HD599 lover here.
I have a lot of headphones and IEMs: Meze 105 AER, 105 Silva, Empyrean, Elites; Focal Bathys, Azurys, Clear OG; Grado SR80X, sr325x; Sennheiser HD380 Pro, PC38X, Hd599, Momentum 4, Momentum 3, Accentum; Bose, Sony, Master & Dynamic, Bowers & Wilkins… and more.
And the HD599’s are my daily drivers. They’re what I base my opinion about everything else on. The other ones that compete? Meze105 Aer, Grado sr325x.
So yeah. I get it. Enjoy :-)
1. Comfort. Simply put, great comfort all around.
2. Smooth vocals, big focus on them.
3. Scales well with amps. I use them with my Blue Yeti mic most of the time. But when I’m listening to music, I switch to the iFi Go Link or the Chord Mojo 2. These both sound great, especially with a bit of bass boost.
The comfort and vocal focus are why they’re my daily drivers at work: I spend all day listening to voices so the smooth vocals are of utmost importance. The PC38X are great at this, too, but not as comfortable.
The music performance is a great bonus, and it’s why I often swap the HD599 for the Meze 105 AER: it has better musical performance with similar smoothness and comfort. But the ear cups are smaller and I have big ears, so that’s why I like Sennheisers.
I’ve been considering the HD550’s which I hear are a solid upgrade to the HD599’s, but I don’t see a real need.
I've used several Sennheisers and I second/third/fourth the HD 490 suggestions in this thread. They're slightly bassier and more exciting than the HD600-series, and *very* comfortable.
If you like the open-back sound I also suggest you try something Grado, for example the SR325x is in your price range and very good. I know they're not for everybody, plenty of people don't like their sound. But also plenty of people *do*, so I recommend you try them as they may just be your jam.
You going to get dozens of subjective and different answers. For me planars are just ok for rock/metal and Ive tried a few. My favourite for the past few years have been the Grado SR325x .
I love my Grados. Had SR60s in high school and finally upgraded to the 325x last summer. I work in music production so I just use my UAD Apollo as headphone amp.
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