I had been using the Razer Barracuda as my headset of choice for a long time, but when my third Barracuda broke within a year I decided that it was time to look for something else. Rather quickly I stumbled across a relatively new (roughly a year old) pair of headphones from Sennheiser: the HD 595.
These things were supposed to have incredible sound quality, but the open design and lack of a microphone made me a little apprehensive. Still, I needed something other than another Razer Barracuda, so I gave it a shot. It couldn’t be any worse than a headset that keeps breaking, right?
Sound Quality
As it turns out the sound quality really is remarkably good. My old Razer Barracuda was simply no match, whether it’s games, movies or music the HD 595 offers clearer, deeper sound that surpasses it on almost every front. The only noticeable weakness I could find was it’s bass, which is a tad on the light side, even compared to the Barracuda which already didn’t have particularly heavy bass.
Surprisingly the HD 595’s positional audio is actually superior to the ’surround sound’ supported Razer Barracuda. Footsteps of nearby opponents can be heard far more clearly and accurately in shooters like Unreal Tournament 3, which could give you a decisive competitive edge in multiplayer play.
Unfortunately, for wargaming experiences such as Call of Duty 4 it misses a little bass to give it that extra edge. The sound quality is still very impressive mind you, but it could’ve been a lot better with a little more bass.
The HD 595 will let you enjoy games like Crysis to the max!
Design
The open design of the HD 595 means that it inevitably leaks some noise to the outside world. Likewise you’re going to pick up some noise from the outside, so it doesn’t isolate you quite as well as the Razer Barracuda. Or so goes the theory, in practice you won’t actually hear much of anything coming in from the outside because the audio level will frequently simply drown it out. It’s equally useful on a crowded LAN party as most closed design headsets.
Perhaps a little less fortunate is the lack of volume control for these headphones. You’ll have to resort to using your keyboard’s voice control buttons instead, which fortunately nearly every modern keyboard has. It might actually be a little blessing in disguise, because the extensive volume control box was the main problem area on the Razer Barracuda.
Another interesting aspect of these HD 595 headphones is the length of the cable. At a whopping 3 meters long, you won’t have any difficulty with unorthodox setups requiring further distance from your audio port. It also comes in handy at LAN parties if you can’t sit quite as close to your PC as you usually do at home.
An added advantage of these headphones is that they only come with one audio plug, rather than two (for headsets) or four (for the Razer Barracuda), because there are no microphone or additional audio channels to worry about. It makes setting up a lot quicker and a little less messy if you also have your speaker set connected.
Comfort
The Sennheiser HD 595 is rather comfortable. It takes some getting used to, because it’s a bit tighter up top, but it has similar soft padded ear cups as the Razer Barracuda and it doesn’t poke annoyingly at your head anywhere (unlike the Sennheiser PC series).
Unfortunately the ear cups don’t swivel seperately, which makes it a bit unwieldy to take with you. Even so it’s easily comfortable enough to go through a lengthy gaming session without being bothered by a headset digging into your ears.
The height and tilt of the ear cups can be adjusted slightly to allow for people with bigger and smaller heads to wear the headphones comfortably. The Barracuda had a stretching bit of plastic with padding for this job, which is more comfortable early on, but quickly wears out and gives too much leeway making the headset less comfortable in the end.
I prefer the way Sennheiser handles their HD line of headphones with regular slide up-and-down mechanics for adjusting headset size. It’s more rigid, but doesn’t degrade as quickly.
During intense DeathMatches, a good headset gives you a decisive edge
Conclusion
When it comes down to it the Sennheiser HD 595 is a rather impressive piece of audio equipment. It’s slightly more expensive than the Razer Barracuda, but in my opinion the HD 595 is well worth the extra bucks.
Thus far – half a year in – it hasn’t shown any of the wear and tear that my Razer Barracuda’s did after a couple of months of regular use. Its audio quality is far superior to any headsets or headphones I’ve tried before and it’s comfortable enough to occassionally forget it’s actually still sitting on your head.
It does have its share of minor issues, such as the lack of a microphone or volume control. The rigid frame and not quite tilting ear cups make for a sturdy piece of equipment, but also make it just a little less comfortable than it might have been. And the bass is a tad on the light side, although great bass is not really what headsets are known for anyway.
Even so I can wholeheartedly recommend the Sennheiser HD 595 to anyone looking for a good pair of headphones for both gaming and other audio ventures. It’s a tad expensive if you’re just going to use it for gaming and don’t much care about the audio quality, but otherwise it offers some mightily impressive audio for its simplistic design.
Score
Pros
- Awesome sound quality in games, music and video
- Comfortable during lengthy gaming sessions
- Quality positional audio for competitive players
- High build quality. In use for half a year and works fine so far
- Lengthy 3 meter cable for LAN & unorthodox setups
- No volume control on the headset
- Open headphone, doesn’t suffer from lower sound quality due to a closed design
Cons:
- Less than optimal bass
- No microphone
- No volume control on the headset
- Open headphone, leaks noise to and from the outside
Impressive
Reviewer Score: 8.5
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Was thinking to buy the Razor Baracuda one…. now im saving a little more money to get the Sennheiser
Hello there,
I own a pair of HD595′s and the bass does sound puny when not driven properly. To counter this, get a quality amp or sound card and use the hardware settings to configure the bass to your liking.
Well cya.
Good Job! Thank youo for taking the time in posting this. Interesting read