These are my first open back Sennheisers so my point of view for this review is pretty inexperienced.
But I've been using HD-280 Pro and PC 350 SE for over 10 years now and they are both closed back Sennheisers... their bass is pretty decent since they are closed (from what I read of Sennheiser headphones).
These HD-58X produce better bass than my older closed back Sennheiser headphones while keeping the mid and high clear and somewhat accurate.
As an amature/novice/entry-level audiophile wannabe... I LOVE THESE HEADPHONES :D and they are 150? worth it trust me.
I use mine with a Creative Sound Blaster Z card and they sound really nice but I'm really curious about how much better they can sound with different amps and dacs so these headphones are a nice way to motivate me to upgrade my sound gear at great bang for your buck price point.
Ho1yThese are my first musical audiophile headphones too and I am also using a SBZ, my conclusion so far seems that we might just need a good AMP since the DAC in the SBZ is pretty decent (according to what others have said).
I'm just confused what an AMP will do in this case since the SBZ gets the 58x to a decent volume already, so I'm really not sure.
EDIT:
Best bang for buck from what I can tell would be the Schiit Stack which is a Magni 3 AMP and a Modi 2 DAC for 200 bucks.
NyphonRight I'm also curious as to how an amp would benefit these headphones because the sound is loud as all hell already.
But I'll continue researching.
Thanks for your reply!
NyphonQuality wise I don't think that Magni would make any difference. SBZ has quite decent amp already and it can provide more than enough power already. Sure, AE-5 is noticeably better but I'm not so sure about Magni. I also have O2 and it's a noticeable downgrade from AE-5, so unless Magni is WAY better, I'd say that it probably doesn't make any real difference. Also Magni has way too much gain on low already. It would be a real pain with strong sources.
The only way it would sound better is if the amp has less stereo crosstalk, higher dynamic range and less noise.
But I've been using HD-280 Pro and PC 350 SE for over 10 years now and they are both closed back Sennheisers... their bass is pretty decent since they are closed (from what I read of Sennheiser headphones).
These HD-58X produce better bass than my older closed back Sennheiser headphones while keeping the mid and high clear and somewhat accurate.
As an amature/novice/entry-level audiophile wannabe... I LOVE THESE HEADPHONES :D and they are 150? worth it trust me.
I use mine with a Creative Sound Blaster Z card and they sound really nice but I'm really curious about how much better they can sound with different amps and dacs so these headphones are a nice way to motivate me to upgrade my sound gear at great bang for your buck price point.