Top positive review
3 people found this helpful
HD518
By Richard on Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2014
Pros (for me): Soundstage - wide, tall, far Separation - clarity and sense of space between different sounds Immersive and engaging Non-fatiguing sound Very musical sounding Overall enjoyable music listening experience ¼" plug (I use with Aune T1) Cons (for me): Slightly mid-centric (warm) sound Slightly recessed highs (rolled off) makes me itch for a little more brightness. Bass could be a little tighter, and extend a little lower Bass has a slight `boosted' or boomy sound in certain music. KNOW THIS: -These are opened back headphones. They will leak sound and let sounds in. -The cord terminates in ¼" plug (the "big kind"). It comes with a 3.5mm "regular" adapter; but then the plug becomes to the size and length of 2 AA batteries. This will be an issue for many. -Cord is quite long. 9ft? or whatever it is. Highs - It extends well enough, but sounds a bit rolled off at the top. The upper range brightness is there, it's just not out in the front. Mids - It seems as if there is a slight plateau or bump in the midrange. This makes for a slightly warmer sound overall. Also somehow, this seems to bring out harmony tones and other background tones, harmonically filling out the sound and making it more musical. Bass - It's fine. It doesn't extend super low or anything. It sounds like the bottom does not extend as low as much as the highs extend high. It does have a "boosted" sound at times in certain music. Maybe because of the pushed up mids, the bass looses some definition and doesn't seem as tight. Lower mid-bass is slightly muddled. HD518 are my first set of open back headphones. I care less about how it looks, how comfortable it is, or build quality; I am more interested in how it sounds. Sennheiser CX300 earphone - felt like a shoebox diorama made with construction paper. It wasn't the hugest sound, and it wasn't the best quality sound (think construction paper vs. glossy magazine), but the enjoyment was just like a diorama - the depth, and separation of elements; it was novel, engaging and, immersive. HD518 give a similar experience to the cx300 (is this the Sennheiser sound??) But instead of a shoebox diorama, it feels like being inside of a blowup planetarium (another elementary school reference, go figure). It's dark, and while it's not huge, you still get a sense of space all around your head. And all the sounds are shapes all around you in this space. Sony MDR 7506 - (Well, this is a different animal all together, but you can still come away with something from the contrast) Yeah ok, sounds great and all - the sound is strong, and very clean, and clear and I agree with "analytical". The upper mids get a big garbled when music gets busy. But compared to HD518, they are abrasive to my ear. Like, I can't listen to music on them without the back of my eyeballs cringing. The sound stage is slightly less wide than HD518, and the sound does not sound as tall. I know 7506 are supposed to be (flat) monitors, but music is not very musical at all. It seems like its just different elements of sounds and noise playing at the same time. But on the HD518, all these different sound elements have meaning and belong in the bigger musical picture. 3D sound stage and 3D texture image of sound. Different instruments/sounds have height and depth, and sound like they are coming from somewhere in 3D space. It's like superimposing another dimension of space over your head and current reality. I think the 3D sound stage is a big part why it sounds musical. Sounds have a 3D shape to them, and different tones and pitches occur in a unique location within this 3D space. Similar to how piano key pitches get higher from left to right, there is a sense of space and shape between pitches. I would agree with other reviewers saying this has a darker and laid back sound. Maybe the ¼ plug is to elude that it should be listened to with an amp, and to deter people who want something just for portable devices. As if Sennheiser is trying to indirectly communicate to the consumer demographic that this headphone is meant for? Like, if you already have an amp w/ a ¼" jack, why would you want to listen to it from anything less?? I think these headphones do slightly better with vocals and acoustic instruments, tracks that have dynamic tonal range, dynamic sound textures and small details that will take advantage of the 3D sound stage. The sound reproduction is probably not the most accurate; the sound is warm and musical. I think these headphones are good for home use for those who want to have an enjoyable and immersive listening musical experience. AUNE T1 DAC Tube Amp -Soundstage widens a bit. -Warm sound. More dense, filled out, detailed organic sound. -Better separation. The empty space between sounds is blacker (if that makes sense) Using the goofy 3.5mm adapter and listening from my computer/mp3 player, I feel it is still an enjoyable and engaging musical experience despite the lesser sound quality and lesser staging. But with the amp, the overall experience sounds richer, more robust, and refined.
Top critical review
8 people found this helpful
They sound great, but have some design flaws
By Eric on Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2016
I really wish I could give this product 5 stars, but some serious design flaws knocked it down to 2 stars. Unfortunately these design flaws exist in the more expensive 558 and 598 models as well. With regards to the cable, Senheiser gets some design elements right, and others wrong. The included cable for the Sennheiser HD 518 headphones are too long for typical uses, and most people will be using a 3.5mm plug size instead of a 1/4" plug size. It is awkward to manage a long cord when it's connected to a tablet or a phone, and the 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter makes the plug stick out 2" from the end of the connected device, making the user experience clunky and awkward for some of the most common used audio listening devices. Thankfully the cable is removable, which is a great feature that extends the shelf life of these headphones because the cable usually wears out before the actual drivers inside of the headphones do. Also, most aftermarket cords come in a native 3.5mm jack size so that you don't have to fumble around with clunky adapters! However, expect to spend another $15 to get a cable that is compatible with this set of headphones. My recommendation is to only buy these headphones (or any other headphones in the 500 series such as the 558 & 598) if you are willing to do an aftermarket cable upgrade. The shorter cable length and native 3.5mm size of the aftermarket cable I bought made this pair of headphones much more convenient to use. However, lets say you want to use the product as is, without shelling out any money on aftermarket parts (because lets face it, a high quality product should work right out of the box without issue). The biggest problem is that the 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter included with the headphones is of hopelessly low quality; the casing of the adapter is a cheap plastic, and the plug is made out of a very malleable metal. After just about a weak of use, I had the headphones plugged into my laptop's aux port while using the included adapter, and the tip of the adapter BROKE inside of my aux port. Given how the 1/4" headphone jack on the end of the cord is large and heavy, I would have expected that Sennheiser would have included an adapter that could either withstand or migitate the forces and torques that the headphone jack would encounter from daily use. The included adapter is also incompatible with many phone cases. Since the diameter of the adapter is relatively large, the adapter would get caught on any phone case that encircled the phone's aux input, preventing me from fully plugging my headphones into the phone. Other 1/4" to 3.5mm adapters such as the Cable Matters 5-Pack, Gold Plated 3.5mm to 6.3 mm (1/4 inch) Male to Female Stereo Adapter worked flawlessly with all of the phone cases I tried out, and were of significantly higher build quality too. Again, another strike against a product that should be 5 rated 5 stars. In terms of positives, the headphones sound amazing and perform well with whatever Metal, Hip Hop, Funk, Rock, and Folk songs that I throw at it. I'm not too much of an audiophile, so other reviews will be more in depth in giving a description of how these headphones sound, but I can certainty tell you that Sennheiser put a lot of effort into making them sound good. The headphones have decent padding, and are extremely comfortable to wear even when I'm wearing glasses. These would be the perfect mid-range headphones for the average person if Sennheiser addressed the ergonomic/usability issues I raised in my review.
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