What alternative?

[DVDdoug]

are a substantial improvement over the HD560S, while maintaining the same sound quality.

How is it possible to be the same AND an improvement?

Headphone sound is mostly about frequency response. The HD 560S is a little light in the deep bass (without EQ).

Harman Curve
Understanding Headphone Measurements (video)
Another video about headphone measurement (ironically with poor audio... probably recorded with a phone).

Maximum price: €400.

With headphones there is almost no correlation between price and sound quality. You can see that if you sort the reviews here by price or "recommended". But of course, the higher your budget the more choices you have.

 

[Briocat]

Edition XV. Effectively flawless headphone minus it's weight. Add a 10db bass shelf and you are good to go.

Thanks, but too heavy.

 

[adelaidestevens]

Edition XV. Effectively flawless headphone minus it's weight. Add a 10db bass shelf and you are good to go.

yeah from the looks of it the edition XV looks like a real winner. Although it does lean on the warmer side, even warmer than the HD 650, plus it's a planar and planar has it's own sound characteristics.

I recently tried the Sennheiser 550, but aside from the more prominent low frequencies, they didn't seem like a major improvement. So, I'll rephrase my initial question: which headphones, regardless of their system—dynamic or planar—are a substantial improvement over the HD560S, while maintaining the same sound quality. Maximum price: €400.

to be fair nothing really rivals Sennheiser when it comes to midrange if that’s what you value most. Other brands might outperform them in bass or treble, but there’s a certain magic to Sennheiser’s mids that’s hard to replicate - the only real upgrade is HD 800S and even that has its quirks. My best advice is to visit an audio store and demo a few pairs yourself, see what clicks rather than buying blind

 

[Tito]

well dam, why did you buy sennies again man.. i love my 560s, really good phones.

if you aint into eq and carrying dac amp dongles around with you,
just get fiio ft1 and be done with it.
cheers.

 

[Briocat]

well dam, why did you buy sennies again man.. i love my 560s, really good phones.

if you aint into eq and carrying dac amp dongles around with you,
just get fiio ft1 and be done with it.
cheers.

However, some people believe that the FT1s have a slightly exaggerated bass, which affects the mid-bass. Is this true?
Maybe the Ft1pro would be more suitable?

 

[quadrobust]

However, some people believe that the FT1s have a slightly exaggerated bass, which affects the mid-bass. Is this true?
Maybe the Ft1pro would be more suitable?

People look at the curve and just assume that's bloated bass like Beats (some in the FT1 review thread even compared it to cheap gaming headphones). In my own experience with the FT1 the bass is rather tastefully done. The overall tonality is still quite natural.

As a statistician I find it's a bit ironic that while the purpose of the forum was to bring more objectivity to the audiophile world, some people just oversimplified it to curve fitting and interpret any deviation from the reference curve with wildly subjective assumptions without listening to the actual headphones/speakers.