measurements from Listener, which I don't think includes everything to date.
Green is SoundGuys.
No idea who pink is.
Also a lot of variance at 3k.
Light blue and red also way higher at 15k.

That 7k is a disaster though if some units are like that.

You've got no labelled scale on the y-axis so we can't really assume what kind of differences we're seeing between the various lines. It's normal for there to be some variance between different units and if you also factor in different people measuring the headphones that's also some extra variance there. I have no idea if for sure all of these people use 5128, and I'm also not sure if there are some different variants of the 5128 that you can get (perhaps not), but for GRAS measurements there are a lot of people measuring using Chinese cloned equipment which is cheaper but doesn't show the same results. It's also possible that some of these people have measured the Old Version of the HD560s rather than the New Version, so that's another point of variance, and there's no information re the degree of pad wear for these measured units - so all in all there's quite a lot of potential variation that could be going on here that doesn't have to be associated with just real unit to unit variation, albeit that will be a factor too.

 

[solderdude]

View attachment 419782
What is going on at 7k on some of these 5128 measurements?
The dark blue line is avg of L+R from HypeTheSonics, if you look at their left channel it also drops like this.
One of the light blue or red is RTings and the other is I think Resolve.
Orange is an average of the measurements from Listener, which I don't think includes everything to date.
Green is SoundGuys.
No idea who pink is.
Also a lot of variance at 3k.
Light blue and red also way higher at 15k.

That 7k is a disaster though if some units are like that.

You can not assume all HD560S/400PRO 'measure' exactly the same on a similar fixture under the same circumstances.
They don't and this alone is enough reason to see this delta, which in itself is already quite good.
Could be product variance, could be pad condition, could be placement, could even be other causes.
This 'science' is anything but exact and the plot that comes out may not reflect 'reality' but rather the circumstances.

Just look at the average between 100Hz and several kHz and that will be pretty much 'correct' the rest is measurement condition and production spread dependent.

Headphone measurements are anything BUT exact and only are correct to the standard it is measured to, not to reality on one's head, not even with BK5128.
No matter how much we all want the science and measurements to be exact ... they aren't.
Frequency response measurements can give a decent 'picture' for tonality between 50Hz and 8kHz (sometimes even less) which is the most important part of the frequency range.

 

[Mickeylickey]

What program do you all use to eq.

 

[Count Arthur]

Using references, ears, parametric EQ and many years experience.
I am sure you will have tons of objections, if so just ignore me.

Audiophiles: "You don't listen to measurements."

Solderdude: "I hear frequency response graphs!"