[bolmeteus]

  I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of the shp 9500's, and comparison to the senn. 598's.

First thing I'd like to share is the 598s more comfortable than the SHP, the velour pads ensure long time usage without making my ears sweat a lot. The SHP oval shaped pads are comfy but if your room is not air conditioned and you live in a humid environment, your ears are gonna sweat, which is very irritating for me. 

 

[VeggiePopper]

First thing I'd like to share is the 598s more comfortable than the SHP, the velour pads ensure long time usage without making my ears sweat a lot. The SHP oval shaped pads are comfy but if your room is not air conditioned and you live in a humid environment, your ears are gonna sweat, which is very irritating for me. 

How about the sound? Any first impressions so far?

 

[bolmeteus]

I know now how "anemic" hd598 is compared to the shp.
Quite surprising actually, did not give much thought when I read about it. But I was enjoying the sound more on the shp, bass was better, not a huge jump but noticable, everything felt coherent. Hd598 just sounds flat.

I'll do proper comparisions after my finals, med school is pita

 

[Primus2112]

I know now how "anemic" hd598 is compared to the shp.
Quite surprising actually, did not give much thought when I read about it. But I was enjoying the sound more on the shp, bass was better, not a huge jump but noticable, everything felt coherent. Hd598 just sounds flat.

I'll do proper comparisions after my finals, med school is pita

Thanks for the first impressions! I have both and somehow I find the HD598  hsd more bass in the lows compared to the SHP9500's of which I find a tad more accentuated in the highs. The HD598 sounds cleaner overall. But I love both. In gaming I found the HD598 more preferable for the boomy explosions etc. 
But my fave cans are the Superlux HD681 Evo's It's almost like they have the best of the lows from the HD598 and the highs of the SHiP's. Of course that my is my personal take from my ears and brain.

 

[MRK1]

I just bought these after reading a million reviews online, on paper these sounded like the perfect headphones for me but now that I have them I have to say I'm utterly disappointed!

First of all a few things about myself (feel free to skip this part): I never had any high level audio gear but I always preferred a certain kind of sound with detailed mids & highs, controlled yet punchy bass that doesn't overpower the rest, and wide soundstage.  Unfortunately I never had a whole lot of money to spend on this so I always got the best bang for the buck headphones and never spent a whole lot of money on a single headphone, my record was 100€ for the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear. My current favourite headphone is the VE Monk earbud with donut foams, mostly because it's so easy to carry around and it's perfectly comfy for my ears, also with some EQ to improve the highs it sounds quite nice to my ears, details is good, bass is present but lacking (typical earbud bass), and they have nice soundstage (by soundstage I mean sound extension around my head, as I don't really like feeling like the sound comes from inside my skull). Before that I used the JVC Carbon Nanotube cans (forgot the exact model) a lot, and also my AKG K319 earbuds (which costed me 70€ back then) which were insanely bright and detailed with punchy bass (or at least that's how i remember them, they broke a couple of years ago). I also used a lot of other mediocre at best earbuds such as the Apple Earpods, some random mediocre headphones from AKG & Sennheiser, some other low tier headphones from JVC & AKG.  Other than that I always use flac and 320kbps files.
 
Speaking of the Momentum In-Ear, I found them way too bassy and lacking soundstage, so I sent them back. They didn't sound bad, I just didn't like how they sounded, and also they were extremely uncomfortable to my ears. So I finally realized that my ears will never adapt to iems and that the earbuds I like so much aren't going to make a comeback so I decided to go maximum comfy, giant circumaural headphones for my next "expensive" audio treat, with a "controlled" bass and big soundstage. So I bought the HD598 SE for 150€ on Amazon Italy.
 
Here's my first impression after listening to them for around 3 hours yesterday night, sources used were my phone.
 
Volume: on my phone (Xperia Z3) the volume is kinda low, but at 90 to 100%% it's adeguate for most songs if not a bit loud. On my PC the volume is insanely high and it becomes uncomfortable at over 50%, so I assume I don't need an amp for these.
 
Comfort: seems good, I need to get used to them, they also still have some clamping force
 
Bass: completely non-existant. My VE Monk literally has more bass than these. If I EQ some bass in, it just "thumps" more, but the bass is really dry and not nice at all. It's more similar to someone slamming his fist on a table than musical bass, as it has no extension whatsoever in the low end.
 
Mids: pretty good detail but extremely boring, flat and unengaging. Detail seemed very good though, but the music was extremely boring to me, it felt flat instead of "textured" and engaging. Voices were very clear but sounded veiled. Maybe because of the complete lack of any kind of bass. I listen to a lot of mid centric music these days, and this headphone even managed to make my upbeat Jpop collection sound boring.
 
Highs: highs seem good to me, very detailed and not fatiguing. Nothing to say here, this part of the sound seems good to me.
 
Soundstage: seems good but honestly I expected a lot better, maybe too much. There's a lot of spatial detailing which is something I like. Overall the "size" of the sound is not a whole lot bigger than even my JVC Carbon Nanotube headphones which are closed back.
 
Overall SQ: extremely flat and boring, everything sounds like it's going through a veil and that these drivers lack clarity. Even compared to my crappy VE Monk the sounds seems kinda flat, not engaging, kinda droning actually.
 
Weirdness: I noticed that if I close the grills using my hands, the soundstage closes in (obviously) but at the same time the sounds tightens up and sounds more to my liking. As I take my hands off the grills the sounds changes and becomes something I would describe as hollow and echo-y. I also prefer the sound as I press the headphones to my ears, it's like wearing them normally creates some kind of echo chamber inside the earcups that muffles up the sound.
 
I refuse to believe that A. these headphones are bad and B. my ears are defective, so I'm going to assume that either I got too addicted to the VE Monk (considering I used nothing else for over 6 months) and now my stupid brain is refusing to accept any other kind of sound as "good", or that I'm too tired and because I'm doing a million phone calls at work using my godawful phone headset and maybe my ears are fatigued. I don't think burn in is a thing that changes the sound radically, and so far these sound so wrong to my ears I don't think burn in will fix them. I think brain burn-in is more of a reality, which is probably why I'm disliking them, but something that worries me is that after 3 hours with the 598, I put on my VE Monks expecting to hear them sound awful (confirming it was my brain which needed to adapt), but nope, the Monk still sounded more to my liking (even without EQ, as I removed it to play with the 598), and superior in bass and clarity of the mids (vocals).
 
By the way, when I switched from my Sennheiser MX580 earbuds to the VE Monk I had an epiphany as they sounded what seemed a million times better, I expected the same thing going from the puny VE Monk to the glorious HD598, but instead all I got was disappointment.

 

[Arniesb]

598HD was my worse purchase also... Highs, Soundstage and imaging was good enough, but the rest sucked big time... By the way, i cant see why it so praised for gaming... Maybe with dolby it is good, but with stereo i find it performing no better than Beyerdynamic DT990. My Beyerdynamic T1 just blow it away for multiplayer and single player...

 

[Tuneslover]

I just bought these after reading a million reviews online, on paper these sounded like the perfect headphones for me but now that I have them I have to say I'm utterly disappointed!


First of all a few things about myself (feel free to skip this part): I never had any high level audio gear but I always preferred a certain kind of sound with detailed mids & highs, controlled yet punchy bass that doesn't overpower the rest, and wide soundstage.  Unfortunately I never had a whole lot of money to spend on this so I always got the best bang for the buck headphones and never spent a whole lot of money on a single headphone, my record was 100€ for the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear. My current favourite headphone is the VE Monk earbud with donut foams, mostly because it's so easy to carry around and it's perfectly comfy for my ears, also with some EQ to improve the highs it sounds quite nice to my ears, details is good, bass is present but lacking (typical earbud bass), and they have nice soundstage (by soundstage I mean sound extension around my head, as I don't really like feeling like the sound comes from inside my skull). Before that I used the JVC Carbon Nanotube cans (forgot the exact model) a lot, and also my AKG K319 earbuds (which costed me 70€ back then) which were insanely bright and detailed with punchy bass (or at least that's how i remember them, they broke a couple of years ago). I also used a lot of other mediocre at best earbuds such as the Apple Earpods, some random mediocre headphones from AKG & Sennheiser, some other low tier headphones from JVC & AKG.  Other than that I always use flac and 320kbps files.

Speaking of the Momentum In-Ear, I found them way too bassy and lacking soundstage, so I sent them back. They didn't sound bad, I just didn't like how they sounded, and also they were extremely uncomfortable to my ears. So I finally realized that my ears will never adapt to iems and that the earbuds I like so much aren't going to make a comeback so I decided to go maximum comfy, giant circumaural headphones for my next "expensive" audio treat, with a "controlled" bass and big soundstage. So I bought the HD598 SE for 150€ on Amazon Italy.

Here's my first impression after listening to them for around 3 hours yesterday night, sources used were my phone.

Volume: on my phone (Xperia Z3) the volume is kinda low, but at 90 to 100%% it's adeguate for most songs if not a bit loud. On my PC the volume is insanely high and it becomes uncomfortable at over 50%, so I assume I don't need an amp for these.

Comfort: seems good, I need to get used to them, they also still have some clamping force

Bass: completely non-existant. My VE Monk literally has more bass than these. If I EQ some bass in, it just "thumps" more, but the bass is really dry and not nice at all. It's more similar to someone slamming his fist on a table than musical bass, as it has no extension whatsoever in the low end.

Mids: pretty good detail but extremely boring, flat and unengaging. Detail seemed very good though, but the music was extremely boring to me, it felt flat instead of "textured" and engaging. Voices were very clear but sounded veiled. Maybe because of the complete lack of any kind of bass. I listen to a lot of mid centric music these days, and this headphone even managed to make my upbeat Jpop collection sound boring.

Highs: highs seem good to me, very detailed and not fatiguing. Nothing to say here, this part of the sound seems good to me.

Soundstage: seems good but honestly I expected a lot better, maybe too much. There's a lot of spatial detailing which is something I like. Overall the "size" of the sound is not a whole lot bigger than even my JVC Carbon Nanotube headphones which are closed back.

Overall SQ: extremely flat and boring, everything sounds like it's going through a veil and that these drivers lack clarity. Even compared to my crappy VE Monk the sounds seems kinda flat, not engaging, kinda droning actually.

Weirdness: I noticed that if I close the grills using my hands, the soundstage closes in (obviously) but at the same time the sounds tightens up and sounds more to my liking. As I take my hands off the grills the sounds changes and becomes something I would describe as hollow and echo-y. I also prefer the sound as I press the headphones to my ears, it's like wearing them normally creates some kind of echo chamber inside the earcups that muffles up the sound.

I refuse to believe that A. these headphones are bad and B. my ears are defective, so I'm going to assume that either I got too addicted to the VE Monk (considering I used nothing else for over 6 months) and now my stupid brain is refusing to accept any other kind of sound as "good", or that I'm too tired and because I'm doing a million phone calls at work using my godawful phone headset and maybe my ears are fatigued. I don't think burn in is a thing that changes the sound radically, and so far these sound so wrong to my ears I don't think burn in will fix them. I think brain burn-in is more of a reality, which is probably why I'm disliking them, but something that worries me is that after 3 hours with the 598, I put on my VE Monks expecting to hear them sound awful (confirming it was my brain which needed to adapt), but nope, the Monk still sounded more to my liking (even without EQ, as I removed it to play with the 598), and superior in bass and clarity of the mids (vocals).

By the way, when I switched from my Sennheiser MX580 earbuds to the VE Monk I had an epiphany as they sounded what seemed a million times better, I expected the same thing going from the puny VE Monk to the glorious HD598, but instead all I got was disappointment.

I'm sorry to hear that the 598SE's are not to your liking. Based on what you've written it sounds like you are and have been an IEM listener for a while and perhaps your brain is tuned to this type phone. Personally I was pleasantly surprised by my 598SE's, never heard a pair before, I just impulse purchased them during last year's Black Friday Amazon sale for $120 Cdn. I loved the sound signature right away but I burned them in by putting them on continuous play for 3-4 days and that seemed to take away some edginess but maintained the original signature.

There are many pro & con comments about these headphones and it seems you either like them or you don't. They don't require amping but do yourself a favor and see if you can audition them with a good source and a decent amp. Also, don't give up on them too quickly. Keep listening to them for a couple of weeks so that your brain has ample opportunity to adjust to them. If after giving them a decent shot, you still don't find them to your liking then perhaps they just aren't for you. Good Luck!

 

[dakanao]

I just bought these after reading a million reviews online, on paper these sounded like the perfect headphones for me but now that I have them I have to say I'm utterly disappointed!


First of all a few things about myself (feel free to skip this part): I never had any high level audio gear but I always preferred a certain kind of sound with detailed mids & highs, controlled yet punchy bass that doesn't overpower the rest, and wide soundstage.  Unfortunately I never had a whole lot of money to spend on this so I always got the best bang for the buck headphones and never spent a whole lot of money on a single headphone, my record was 100€ for the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear. My current favourite headphone is the VE Monk earbud with donut foams, mostly because it's so easy to carry around and it's perfectly comfy for my ears, also with some EQ to improve the highs it sounds quite nice to my ears, details is good, bass is present but lacking (typical earbud bass), and they have nice soundstage (by soundstage I mean sound extension around my head, as I don't really like feeling like the sound comes from inside my skull). Before that I used the JVC Carbon Nanotube cans (forgot the exact model) a lot, and also my AKG K319 earbuds (which costed me 70€ back then) which were insanely bright and detailed with punchy bass (or at least that's how i remember them, they broke a couple of years ago). I also used a lot of other mediocre at best earbuds such as the Apple Earpods, some random mediocre headphones from AKG & Sennheiser, some other low tier headphones from JVC & AKG.  Other than that I always use flac and 320kbps files.

Speaking of the Momentum In-Ear, I found them way too bassy and lacking soundstage, so I sent them back. They didn't sound bad, I just didn't like how they sounded, and also they were extremely uncomfortable to my ears. So I finally realized that my ears will never adapt to iems and that the earbuds I like so much aren't going to make a comeback so I decided to go maximum comfy, giant circumaural headphones for my next "expensive" audio treat, with a "controlled" bass and big soundstage. So I bought the HD598 SE for 150€ on Amazon Italy.

Here's my first impression after listening to them for around 3 hours yesterday night, sources used were my phone.

Volume: on my phone (Xperia Z3) the volume is kinda low, but at 90 to 100%% it's adeguate for most songs if not a bit loud. On my PC the volume is insanely high and it becomes uncomfortable at over 50%, so I assume I don't need an amp for these.

Comfort: seems good, I need to get used to them, they also still have some clamping force

Bass: completely non-existant. My VE Monk literally has more bass than these. If I EQ some bass in, it just "thumps" more, but the bass is really dry and not nice at all. It's more similar to someone slamming his fist on a table than musical bass, as it has no extension whatsoever in the low end.

Mids: pretty good detail but extremely boring, flat and unengaging. Detail seemed very good though, but the music was extremely boring to me, it felt flat instead of "textured" and engaging. Voices were very clear but sounded veiled. Maybe because of the complete lack of any kind of bass. I listen to a lot of mid centric music these days, and this headphone even managed to make my upbeat Jpop collection sound boring.

Highs: highs seem good to me, very detailed and not fatiguing. Nothing to say here, this part of the sound seems good to me.

Soundstage: seems good but honestly I expected a lot better, maybe too much. There's a lot of spatial detailing which is something I like. Overall the "size" of the sound is not a whole lot bigger than even my JVC Carbon Nanotube headphones which are closed back.

Overall SQ: extremely flat and boring, everything sounds like it's going through a veil and that these drivers lack clarity. Even compared to my crappy VE Monk the sounds seems kinda flat, not engaging, kinda droning actually.

Weirdness: I noticed that if I close the grills using my hands, the soundstage closes in (obviously) but at the same time the sounds tightens up and sounds more to my liking. As I take my hands off the grills the sounds changes and becomes something I would describe as hollow and echo-y. I also prefer the sound as I press the headphones to my ears, it's like wearing them normally creates some kind of echo chamber inside the earcups that muffles up the sound.

I refuse to believe that A. these headphones are bad and B. my ears are defective, so I'm going to assume that either I got too addicted to the VE Monk (considering I used nothing else for over 6 months) and now my stupid brain is refusing to accept any other kind of sound as "good", or that I'm too tired and because I'm doing a million phone calls at work using my godawful phone headset and maybe my ears are fatigued. I don't think burn in is a thing that changes the sound radically, and so far these sound so wrong to my ears I don't think burn in will fix them. I think brain burn-in is more of a reality, which is probably why I'm disliking them, but something that worries me is that after 3 hours with the 598, I put on my VE Monks expecting to hear them sound awful (confirming it was my brain which needed to adapt), but nope, the Monk still sounded more to my liking (even without EQ, as I removed it to play with the 598), and superior in bass and clarity of the mids (vocals).

By the way, when I switched from my Sennheiser MX580 earbuds to the VE Monk I had an epiphany as they sounded what seemed a million times better, I expected the same thing going from the puny VE Monk to the glorious HD598, but instead all I got was disappointment.

I can recommend the Philips Fidelio L2 at that price range if you like great clarity, engaging sound and good soundstage

 

[Bansaku]

I'm sorry to hear that the 598SE's are not to your liking. Based on what you've written it sounds like you are and have been an IEM listener for a while and perhaps your brain is tuned to this type phone. Personally I was pleasantly surprised by my 598SE's, never heard a pair before, I just impulse purchased them during last year's Black Friday Amazon sale for $120 Cdn. I loved the sound signature right away but I burned them in by putting them on continuous play for 3-4 days and that seemed to take away some edginess but maintained the original signature.

There are many pro & con comments about these headphones and it seems you either like them or you don't. They don't require amping but do yourself a favor and see if you can audition them with a good source and a decent amp. Also, don't give up on them too quickly. Keep listening to them for a couple of weeks so that your brain has ample opportunity to adjust to them. If after giving them a decent shot, you still don't find them to your liking then perhaps they just aren't for you. Good Luck!

 
@MRK1
I agree completely. My brain for years was adjusted to heavy V-shaped IEMs and my first impressions of the HD598 was What! Mids were great, bass was too thumpy/boomy, and treble a little bit harsh. I know there are a lot of people who don't believe in burn-in, but the HD598 made me a firm believer. Most headphones take around a good 40 hours, but the HD598s are late bloomers. After I went from IEMs to my Momentum and HD598, switching back I find the bass to be unbearable (even the EarPods). Be patient. Let your brain forget about IEMs. Honestly, in my experience most audiophile (neutral-ish) headphones, even studio monitors, takes time adjusting to the sound signature.
 

 

[Lynchguy]

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 have owned Momentum over ear, hd428, hd558, and hd598se. Momentum was by far the best, but not great at anything. Everyone's ears are tuned a bit different. And many people will not like the veil on the signature Sennheiser brand. Try out another brand. I did and what a difference. Good luck.

 

[MRK1]

Hi and thanks for your replies. Speaking of IEMs, I barely ever used them, because I find them very uncomfortable. I always used regular earbuds like the VE Monk, and the MX580, AKG K319 before. The unmentioned ones or the Earpods are not to my liking because they're muddy and bass heavy (such as the Earpods which are nearly unlistenable to me because of how muddy they are). The JVC is also not very much to my liking because it's closed and I don't like to be completely isolated when I listen to music, also it presses my ears so it's uncomfortable when I wear glasses.
 
I am pretty sure I'm disliking the 598 because I'm too used to the earbud sound + exhaustion and sleep deprivation from excessive work. Amazon gives me 30 days to send them back so I will have time to tune my brain to the new sounds. I REALLY want to like these headphones, because from the reviews I've been reading they have the perfect sound for me, I'm surely just not hearing it yet, maybe because they need burn in or because I need to get used to the signature (it wouldn't be the first time I get so used to something that when I buy something else for a few days I feel like it's not as good as before, I guess you would call this "baby duck syndrome"). They would also solve the issue of my ears being crushed or the inside of my ears getting irritated from excessive earbud use (either that or there is something in the plastic they're made of that irritates my skin, and I hope that's not the case, but with $5 chinese tech you never know).

 

[dakanao]

Hi and thanks for your replies. Speaking of IEMs, I barely ever used them, because I find them very uncomfortable. I always used regular earbuds like the VE Monk, and the MX580, AKG K319 before. The unmentioned ones or the Earpods are not to my liking because they're muddy and bass heavy (such as the Earpods which are nearly unlistenable to me because of how muddy they are). The JVC is also not very much to my liking because it's closed and I don't like to be completely isolated when I listen to music, also it presses my ears so it's uncomfortable when I wear glasses.

I am pretty sure I'm disliking the 598 because I'm too used to the earbud sound + exhaustion and sleep deprivation from excessive work. Amazon gives me 30 days to send them back so I will have time to tune my brain to the new sounds. I REALLY want to like these headphones, because from the reviews I've been reading they have the perfect sound for me, I'm surely just not hearing it yet, maybe because they need burn in or because I need to get used to the signature (it wouldn't be the first time I get so used to something that when I buy something else for a few days I feel like it's not as good as before, I guess you would call this "baby duck syndrome"). They would also solve the issue of my ears being crushed or the inside of my ears getting irritated from excessive earbud use (either that or there is something in the plastic they're made of that irritates my skin, and I hope that's not the case, but with $5 chinese tech you never know).

Reading reviews is good for a base line on how something sounds, but never fully trust in it.

It happened to me twice, with the Focal Spirit Pro and the NAD VisoHP50 headphones where I've only read reviews on them and people said they sounded amazing, best closed headphones of that price range is what a lot of reviews said.

Well, turns out I think the way cheaper Creative Aurvana Live sounds WAY more lively and clearer than those 2 headphones.

 

[LazyListener]

  I just bought these after reading a million reviews online, on paper these sounded like the perfect headphones for me but now that I have them I have to say I'm utterly disappointed!

First of all a few things about myself (feel free to skip this part): I never had any high level audio gear but I always preferred a certain kind of sound with detailed mids & highs, controlled yet punchy bass that doesn't overpower the rest, and wide soundstage.  Unfortunately I never had a whole lot of money to spend on this so I always got the best bang for the buck headphones and never spent a whole lot of money on a single headphone, my record was 100€ for the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear. My current favourite headphone is the VE Monk earbud with donut foams, mostly because it's so easy to carry around and it's perfectly comfy for my ears, also with some EQ to improve the highs it sounds quite nice to my ears, details is good, bass is present but lacking (typical earbud bass), and they have nice soundstage (by soundstage I mean sound extension around my head, as I don't really like feeling like the sound comes from inside my skull). Before that I used the JVC Carbon Nanotube cans (forgot the exact model) a lot, and also my AKG K319 earbuds (which costed me 70€ back then) which were insanely bright and detailed with punchy bass (or at least that's how i remember them, they broke a couple of years ago). I also used a lot of other mediocre at best earbuds such as the Apple Earpods, some random mediocre headphones from AKG & Sennheiser, some other low tier headphones from JVC & AKG.  Other than that I always use flac and 320kbps files.
 
Speaking of the Momentum In-Ear, I found them way too bassy and lacking soundstage, so I sent them back. They didn't sound bad, I just didn't like how they sounded, and also they were extremely uncomfortable to my ears. So I finally realized that my ears will never adapt to iems and that the earbuds I like so much aren't going to make a comeback so I decided to go maximum comfy, giant circumaural headphones for my next "expensive" audio treat, with a "controlled" bass and big soundstage. So I bought the HD598 SE for 150€ on Amazon Italy.
 
Here's my first impression after listening to them for around 3 hours yesterday night, sources used were my phone.
 
Volume: on my phone (Xperia Z3) the volume is kinda low, but at 90 to 100%% it's adeguate for most songs if not a bit loud. On my PC the volume is insanely high and it becomes uncomfortable at over 50%, so I assume I don't need an amp for these.
 
Comfort: seems good, I need to get used to them, they also still have some clamping force
 
Bass: completely non-existant. My VE Monk literally has more bass than these. If I EQ some bass in, it just "thumps" more, but the bass is really dry and not nice at all. It's more similar to someone slamming his fist on a table than musical bass, as it has no extension whatsoever in the low end.
 
Mids: pretty good detail but extremely boring, flat and unengaging. Detail seemed very good though, but the music was extremely boring to me, it felt flat instead of "textured" and engaging. Voices were very clear but sounded veiled. Maybe because of the complete lack of any kind of bass. I listen to a lot of mid centric music these days, and this headphone even managed to make my upbeat Jpop collection sound boring.
 
Highs: highs seem good to me, very detailed and not fatiguing. Nothing to say here, this part of the sound seems good to me.
 
Soundstage: seems good but honestly I expected a lot better, maybe too much. There's a lot of spatial detailing which is something I like. Overall the "size" of the sound is not a whole lot bigger than even my JVC Carbon Nanotube headphones which are closed back.
 
Overall SQ: extremely flat and boring, everything sounds like it's going through a veil and that these drivers lack clarity. Even compared to my crappy VE Monk the sounds seems kinda flat, not engaging, kinda droning actually.
 
Weirdness: I noticed that if I close the grills using my hands, the soundstage closes in (obviously) but at the same time the sounds tightens up and sounds more to my liking. As I take my hands off the grills the sounds changes and becomes something I would describe as hollow and echo-y. I also prefer the sound as I press the headphones to my ears, it's like wearing them normally creates some kind of echo chamber inside the earcups that muffles up the sound.
 
I refuse to believe that A. these headphones are bad and B. my ears are defective, so I'm going to assume that either I got too addicted to the VE Monk (considering I used nothing else for over 6 months) and now my stupid brain is refusing to accept any other kind of sound as "good", or that I'm too tired and because I'm doing a million phone calls at work using my godawful phone headset and maybe my ears are fatigued. I don't think burn in is a thing that changes the sound radically, and so far these sound so wrong to my ears I don't think burn in will fix them. I think brain burn-in is more of a reality, which is probably why I'm disliking them, but something that worries me is that after 3 hours with the 598, I put on my VE Monks expecting to hear them sound awful (confirming it was my brain which needed to adapt), but nope, the Monk still sounded more to my liking (even without EQ, as I removed it to play with the 598), and superior in bass and clarity of the mids (vocals).
 
By the way, when I switched from my Sennheiser MX580 earbuds to the VE Monk I had an epiphany as they sounded what seemed a million times better, I expected the same thing going from the puny VE Monk to the glorious HD598, but instead all I got was disappointment.

IMO, your brain has burned itself in to a certain sound that you like, and the 598s just sound different from what you're used to.  You can try recalibrating your brain by listening to nothing but the 598s for 2-3 weeks for 2-3 hours a day.  You may get used to them and start to enjoy them and actually prefer their sound, or you may not.  Works for some, not for others.
 
I can tell you from experience, that when I first heard the 598s, I loved them.  Now, after listening to them for several months, I can see why some people say they sound flat, boring, or veiled.  What I initially enjoyed about the 598s, that relaxed, smoothed over, slightly veiled sound signature that was so easy on my ears, I now find myself wanting a bit more forwardness to the sound.  I think my brain has gotten used to them, or maybe because they are so "soft" sounding, I felt the need to listener a bit louder, which has somehow physically affected my hearing, that now I feel I need more forwardness.  I don't know.  In any event, I"m sure it's 90% + our brains or ears that get "used to" a specific sound, and not the cans themselves breaking in.  Try the recalibration method I mentioned, and let us know how it goes.  Another recalibration of hearing anyone can do is to listen at much lower volume than one is used to.  It won't sound "right" for a while, but after a week or 2, your brain/ears will adjust and you will see that you can hear just as well as before at higher volume.  However, if you have the volume cranked at work when talking with others, your ears may not adjust.
 
Also, I think because you said you're on the phone all day with a headset listening to voices, your brain/ears may have adjusted for that, and your sense of hearing vocals has weakened, for lack of a better term, over time.  Therefore, you require a can where the vocals are more elevated/forward.
 
Anyway, good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Lynchguy]

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 which is wrong. But, you definitly need the proper amount of it. Let us know down the road how it all turned out.

 

[Primus2112]

  I just bought these after reading a million reviews online, on paper these sounded like the perfect headphones for me but now that I have them I have to say I'm utterly disappointed!

First of all a few things about myself (feel free to skip this part): I never had any high level audio gear but I always preferred a certain kind of sound with detailed mids & highs, controlled yet punchy bass that doesn't overpower the rest, and wide soundstage.  Unfortunately I never had a whole lot of money to spend on this so I always got the best bang for the buck headphones and never spent a whole lot of money on a single headphone, my record was 100€ for the Sennheiser Momentum in-ear. My current favourite headphone is the VE Monk earbud with donut foams, mostly because it's so easy to carry around and it's perfectly comfy for my ears, also with some EQ to improve the highs it sounds quite nice to my ears, details is good, bass is present but lacking (typical earbud bass), and they have nice soundstage (by soundstage I mean sound extension around my head, as I don't really like feeling like the sound comes from inside my skull). Before that I used the JVC Carbon Nanotube cans (forgot the exact model) a lot, and also my AKG K319 earbuds (which costed me 70€ back then) which were insanely bright and detailed with punchy bass (or at least that's how i remember them, they broke a couple of years ago). I also used a lot of other mediocre at best earbuds such as the Apple Earpods, some random mediocre headphones from AKG & Sennheiser, some other low tier headphones from JVC & AKG.  Other than that I always use flac and 320kbps files.
 
Speaking of the Momentum In-Ear, I found them way too bassy and lacking soundstage, so I sent them back. They didn't sound bad, I just didn't like how they sounded, and also they were extremely uncomfortable to my ears. So I finally realized that my ears will never adapt to iems and that the earbuds I like so much aren't going to make a comeback so I decided to go maximum comfy, giant circumaural headphones for my next "expensive" audio treat, with a "controlled" bass and big soundstage. So I bought the HD598 SE for 150€ on Amazon Italy.
 
Here's my first impression after listening to them for around 3 hours yesterday night, sources used were my phone.
 
Volume: on my phone (Xperia Z3) the volume is kinda low, but at 90 to 100%% it's adeguate for most songs if not a bit loud. On my PC the volume is insanely high and it becomes uncomfortable at over 50%, so I assume I don't need an amp for these.
 
Comfort: seems good, I need to get used to them, they also still have some clamping force
 
Bass: completely non-existant. My VE Monk literally has more bass than these. If I EQ some bass in, it just "thumps" more, but the bass is really dry and not nice at all. It's more similar to someone slamming his fist on a table than musical bass, as it has no extension whatsoever in the low end.
 
Mids: pretty good detail but extremely boring, flat and unengaging. Detail seemed very good though, but the music was extremely boring to me, it felt flat instead of "textured" and engaging. Voices were very clear but sounded veiled. Maybe because of the complete lack of any kind of bass. I listen to a lot of mid centric music these days, and this headphone even managed to make my upbeat Jpop collection sound boring.
 
Highs: highs seem good to me, very detailed and not fatiguing. Nothing to say here, this part of the sound seems good to me.
 
Soundstage: seems good but honestly I expected a lot better, maybe too much. There's a lot of spatial detailing which is something I like. Overall the "size" of the sound is not a whole lot bigger than even my JVC Carbon Nanotube headphones which are closed back.
 
Overall SQ: extremely flat and boring, everything sounds like it's going through a veil and that these drivers lack clarity. Even compared to my crappy VE Monk the sounds seems kinda flat, not engaging, kinda droning actually.
 
Weirdness: I noticed that if I close the grills using my hands, the soundstage closes in (obviously) but at the same time the sounds tightens up and sounds more to my liking. As I take my hands off the grills the sounds changes and becomes something I would describe as hollow and echo-y. I also prefer the sound as I press the headphones to my ears, it's like wearing them normally creates some kind of echo chamber inside the earcups that muffles up the sound.
 
I refuse to believe that A. these headphones are bad and B. my ears are defective, so I'm going to assume that either I got too addicted to the VE Monk (considering I used nothing else for over 6 months) and now my stupid brain is refusing to accept any other kind of sound as "good", or that I'm too tired and because I'm doing a million phone calls at work using my godawful phone headset and maybe my ears are fatigued. I don't think burn in is a thing that changes the sound radically, and so far these sound so wrong to my ears I don't think burn in will fix them. I think brain burn-in is more of a reality, which is probably why I'm disliking them, but something that worries me is that after 3 hours with the 598, I put on my VE Monks expecting to hear them sound awful (confirming it was my brain which needed to adapt), but nope, the Monk still sounded more to my liking (even without EQ, as I removed it to play with the 598), and superior in bass and clarity of the mids (vocals).
 
By the way, when I switched from my Sennheiser MX580 earbuds to the VE Monk I had an epiphany as they sounded what seemed a million times better, I expected the same thing going from the puny VE Monk to the glorious HD598, but instead all I got was disappointment.

I feel ya man! Having now a few more headphones to my collection and having listened to different music, games etc I do find the 598se's to be NOT all it was hyped to be, All the reviews online and youtube etc, praising how awesome they sound blah blah blah... I got sucked into it and thought YES this will be bliss for the 150ish price range... WRONG. lol 
Ok yes they are nice and feel great etc. And they make crappy music sound good. And I enjoy them for gaming. And I find them really easy to drive when unamped. But for me they can be a bit too muffled especially when fast bass songs are played. The bass either clips and I have to lower the volume or just can't handle fast bass songs, or deep bass sounds. Yes I like them and keeping them.
But honestly, I was really drawn to them because of how highly praised they were. lol. And that is my main disappointment. But with no expectations they are good but not spectacular and I do enjoy them and just keep in mind some of the limitations when I use them on certain sounds. I hope that makes sense. lol