Sennheiser HD555 - WOW!!

Borden · 26 Mar 2009 at 20:28

Nanoman said:
Got these yesterday.

Luckily just managed to miss a price rise headphones were only £57.95, soundcard was £59.99. Sounding great so far though!

Heh, i just installed an Asus Xonar DX and it has made my DT770's sound so much better than with my Audigy 4!

Didn't even think i would see such a huge difference. When i got the Audigy 4 it was a big step up from onboard, but this seems like an even bigger step again. Awesome!

ian|Squared² · 26 Mar 2009 at 20:35

great kit, i just upgraded my headset to a gamecom 367, its awesome and only £25!

Paul -C- · 26 Mar 2009 at 23:04

I've had HD485's for years. Is there much difference between these and the 555's?

Nanoman · 27 Mar 2009 at 14:42

Does anyone with 555s and an Xonar D1 have the 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter enabled? Cant tell if it sounds better or not. Sounds more vibrant but maybe more tinny and Ive only tried it with music.

Nick1881 · 27 Mar 2009 at 14:52

I have a D2X but its probably the same, I leave the 7.1 shift off as it seems to echo.

Spitfir3 · 27 Mar 2009 at 15:56

Just got mine this morning...

Kinda suprised to say that i'm not that impressed.. perhaps I was expecting too much?

First impressions were that the bass was very smothering.. it seemed to be there all the time. Yet it excelled it some parts compared to my T7900's woofer.. i.e parts where it would have kinda resonated/reverberated (not sure what the correct term is to describe what it sounds like - well, either way, it doesn't sound good) it was perfect and still punchy. Bar the rather muffled and smothering bass the sound does seem very balanced.

Perhaps I need to listen to them more... I think i'm used to my X-Fi setup with all the crystaliser stuff and (probabaly badly setup) EQ. It just sounded rather muffled. I was about to say.. these aren't much of an improvement on my Apple stock earphones but then trying them again.. huge difference.

Alexrose1uk · 27 Mar 2009 at 16:41

Drivers tend to need to settle in, reset all your EQs and turn off Crystaliser, you should find the sound improves over the next week of listening as the drivers loosen up etc. Stiff/smothering bass is often caused by this in the first few hours, and should begin to settle soon. Leave them running with mixed music on repeat, when you arent using them, if you want to speed thiis up. Do this overnight and as they are so new you may find an improvement by morning.

Margaret · 27 Mar 2009 at 18:59

Nanoman said:
Does anyone with 555s and an Xonar D1 have the 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter enabled? Cant tell if it sounds better or not. Sounds more vibrant but maybe more tinny and Ive only tried it with music.

For music I have no effects on, Dolby Headphone or any other surround sound effect makes it sound echoey and odd.

Nanoman · 27 Mar 2009 at 21:09

I dunno I much prefer having Dolby Headphone on for music, but then I normally listen to live sets so it sounds much better with the open effect.

PinkFloyd · 28 Mar 2009 at 17:43

Varies depending on what I am listening too. I tend to leave it set to speaker mode with virtual speaker enabled when just listening to music. Live music does sound cool with the virtual surround effects.
The Virtual 7.1 comes into it's own in games and films. Transformers is epic with it on

Matt26LFC · 1 Apr 2009 at 17:02

Literally ordered these from a different site not knowing how good they are, having read this thread im pretty pleased and very much looking forward to receiving them now

I also have the Asus Xonar 7.1 PCIe Sound Card, which i believe some1 else in this thread just purchased but the PCI variant. Is it best to plug the headphones into my Speakers (Z2300 Logi's) or directly into the soundcard?

Also i copy my music to my HDD via Itunes and use 256Kbps option, is there a better option or would this be sufficient for the headphones? i.e could they reproduce better quality sound than 256Kbps?

Im not very knowledgeable when it comes too sound

Hades · 1 Apr 2009 at 21:23

A few years back I bought a set of Sennheiser's just to play QUake (can't remember the model number) and I've never looked back. I'm on a pair of 595's now which aren't quite as good as my original set but absolutely great compared to low end stuff.

ceego · 1 Apr 2009 at 22:09

Matt26LFC said:
Is it best to plug the headphones into my Speakers (Z2300 Logi's) or directly into the soundcard?

i would like to know the answer to this too...

HarryPainful · 1 Apr 2009 at 23:02

I have a pair of Senn HD590, had them about 8 years now, sound better than ever.

Hades · 1 Apr 2009 at 23:42

HarryPainful said:
I have a pair of Senn HD590, had them about 8 years now, sound better than ever.

Ah that was the model I was trying to recall. Superb phones!

ScarySquirrel · 2 Apr 2009 at 16:53

I am in the process of buying a Xonar D2X to pair up with my headphones as well now

flyingears2002 · 2 Apr 2009 at 18:37

If you think those are great. look at some of the grado headphones. Abit pricey mind but if your an audio phile why not.

ck88 · 2 Apr 2009 at 18:56

I think I've bust my 555's. After using them for about 3 months non-stop, pretty much as loud as they can go, the bass has completley dissapeared wether plugged into the pc or stereo. great cans while they lasted tho!

flyingears2002 · 2 Apr 2009 at 19:53

ck88 said:
I think I've bust my 555's. After using them for about 3 months non-stop, pretty much as loud as they can go, the bass has completley dissapeared wether plugged into the pc or stereo. great cans while they lasted tho!

Great ears while they lasted too!

Zarf · 2 Apr 2009 at 23:20

Decided to take the plunge into > Medusas audio.
Got a set of 595's coming tomorrow, and a Beresford 7510 dac/headphone amp arrived today (which i've been enjoying breaking in)
How does my current x-fi extremegamer compare to an Asus, bearing in mind i'm using an external DAC?
Use is music / movies but also a fair amount of gaming that I intend to use the virtual surround feature for. How does dolby headphones compare to cmss-3d?
What settings are recommended on my X-Fi to get the best out of my setup? I assume i'll need separate profiles when switching between gaming and music.