Sennheiser HD595 Review
The Sennheiser HD 595 is an open (5), dynamic stereo headphone (1). Due to the included headphone holder for shelf and table mounting, it is ideal for use in the home cinema or stereo system (2) (4). The color of the Sennheiser is rather limited, it is only available in one this black and silver-tone you see in the pictures (3).
Sennheiser still has these headphones for sale. However, currently, they are much cheaper, and still, you have a Sennheiser. As they are also selling spare parts for the Sennheiser HD595, I believe you can still purchase one of them now and pay much less.
We determine that the Sennheiser HD595 headphone outputs an excellent quality of sound, has spare parts available from the manufacturer and is a good choice for your home theater or for gaming. However, they are not well insulated, so they are not recommended to use in locations with background noise as it will filtrate easily inside.
It is true that open headphones allow some external noise to mix with the headphones output. Nevertheless, the filtration was just too much in our test.
Likewise, you may disturb others if you use them in an office, because of these filtrations. You have to determine the places where you would be using it to ensure if this is a purchase suitable to your requirements.
My test for this review was performed on the train and in the subway, wherein these filtrations were discovered. The test at home was done using the Schiit stack and the Schiit Magni 3 as the solid-state headphone amplifier. Nevertheless, an amplifier is absolutely not needed with the Sennheiser HD595.
The Sennheiser HD 595s offers a powerful sound and is relatively cheap. The open housings of the ear cups provide good sound, but also poor sound insulation. As a result, not only do others listen to music, noise also penetrates inside. As a result, the headphones are only of limited use for offices and the train. However, this does not apply to the living room or the home theater for the aforementioned reasons.
Design Of The Sennheiser HD595
The Sennheiser HD595 looks high-end at first glance. The headphones are strongly reminiscent of what air traffic controllers normally wear on their heads. The two massive ear cups hang from a ready arm and are equipped with thick fabric cushions for a comfortable fit. The thick cushions of the Sennheiser HD595 ensure a comfortable fit.
The outside of the loudspeaker housings consists of a black metal grille with the Sennheiser logo printed on it. A chrome strip runs around the outside, which ensures a noble look – or at least tries. Because the turquoise-green plastic of the rest of the case cannot convince us.
Scope Of Delivery
The scope of delivery of the HD595 includes a headphone holder, which can be mounted on tables, shelves, or any other smooth surfaces. The holder makes a very solid impression. Yes, just as you read, the Sennheiser HD595 HiFi headphones come with a clever headphone bracket that easily attaches to a table or shelf, making sure that the headphones are always at hand.
The Sennheiser really is comfortable. The ear cushions comfortably padded, but the headband also has extra padding. Many setting options ensure that the Sennheiser HD595 can be made “suitable” for every head. At 270 grams (a bit more than half a pound), however, it is not a lightweight.
During our test, we ensured that we get rid of the bad habit of carelessly throwing the headphones somewhere on the desk after work. Just mount it somewhere on the hi-fi cabinet, hang up the headphones, done.
There is also a 6.35 to 3.5-millimeter blade adapter in the box, which enables connection to MP3 players or PCs without additional accessories. At 3 meters, the cable is more than long enough for most requirements. But if you plug the headphones into a mobile player in your pocket, you will probably find the cable too long, so you will have to put a part of the cable in your pockets.
But enough about the design. The Sennheiser HD595 is not made to look nice. The sound counts in the first place. In a nutshell: it is excellent. Thanks to the extra-large ear cups, the sound is very directional and the sound field is wide.
The sound is very balanced over the entire frequency range. All in all, we are absolutely satisfied with the sound quality.
However, the HD 595 has a problem that was anticipated earlier. Shielding the device was not done well. The open design allows music to come out of the ear cups and be heard by others. It ensures a wider sound field and prevents disturbing reflections. In our test, however, a lot can be heard outside the headphones at a comparatively low volume. This easily makes for annoyed colleagues in the office or angry train passengers who may have a different taste in music or just want to be left alone!
In addition, the sound does not only penetrate to the outside. Disturbing noises also reach the listener’s ear almost unhindered. The Sennheiser HD595 is therefore not suitable for airplanes, public places, or other noisy places.
Everyone has to decide for themselves whether the bad shielding is so annoying that the headphones are unusable. Anyone looking for headphones for the office and opting for the Sennheiser HD595 must expect angry colleagues – and that their complaints penetrate their own ears and interfere with listening pleasure.
On the other hand, if you want to use it in your own living room at home for watching TV or listening to music, the leaky housing will probably not bother you.
Technical Specifications
- Nominal impedance 50 Ohm
- Contact pressure 3.5 N
- Weight w/o cable 270 g
- Jack plug 6.3 mm stereo (3.5 mm Adapter)
- Transducer principle (Headphones) open, dynamic
- Ear coupling circumaural
- Cable length 3 meters (10 ft)
- Frequency response (headphones) 12…..38500 Hz
- Sound pressure level (SPL) 112 dB (1 kHz and 1 Veff)
- THD, total harmonic distortion < 0.1 %
Conclusion
The sound quality of the HD 595 from Sennheiser is brilliant and convinces all along the line. However, the headphones are not shielded well enough for use in the office or in public places. The earphones sit comfortably, and the manufacturer also provides a practical holder for a living room table or hi-fi rack. In our opinion, the price is very fair.
The Sennheiser HD 595s sound smashing, and come at an accessible price. The open-back design has many benefits in terms of sound quality, but it does mean these headphones are very leaky, both in terms of your music leaking out and ambient noise leaking in, so they may not be perfect for commuting or noisy offices. Think about where you plan on using them before buying
The sound quality of the Sennheiser is brilliant. If you use the headphones at home, you can hardly get a better product for this price. However, it is not particularly suitable for use in the office or in public places because its shielding leaves something to be desired.
Further Readings
We have some other interesting articles for you to read, we have selected our top articles below, and tried to keep this list short.
We have a technical vademecum where we discuss industry terminology and how it can be useful for you. Selected examples are the definition of PCM audio, then comes the comparison between PCM and Bitstream, the comparison between DTS Neo 2.5 and Dolby Digital, and the process to match amplifiers to speakers.
Also, we have reviewed some interesting DAC: The Elgar Plus from dCS, and the Schiit stack. where the Modi 3 behaves as an entry-level DAC.
In our reviews of AV receivers, we can recommend you to read some of our favorites, the ones that we liked the most, and trying to make the list short, we have the Denon AVR-X2500H, the Onkyo TX-NR686. We also have reviewed completely the Denon 8K receivers where we have studied the 8K Denon AVR-X2700H, the Denon AVC-X6700H, the AVC-X4700H, and the AVC-X3700H.
If you are into amplifiers, my favorite is the McIntosh MA9000, and that is why I would like to recommend you to read that review. My second favorite amplifier is the Mark Levinson 5805.
Regarding speakers, we have reviewed tiny bookshelf-speaker devices to large towers. My favorites were: the Devialet Gold, the Devialet Silver, the ProAc Response DT8, the Bowers and Wilkins 805 D3,
We do not review many headphones, but if you want a Sennheiser headphone for less than 100 dollars, we have this Sennheiser HD595 review.
We have some TV and monitor reviews and here we recommend the Samsung NU8000 (for gamers!) and my favorite is the review of the classical Pioneer Kuro.
Our home theater aficionados want to know everything about video definitions and configurations. So we studied 720p, how to scale it to 1080p the right way, and compared 1080p with 1440p and demonstrated why 1440p is not always better. Likewise, we had the urge to compare 1440k with 4K and try to find out how much are we gaining with the change.
I am Bob. I work as an audio engineer and audio technician. I work in mastering and arranging bridges in existing songs and the arrangement and orchestration of the chorus. In Planet HiFi I test gear for a couple of days and write a review. I also write about AV topics, amplifiers, speakers, and headphones.
Clarid Mutchler
Sunday 28th of November 2021
Given the name of the website and title of the article, I came here looking for an informed review of these headphones. I'm instead disappointed in having learned nothing outside of "these sounds pretty good" and reduced to increasing agitation at the INCESSANT mention of sound leakage. We get it, move on move on move on, already! They're open backs. This is a site called planet hifi. The author claims profession in audio technician and mastery, so why this constant surprise of an open back headphone with a five mile long cable being bad for public use? Hahaha