Sennheiser HD555 Audiophile Headphones

I just bought a set of Sennheiser HD555 Audiophile Headphones. They happen to be the sort of headphones that change your listening priorities from those of a teenager concerned only with volume to those of a ’30 something’ who suddenly comes to the realisation that audio and sound quality is far more important. Then you quickly regret going to ridiculously loud concerts without any hearing protection when you were younger…

Sounds funny doesn’t it, but, hey, hearing doesn’t come back. Once you have lost it or damaged it then it is expected to stay that way or slowly deteriorate even more through the rest of your life. Teenagers will be aware of this when they download those ring tones only audible to people under the age of about 17 because the frequency range utilised by the ring tone is so high that adults can no longer hear in that frequency range. Then as they get older they find that they can no longer hear when their phone is ringing. You see, once you get to about the age of 20 or so you have lost hearing of many of the highest frequencies you could hear when you were born, as a child, and then as a younger teenager. People in their senior years are only expected to have a quarter, or less, of the hearing they had when they were children, which is a bit upsetting for music buffs.

Well, on to the Sennheiser’s. I use to own a set about a decade ago in my decadent years but they went missing in action so to speak ie: someone appreciated my headphones so much that the headphones went walkabout never to be seen again. So, after a few years bemoaning my loss, I came on the opportunity of acquiring another set of Sennheiser’s reasonably cheaply. The Sennheiser HD555′s are it. With an added bonus. They have been modded up to HD595′s. So I effectively got a set of Sennheiser HD595′s for the price of second hand the HD555′s $90.00 au.

Review of Sennheiser HD555 Audiophile Headphones

Look

The Sennheiser HD555’s are open cup full sized headphone. They will let external noise in whilst your listening with them. This also means that inside noise gets out so you will need to consider how noisy the surrounding environment is. Also, it means that people near you will hear a tinny version of what you’re listening to (just like those people who listen to music on the bus too loudly).

The big ear cups are pretty comfortable to wear so its quite easy to wear them for a considerable period of time. Mine came with upgraded ear pads the previous owner purchased from the Sennheiser website which are apparently even softer. I had them on for almost 3 hours because they were a new toy and hardly noticed them on my head.

They look rather Star Treckish with the shiny black metal grilles and big head band so you will want to consider how you look in public, but if your using them at home, then who really gives a rats ass.

Sound

Sennheiser’s makes some claims about low colouration and extended frequency response, which, to be honest, I don’t what that means, but they sound good. They provide a crisp, clear sound. Base is punchy but not and overwhelming ‘doof doof’. The midrange is whole, sharp and responsive, the treble is clear and resolved but not overemphasised so those who insist on having dolby noise reduction on shouldn’t need it. So, as to Sennheiser’s claims about ‘extended frequency response’ … well, I can honestly say that I am now aware of sounds and instruments in some of my music that I couldn’t tell existed whilst listening through my Logitch Z3 2.1 speakers. The colouration of music though these audiophile headphones totally outclasses every speaker system I have listened to. I have tested them with my usual sitar music, industrial, classical and 80’s and it all sounds pretty good. The HD555’s do a good job by my standards, and I have been advised that I am a ‘little fussy’ when it comes to music quality.

Cable Jack

The cable jack represents a problem. It comes standard in a 6.3mm full sized audio HiFi jack, which, in my opinion is rather outdated considering most retail audio players, and the industry as a whole have moved to 3.5mm.

You get an adapter with the HD555’s, but with about four inch’s of plug adapted down to the 3.5 mm jack is basically a pain in the behind. You end up with the thick end of four inches of rigid plug body hanging off the 3.5mm connector.

Audio pundits will say that the sound quality from a little 3.5mm plug is inferior to that of the full sized 6.3mm legacy jack but I beg to differ. I fail to see how the size of the jack can possibly impact the audio quality when each line in the cable itself is only made up of 4 individual copper wires (4 for Left and 4 for Right channels) especially when these headphones are classified as only 50 ohm nominal impedance.

What I intend to do about this may sound like sacrilege to most people but in my opinion this issue with the oversized jack can be fixed with a pair of pliers and a soldering iron. A gold plated 3.5mm stereo plug jack cost me $1.50 from Jaycar and is my solution to the cumbersome mess of adaptors and legacy plugs that come issued with the Sennheiser HD555’s. More on that in another post and I will let you know if I have needlessly ruined a perfectly good set of audiophile headphones.

Technical

The HD555s use to have a 120 ohm nominal impedance blah blah whatever that means, but now they are released with 50 ohm nominal impedance. What this means for you is that the higher the impedance the lower the volume for a given volume setting out of your equipment. So the amplifier in your little portable mp3 player may have trouble driving these suckers. Still, the newer version with only a 50 ohm impedance, which is what I have, may work well in your ipod etc, but I personally didn’t purchase these for portable use. My thinking is you really need something with an amp to drive them. Think ‘personal computer or HiFi Stereo’.

The specs section of Sennheiser’s HD555 page specifies a 103dB signal to noise ratio which is fairly good but is to be expected from audiophile headphones. Most standard headphones have about a 96dB signal to noise ratio – give a take a decibel. High end audiophile headphones should output in the range of 112 dB signal to noise ratio.

If your using these HD555’s on your computer you will be best off investing in an after market sound card that can output at least 103dB. Standard onboard (Realtek AC97 etc.) sound is approximately 87 decibels signal to noise ratio so whilst these Sennheisers are good and well worth listening to they will effectively be let down by the limitation of your motherboards onboard sound. I have a creative Sound Blaster Audigy powering them and the difference is sound quality is quite noticeable, as is the volume, which suggests that the preamp in the sound card is having a significant effect (improvement) on the sound quality over the onboard Realtek AC97 sound.

The Sennheiser HD555 headphones are very light; the box quotes a weight of 260 grams if this is something that you are interested in. Compared to a pair of 35 year old Pioneers I have the Sennheiser’s weigh less than a feather.

Price

The Sennheiser HD555’s are mid-priced headphones by audiophile standards and retail for about $219 from JB HiFi (NEW) but I picked these babies up for $90 from a NerdBox Pro (similar to myself) through computer website forum. Considering the brand new earpads they came with and the fact the previous owner looked after them with white gloves they are in pretty good condition and at $90 dollars second had, were a bargain for quality audiophile headphones.

Bottom line is, the Sennheiser HD555′s sound great.