Sennheiser HD 560 S Over-The-Ear Audiophile Headph

Great BUDGET Headphone
Yes you can do better but for the price it would be very difficult. My Sundara’s are better in every way but they are also twice as much. My Focal Elex are in a different class all together. (These are all open back headphones.) The 560s is open back but more of a semi-open like the DT880.PROS:Quality Sennheiser plastic build that will last a lifetime.Very lightweight.Pleasantly comfortable.Dimpled headband foam for relieving skull pain.Very ample earcup size.Swivels well.Fits every size melon.Felt earpads pad well. (I picked up sheepskin leather pads because I prefer them for comfort, coolness, longevity and sound.)Very neutral sound signature for those that want to hear the music like the engineers wanted it to sound.Plenty of bass for those that listen to adult music.Since they are open they sound nice and wide.At 120 ohms you can drive them from your phone but a good DAP or amp will help. The IFI Zen DAC 2 makes them sound rich which would be good to round-out a desktop system.If you are familiar with the Sennheiser Sound and like it, you’ll love these.Very inexpensive when on sale.CONS:The cable and adapter stink. I’m not even going to use it.Felt earpads are warm so not for everyone.No extras included.I own and have owned many headphones. My first audiophile headphone was a Sennheiser production model back in the 80s. If it wasn’t 600 ohms I’d still own it. For the price you can’t beat the 560s. I think it has a more natural sound then the 6xx which is highly regarded.Highly recommended

Hear music as it was intended to be heard
I’m not an audiophile or headphone expert. I played drums as a teenager and later took guitar lessons for 10 years, still play the guitar almost daily, and love music in general. Hard rock has always been my favorite genre. I use headphones with my PC while watching YouTube music videos and concerts and also while playing video games like Cyberpunk 2077, Skyrim, Diablo IV, etc. I also have a pretty big library of old and new music on a 7th gen iPod Touch (now discontinued) and do some critical listening with that. I had been using budget headphones like the Koss KTXPro1 and Logitech G333 gaming earbuds, but always wanted to try something considered as “audiophile” headphones.My son is somewhat of a headphone expert, so I reached out to him for buying guidance. His ideal headphones would be completely neutral, with no emphasis on either highs or lows. To start, he gave me a FiiO K3, which is a DAC/headphone amplifier. I didn’t know I needed one, but he insisted. He also convinced me to download and install the open-source Equalizer APO application and its companion Peace UI component. It’s a bit daunting for a newbie to get started with the headphone amp and equalizer software, but there are plenty of YouTube tutorial walkthroughs available.In a few hours I had the headphone amp and the Peace interface working, and had separate configurations saved for the Koss and Logitech headphones. I downloaded pre-configured settings for each pair of headphones, which are set with the preferred “Harman Curve”. I had no idea about any of this stuff previously. By the end of that day, I had learned how to tweak and save additional configurations, and now could choose between multiple pre-sets for each pair of headphones. For example, I created a pre-set that boosted the bass, another that boosted the highs, and one that boosted both bass and highs while leaving the middle frequencies at the standard Harman curve settings. That allowed me to experiment and decide my own personal preferences for music listening.Just a primer – the headphone amp connects to the PC by USB, and it disables the built-in PC audio chip with a more powerful and clean signal. Then you plug your headphones into the headphone amp instead of the PC headphone input jack. Windows audio and volume is bypassed, so now the volume is controlled by the volume knob on the headphone amp. (You can turn off the headphone amp to listen through PC speakers or with the standard PC headphone jack.)With the headphone amp and equalizer software, both my Koss and Logitech headphones sounded better than ever and I was hearing details that I wasn’t hearing before. I had heard of headphone amps before, but never thought they were necessary. I couldn’t imagine not using one now.Then my son lent me his AKG K702 open back headphones to try. He likes them because they are pretty neutral. As he puts it, “you hear the music as the producer and engineer intended it to sound.” The AKGs were the best headphones I had ever tried, hands down. I downloaded the pre-configured parametric EQ file for them and listened for a few days. I learned that I preferred a more bass-heavy sound, especially with the hard rock I usually listened to. (I am currently obsessed with a band named The Warning, but like many other artists including Spiritbox, Breaking Benjamin, Band-Maid, Evanescence, Muse, and older classic rock like Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Hendrix, and Van Halen.) Given that I liked a bit more bass emphasis, my son suggested the Sennheiser HD 560S.I love them. With the standard EQ configuration, the low bass is a little lacking for my taste. I want the bass drum emphasized. So I created a pre-set with the bass boosted at 52 Hz and left the rest of frequencies alone. Perfect! I created another pre-set with the same 52 Hz boost and an additional boost at 5K Hz. I have some high frequency hearing loss, so this compensates for that, and allows me to hear the cymbals a little better. Normally I listen with the bass boost pre-set only and can hear everything fine.The only minor gripe I have with the Sennheiser HD 5600S phones is the comfort level. The ear pads are soft and comfortable, and the clamping force isn’t too much. But the headphones are somewhat bulky, especially compared to the Koss which are feather light and have almost zero clamping force. The Logitech earbuds are another story since they weigh virtually nothing and there’s no clamping force. That said, I have used the Sennheisers for hours at a time and they’re fine. You do forget they’re on once you’re immersed in the music or the game. I’ll definitely choose the Sennheisers every time for critical listening. Occasionally I will use the Logitechs or Koss when watching non-music videos like interviews or product reviews, for the improved comfort level.Here’s a good website for scientifically tested objective headphone ratings: https://www.rtings.com/headphonesDefinitely recommend the HD 560S as an entry level audiophile headphone. They’re a tier above sub-$100 headphones for sure.

Among tons of audio gear I’ve tried this headphone is a good way to start the audiophile path.My ultimate goal with the hd560s was to plug it into my guitar headphone amp. I can listen to the music courses on the tv then play with the open back headphones without bothering my 2 young kids at night. THAT’S the goal!The sound is neutral as the item description stated which is perfect not much coloration with my guitar. No hiss, no Buzz. Dead silent.IT does the job perfectly fine sound wise.A wider headband ( from ear to ear ) would’ve been better. The cups are touching the upper part over my ears instead of symmetrically pressing all around my ears.. My HD600 is top notch perfect in comparison.The fit is tight so it’s not moving at all when i look at my fretboard when i play the guitar.What stood up with these headphones when i listen to music is cymbals and female vocals proximity. That’s 2 strong points. The weak point would be empty / lifeless. I’m not excited at all when i listen to music with the HD 560s but it just sounds great. No hype or fun just plain good music thru good sounding headphones. I don’t like to EDM or hip-hop with these headphones. Only organic instrument related music.Ecologically not friendly, the amount of plastic used in the packaging is insane!I would buy it again and never part with it until it breaks, same thing for my HD600. KEEPERS

Really great, I didn’t need a dac/amp with it, it has high sensitivity, just plugged it straight to my PC, Very comfortable i wear it for hours with no problems.great sound quality, can hear the little details in the background.