[drummerman1]

Yes, 490 luvs power and scales w better amplification.

I sometimes think that in headphone land this usually means a headphone basically sounds pretty crap but gets acceptable (!) once you throw a ton of money at it ... by which time there are many better alternatives

 

[maegnificant]

It’s sad how Apple does some stupid trend and everyone joins in. I still can’t forgive them for starting the headphone jack purge BLUETOOTH WILL NEVER BEAT WIRED NEVER.

At least until the start dropping the incredibly dated AAC codec, it won't be better on an Iphone. They do ship a dongle, though.

 

[Luckyleo]

Great to see Sennheiser trying out some new studio designs. This market needs more competition. And this headphone looks like it has a some potential, but also maybe a couple areas where it could potentially use a few tweaks or some work, from my perspective.

The headphone has plugs on both sides, for example. But it looks like the cables are single-sided, which I'm not a fan of. (Maybe there's a way to use a two-sided cable with these though?) Aside from that, the ergonomics and build look pretty decent, and like somethin I'd probably enjoy using.

Based on DMS's measurements (done on his HBK 4128 rig), the response appears to be fairly neutral-ish, but with some slight possible caveats. I'm lookin primarily at the raw graphs at around 3:50 in the above video...

Bass extension looks pretty good for an open dynamic headphone, with the velour pads. And the transition into the mids looks smooth. (This is more of a problem on alot of closed studio headphones I've used.)

Mids look pretty good, except perhaps for the recession around 2 kHz that DMS noted. I prefer upper mids that are a little withdrawn right around 2k with alot of music I listen to. But this might be a bit too much for some. You can definitely hear the difference, and how that area begins to sound more recessed (or possibly even a bit muffled) on the HD 490 Pro vs the HD 600 video that drummerman1 posted here...



...The HD 600 is probably a little too forward for my taste though in the upper mids. (Your mileage may of course vary on all this.)

Re treble, on the 4128 rig, I generally like to see a pretty nice, well-defined peak at around 3k on the raw measurements, give or take. And then a bit of a dip between that and the next ear canal resonance at 9 kHz. What I'm seein on the HD 490 Pro though is a peak at 4k, and another small one at 6.5k. So this might come across a tad bright or sibilant in the low to mid treble. It doesn't look too pronounced though, based on these preliminary plots. I'm pretty sure this headphone will also end up on Resolve's 5128 rig though, at some point, which may help to clarify things in this area a bit more.

The high treble also looks a bit rolled off. So maybe lacking a bit of air near the very top of the audible frequency range. This is something you'll see on other studio gear, including the AKG K371, Sony MDR-7506, and Senn HD 280 Pro, to name a few. And I believe it's ostensibly done to reduce ear fatigue. I'm not sure it's a good thing though from a music listening standpoint.

This is all conjectural though until I can get a pair to try myself. Or can see more graphs.

Lol

 

[ADUHF]

The bandwidth of the ear canal resonance at ~9 kHz in DMS's raw HD 490 Pro measurement is also suggestive of a little brightness in the mid-treble.

It's a bit harder to tell what's goin on in this area on the older 4128 measurement rigs, with the 711 coupler/ear canal simulator though... Which is why it would be interesting to also see some measurements on the HBK 5128 rig, with anthropomorphic/metric ear canal for comparison.

Most of the issues in the HD 490 Pro's FR appear to be relatively minor though (based on DMS's 4128 plots). And probably easily fixable/tweakable with a little EQ, if needed.

 

[ADUHF]

Lol

Glad if you enjoyed some of my 4128 ramblings.

 

[HDGabe5636]

At least until the start dropping the incredibly dated AAC codec, it won't be better on an Iphone. They do ship a dongle, though.

Even if Apple ditches AAC, Bluetooth audio will never match the sound quality of the direct signal of a cable. BT no matter what codec always has the flaw of latency and connection problems not to mention the fact that BT headphones have to be charged and usually die after a few years compared to wired headphones that last longer and are more reliable.

 

[rggz]

Which is why it would be interesting to also see some measurements on the HBK 5128 rig, with anthropomorphic/metric ear canal for comparison.

I believe someone posted Sennheiser's own B&K 5128 measurements a few pages back, but Soundguys just published their review yesterday, and they also have a B&K 5128 rig and HD 490 measurements, FWIW: https://clearbuy.com/vile/charts/co...ID=325&comparisonMeasurementID=241&targetID=1

 

[ADUHF]

I believe someone posted Sennheiser's own B&K 5128 measurements a few pages back, but Soundguys just published their review yesterday, and they also have a B&K 5128 rig and HD 490 measurements, FWIW: https://clearbuy.com/vile/charts/co...ID=325&comparisonMeasurementID=241&targetID=1

Thanks for this, rggz. If I'm reading listener and ericpalonen's comments correctly, it sounds like the FR graphs on the HD 490 Pro box were made on an HBK 5128 rig, and compensated with HBK's 5128 diffuse field curve.

The bright spots in the low treble around 4-6.5 kHz, and the depression in the upper mids in the general vicinity of 2 kHz are also apparent in the SoundGuys' raw 5128 graph. What is missing on the SG graph is the rolloff in the high treble. Their graph of the AKG K371 shows a much more precipitous drop above 10-11 kHz, for example...

https://www.soundguys.com/akg-k371-review-30284/

So, the HD 490 Pro looks like a significantly better performer in this particular area. And the brightness/sibilance in the low treble appears to bleed only slightly into the ear canal resonance in the mid-treble at around 8 kHz on the SG plot.

I haven't searched this entire thread yet, but there appears to be a clearer picture of Sennheiser's compensated graphs for both sets of earpads in the ASR HD 490 Pro topic.

I'm only lookin at the plots made with the velour producer's pads so far, btw, because they extend much better into the bass.

 

[ADUHF]

Link to the full Sound Guys review...

https://www.soundguys.com/sennheiser-hd-490-pro-review-111184/

Sound Guys use a variety of targets with their headphones btw. And I'd take most of them with a grain of salt. Their HBK 5128 graph of the HD 490 Pro is down toward the middle of the review though, under "Objective Measurements".

 

[ADUHF]

And this is the likely source of the compensated Sennheiser graphs on ASR. The video is pre-cued to the image showing the graphs of both 490 earpads.

 

[Rainblind]

I had a chance for a brief listening today. The build quality impressed me - solid and comfortable, light... I love it. When it comes to sound I appreciate the idea of exchangable pads - having that kind of choice is great. From those two I prefer the mixing ones - on the producers, the 1K area was too recessed for my taste. If was still doing some studio work I would keep them - they do their job well. I was able to hear a lot of production downsides clearly, and on the other hand, it was obvious where the work was done nicely.

From the "pure listening" point of view... energy in the highs is just too strong for me, and the timbre seems to be a bit more on the dry and coarse side. The first thing that came to mind was that it's improved 560s which is alright but I don't find it worthy of achievement for 400$. One thing was beyond expectations - the imaging, I admire the whole picture it creates on busy tracks. It's also versatile - the sound was solid on blues, jazz, rock, some hard and heavy, orchestral, but not actually great on any.

Finally - I see it as a great tool for work, but not very useful for deep music enjoyment. The more fluent and musical version of these is something I would really love to hear. Maybe NDH 30 or Senns 660s2 will play this role. We'll see in the near future.

 

[Alchemistt]

If the 490 is an improved 560 or just a 560 in a different body, I'm welcome.
I recently returned the 560 (1.8 meter cable) because they squeeze my head too much (In everything else, they suited me, they were very encouraging.
560 is nothing extra, but in 490 the cups are spinning(((I hate this. Also, according to reviews, it seems that 490 has a failed middle((compared to 560(

 

[dc99]

From the "pure listening" point of view... energy in the highs is just too strong for me, and the timbre seems to be a bit more on the dry and coarse side. The first thing that came to mind was that it's improved 560s which is alright but I don't find it worthy of achievement for 400$. One thing was beyond expectations - the imaging, I admire the whole picture it creates on busy tracks. It's also versatile - the sound was solid on blues, jazz, rock, some hard and heavy, orchestral, but not actually great on any.

Finally - I see it as a great tool for work, but not very useful for deep music enjoyment. The more fluent and musical version of these is something I would really love to hear. Maybe NDH 30 or Senns 660s2 will play this role. We'll see in the near future.

I have the HD490Pro too, I love it. I think what you are describing is called better transient response, Things are fast and snappy. As the result, you can hear the strings plucking, piano hammer hitting harder. I have the HD6XX too, compare to that, the HD6XX is more layback and relax. If the HD490 is like seating on the 1st row, HD6XX would be like sitting back 20 rows. But the staging and comfort are excellent on the HD490 Pro, that’s why I’m keeping mine.

 

[chirsu]

Some first impressions: I got mine, tried comparing with my old version 560s(both powered using Topping DX5 Lite) - there was a difference in slightly stronger bass, less aggressive highs, maybe slightly more detail, but this could be just different tonal balance tricking me. Also tried the fabric pads, felt like bass was more impactful, even though the measurements suggest that it should be reverse. I prefer the velour pads both in comfort and sound(except bass impact, I guess. Seems like velour pads bass is louder, but fabric pads bass is more impactful). But overall I didn't notice much of a difference compared to 560s in sound after A/B testing, which left me a bit disappointed.

However an hour later I've tried to just listen to 490 Pro on it's own and found that I enjoyed the music way more than I usually did on my 560s. Not sure if it's because less aggressive highs allowed me to play music a bit louder, or something else. Hard to judge right now, I wanna listen to them for a week and then do another A/B test against 560s.

In terms of comfort - 490 doesn't have the issue of pressing hard in front of my ears(which 560s does), but the dust filter irritates my ears, baffles how Sennheiser overlooked that. They definitely should fix that in a silent revision. The irritation from dust filter is not that bad, and for me 490 is much more comfortable than 560s. But I am definitely looking to replace the filter with something else, especially since I didn't notice sound change when I removed the filters. Probably will try to use the dust filter from 600 series ear pads.

 

[evonimos]

The dust cover in front of the baffles can be removed.

As long as you treat your HD490 with proper care and your ears stay clean and are not a bugs nest, you could use them with the baffle and the driver exposed.

This will affect their sound, of course.

It doesnt take a scientist to understand that anything in front of an actual driver, will act as a sort of sound filter.

So, if you think they need a little more clarity, impact and speed, try it. If you don't like it, you can reverse that proccess at anytime.