[Maker]

Hey guys, I need an advise.
 
I will use the headphones mainly for movies/fps games - 80% and music - 20%. So which one would you pick? I know both of the headphones have great soundstage, Beyers has better bass and highs, Senns are more balanced with lack of bass. I wonder wheather the Senns's lack of bass is a deal breaker for me or not, since I will use it mainly for movies and games? Maybe the bass is not that bad? Another info I can share with you (and will probably shock you) is that my brother has DT 990 Pro 250 and I can hardly hear a difference between FiiO 10 and motherboard soundcard.

 

[GREQ]

To my ears the Sennheisers are more balanced overall. I actually found the DT990 Pro to be a fair bit treble forward - nothing like the lush bassy vintage version. 
 
I use my vintage DT990 for movies and games, and I think I'd rather the signature of the HD558 as it's a tad closer to my favoured signature, and is less fatiguing for long sessions. 
 
The Beyer has much stronger build quality, but the Sennheiser is slightly more comfortable.
Both are great though. Tough call.

 

[Trunks159]

If recommend the ma900. Extremely comfortable and they have wonderful imagery and soundstage.

 

[Maker]

Bump

 

[DefQon]

558's. Not the best but a lot better than the fatiguing treble of the DT990 250ohm version. The soundstage is bit wider on the 558 for movies and such than the DT990. 558's are also more comfortable, the 990 clamps onto you, so if you're schitting your pants from a horror movie you're going to get sweat build up. The sound is also more balanced with the 558. If you ever go for DT990's either vintage Pro's or 600ohm Prem.

 

[Maker]

So you say I will be able to enjoy the movies and games, even with the lack of bass on 558?
 
Somewhere I read the 50 ohm 558's impendance sometimes goes up to 300 ohms under certain conditions (while reproducing bass). Not quiete sure what does that exacly mean?

 

[GearMe]

Have both of these and 558's are my goto cans for longer listening session; while the 990's are more the 'exciting' sound signature.  Not a game player but if I didn't want to 'miss that faint sound from behind right' etc., I think I'd go with the 990s.
 
BTW -  weird you can't tell difference between PC and Fiio...certainly notice one between my laptop and my E10.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Hey guys, I need an advise.
 
I will use the headphones mainly for movies/fps games - 80% and music - 20%. So which one would you pick? I know both of the headphones have great soundstage, Beyers has better bass and highs, Senns are more balanced with lack of bass. I wonder wheather the Senns's lack of bass is a deal breaker for me or not, since I will use it mainly for movies and games? Maybe the bass is not that bad? Another info I can share with you (and will probably shock you) is that my brother has DT 990 Pro 250 and I can hardly hear a difference between FiiO 10 and motherboard soundcard.

I would not say the HD558s are bassless, more like a decent bass (just enough to do the job).
I've found my HD558s to be a very good all around headphone.
Not an overly warm sound, but more "functional".

 

[DefQon]

Quote:

I would not say the HD558s are bassless, more like a decent bass (just enough to do the job).
I've found my HD558s to be very good all around headphone.
Not an overly warm sound, but more "functional".

Yep.
 
And the DT990 is not good for gaming at all, especially if you want good imaging and positional stereo sound, the 558 remain one of the best all rounder gaming headphones around. 
 
Btw a poll will be useless because some user will vote because they only have 1 or 2 headphones or tend to stick with one particular brand.

 

[ZeNmAc]

I love my dt990pros although I agree the treble is too much.  They kinda need to be eq'ed for music, otherwise the treble is fatiguing after a while.  It hasn't bothered me in movies or games though.  To be clear, the only reason they are fatiguing is because the treble is just plain too loud.  There is no ringing, the highs sound amazing, especially after eq.  I really appreciate the clean bass too.  From what I've read, a lot of open headphones don't have the best bass, which I cannot confirm from my own experience.  The dt990 bass is great though.
 
Here's my eq settings.  This isn't just to my ears either, several ppl have measured them (including me) and found a big peak (at least 5dB) in the 5-9k area.

 
As far as gaming, they are very immersive but the positioning isn't significantly better than my other headphones (ath-m50).
 
Sorry I haven't listened to 558's but hopefully I helped you make your decision.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

So you say I will be able to enjoy the movies and games, even with the lack of bass on 558?
 
Somewhere I read the 50 ohm 558's impendance sometimes goes up to 300 ohms under certain conditions (while reproducing bass). Not quiete sure what does that exacly mean?

I do enjoy the DT990 for action movies (currently using the DT990 600-Ohm), but for long term gaming, I would think the HD558 would be less fatiguing on the ears.
And sometimes Amazon has some really good prices on used HD558s.

 

[Maker]

Ok guys, thank you for enlightening me. I discovered a local shop where I can test the Senns and compare them to my brother's Beyers. Also while testing the Beyers I realised how awesome the sound is compared to speakers/monitors so I will probably use headphones for music (all kind of music) much more than I thought, so it won't be only movies/games anymore.
 

 

[GearMe]

If I could only keep one headphone out of my collection right now, it would be the HD558.

 

[Maker]

Today I tried the 558 (and 518) at the local shop and I can say the bass was better than I expected. I even felt the physical impact of it, so the "lack of bass" issue is not really an issue. You were right.
 
Now I have to figure whether I should get a DAC and AMP or just stay with the onboard soundcard (VT2021). I'm more of a audio beginner, just like I stated already, I can hardly hear a difference between DT 990 Pro 250 ohm connected to E10/onboard soundcard. So I could just get a xonar dg and be happy with it, but I understand there is some kind of issue with the high output impendance which is not cool for 50ohm headphones. Also, do I understand it correctly that due to this impedance raise - http://cdn.head-fi.org/7/79/79218542_XB300vsHD558Impedance.jpeg I would need more likely a 300ohm amp to drive 558 correctly?
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

If I could only keep one headphone out of my collection right now, it would be the HD558.

I've sometime have had the same thought.