Headfile

The HD555s aren’t the best headphones I’ve ever heard – that accolade falls to some Beyerdynamic heavyweights that cost more than twice as much, but are darn good. Sennheiser’s claims about very low colouration and extended frequency response sound true to me. The 555s have clear but not overemphasized treble, no bad behavior in the midrange, and kickin’ bass for those moments when it matters, without so much thump that it swamps everything else.

I trundled through my usual classical, jazz, rock and electronic test tracks, and then made with the random play. The 555s did a good job by anyone’s standards on everything, and a great job when you consider their not-so-scary price tag.

I still prefer the sound of my HD590s, which don’t get a lot of love from the headphone cognoscenti but have a wider soundstage (weird surround reflectors or no weird surround reflectors) and more treble clarity, I think, than the 555s. The 590s cost more, of course, so you’d want them to sound a bit better.

And, as I said, the 555s aren’t quite as comfortable as the 590s.

But if someone took my 590s away and forced me to use the 555s, I’d be perfectly happy.

The test results for the 555s show a well-behaved frequency response plot with solid results down to 30Hz (not quite the 15Hz Sennheiser claimed, but more than enough for pretty much every purpose), a slightly mountainous impedance plot that shouldn’t cause any problems, and the crummy isolation common to all open headphones.

For $US150, these are a steal.

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