Sennheiser HD580 Audiophile Headphones
A couple weeks ago I invested in a pair of Sennheiser HD580 headphones. I had been dreaming of a stereo system, but didn’t have enough spending money to get something decent. My research led me to high quality audiophile headphones. Since Amazon cashed out earlier this month, I took the plunge and bought the Sennheiser HD580′s. I am not exaggerating when I say these headphones are the best purchase I have ever made for my music. I have been relistening to my entire music collection and hearing things I have never heard before. I understand lyrics that I couldn’t make out previously. I realize that duets are actually trios. I appreciate songs that I never really liked before because I realize how much of the music I hadn’t heard before.
I should also tell you that I am not an audiophile, and I don’t have a decent stereo system. I am just listening to mp3′s on my computer! I also have a turntable with a preamp that I listen to through the computer. For my iPod, I bought a cheap homemade headphone amp on Ebay for about $30. I don’t listen to my iPod at high volume, so I could power the headphones from the iPod if I wanted to. The amp is nice, though because I can save battery power on the iPod because with the amp, I only have to have the volume set to less than half. It is also nice to know that I can crank the volume if I ever need to. It was also alot of fun to personalize the amp by making a custom case for it (watch for a post about this in the future). There are some really cool homemade amps built out of Altoid tins.
I don’t have any complaints, but if you are considering buying them there are a couple things you should know. First, they are over the ear headphones, so you no longer have the trendy white buds to score “cool points.” They also give you “headphone hair.” They are an open design, which means that sound escapes and can be heard by others around you. Our secretary thinks I am going to go deaf because she can hear the music when she walks by. I actually prefer the over the ear headphones because I find the in-ear ones uncomfortable. I also researched some of the Grado headphones, but decided on the Sennheiser’s because they seemed to get slightly better reviews and there was a consensus that the Sennheiser’s were more comfortable. Anyway, I highly recommend the Sennheiser headphones. I thought that this purchase would let me hold off from buying a decent stereo system, but now it makes me want one even more. I can’t wait to hear how these speakers sound driven by something other than my computer or iPod.
