Sennheiser HD 598 - Over the Ear Headphones

The Sennheiser HD 598 are high-end over the ear (circum-aural) headphones from Sennheiser priced at $249.95. They feature velour ear pads and a leatheratte headband headset to ensure listening comfort during long sessions. The velour ear pads are designed in such a way as to completely cover your ears and channel all audio signals directly into your ear canal, while the open back earcup design allows some sound to leak out of the headphone and also lets in more ambient sounds into the headphone. This results in a more natural or speaker-like sound and a realistic spatial sound field.
These headphones are supplied in a beige-colour with high-gloss burl wooden parts and matching ear pads in a sophisticated premium finish.

Features of the Sennheiser HD 598

• Open circum-aural headphones with E.A.R. technology 

The Sennheiser HD 598 are full size headphones with earcups fully wrapping around your ears and have been designed to give you outstanding sonic accuracy and clarity while ensuring your listening comfort for extended periods through Sennheiser's intuitive "Ergonomic Acoustic Refinement" (E.A.R.) design.  The E.A.R design ensures all audio signals are directly into your lugholes while ensuring maximum comfort.

• DuoFol Diaphragms  

DuoFol diaphragms consist of a thin membrane film attached to a voice coil designed to provide a wide sound stage with ultra-fast response and rest times for improved sound transparency and reduced distortion. The diaphragm shape and size is intuitively crafted to limit intermodulation distortion. In simple terms, when an audio signal at a given frequencies passes through an imperfect audio system, several noise frequencies will be present at the output which are either multiples, sums and differences of frequencies of the original audio signal but much weaker than the desired audio signal frequencies. This distortion becomes significant when the volume is turned up!

• Neodymium Ferrous Magnet and Aluminium Voice Coils

The permanent magnets adopted for the Sennheiser HD 598 are highly optimized and field-strengthened neodymium ferrous magnets. This coupled with lightweight aluminum voice coils provide a superior dynamic response and efficiency.

• Surround Reflector 

The Sennheiser HD 598 features open earcups that provide a spatial field - a perception of distance from the sound source. To improve on this, the HD 598 is further equipped with a surround reflector to provide an extended spatial sound field.

• Velour Ear pads and Leatheratte headband 

The HD 598 Ear pads are made of velour fabric, which makes them have a smooth and tender feel to provide extra wearing comfort during listening sessions. Its headband is lined with leatheratte - an imitation of leather, to complete a luxurious and comfortable headphone set.

Design attributes of the Sennheiser HD 598 Over the Ear Headphones

• Dynamic Transducer type

The Sennheiser HD 598 headphones have been designed with dynamic transducers with Duofol diaphragms or call them cones. This means that once a changing current is impressed on the voice coil suspended in the field of a permanent magnet, it creates a magnetic field which changes polarity and direction at the rate of the changing current. When the dynamically changing magnetic field interacts with the permanent magnet, it creates a repulsive force when the polarities of the two fields match and an attractive force when the polarities are different. This vibrates the voice coil several times a second [depending on changing current] carrying the duofol diaphragm or cone with it and consequently the air around it - creating music sound. The permanent magnets adopted in the HD 598 are made from highly optimized and field-strengthened neodymium ferrous material to provide an excellent dynamic response.

• Frequency response

The Sennheiser HD 598 headphones respond to an incredibly wider audio frequency spectrum, going from as low as 12Hz  and as high as 38,500Hz. This means the HD 598 has been designed with an audiophile in mind and it certainly lives up to this expectation and moreover for a fraction of the cost of high end audiophile headphones!

• Input Impedance

The Sennheiser HD 598 is generally a low impedance headphone with input impedance in the order of 50 Ohms. This means, the HD 598 will still give you quality output on most modern home cinema systems and professional audio equipment, which are designed with low impedance output headphone jacks.

• Sensitivity

Sensitivity of a headphone determines how loud a headphone is for a given level of a sound signal input. It is measured in decibels of Sound pressure level (SPL). Sound Pressure Level (SPL) is the change in local air pressure that results due to a disturbance caused by a sound wave. For the Sennheiser HD 598, the SPL value has measured to be 112 dB at 1kHz for an amplifier input voltage of 1Vrms.

• Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)

Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is a widely and intentionally misrepresented concept by most audio equipment manufacturers. The value of the THD ratio ideally should represent how much of the unwanted frequencies (harmonics) a given audio system has at its output for an entire audio signal range of 20Hz - 20kHz. Traditionally, this is quoted by manufacturers as measured for a single frequency. For the Sennheiser HD 598, this value of THD is <0.1% at 1kHz, and 100 dB SPL.

• Dimensions and weight of the HD 598

The HD 598 is shipped in a product packaging that measures (L x B x H): 205 x 100 x 240 mm and  weighs a net weight of 294 g. 

• What's In The Box?

A 3 meter, single sided and changeable OFC, 4-strand copper cable, a gold-plated 6.3 mm stereo jack with a 3.5 mm gold-plated adaptor and Sennheiser HD 598 headphones.

Buying guide

• The headphones sound really good for an open back earcup design, and coupled with their low input Impedance, you can invariably use them with any Hi-Fi stereo or home cinema without a preamplifier and still get excellent results.

• The Sennheiser HD 598 lives up to its promise of wearing comfort; even after long hours use, you never get the awful burning ears sensation.

• Open back earcup designs normally have problems with poor Bass. But with the HD 598, the Bass is clear and just sufficient. 

• Like all open back earcup designs, the HD 598 are always a distress to the people around you because they allow music sound to escape from the headphones, which is perceived as noise by others. So you cannot use them while on your travels; on the Airplane for instance or in a public place.