Choosing headphones
You say to yourself that good headphones have to play everything? With the equalizer, yes. The HD 650 has served as a reference headphone for many generations, and the reason is that they really do play everything, even though the quiet details of the mids and highs are not amplified as some would like. If the headphones boost some frequencies, they will negatively affect others. We all like a different sound – some like strong bass, some like accentuated mids.
Because of the price, everyone picks headphones from the bottom and changes the headphones for better ones. Unfortunately, this is a disadvantageous direction in terms of quality, price and, most importantly, time. You have to have many years of bad headphones before you get to the ones that show you the abysmal difference you didn’t believe in.
If you go from the top, you’ll probably end up looking for better sound right away with others. Each manufacturer is good mainly in how many inferior headphones it can produce graded up to its best. That’s how they make a gradual profit on all and many of us several times over.
If weak or clear bass is mentioned in headphones, such headphones are for many listeners headphones without bass. They’re not ideal for metal or rock, much less electronic music or movies, unless you’re willing to sacrifice significant bass for which you get rich detail elsewhere.
The headphones in the review are ones I had the opportunity to try out at home in peace and quiet. There are more manufacturers, of course, but I don’t think you’ll come across anything completely different. Physics will keep them all in a similar trend. The overhangs and dips described are indulgently up to 5dB.
HIGH-END
brings a lot to the sound. Headphones in this class can play instruments separately in space and, more importantly, equally loud, an important feature to hear everything.
| Sennheiser HD 650(600) | Sennheiser HD 700 | Grado SR225e | Hifiman HE-400i | |
| price | 9000,- | 17000,- | 7000,- | (9000,-) |
| bass | pleasant energetic bass | clear bass as expected from high-end headphones | weak clean bland bass | they don’t have the whole lower bass |
| mids | if you focus on the quiet details, you can hear them | strong mids, quiet details are clearly audible | if you concentrate on the quiet details, you can hear them | accurate centres with consistent response |
| highs | the highs are clear, unexcelled, you can hear any singing and a perfect sounding trumpet | even quietly sounding details are loud, but pitches have a problem e.g. with the trumpet and singing containing hisses makes the song unlistenable | pitches inaccurate, listening to singing fortunately had no serious problems | the overlap in treble is from 7kHz, it’s not without problems, but it’s not extreme either |
| overlaps | dips 11-17kHz | overlap extreme 5.5kHz (use equalizer), drop 10kHz and 13kHz | overhangs 2kHz, 4.5kHz, extremes 8-13kHz | overlap 7-10kHz, dip 10-13kHz |
| specialty | they’ll play anything | loud even quiet details | planar headphones |
MIDDLE CLASS
should be able to play instruments in detail in space together, it will not play everything equally loud, somewhere will still lack liveliness.
| Sennheiser HD 595(555) | Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO | Sony MDR-1A | Sony MDR-MA900 | |
| cena | 4000,- | 3000,- | (6000,-) | (5000,-) |
| bass | mid-bass, does not tire, does not dazzle | dark detailed bass | extra bass only for strong individuals | weak bass |
| mids | instruments play beautifully in space, but not everything | middle space, accurate but sharper mids, not reaching high-end detail | for strong bass for someone hard to perceive the mids, no space | pleasant mids in a decent space |
| highs | normal heights without worries | pitches still under control, hisses are on the edge, trumpets are ok | pitches and vocals are fine | normal heights without worries |
| overlaps | overshoots and dips (fine 4kHz) from 9kHz | overlap 9kHz | overlap extreme 9kHz and then dips | |
| specialty | if you have these headphones, the Sennheiser HD 600/650 is your final destination | best value for money; beware of drivers that don’t match – claim it | too much bass | super lightweight construction |
LOWER MIDDLE CLASS
bez prostoru, živosti, plnosti nebo detailů.
| Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC | Audio-Technica ATH-M40x | JVC HA-S70BT | Marshall Monitor | |
| cena | 4000,- | 3000,- | (6000,-) | (5000,-) |
| bass | strong bass | mid bass, the headphones have no punch | normal bass without punch | without bass |
| mids | they have no space, something is missing | rich inaccurate centres without space | they have no space, something is missing | some mids in a strange space |
| highs | weaker heights but without problems | on the one hand, you can hear from the mids to the highs even quietly sounding details loudly, but it does not always sound good, and such singing in the highs contains unpleasant hisses and even grunts, and for example the trumpet sounds like a blower | pitches and vocals are fine | |
| overlaps | 4kHz extreme dip and 7kHz dip | 10kHz and 15kHz overlaps | ||
| specialty | best price/performance ratio BT headphones | if you have these headphones, the Sennheiser HD 700 is your final destination | BT signal is intermittent | the nicest and worst sounding headphones |