Sennheiser HD580 Headphones and DSP-Pro Review
Review by Nick Burka
- Product:
- Sennheiser HD580 Headphones and DSP-Pro Review (company site)
- What's Good:
- Very comfortable with excellent sound quality.
- What's Bad:
- DSP is useless, cord needs a retention system.
My twin brother has already reviewed his Grado SR-60 headphones here, so I thought I'd thrown in my hat for an audio review. I bought these HD580s about five years ago when I bought a desktop and decided to invest in headphones instead of computer speakers. At the time, the HD580s were the second from the top of the line Sennheisers (if you don't count the Orpheus) and so I was curious what the sound would be like.
First of all, the staff at Headroom where I bought them over the phone were incredibly helpful. They made me feel like an audiophile even though I only knew what I had read from their website (which has great impartial reviews) and I was happy to buy from them instead of the guys at Future Shop. After talking with a guy with a classic Bostonian accent and turning down the offer of an amp (though I'd love to try one at some point), I bought the Sennheiser HD580s which happened to come with a DSP-Pro system.
Sennheiser HD 580 Headphones.
The headphones are extremely comfortable. They're very light-weight and the cushions on the ear pieces are soft. You seriously forget you're wearing them after a little. They're an open dynamic headphone which means that everyone around you can hear your music which is one downside to their design. The other slight annoyance of the headphones is the cord. While having a long cord is great, especially when it has to reach over a desk and into the back of a desktop, on a plane or simply on my laptop it becomes unruly. I've tried twist-ties and other devices to corral it, but these inevitably fail, and some type of coiling mechanism could be really useful. Something like Zip-Linq would be a great addition.
These headphones are expensive. I was willing to pay $200 USD (Headroom still charges the same amount today) in exchange for only the highest, better than high-end computer speaker, quality. I wasn't let down. Listening to a very wide variety of music - from Black Sabbath to Classical - the quality of sound coming from these cans was fantastic. Especially on folk music, hearing each minute twang of the guitar strings as they are plucked is a lot of fun.
Sennheiser DSP-Pro.
The only thing not worth the money was the DSP-Pro. It's a device that simulates various environments (theater, cinema, concert hall, etc.). The only decent use of it was for playing Half-Life where the surround sound was noticeable, and for some DVDs it seemed to be okay. When playing music though, it really distorts what you're listening to and I had to constantly unplug and re-plug in my headphones depending on what I wanted to listen to. It also shuts itself off every few hours and needed to be turned back on - too much of a hassle.
Once I unplugged the DSP-Pro (along with its own mountain of cables) I really began enjoying the HD580s. They're a tad expensive, but the quality really makes spending the extra money worth it. I've tried some other headphones (including the Grados and a cheaper pair of Sennheisers), but the comfort, construction, and quality of the HD580s is the best I've used yet.
Here are a couple other great reviews of this product:
