Gadgetory

I am back for yet another edition of awesome stuff week sponsored by YouTube this time it's awesome stuff unwrapped with the theme of holiday gifts for others or that you can buy for yourself if you're into that sort of thing and they've even got this experimental new ad unit that allows you to buy the item that's being featured through the video itself crazy right anyway Monday's focus for awesome stuff unwrapped is right in my wheelhouse you guessed it make up of course there's our my series power supplies feature premium components for great performance with very low noise check out the link in the video description to learn more so I was racking my brain for an awesome tech gift I went you know what I'm really tired of seeing people buy crappy headphones for each other and when you combine that with the fact that I've never covered one of the Primo value audiophile headphones out there the Sennheiser HD 598 and the fact that they just launched a black SE variant not to mention that we didn't have a lot of time to throw this video together and I already have a fair bit of experience with this products a very similar predecessor and we've got ourselves a recipe for a video so let's take a look at today's prize filly inside the box you'll find the headphones themselves with a cleverly locking detachable 3 meter cord a headphone jack adapter so you can use them with anything from your mp3 player to your standalone headphone amplifier and in the case of the SE a shorter 1.2 meter cord that will likely be preferred by folks who want to use their new headphones with a portable music player on that subject at 50 ohms the HD 598 SAR a little on the high impedance side to get the most out of them with any but the best portable amps but with that said I didn't find them entirely lifeless with my Xperia z5 compact to the point where I would entirely avoid them if you want to use them while you're on the go sometimes without a standalone powered amp not that most people are going to want to use the regular one while they're out and about anyway I can't think of too many outfits that would go with this particular color scheme so I don't know I guess it's hard for me to describe these physically any further other than to say that about their headphones you'll find the 53 millimeter dynamic drivers angled strategically towards your ear canals in each cup surrounded by the lure pads there are two hinges you got your up and down and your left and right to help the headphones fit on a variety of head shapes better and then between the cushioned headband and the ear cups themselves is a regrettably plastic but from my experience still fairly robust size adjust mechanism enough about those though what else will I be comparing them against I still don't have an ABX listening setup on fortunately part of the reason why you won't be see me evaluate any amps or decks which are much more difficult to tell from each other until that changes so I am stuck with adjusting my listening levels to 80 decibels with a 1 kilohertz test tone and then just switching between headphones and giving you guys my impressions so I went with a higher end lower reference point in Sennheiser's signature sound my old HD 5 v 5s and my daily driver HD 6 hundreds and then to represent similar tier models from other popular manufacturers I've got the k7 xx from AKG and DT 990 pros from Bayer dynamic let's talk fit first since nothing in my test suite today falls into the uncomfortable category the HD 598 has its work cut out for it here a kgs k7 xx suspension and leather head strap system works really well because they're massive ear cups allow sufficient clamping pressure to keep most of the weight off of the top of the head without pressure points while both Sennheiser and Bayer dynamic take a different approach here and featured the lure cushioned ear cups and cushioned pleather headbands compared to the DT 990s I wouldn't say I like Sennheiser's approach better but I'd call it more of a trade-off for the headband Sennheiser goes for a thicker kind of you can actually hear it air ride type system that I find doesn't distribute the weight on my head as well but is by no means uncomfortable and then again on the ear cups the HD 598 use a firmer foam and a shallower the lure that is comfortable but kind of lacks the warm hug from a friend on my head effect the flipside of that is that the HD 598 keep my head and ears cooler while I am listening so from a comfort perspective there's really no loser here except I would say the k7 xx's get edged out by both the dt 9 90s and the 5 98 but with that said I can wear any of these models for hours without that oh goodness my head is finally free feeling once I removed them which actually leads to another super positive thing I noticed here the last time I bought a new headphone a my HD six hundreds per second hand from Sennheiser's open backed audiophile lineup was the HD 5 v 5s and those things grabbed your head like a vise out of the box and only started fitting like a a perfectly tailored glove after a few months the 598 on the other hand are awesome out of the box and while I'm actually comparing them to the 5 v 5s in terms of build quality they're similar except that the plastic at the hinge here which on my 5 v 5s cracked like so many others seems to be a bit more robust let's get into how they sound I used a light harmonic geek out for all listening today with my usual mix of top 40 music because that's what I listen to and so do a lot of people in a nutshell the HD 598 are worth every penny of what the non SE model is going for at the moment depending on where you're shopping and even at their MSRP you're not going to be you know upset that you got ripped off take that with a grain of salt from me though because I'll be the first to admit that I've always loved the Sennheiser sound signature derisively referred to by people who don't like it as the Sennheiser veil because of the way their frequency response falls off a cliff in the high end that has the undesired effect of reducing clarity or sparkle in the high range but with poor quality recordings pretty common thanks to the loudness war of audio mastering it makes high-frequency instruments particularly percussion less fatiguing to listen to which I personally prefer by comparison the k7 xx and DT 990 pros do a better job of retaining details in the highs with the DTI 90s also hitting the bass a bit harder but not to the point where you know anything that I'm looking at today would be a basehead headphone either overall I think the best way to describe the listening experience with the HD 598 is smooth and easy and I know those are stupid audiophile words that don't really tell you anything objectively but if you were interested in objective data then headphone comm is the place to go anyway and honestly I don't need that to reach the conclusion about this video compared to almost all of the more consumer-oriented headphones out there even Sennheiser zone urbanite line that did I not get a positive review from me about a year ago whether you go with the brown or black edition with the same internals the HD 598 aren't going to knock your earrings out with thumping bass but they're a bang for the buck winner if you or someone you know is a budding audiophile who wants to listen to his or her music the way it was really meant to be listened to speaking of listening to listen to me talk about I fix it for $10 off your purchase of $50 or more you guys can go to ifixit.com slash Linus and enter the code tech tips at check out hold on a second Linus once I fix it why would I want to buy anything they're not a great question if you've ever wanted to repair a tablet or a notebook computer or phone and you've been like best guide for repairing device X the odds are excellent that you've ended up over on ifixit.com they've got all kinds of fantastic guides for tearing down devices and repairing them replacing batteries to get the most out of the stuff that you paid your good hard money for and the thing that most people don't know and where the offer code comes in is that I fix it not only has these guides but they've got all the tools you need suction cups prying tools tweezers magnets hard-to-find screwdriver bits all that stuff available on their site even got they even invented a tool to apply consistent heat directly to adhesive laid in case component so you can get them apart it's called the eye opener haha because it's for opening eye device anyway um anyway don't worry about the jokes or the product names worry about heading over to ifixit.com slash Linus and entering code tech tips at the checkout so that's pretty much it guys thanks for watching if you just liked this video you know what to do you guys are so good at finding that button I like about you guys but if you liked the video hit the like button get subscribed to the channel and don't forget to 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