Customer Reviews

Sennheiser Remanufactured HD590 Full Size Headphones with Open-Ear Design

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Sennheiser HD590 is something of a bastard child among headphones. Disliked by audiophiles and passed over in favor of the newer HD555 and HD595, unheard of by consumers who flock to the terrible Bose Triports and Sony MDR-V700's, the HD590's have fallen out of favor with the audio community, in one way or another.

That is a shame. These are some damn fine phones. Amazon's occasional $120 deals on them are absolutely fantastic - you will not find better sounding headphones for this much money.

The HD590's offer a slightly bright, very detailed sound, with a very strong, punchy bass. Their mids are slightly recessed (i.e. quieter and more distant than the bass and treble), and it is for this reason that audiophiles bash them. I don't understand this, especially since the very same audiophiles praise the Beyerdynamic DT770's, which are much more recessed in the mids and brighter in the treble.

Their soundstage is very good. They are very three-dimensional sounding with the right recordings, portraying accurately the acoustic characteristics of the recording venue. If you have never heard hi-fi headphones before, you will be amazed at how these portray the spatial localization of each and every sound. They are also very detailed, especially in the treble. You will hear sounds in your recordings that you've never heard before.

These headphones can be driven by powerful sources without an amplifier, but portable devices such as iPods and portable CD players will be hard-pressed to drive them. I would recommend these headphones for home use with stationary audio systems. They will not truly come to life, however, until you add a headphone amplifier. There are many amplifiers available, and I will not list the multitude of different models here. This, perhaps, is their biggest drawback. They really do need a lot of power.

They're also very, very comfortable. They're light, they have a firm grip on your head, but because the pads are very cushy and deep, the grip never becomes bothersome. Instead, they just seem to disappear, like a pair of snug, comfy earmuffs. I've worn these for 10 hours straight, and I didn't notice that I have them on after 30 minutes. They're also very durable, even though they're largely built out of plastic.

The downsides? At $120, I really can't find any. At $150 or the regular asking price, I would say that they're a bit too bright and too recessed in the midrange, and there are other options which may be slightly better. But if you see one of Amazon's $120 deals pop up, grab these immediately! Your ears will not regret it.

Lastly, do keep in mind that these are open headphones. They will not isolate you from the outside world, and they will leak sound everywhere. People in the same room with you will definitely hear what you're playing. This isn't a downside of these headphones specifically, but a downside of open headphones in general.

I use these with my computer, in combination with a Chaintech AV-710 sound card, a 3' Kimber RCA-mini cable, and a Meier Audio Porta Corda Mk II headphone amplifier. All together, this makes for a very nice computer system. For serious listening, I prefer my Stax SR-4040 electrostatic system, but it's not really a fair comparison =D

Rating: A very solid 5 stars at $120. 4 stars at the retail price.

Hey people, if you have any reservations about buying this product because it is reconditioned, worry not. I got mine the other day and there's absolutely no evidence of them ever having been used/touched in any way. And they sound real nice. I would give them 4.5 stars because they tend to get a bit bright when played at high volumes, but at normal (non-deafening) levels, they sound wonderful (Esp. with acoustic-type music). I've just come to expect god-like quality from any piece of audio equipment I purchase. They work pretty well with iPod too.... you just need to have the volume pretty high. Oh, and these suckers are VERY comfortable. Is there better out there? Maybe, but for (...), you can't really go wrong here (when purchasing an iPod, I listened to those (...) Bose triports they're trying to sell, and they sounded/felt like total (...) in comparison to the 590's). Hell, you can probably sell them for about the same price you pay here. So, if you've never heard a good stereo, give youself a treat and buy these, they're probably the cheapest way into high fidelity that I know of. Oh, and if you give these a try, you may want to give 'em a few days before you really judge them. Although I've always been skeptical of this "breaking in" of audio equipment, I seem to like the sound better a week after getting them (~40 hrs use). Who knows, maybe they're just "really growing on me," to quote the Darkness (Hey, what's a review without a Darkness quote anyways?). Enjoy.

I've owned a pair of Grado SR-80's now for a few years. Over time however I've listened to them less and less due to the fact that after about and hour or two my ears are sore. For whatever reason I just haven't realized that there were alternatives out there so when I saw these reconditioned cans I pulled the trigger. The sound is amazing and I'm finding that with time they're sounding better. The high's are amazingly unobtrusive and the bass is..well..awesome. For the money I simply can't imagine anyone would find anything better anywhere. I now listen to music a lot more and am enjoying relistening to music that I had forgotten I enjoyed so much. Buy them...no regreats.

Sennheiser is known for audiophile headphones, and microphones. Their vintage mikes are true collectors items, and chances are that your favorite crooners were recorded with sennheiser mikes. The 590's are almost identical to the top of the line 600's. I own both the 590 and grado headphones, and IMHO the sennheisers blow away the grado. The high and mid range are especially transparent and natural sounding, the bass clean, tight and not overwhelming. Great all around choice. They are of lower efficency than cheap phones, so you need a relatively high ouput device or a separate headphone amplifier to realize their full potential.

I really like these phones. The only problem with them is that they leak sound like no others. I bought my pair from Amazon for about $110. I've been checking the price of these headphones for a few weeks now and they seem to hover around $150 and $110 which is a huge range. I work for Amazon, but I don't understand how their pricing works. :) Although they are factory reconditioned, I cannot discern any physical difference between these and some brand new ones in store. There's no scratch; it's even packaged in its original box; and of course, there's no compromise on sound quality. My favorite part of these phones is that they are so darn comfortable. For the first few days, I thought these headphones were too tight and they hurt my ears and warmed them to the point of sweating after using them for an hour. But now, they are perfect. It's as if they're adapting to my abnormal head size. At first, I thought the previous reviewers were crazy, saying how comfortable these are. But now, I'm agreeing with them. I guess I shouldn't have judged them too early on. I gave these phones a 3 after my first three days of use, but now I changed it to a 5.

Another thing, I find some mp3 files to play terribly on these headphones. It's because they are too accurate to the point where even a non-audiophile like me can tell the difference in sound quality in some mp3 files. This is both a plus and minus, so I'm not going to count points off because of this.

Also, I really like the detachable cord. It's useful when I pack away my headphones. Sometimes, when I go "out of range", the cord will just detach from the headphones instead of jerking my head and/or damaging the headphones.