[Dawzy11]

Hi Everyone,
 
I am having a bit of a dilemma....
 
I need to decide between the 518 and the 598, I apologize because my research has shown many of these threads already, but I still cannot make up my mind. 
 
I bought my father the 518 for Christmas and he absolutely loves them. I like them as well, but I felt after awhile the bass was fatiguing and for once in my life I couldn't bare to move the bass higher on the equalizer like I feel with most other headphones/earphones. (And they still had < 30 mins use on them)
 
These will be my first proper headphones that I will use in my room at Uni for long hours of gaming and long relaxation sessions listening to what I would call a wide variety of music. Reasons for this are an annoying roommate who cannot stand the bass of my speakers, with whom I am willing to compromise with.
 
I am willing to buy a DAC if it means I do get a much superior sound output. 
 
I am stuck in a rut and hope a few of you can pull me out in the right direction.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
So you have a room mate who can hear you? Are you in a dorm? Or just separate rooms? Open air headphones will leak like small speakers so if you two are in the same room, he will hear you. And if you're in another room with the door open, he will still hear you. If that's the case, maybe consider some closed back headphones. Otherwise, you should be good to go.
 
The HD598's are not bassy at all, the opposite really, just shy of neutral to me really. So they may be what you're after since you found the HD518 too bassy and fatiguing (weird to me, but hey, they're your ears). If you want more options, also look into the Sony MA900.
 
What are you currently using as your source? (computer, phone, portable player, etc)
 
Very best,

 

[Dawzy11]

Different dorm rooms, was only the subwoofer that he hated (Bed was right next to the wall). He won't notice any sound leakage.
 
Source will most likely be a computer yes standard inbuilt sound cards so if these require DAC's for better quality then so be it.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Different dorm rooms, was only the subwoofer that he hated (Bed was right next to the wall). He won't notice any sound leakage.
 
Source will most likely be a computer yes standard inbuilt sound cards so if these require DAC's for better quality then so be it.

 
In that case, pair up with a simple Fiio E10.
 
And make sure your audio is well recorded, lossless or near lossless. Remember the golden rule garbage in, garbage out. Feeding your new setup some compressed youtube trash is going to sound awful. So make sure you're listening to as high quality as possible source audio.
 
Very best,

 

[AHorseNamedJeff]

The 518's don't leak hardly at all (in normal listening levels) for an open air.

 

[Dawzy11]

Thank you, You have helped in my decision and I will go with the 598's. Just placed my order and I look forward to them arriving
 
Will post my thoughts.
 
Thanks very much!