On my birthday on the 28th of October, I bought myself the Sennheiser HD 560S, my first venture into the world of open back headphones. Before this, I had never even worn a pair of open backs before, and I had no idea what to expect as a result. Headphone reviewers such as DankPods made me expect there to be no bass whatsoever, and that people like me (bassheads) typically hate open backs for this reason, but I’ve found that I really quite like how they sound.
I can’t remember who, but someone on this subreddit said that this headphone is akin to eating french vanilla ice cream made with vanilla beans out of a cold, metal cup and I feel like that’s probably the best way to describe them. Lower bass notes are very subtle (for example, the 808 in Mac Miller’s God Is Fair, Sexy Nasty is at about 35 Hz, and the bass rolls off quite hard in this region so it’s not as present as it would be in other headphones) but everything else is present and accounted for, which surprised me greatly as I was expecting there to be no bass whatsoever. Like Beats Pill (2011) levels of bass, but no, the bass here is warm. It embraces me. It’s nice.
The mids and treble are also very balanced. They’re so balanced that I have almost nothing to say about them. The main thing that stood out to me is the soundstage. Beyoncé in All Night sounds like she is in front of me. I feel like I could reach out and… I’m not finishing that sentence. Lorde in Oceanic Feeling sounds like she’s all around me, and I feel like I’m floating when I listen to that song. It’s magical. Basically every song in Daft Punk’s RAM sound amazing through these, and has given me a new appreciation for that album.
And that’s the main takeaway. These headphones have given me a new appreciation for a lot of the music I listen to. I feel like I hear so much more of it in ways I didn’t fully understand before. I feel like this is the closest I’ve ever been to injecting a song into my veins and it is transfixing. I feel the author’s emotions behind their voices and lyrics on a far deeper level than ever before.
A bit of a personal anecdote: just under two weeks ago, my partner of three years broke up with me. I’ve been filling the void of her absence not with alcohol but with music, and I’ve never cried to sad songs the way I have since listening to them with these headphones on. Tyler, the Creator’s GONE, GONE / THANK YOU hits me right in the feels once THANK YOU comes in and it feels like an absolute flurry of emotions listening to that song. I really had no idea I could feel music this way until I got these.
If I had any complaints, I would say I want a little bit more bass on the super low end. I listen at very low volumes normally (10 out of my laptop, about 30% out of my iPod and 55-62 dB out of my iPhone through the Apple dongle) and I feel like I’m missing a little bit out of songs with very low bass, such as Lesbian by Metro Boomin.
Oh, and they sound great in games too. I don’t play Overwatch any more, otherwise I would’ve loved to try the Dolby Atmos for Headphones option in that game as I know it usually sounds phenomenal. I’ve been playing Titanfall 2 and I still suck at it, but I can at least hear where the bullets that kill me are coming from. This sentiment remains true with other games with beautiful and thoughtful audio design such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered.
Anyways, to wrap up a very long-winded comment: great headphones 9.5/10
On my birthday on the 28th of October, I bought myself the Sennheiser HD 560S, my first venture into the world of open back headphones. Before this, I had never even worn a pair of open backs before, and I had no idea what to expect as a result. Headphone reviewers such as DankPods made me expect there to be no bass whatsoever, and that people like me (bassheads) typically hate open backs for this reason, but I’ve found that I really quite like how they sound.
I can’t remember who, but someone on this subreddit said that this headphone is akin to eating french vanilla ice cream made with vanilla beans out of a cold, metal cup and I feel like that’s probably the best way to describe them. Lower bass notes are very subtle (for example, the 808 in Mac Miller’s God Is Fair, Sexy Nasty is at about 35 Hz, and the bass rolls off quite hard in this region so it’s not as present as it would be in other headphones) but everything else is present and accounted for, which surprised me greatly as I was expecting there to be no bass whatsoever. Like Beats Pill (2011) levels of bass, but no, the bass here is warm. It embraces me. It’s nice.
The mids and treble are also very balanced. They’re so balanced that I have almost nothing to say about them. The main thing that stood out to me is the soundstage. Beyoncé in All Night sounds like she is in front of me. I feel like I could reach out and… I’m not finishing that sentence. Lorde in Oceanic Feeling sounds like she’s all around me, and I feel like I’m floating when I listen to that song. It’s magical. Basically every song in Daft Punk’s RAM sound amazing through these, and has given me a new appreciation for that album.
And that’s the main takeaway. These headphones have given me a new appreciation for a lot of the music I listen to. I feel like I hear so much more of it in ways I didn’t fully understand before. I feel like this is the closest I’ve ever been to injecting a song into my veins and it is transfixing. I feel the author’s emotions behind their voices and lyrics on a far deeper level than ever before.
A bit of a personal anecdote: just under two weeks ago, my partner of three years broke up with me. I’ve been filling the void of her absence not with alcohol but with music, and I’ve never cried to sad songs the way I have since listening to them with these headphones on. Tyler, the Creator’s GONE, GONE / THANK YOU hits me right in the feels once THANK YOU comes in and it feels like an absolute flurry of emotions listening to that song. I really had no idea I could feel music this way until I got these.
If I had any complaints, I would say I want a little bit more bass on the super low end. I listen at very low volumes normally (10 out of my laptop, about 30% out of my iPod and 55-62 dB out of my iPhone through the Apple dongle) and I feel like I’m missing a little bit out of songs with very low bass, such as Lesbian by Metro Boomin.
Oh, and they sound great in games too. I don’t play Overwatch any more, otherwise I would’ve loved to try the Dolby Atmos for Headphones option in that game as I know it usually sounds phenomenal. I’ve been playing Titanfall 2 and I still suck at it, but I can at least hear where the bullets that kill me are coming from. This sentiment remains true with other games with beautiful and thoughtful audio design such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered.
Anyways, to wrap up a very long-winded comment: great headphones 9.5/10