Yes, the hd598 se's are great. Had a pair a couple of months ago ( used/refurb ) and hated them. Just received a new pair today and these things are night and day to my previous pair. Something must have been wrong/defective with that previous pair. Cannot believe how Great my new SE's are...

Well, I had a pair of the SE's and these were terrible. Absolutly zero bass. I just could not believe how bad they were. Bought a pair of 558's and they were waaay better all around. Much more bass. I will probably try a pair of ivory ones soon because these are tried and true for a long time...

ElMarcado, I agree 100% with you. You are right on. How long has it been since they (Sennheiser) updated their drivers? Notice how they never tout their driver technology in any of their material. Except the hd600/650.

Just wonder if it's the speaker housing or the speaker itself that is distorting. Are these 30mm ( very small ) speakers? I was always afraid of going into distortion with my 558's but they did sound good.

Funny how you say the "SE" model was bad for you and not the ivory ones. I got slammed here ( by some kid probably ) for saying the se's were made specially for Amazon for their black Friday special ( which they were ) and maybe they were not made to the same standards as the ivory ones...

Your doing the right thing by keeping them for awhile for phone/ear break-in. I should have given my 598's a little longer. I must say that even with the veil, that 558 I had was a seductive sounding headphone. Hard to describe. And so comfortable. Maybe we sometimes fall for that overblown bass...

Mark1, Had the same experience with 598's se. Zero bass. 558's much better in bass department but lacked clarity severly. Muffled. And I am used to only high end reproduction. No mp3 will ever touch my ears. Garbage. I would like to try another pair of 598's just to be sure. Maybe the 650's. I...

And I was running mine out of a Marantz SACD player with it's own dedicated headphone amp. Maybe I'll give the se's another try. Or, just wait a bit and try out the 650's. Better yet, just move out of this condo I just moved into from a nice big house and listen to my real speakers! All in fun .

Sure it probably was. Maybe a retooling manufacture thing in the earlier stages. Glad your enjoyng them. The black is very nice with the extra cable.

Lazylistener, I have to agree with you that something is not right between the SE version and the Ivory ones. I bought a pair of SE's after listening to a great pair of 558's. I could not believe how crappy they sounded. Nothing like all the praise they are getting. I've heard about a difference...