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Sennheiser HD560S Review (Headphone)

Rate this headphone:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 5 1.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 26 5.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 179 37.8%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 264 55.7%

  • Total voters
    474
I have the old 560s and use EQ so it doesn't really affect me. I just find the conflicting data and opinions interesting.:D

Similar discussions going on with the Hidiz MP145 as to whether there was or wasn't a silent revision that changed the FR.
 
Sometimes it is hard to determine if changes come from:
  • Aging of pads (used model vs new model used for review/measurements).
  • measurement errors (whatever it is caused by)
  • Product tolerances.
  • Usage of 'alternative' materials for financial or availability reasons.
  • Improvements/changes in the production process.
  • Deliberate changes because of feedback from the public.
  • Assembly errors (pads mounted incorrectly for instance).
  • People remembering or perceiving things incorrectly.
 
And also not when considering the inside information I got from someone in Sennheiser that stated small changes in the driver had been made which seems to have been verified by measurements. The differences are small but noticeable and could be seen as 'within production tolerance' when looking at 18 separate drivers but when averaging older and newer models a difference can be observed that fits the description of the (silent) changes that are made in the driver.
At first I got the usual info: "only cable and headband are changed' but later on I got different info when I made inquiries about some of my measurements.
Not going to attach private conversations. Just mentioning there were silent changes.

see discussion from here:
And for the benefit of the readers, I'll also link them to a summarised post you did of all that information you showed, as following it is more clear to see:
 
Hi there. I´m trying to slowly gather a small headphone collection, mostly looking for good bang for the buck. I plan to buy the HD600 in the future, but at this moment I have the oportunity to buy the HD560s from Amazon for aproximately US$160 (I live in Mexico). Do you think the HD560s would be a good stopgap for half the price of the HD600 (aprox US$320 at this moment) or it would be better to wait and go directly for the HD600 in the future? If I buy the HD560s now, I would wait till next year to get the HD600.
I mainly compose and produce music as a hobby. At the moment my priority is somenthing "as flat/neutral as possible" (I already have the M40X, SHP9500, K371 for use at home and Koss Porta Pro, KPH30i, KTX Pro1, 7hz Zero 2 and Moondrop Chu 2 for when I go out and dont´care about neutral). Other headphones I plan to buy are the HE400se (or maybe Sundara), and M50x (this one just for the sake of collecting and having something with more of a "consumer sound". Actually I bought then during Prime Day sale, but had to send them back because of driver imbalance and as Amazon only gave me the option of refund I got the K371 instead). Thanks for your advice.
 
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Hi there. I´m trying to slowly gather a small headphone collection, mostly looking for good bang for the buck. I plan to buy the HD600 in the future, but at this moment I have the oportunity to buy the HD560s from Amazon for aproximately US$160 (I live in Mexico). Do you think the HD560s would be a good stopgap for half the price of the HD600 (aprox US$320 at this moment) or it would be better to wait and go directly for the HD600 in the future? If I buy the HD560s now, I would wait till next year to get the HD600.
I mainly compose and produce music as a hobby. At the moment my priority is somenthing "as flat/neutral as possible" (I already have the M40X, SHP9500, K371 for use at home and Koss Porta Pro, KPH30i, KTX Pro1, 7hz Zero 2 and Moondrop Chu 2 for when I go out and dont´care about neutral). Other headphones I plan to buy are the HE400se (or maybe Sundara), and M50x (this one just for the sake of collecting and having something with more of a "consumer sound". Actually I bought then during Prime Day sale, but had to send them back because of driver imbalance and as Amazon only gave me the option of refund I got the K371 instead). Thanks for your advice.
Hi there, I owned a HD560S and I think is a linear as it gets. Even the bass is quite good. In that respect it is as good as it gets especially the price point. Alas for me it had a terrible drawback. I have a rather large head and the clamp force of this phone (entirely made of plastic) was way to much for me. So I sold it again but with regrets.
 
Hi there. I´m trying to slowly gather a small headphone collection, mostly looking for good bang for the buck. I plan to buy the HD600 in the future, but at this moment I have the oportunity to buy the HD560s from Amazon for aproximately US$160 (I live in Mexico). Do you think the HD560s would be a good stopgap for half the price of the HD600 (aprox US$320 at this moment) or it would be better to wait and go directly for the HD600 in the future? If I buy the HD560s now, I would wait till next year to get the HD600.
I mainly compose and produce music as a hobby. At the moment my priority is somenthing "as flat/neutral as possible" (I already have the M40X, SHP9500, K371 for use at home and Koss Porta Pro, KPH30i, KTX Pro1, 7hz Zero 2 and Moondrop Chu 2 for when I go out and dont´care about neutral). Other headphones I plan to buy are the HE400se (or maybe Sundara), and M50x (this one just for the sake of collecting and having something with more of a "consumer sound". Actually I bought then during Prime Day sale, but had to send them back because of driver imbalance and as Amazon only gave me the option of refund I got the K371 instead). Thanks for your advice.
I'd say the New Version HD560s is more flat/neutral than HD600 - I've got both amoung others. HD600 I found also fairly flat / fairly neutral but it lacks extended bass (& bass in general), so the New Version HD560s beats it on that front. HD560s is also lower distortion headphone, and has better imaging and soundstage. New Version HD560s is actually superior to HD600 in my experience & also from the measurements. I probably wouldn't bother getting the HD600 at all.

HE400SE you mentioned. That's really good with Oratory EQ, or in my best case my own EQ I did to Harman Curve from Oratory measurement. I think the Oratory measurement is spot on with that headphone based on the sample I've got. It's either down to maybe low unit to unit variation of HE400SE or it's something else.
 
I'd say the New Version HD560s is more flat/neutral than HD600 - I've got both amoung others. HD600 I found also fairly flat / fairly neutral but it lacks extended bass (& bass in general), so the New Version HD560s beats it on that front. HD560s is also lower distortion headphone, and has better imaging and soundstage. New Version HD560s is actually superior to HD600 in my experience & also from the measurements. I probably wouldn't bother getting the HD600 at all.

HE400SE you mentioned. That's really good with Oratory EQ, or in my best case my own EQ I did to Harman Curve from Oratory measurement. I think the Oratory measurement is spot on with that headphone based on the sample I've got. It's either down to maybe low unit to unit variation of HE400SE or it's something else.
1728621489608.png

That sounds great. You've just convinced me to order them. :D
Thanks!
 
As above, the HD560S is good. With any headphones, you would want to apply a neutral PEQ which effectively makes all of them similar enough. The sound differences between them might be in the gain and where in the frequency range they begin to distort. Fit and comfort will also vary. I've had my HD560S for 3-years and wear them the most for listening to music (with PEQ). I use IEMs for that finest detail of critical listening (again with PEQ).

Would IEMs meet your needs? I can make no suggestions as to which would be good value. You might get more just what you want for less money. I am not the expert, so please read further.
 
View attachment 397955
That sounds great. You've just convinced me to order them. :D
Thanks!
Ah, brilliant, I hope you like them! Sometimes it's possible you get a dodgy unit - I've got 4 units of HD560s (don't ask!) and one of them I had to send back to Amazon for audible channel imbalance - so that's 1 out of 5 were bad, but that's a too small sample to understand your chances of getting one with bad channel balance, but I thought it could be interesting to post it up anyway. Perhaps if you hear pretty obvious channel imbalance then don't be afraid to send them back for a replacement. (Check you don't have one ear blocked or something though first, lol!)

As above, the HD560S is good. With any headphones, you would want to apply a neutral PEQ which effectively makes all of them similar enough. The sound differences between them might be in the gain and where in the frequency range they begin to distort. Fit and comfort will also vary. I've had my HD560S for 3-years and wear them the most for listening to music (with PEQ). I use IEMs for that finest detail of critical listening (again with PEQ).

Would IEMs meet your needs? I can make no suggestions as to which would be good value. You might get more just what you want for less money. I am not the expert, so please read further.
IEM's are really good value recently, you know the good & low cost ones that have been reviewed here on ASR. Some people don't like sticking stuff in their ears though (I'm one of them), so for people like that they need over ear headphones. That New Version HD560s that @LuckyDinosaur is buying is really the right headphone to get if you want neutral out of the box, without having to go spend thousands on DCA Stealth or E3, not that they're the same tier of headphone though.
 
Sometimes it's possible you get a dodgy unit - I've got 4 units of HD560s (don't ask!) and one of them I had to send back to Amazon for audible channel imbalance
I had that bad luck when I ordered the M50x and had to send it back even though I liked them. I´ve read it´s a common problem with that model.
I hope to be more fortunate with the HD560s.
 
I've had 9 of them so far (modify and sell them onwards) and of the 9 I bought only one of them had some slight tonal imbalance and one of them had some slight channel imbalance on a measurement fixture.
 
I had that bad luck when I ordered the M50x and had to send it back even though I liked them. I´ve read it´s a common problem with that model.
I hope to be more fortunate with the HD560s.
Given what solderdude has said to you re his 9 units you probably don't have to worry too much. Also to put my previous comment on channel imbalance in perspective I'll show the measured channel balance of the unit I sent back to Amazon - I did listen to it first before measuring it & it was during that listening that I heard voices somewhat skewed to one side when they shouldn't have been - and it was afterwards that I measured it to determine the channel balance, following is the unit I sent back:
HD560s Unit 4 New Version Channel Balance.jpg


All of my HD560s units I kept (4 altogether) have better channel balance than what you can see above. As an example I'll show you channel balance of the latest New Version HD560s that I kept:
HD560s Unit5 New Version Channel Balance.jpg


You'll probably be fine with the unit you receive, but it's just something to be aware of.

P.S. don't worry about the frequency response graph looking strange, it's been measured on a miniDSP EARS rig, so it doesn't look the same shape as the frequency response measurements that Amir & Oratory do, which are done on a GRAS rig.
 
I received my HD560s one week ago and I've been delighted. They really sound great, headstage is fantastic, just a little bit less open than SHP9500, but the sound is way better. Only funny thing is that the plastic looks kind of cheap, but I take good care of my gear, so it's just aesthetics. They already became my main headphones for music production. All the gear I've bought since I started lurking in ASR is great, so I have to say thanks to the community.
 
I received my HD560s one week ago and I've been delighted. They really sound great, headstage is fantastic, just a little bit less open than SHP9500, but the sound is way better. Only funny thing is that the plastic looks kind of cheap, but I take good care of my gear, so it's just aesthetics. They already became my main headphones for music production. All the gear I've bought since I started lurking in ASR is great, so I have to say thanks to the community.
I've been using the HD 598SR Sennheisers for several years now and the plastic has not any issues at all. It makes them light and comfortable in that they can shape to the head. The headband cushion section is showing slight signs of fraying and wear and tear but I think that will last a few more years before it becomes something concerning.
 
I received my HD560s one week ago and I've been delighted. They really sound great, headstage is fantastic, just a little bit less open than SHP9500, but the sound is way better. Only funny thing is that the plastic looks kind of cheap, but I take good care of my gear, so it's just aesthetics. They already became my main headphones for music production. All the gear I've bought since I started lurking in ASR is great, so I have to say thanks to the community.
That's great to hear that they're working so well for you given that I was somewhat responsible for you pushing the buy button!
 
Got these for 130 USD recently after my 10 year old DT880 600 Ohms Premium died on me. It sounds clean esp. for gaming & movies but the clamping force of this hurts my jaws totally ruins the experience. It turns out all Senn HPs got this issue to some degree. The build quality is very average plastic & the pads are thin. I'm going to return/sell this and get the DT880 250 Edition.
 
I just ordered them from Amazon for 128 euros, I have the HD 599, but these, although they sound great, lack detail and have too much low mids.
I hope I made the right purchase.
I will use them with Ifi Zen Dac.
 
Hi, which Dac/Amp you recommend for this headphones? I have Teac Speakers amplifier as desktop setup, with headphones out, but has only 100mW. Even when I connect Bose Quiet passive through this out, It seems they lack some power. I saw FiiO 11 by Amazon, and that would be the max, 160€, that I think is reasonable to spend for this combo. Thanks!
 
The HD560S does not require much power.
Up to somewhat loud levels 1V is enough.
This is 10mW in 120ohm
As most amplifiers are specified at 32ohm you would need an amplifier that has an output of 30mW in 32ohm (higher means you can go louder).
When you want to play it really loud (120dBspl peak)you will need an amplifier that can provide 4V.
This is 130mW in 120ohm, or when the amplifier is specified in 32ohm only it should be able to provide 0.5W (500mW).
 
Thank you for the answer. Yes, specification is 100+100mW@32 Ohm. I have not seen an independent revues, but I think that Teac should have worthy measurements. Maybe is something wrong with the power in my chain, Windows or else. I am using generic usb driver not from Teac, I will try that.
 
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