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What is it that makes the 598's sound so much better than every other headphones I've tried?

ADU

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These are some older plots of the HD 598 made by Tyll Hertsens of Inner Fidelity btw...


There are a couple interesting things to maybe notice in the HD 598 graphs, in addition to the slight dip in the upper mids around 2 kHz (Tyll seemed to prefer more of a rise there than the HD 598 has, though I didn't necessarily always agree with that.) Distortion seems to be a bit higher on the right channel than the left.

There is also a fairly significant rise in the headphone's impedance in the 100 Hz range of the bass, which is not uncommon on some Sennheisers. And this might effect its tonal balance when used with a higher impedance amp.
 
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solderdude

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What headphones should I be looking to for a similar sounding upgrade?

You could consider the OLLO Audio S4X Reference an upgrade. Not nearly as comfortable though and seal dependent.
Below the S4X versus the kind of similar response of the HD599 which has a bit more 'warmth' than HD598.
brown-hd599-green-s4x-reference.png
 

Sombreuil

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Same experience here. I think it's the soundstage, the comfort, the gentle trebles and the fact that it's super boomy, but not in a bad way. For instance, I find the 58X to be way more boomy for some reason.
It's not the best when it comes to voices, but for things like shoegaze, ambient, and classical music, it's a "hidden" gem.
 

sofastreamer

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I own the 598s for many years and did not grab them in the last five, as i love some other phones more.
when i got them, i compared them to the k701 to find out, which i like better. i found out, that while the akg has an expansive soundstage to the sides, the 598 was far more narrow, but in contrast the senni boosted the soundstage far in front of me, which unfortunately i never heard in another headphone to date (even the hd800s misses this speciality to my ears!). and i heard litterally 80% of the phones under 1800 eur.
in pretty much every other aspect, like speed, attack, detail, smooth but extended treble and most important subbass under 60hz, the akg destroyed the senni for me. I hated to give up the excellent forward production of the stage and had hard times doing so. wish my favorite phone as of today the oppo pm2 would have the soundstage of the sennis.
 

Adi777

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I used to compare the Sennheiser HD 598 with the AKG K612 PRO, and for me the Sennheiser was much worse. Dark and / or warm, they seemed to be muddy, with some kind of blanket on the sound. For me, it was weak. I wonder if I would have such feelings today too.
Do I feel good that ASR, Harman prefer warm sounds to brighter ones?
 

Adi777

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Are there Hifiman Deva Pro measurements somewhere? I am curious how much they differ in measurements from the NAD VISO HP70. Recently I compared them with each other, and to be honest I haven't heard any big differences between them. The Hifimans seemed more spacious to me, but the overall sound signature was similar. I wonder if they measure similarly or if my hearing is simply poor, or if I am untrained / I don't know, how and where to look for differences.
 
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Hamrin

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Distortion seems to be a bit higher on the right channel than the left.

The difference between 598 and 599 (aside different tuning) is the usage of "matching drivers" for L/R channels at the end of the line.
This is the reason why some 598 could have different response in graphs between L/R.
 
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