Sennheiser HD560s Owner's Thread.

[Soria Moria]

@Soria Moria , in the meantime you could try just a Peak Filter at 4750Hz, -3dB, Q2. That's me eyeballing the peak there on Oratory's measurement.

I have and it's a lot more listenable now. Thanks.

 

[AC1]

I mimic the EQ of the filter that DIY-Audio-Heaven is selling for the HD 560S and it works wonderfully. Might even buy that filter so that I can use the headphones on every device. Sounds better to me that the extensive 9-band EQ somebody has made. I agree with Soria that the bass is good. Listened to some upright bass yesterday and I don't feel I need to boost the 20-40 Hz region with 8 dB. Can't be good for that driver either.

 

[Robbo99999]

I mimic the EQ of the filter that DIY-Audio-Heaven is selling for the HD 560S and it works wonderfully. Might even buy that filter so that I can use the headphones on every device. Sounds better to me that the extensive 9-band EQ somebody has made. I agree with Soria that the bass is good. Listened to some upright bass yesterday and I don't feel I need to boost the 20-40 Hz region with 8 dB. Can't be good for that driver either.

Just a quick point on your comment about bass. Boosting bass in HD560s to Harman Levels down to 20Hz isn't a problem, according to Oratory measurements only requires around +6dB at 20Hz. HD560s is a low distortion headphone everywhere, including the bass, so can certainly handle +6dB in the bass, I find it to deliver the best bass out of all my headphones, well tied with my EQ'd planar HE4XX. So I find the bass super detailed and low distortion in my listening experience. Here are some Oratory measurements of distortion in HD560s:

So the driver is very capable to deliver good bass.

 

[solderdude]

I agree with Soria that the bass is good. Listened to some upright bass yesterday and I don't feel I need to boost the 20-40 Hz region with 8 dB.

Yep, I don't feel the need to boost the bass either but do not fall in the 'Harman target' bass level category, too old I reckon .
I just lower the 4-12kHz band (7kHz -4dB) and it sounds fine to me.

 

[Robbo99999]

First impressions: They sound very good and exactly as described. I actually don't find them bass light and yes I do actually listen to music that goes down to 20 Hz. They are a little bit harsh though. At this point I'd be fine with just fixing the treble with EQ and I'd be a happy person. Imaging is also great as people have been saying. I believe @solderdude attributed part of the imaging to the angled drivers (which was one of the reasons I bought this). Can I ask how angled drivers improve imaging? Less group delay or something?

Hi, I did that RME EQ for you, I've given you a couple of options. The first one is an EQ that uses the same bass level that you've been using currently, and the second one is done to Harman bass levels. These are based on Oratory's latest published measurement.

HD560s EQ unchanged bass levels (for RME DAC)

• use a -2dB Negative Preamp with this EQ.
• adjust bass levels using the Low Shelf Filter at 70Hz
• adjust "air" by using High Shelf Filter at 10000Hz
• If adding positive gain to the shelf filters then increase the negative preamp by the same amount (so if boosting bass by an extra 2dB then increase Negative Preamp from it's current -2dB to -4dB) - there are caveats as to why this might not need to be done in this way, but it's the safest way to explain how to avoid digital clipping with this EQ.

HD560s EQ Harman bass levels (for RME DAC)

• use a -4.5dB Negative Preamp with this EQ.
• adjust bass levels using the Low Shelf Filter at 70Hz
• adjust "air" by using High Shelf Filter at 10000Hz
• If adding positive gain to the shelf filters then increase the negative preamp by the same amount (so if boosting bass by an extra 2dB then increase Negative Preamp from it's current -4.5dB to -6.5dB) - there are caveats as to why this might not need to be done in this way, but it's the safest way to explain how to avoid digital clipping with this EQ.

Let me know how you find them if you can, and of course other users can use these EQ's and also you don't have to have an RME DAC to use these EQ's, just that's why the number of filters is limited to 7 in this EQ, and also explains why two of the filters have to be Shelf Filters.

EDIT: my own preference for this headphone is around a -1.5dB linear tilt on something close to this EQ I'm posting (re the Harman EQ) as well as boosting 20Hz subbass to Harman levels.

 

[Soria Moria]

Hi, I did that RME EQ for you, I've given you a couple of options. The first one is an EQ that uses the same bass level that you've been using currently, and the second one is done to Harman bass levels. These are based on Oratory's latest published measurement.

HD560s EQ unchanged bass levels (for RME DAC)

• use a -2dB Negative Preamp with this EQ.
• adjust bass levels using the Low Shelf Filter at 70Hz
• adjust "air" by using High Shelf Filter at 10000Hz
• If adding positive gain to the shelf filters then increase the negative preamp by the same amount (so if boosting bass by an extra 2dB then increase Negative Preamp from it's current -2dB to -4dB) - there are caveats as to why this might not need to be done in this way, but it's the safest way to explain how to avoid digital clipping with this EQ.

View attachment 279572


HD560s EQ Harman bass levels (for RME DAC)

• use a -4.5dB Negative Preamp with this EQ.
• adjust bass levels using the Low Shelf Filter at 70Hz
• adjust "air" by using High Shelf Filter at 10000Hz
• If adding positive gain to the shelf filters then increase the negative preamp by the same amount (so if boosting bass by an extra 2dB then increase Negative Preamp from it's current -4.5dB to -6.5dB) - there are caveats as to why this might not need to be done in this way, but it's the safest way to explain how to avoid digital clipping with this EQ.

View attachment 279573

Let me know how you find them if you can, and of course other users can use these EQ's and also you don't have to have an RME DAC to use these EQ's, just that's why the number of filters is limited to 7 in this EQ, and also explains why two of the filters have to be Shelf Filters.

EDIT: my own preference for this headphone is around a -1.5dB linear tilt on something close to this EQ I'm posting (re the Harman EQ) as well as boosting 20Hz subbass to Harman levels.

Sorry for the late reply, I only just tried it out and it sounds very good! The bass shelf always makes it better in the end.

 

[Robbo99999]

Sorry for the late reply, I only just tried it out and it sounds very good! The bass shelf always makes it better in the end.

Cool, good stuff! So you prefer the Harman EQ (the 2nd option in my post)?

 

[Soria Moria]

Cool, good stuff! So you prefer the Harman EQ (the 2nd option in my post)?

Yes. The extra bass does make everything sound more natural.

 

[Robbo99999]

Yes. The extra bass does make everything sound more natural.

Cool, well I'm glad you're enjoying the headphones & the EQ through RME, enjoy!

 

[Robbo99999]

This headphone is about the lowest price it's ever been in the UK, £139 today on Amazon!

For sure worth it at £169, and even more so at £139! About the best time you could buy this headphone!

 

[aliaksej]

Have bought a pair of 560s. Overall impression is very positive. They're good even for metal. Very comfortable listening on low volume.

But when listening to a piano, solo viola, some voices, they sound a bit tinny, not as it should sound. Just like not enough weight/warms somewhere in the middle. Even when I play my Yamaha synth, sound is brighter/lighter then it is in reality.

Am I the only one having such impression?

What headphones would you recommend for a bit fatter sound of the mids?

 

[Robbo99999]

Have bought a pair of 560s. Overall impression is very positive. They're good even for metal. Very comfortable listening on low volume.

But when listening to a piano, solo viola, some voices, they sound a bit tinny, not as it should sound. Just like not enough weight/warms somewhere in the middle. Even when I play my Yamaha synth, sound is brighter/lighter then it is in reality.

Am I the only one having such impression?

What headphones would you recommend for a bit fatter sound of the mids?

You should be able to help it be better if you use EQ, try out Oratory's EQ:

Sennheiser HD560S.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

That EQ takes out some 1kHz so should reduce the tinniness you mentioned, it will also make the headphone warmer overall.

 

[robertom]

Have bought a pair of 560s. Overall impression is very positive. They're good even for metal. Very comfortable listening on low volume.

But when listening to a piano, solo viola, some voices, they sound a bit tinny, not as it should sound. Just like not enough weight/warms somewhere in the middle. Even when I play my Yamaha synth, sound is brighter/lighter then it is in reality.

Am I the only one having such impression?

What headphones would you recommend for a bit fatter sound of the mids?

I had a similar impression with mine. I suggest you to identify the offending frequencies with an EQ (slowly sweep midrange and hi-mid frequencies); in my case, I found that the overemphasized ones were those in the mid-hi register (let's say 4K-8K). This could be confirmed by some measurements by crinacle: He measured two samples and one of them was hot in that area (so there is probably batch variance with the 560S). I had, by chance, a filter by frans (diyaudioheaven) for the AKG K371: It worked perfectly, lowering that hi-mid range by about 3db; I now listen to the 560 only through that filter. Once solved this harshness, it's a very good and enjoyable headphone.

 

[aliaksej]

You should be able to help it be better if you use EQ, try out Oratory's EQ:

Sennheiser HD560S.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

That EQ takes out some 1kHz so should reduce the tinniness you mentioned, it will also make the headphone warmer overall.

Should these filters be soldered manually or are they available for order online? Cause I really like 560s from comfort/openness/bass perspective.

 

[robertom]

Should these filters be soldered manually or are they available for order online? Cause I really like 560s from comfort/openness/bass perspective.

You can buy them from diyaudioheaven, they are inline filters, like a short extension chord (you decide the connector type on both sides). Frans can do one specifically for the HD560S, but I've read in his description that the peak riduction for that filter is about 5 db: too much for me, I prefer to use the K371 filter, that should do an overall smaller reduction of the target range. Not really sure about this, but it looks that way from filters descriptions. Very good bass, I agree, it's an almost ideal bass level for my preferences.

 

[Robbo99999]

Should these filters be soldered manually or are they available for order online? Cause I really like 560s from comfort/openness/bass perspective.

Those parametric filters I showed you from Oratory, they are EQ filters that you implement using EQ software, so there's no soldering or hardware modding, it's all done digitally. Have a look around here on ASR to learn about Parametric EQ, and also over on Oratory's reddit site:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

index/list_of_presets - oratory1990

r/oratory1990: Mostly covering topics like headphones, in-ear headphones, acoustics, electroacoustics, acoustic tuning, headphone design …

www.reddit.com

 

[aliaksej]

Those parametric filters I showed you from Oratory, they are EQ filters that you implement using EQ software, so there's no soldering or hardware modding, it's all done digitally. Have a look around here on ASR to learn about Parametric EQ, and also over on Oratory's reddit site:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

index/list_of_presets - oratory1990

r/oratory1990: Mostly covering topics like headphones, in-ear headphones, acoustics, electroacoustics, acoustic tuning, headphone design …

www.reddit.com

The problem is I use them not only with a computer, but also with synthesisers through a mixer. And software solution is only 50% of what I need.

 

[Robbo99999]

The problem is I use them not only with a computer, but also with synthesisers through a mixer. And software solution is only 50% of what I need.

Well, there is that problem, but you might be able to get round that by using a DAC/amp that includes parametric EQ so it stands alone - Quidelix 5K is one example:

Qudelix-5K Bluetooth DAC & Headphone Amp

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Qudelix-5K USB DAC and balanced headphone amplifier with Bluetooth receiver. I purchased this myself but a member kindly donated one third of the cost. The Qudelix 5K costs US $110 on Amazon including shipping. The Qudelix comes in a nice...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Parametric EQ is the best way to experiment and also to fine tune any headphone, so it's worth doing if you can be bothered (& if it can fit your use case).

 

[Jimbob54]

You can buy them from diyaudioheaven, they are inline filters, like a short extension chord (you decide the connector type on both sides). Frans can do one specifically for the HD560S, but I've read in his description that the peak riduction for that filter is about 5 db: too much for me, I prefer to use the K371 filter, that should do an overall smaller reduction of the target range. Not really sure about this, but it looks that way from filters descriptions. Very good bass, I agree, it's an almost ideal bass level for my preferences.

@aliaksej ping @solderdude to discuss if you want for he is diyaudioheaven

 

[adelaidestevens]

WUT! £127 for the Sennheiser HD560s at the moment on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HNFV61M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A30DC7701CXIBH&th=1

I bought mine for £111 on thomann but UPS delivery to australia was £40 ∼ $70AUD ended up costing me $290 but still worth it imo.