Sennheiser 560s sound terrible to me

Submitted by ben_reshef t3_z859ym in headphones

I recently bought the 560s after reading and watching many reviews etc. They seemed like a great choice but the lack of sub bass make them sound terrible to my ears. I don’t quite understand how everyone raves about these when the low end is almost non existent. I’ve used eq to boost these frequencies but past 7db of boost I was encountering distortion when the bass hit.

I already have a pair of the Sony xm4 which I have eqed as recommended by other sources. Overall they are significantly nicer to listen to, although the high end may not be as precise, at least you can hear sub bass in music. I’ll be returning my 560s but this experience has left me confused as i was under the impression sony xm4 are just consumer Bluetooth headphones and the 560s are meant to be entry level hifi head phones. I’m interested in anyone’s thoughts on this and if they’ve experienced similar?

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SupOrSalad t1_iy9utek wrote

Whe you use headphones with a particular sound signature, your brain automatically adjusts to it, and a deviation from that will sound exaggerated. The XM4 is a really bassy headphone, it actually has more bass than even modern beats headphones.

If that's what you're used to, your brain will equalize to that so that sound signature sounds like a neutral to you.

The 560s has linear bass. Switching to that from an XM4 will make it sound like all the low end is missing, and it usually takes a few days of constant listening for your brain to readjust, then the bass will sound more full again and overall the sound signature will be fuller and you'll likely notice more details in music youre used to. After that happens, going back to the XM4 from the 560s will probably sound like the XM4 is really bloated and congested sounding, with much of the details in the mids masked

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Maruchi0011 t1_iyayw29 wrote

This is the exact experience I had when I upgraded my headphones.

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Buick6NY t1_iyb124k wrote

I just got the 560s and I'm hoping this happens for me too.

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wijnandsj t1_iy9tqz2 wrote

> I don’t quite understand how everyone raves about these when the low end is almost non existent

Because not everyone thinks bass = quality

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michael2v t1_iya0lzt wrote

Some say quality over quantity, others say quantity has a quality of its own. 🤣

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dwa40 t1_iy9wuv4 wrote

The xm4 are bass heavy where they need EQ down while the Sennheiser 560s is bass light. So the sound is polar opposites. Also the xm4 is closed back while Sennheiser is open back which for bass is going to be polar opposites as well.

Can raise low/mid bass on Sennheiser to a decent level but coming from XM4 wont get the bass heavy sound.

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rhalf t1_iyapzas wrote

HD560s have a typical 40mm driver and they have as much bass potential as a 40mm headphone of this particular type can deliver.

Sonys are a middle sized SEALED headphone. Such type of headphones have it easy to reproduce bass, but sucks at other things such as fidelity and comfort during heat.

The Senns are an open, hifi headphones. They focus on openness, fidelity and long listening comfort. The reason they don't have as much low end headroom is because of the pads they're using. These velour pads are leaky. The purpose of this leakyness is to 'drain' standing waves inside of the earcup and have some air circulation and not irritate your skin. This is paramout for sound quality and long listening session comfort. It's only limitation is the bass. If it's not for you, it's not for you.

The reason you hate it is because you made an uninformed purchasing decision.

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klogg4 t1_iybll6o wrote

The thing you're missing is that HD560s actually have very decent, pretty linear and low distortion bass down to 40hz. Saying that they do not focus on bass is pretty much ignorant because they're one of the best hi-fi targeted headphones in this regard (better than whole HD6** series, Hifimans and lots of other headphones). The problem here is not the headphones itself, it's the fact that topicstarter boosted bass in damn Sony XM4 with already boosted bass.

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rhalf t1_iybprrx wrote

I don't think I missed a thing. You just want me to judge the guy. Nope.If he likes more bass, he needs headphones with more pressure capacity. You can praise the HD560s if you want, whatever. If you convince him to give them another chance and live with them anyway it's fine, if not - that's fine too.

I was describing them in the context of his message, which is related to headroom. Headroom doesn't care how the bass is tuned. It can be 6db below baseline, as long as there's headroom, it'll deliver. HD560's are the same kind of driver-earcup-earpad combination as other Senns and it doesn't have any more headroom. It's tuned differently, but the displacement just isn't there for bassheads.

Refer to distortion plots to see how HD560s is more stressed than HD660 for example. If you tune the bass up, you get less headroom - as simple as that. If someone is a heavy listener, then no amount of petty remarks towards them will change the fact that there is no replacement for displacement.

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ku1185 t1_iy9y11s wrote

People have different tastes. I've actually never had the 560s, but it's been described as analytical. Partly why I haven't had much interest in picking one up. The Sony XM3's/4's are... not analytical. I'd also suggest to pay attention to what is driving the 560s. The Sonys are handling everything from digital to analog conversion and amplification. 560s are not, so what you're plugging it into is probably playing a part in what you're hearing.

If you want a lot of bass on open backs, the DT1990's were my favorite open back bass-canons.

That said, if you have time before the return window closes, I'd suggest using the 560s exclusively for a couple of weeks to get acclimated to the sound and listen to a variety of different music. I always find I notice new things even weeks after owning something and daily driving it.

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Supertangerina t1_iyajxpi wrote

When you buy new headphones your brain is always used to the old ones and it always takes a week or so to adjust.Usually we always find a headphones tonality weird at first, even if its a super neutral one like the 560s.

And coming from the really bassy xm4s, that could be a weird process.

I would advise you against returning the hd560s... give them a couple of weeks of frequent listening to get to you.

I can actually tell you that the hd 560s have really linear bass and are the pair of headphones I own that have the most sub bass (disregarding iems). You will probably end up liking their bass and their overall superior linear fr and technicalities if you give them a chance.

And if you never get used tho their bass, then 70% of all audiophile headphones just got off your potential buy list....

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blargh4 t1_iy9vbb7 wrote

as a rule, open back headphones deliver, at most, a flat bass response. most have rolloff in the bass. if you're a basshead and want some 12db bass shelf, open backs are probably not for you (ones with better natural bass extension will probably EQ better to your liking, but why torture the poor drivers?)

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counterpoint76 t1_iyaf3dq wrote

It is 99% about frequency response and not some hifi/audiophile mumbo jumbo people spew out. I was never a fan of open backs. Please consider IEMs.

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