
HD 555 to HD 595 mod (or: how Sennheiser cripples cheaper headphones) - ryanf
http://mikebeauchamp.com/misc/sennheiser-hd-555-to-hd-595-mod/
======
apl
I understand that this raises eyebrows, but it's hardly _fraud_.

Do people actually think that retail price is a function of production/R&D
cost? It's not, never has been. Dropbox charges 20$ for something that
consumes marginally more ressources and incurs identical R&D costs when
compared to the 10$ product. Chip manufacturers do this all the time.
Discounts for electronics and groceries are fully artificial.

A much more realistic model is price as whatever the market can bear. I
sincerely doubt that there is a moral obligation to set price points in any
other way.

[This may be relevant:
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckie...](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html)]

~~~
krig
I do think this is fraudulent, and I think the comparison falls down: A
customer buying the 20$ dropbox account knows exactly what he is spending his
extra 10$ to get, and it is worth it to him to do so. Even if objectively, 10$
may seem like excessive premium.

Sennheiser in this case is being fraudulent by claiming that there is an
actual difference between the two models while in reality they are exactly
identical apart from a tiny piece of foam clearly put there only to defraud
customers that want better sound and are prepared to pay for it.

To quote the amazon page for the 595's:

"The HD 595 is the top-of-the-line headphone of the audiophile 500 series
range, boasting a new level of comfort and sound quality. Features include our
E.A.R. technology and a highly constant,compressed cellulose fleece to reduce
total harmonic distortion. Velour ear pads and high-quality leatherette
headband both provide outstanding comfort."

compared to the 555's:

"A comfortable, high-quality headphone system"

Don't you see how this is fraud at work? Nowhere in the description of the
difference between these models is the piece of foam mentioned or hinted at.
To the contrary, the description of the 595's indicates that they include
ADDED technology to improve sound quality and comfort. Which is full-on lie.

No, pricing is not connected to incurred cost. That's not the issue.

~~~
stonemetal
_Don't you see how this is fraud at work? Nowhere in the description of the
difference between these models is the piece of foam mentioned or hinted at.
To the contrary, the description of the 595's indicates that they include
ADDED technology to improve sound quality and comfort. Which is full-on lie._

Nowhere in the 595 description do I see wording to the effect "exclusive to
this model". Nor do I see anything in the 555 description that says it is
missing features of other headphones in the line up. So where is this full on
lie?

~~~
stcredzero
It's more a lie of omission. The 555 headphone produces the frequencies
desired, but the company withholds them from the customer with a piece of
foam.

If there's something you're not telling someone, which would really piss off
that someone, you may be guilty of a lie of omission.

~~~
stonemetal
How so? Since the 555 and 595 are in the same series of headphones they should
be more similar than dissimilar. Much like processors or graphics cards in the
same line, it starts off as a good way to sell defective high end parts as
middle to low end parts. Then as the process gets established high end parts
are crippled to keep up with demand for low end parts.

------
defen
How long until we get a DMCA-like law preventing these kinds of blog posts?
He'd be guilty of trafficking in technology which aids in the circumvention of
profit-enhancing business practices.

~~~
iwwr
I never realized plain foam can be an object of DMCA :)

It really doesn't matter how broken the security is, doesn't it.

------
jasonkester
I see a lot of people reacting to this the wrong way.

Rather than getting angry at the company for segmenting its market, why not
enjoy the fact that you can buy their top-of-the-line product for a fraction
of the price? Rather than raise a stink and force them to do something about
it, why not stay relatively quiet about it and let those of us in the know
profit from it?

I'm still upset that Baush and Lomb got raked over the coals so publicly for
packaging the exact same lenses as monthly, weekly, and daily wear at
different prices. I would have been perfectly happy to wear my "daily" lenses
for a month each, thus saving several hundred dollars a year. Instead, a witch
hunt was raised and they were forced to actually develop a flimsy contact lens
to sell cheaply.

It's a good thing, and now you know about it. Try not to ruin it for the rest
of us.

------
TimothyBurgess
You know what the most depressing thing about this article is for me? I no
longer have the option of being an audiophile. :(

I toured professionally as a drummer with a tech metal band and played with a
click track every night. I used Ultimate Ears (high-quality earbuds) with
ProTools through a rack amp. I had guitar tracks going behind the click track
(metronome) for reference and let's put it this way... the reference guitar
tracks had to be louder than the actual live amplifiers/PA and the click track
had to be even louder than that. On a scale of 1 to 10, relative to the
loudness of the vast majority of electronic music players (computers/mp3
players/phones/etc.)... I'd say my click track was at least 17. It hurts my
ears just thinking about it now... constant TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK for 30
(sometimes 45) minutes every night for weeks at a time! I don't wish that upon
my worst enemy.

If it was another style of music there's no doubt I could have had it turned
down to a fraction of what it was... but it was tech metal so it was always
loud and heavy and all over the place. Most of the time I'm playing upwards of
300 bpm and the tempo and time signatures were always changing so the click
track was necessary. I remember I tried turning it down a few times and it
didn't work out so well haha... Bye bye hearing! I miss you.

~~~
khafra
That's astounding--the UE page says they provide up to 32db of sound
reduction; and that wasn't enough to reduce the ambient sound from the
speakers and other monitors to non-hearing-damaging levels?

I feel sorry for the patrons of the venues you played in. I do care about my
own hearing, and I hate it when I forget to bring non-distorting attenuators
of some sort to a place which makes a goal of preventing conversation even in
shouts.

~~~
TimothyBurgess
I'm not sure if the UE model I used reduced sound by 32db but they definitely
reduced it a LOT. That's actually why I bought them. I didn't buy the high-end
though. At the time I needed them immediately and could only afford the $50
buds from Best Buy. The difference in sound when wearing the headphones was
insane, but the click trick still had to be turned way up.

Now that I think about it iirc, it was actually mostly my drums (mostly
cymbals) that I had to drown out... the guitar cabs/PA levels varied depending
on the venue setup.

------
latch
I understand people defending the practice, but this nonetheless offends me.
For me, it isn't about the 555 owners getting a crippled product, but that the
595 owners are paying a huge markup.

People are talking about market behavior and what not, but I don't feel like
Sennheiser is behaving in good faith here. They are intentionally relying on
opaque information (this is obviously news to almost everyone), and making
price the only way consumers have to reliably differentiate between the
products (you can't even test drive the products to tell). Also, with respect
to the "luxury" part of the discussion, they are competing against themselves,
the branding and "Sennheiser" name you get with the 595 or 555 is the same.

I've been considering getting 800's, I'm a huge Sennheiser fan. I think this
has put me off though (even knowing that everyone else probably does the same
thing).

~~~
jamesaguilar
If they didn't know about this, you could probably argue that they actually
enjoyed paying a huge markup for little benefit. Considering most of them
would probably not be able to tell the difference in a blind test between the
two states of the cheaper headphone, the only possible difference is price and
perceived value. They are paying more simply to pay more, not because they're
actually getting better sound quality.

~~~
latch
I totally hear what you are saying, but I honestly believe that most people
are paying more, at least partially, to get a better product.

Even if they can't tell that the product is better (say, because they can't
hear the difference), I think the difference is night and day.

------
georgecmu
A related pricing quirk that I found interesting.

HD 555 MSRP in the States is $170, and you can buy it for $85 on
amazon.com[1]. Right across the border, the MSRP is 200 CAD (202.5 USD) and
you could get it for 180 CAD on amazon.ca[2]. In other words, the discounted
price in Canada is higher than the nominal price in the States, which in turn
is almost twice what consumers actually pay for these headphones.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-
Headphon...](http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-Headphones-
Channeling/dp/B0001FTVDQ) [2] [http://www.amazon.ca/Sennheiser-Open-Hi-Fi-
Stereo-Headphone/...](http://www.amazon.ca/Sennheiser-Open-Hi-Fi-Stereo-
Headphone/dp/B0001FTVDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297647160&sr=1-1)

~~~
teamonkey
It's not just Sennheiser, all quality headphones seem to have a high markup in
Canada. In addition, many companies refuse to ship them across the border (I
suspect because the don't want to deal with customers who refuse to pay import
tax).

~~~
jedbrown
The retailer may to agree not to ship internationally. A lot of outdoor gear
companies require this so they can price independently in different countries,
it seems at least plausible that these companies do the same.

~~~
teamonkey
Perhaps, but I've experienced this specifically for headphones. Companies that
will ship other goods refuse to ship headphones. Maybe it applies to other
electronics, but I've had no problem with getting electronics across the
border in the past.

~~~
jedbrown
The retailer will ship other products by the same company? A lot of other
electronics products have more equitable international pricing models and
value that can be assessed more objectively.

------
sfphotoarts
This article is good for Sennheiser, I just ordered a pair of the 555's from
Amazon for $85

~~~
dougabug
This could all be a diabolical marketing ploy to move a whole lot of HD555's.

------
daeken
For what it's worth, I picked up a pair of HD595s back in early 2007 for $150,
refurbed. They're still in absolutely perfect quality (despite more abuse than
you can imagine) and by far the best headphones I've ever owned. Worth every
cent, no questions asked.

~~~
boyter
Im going to agree. I have the HD555's and have given them a lot of abuse over
3 years or so of owning them. They are still in very good condition and sound
the same as the first day I got them. Totally reccomend the 555 or the 595 as
being the best quality affortable headphones I have ever come across.

~~~
Qz
Apparently I am more abusive to my headphones because I managed to break a
plastic part on one side that connects the ear parts to the headband, mainly
from them getting dropped on the floor countless times due to repeatedly
tripping over the cord that's just a bit too long. I've kept them together
with glue and tape in various combinations, since otherwise they still work
fine.

~~~
andrewcooke
This part is cracked on my pair too. It's a common failure with these
headphones - you can search for people complaining about it...

~~~
daemin
I had a pair of my 555's sent for repair twice over 5 years. Once under
warranty for a bad speaker module, and once for cracking.

Still it's lasted this long, one pair 6+ years, another going on 3 now, so I'm
pretty satisfied with them.

------
scotty79
Imagine you are kid and the other kid approaches you with mug you really like:

    
    
      - Take a look at this wonderful mug with Mickey Mouse. It's worth 20$
      - I'd love to buy that but I only have 5$
      - Would you pay 50$ for it if the mug didn't have handle?
      - Yes I need a mug, but handle is so convenient...
      - I can take 5$ (as he breaks of the mug handle)
    

Could you really buy this thing and not feel like he spat in your face?

It's not about market it's about psychology of human exchange. Someone
destroys value with no purpose other than better conning his peers. How could
that not infuriate specimen of social species?

~~~
scotty79
Too late to edit

s/50/5/

------
ck2
I've got a better hack for you.

Buy a $20 pair of Koss KTXPRO1 <http://amazon.com/dp/B00007056H>

Read the reviews. They sound almost as good as $200 headphones.

I own a couple of Sennheiser, and I prefer the Koss unless I need closed cans
for some reason.

~~~
adolfojp
Could you recommend a good cheap pair of over the ear headphones to a non
audiophile like me?

~~~
alexqgb
Grado makes some really nice stuff. Their cheapest model (SR-60i) gets rave
reviews as one of the audio world's very best values.

<http://www.gradolabs.com/frameset_main.htm>

I've used the same pair of Sony MDR-7506's on a professional, near daily basis
for about seven years. They're very accurate, and more importantly, super
solid. I mean, they're tools. And they work. About $100, and a really good
value for money.

[http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR7506-Professional-Diaphragm-
He...](http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR7506-Professional-Diaphragm-
Headphone/dp/B000AJIF4E/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1297648596&sr=1-1)

~~~
wiredfool
I love the sound from my Grados, but they're not exactly the most comfortable
headphones in the world. they can be somewhat painful if you're wearing
glasses, since your ear tends to get some pressure on it.

My sennhausiers (585) are a lot more comfortable. A bit clearer sound, a touch
less bass, and way less reliable cords.

I've had the Grados since the early 90s, and the Sennhausers since about 2000.

~~~
jespern
Which Grados are you talking about? The SR60i and SR80i's are about the most
comfortable headphone I've ever worn. They're so light and unobtrusive you
forget you're wearing them.

~~~
wiredfool
The SR60, which looks really similar to the current 60i model.

I've been through several different sets of foam, some better than others, but
they're still not nearly as comfortable as the Sennheisers.

------
zzzmarcus
We had two pairs in the office and modded one and not the other. In a blind
test two of three actually preferred the non-modded 555's. Our test wasn't
great though, 10 seconds of a relatively low quality mp3 and none of us are
audiophiles, though the one of us who is the closest to being an audiophile
was the one who preferred the modded headphones so, take that fwiw.

If you're going to do it, I found that you have to pull hard, as in really,
uncomfortably hard on the foam padding to get it off. It does come off though,
and everything went back together fine.

~~~
daemin
My friends and I tested both the 555's and 595's in the shop to see which one
we wanted to buy, and all of us agreed on the 555's because they sounded
better to us.

I seem to recall something about not being so blatantly bass-ey and being able
to hear the mid range more.

------
foresterh
On Amazon, the headphones are closer in price... $85 for the HD555 and $150
for the HD595. Still paying $65 for one less piece of foam.

------
iwwr
Intel, AMD and Nvidia are also notorious for these kinds of practices.

~~~
meastham
Why do these types of market partitioning practices anger people so much?
Isn't it a good thing that these companies are offering different price points
for people to choose from?

~~~
thefool
Because it feels like your being cheated when you are sold something that the
person that is selling it to you broke on purpose.

It doesn't really matter if the practice actually lets more people use a
product, it just feels dirty.

~~~
thematt
I see a lot of Web 2.0 applications these days that have their own pieces of
foam. It's really all the same code on the backend and theoretically it
wouldn't cost them anymore to enable all features completely. They purposely
disable features or put their own pieces of "digital" foam in between plans in
order to provide different price points for users.

~~~
extension
The difference is that people generally expect to _own_ the utilitarian
physical goods that they pay for. Since information can't be owned in the same
sense, it's understood that buying it is going to take the form of some sort
of licensing arrangement with more arbitrary conditions.

In reality, the economics of the utilitarian physical goods business may
sometimes resemble more those of the information business, but it's up to
manufacturers to justify that to their customers.

------
deltaqueue
The blog post doesn't mention all of the aesthetic differences--which, at the
current Amazon price point, could justify the price difference for some--so I
thought I would mention the others here:

-the headband is leather -cans have a Sennheiser logo on them -cans have a chrome ring around them -comes with a nifty headphone stand / mount

disclosure: I own some 555's, and will be trying this mod at the office on
Monday.

~~~
deltaqueue
FWIW, I did the mod, but I don't have an effective way to AB test. Tried one
ear at a time, but could not detect the difference. Went ahead and removed the
foam from the other, and the increased sound stage sounds great (though
without an accurate test it's difficult to say how much of a change is placebo
vs. noticeable).

~~~
evandena
Once the foam is removed, how did you access the driver assembly? Is the
screwdriver used as a prying tool?

------
Goonbaggins
While this is really neat, the 595s also feature some nicer padding on the
headband. Probably not enough for the price difference, but I just wanted to
note that the piece of foam is not the only difference between the two.

------
gojomo
Years ago, I recall reading (almost certainly on Usenet) a parable which
involved a king who needed some bricks, but the cost of getting them could
only be recouped by creating some artificial distinction between 'gold' and
common bricks, to sell some at a low-price/high-volume and others at high-
price/low-volume. In a contrived manner, it neatly illustrated the case that
some arrangements that offend one's intuition are actually the best way to get
certain things everyone wants financed.

Would love to find a link; it's stumped all my search attempts (including at
Google Groups) ever since.

------
strlen
Sounds similar to IBM's practice of inserting 'nops' into software of the
AS-400s on otherwise identical hardware to create price gradations.

~~~
gwern
But is IBM's practice as easily circumvented? If they are literally inserting
nops, then that sounds like something a quick binary conversion could erase.

~~~
Udo
My assembly-fu is weak, but wouldn't that invalidate all jump addresses and
data pointers inside the program?

~~~
gwern
Yes, but that's not hard to fix either. For example, Google's binary deltas
for Chrome updates would be huge if they couldn't easily fix those addresses;
see [http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-
documents/software...](http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-
documents/software-updates-courgette)

------
darkmethod
As for the mod itself. I just tried it on my 555 and I noticed only a subtle
difference. As odd as it may be, I think I prefer the foam.

As for Sennheiser's strategy to cripple the product line to handle a different
marketing segment; it reminded me of a Steve Blank's post.
[http://steveblank.com/2009/04/16/supermac-war-
story-7-buildi...](http://steveblank.com/2009/04/16/supermac-war-
story-7-building-the-whole-product/)

------
aforty
I just performed the mod. Was really easy and I hear an audible difference
(even to my untrained, non-audiophile ears).

For the record, the practice does not offend me. This has been done for ages.
R&D costs for creating the HD595's were no doubt great and to recoup some
money they created a cheaper, crippled version. With headphones you aren't
paying for the parts but for the engineering.

------
jrockway
So the plastic bag that supposedly contains the driver is labeled, "System
with resonator left side". Is "System" what they call the driver?

I'm interested in seeing what Sennheiser's justification for this is. It seems
odd to piss off buyers of high-end products, because they're the ones that do
the research. You can't just go to Target and buy some HD5*5 cans; you have to
order them from an audiophile-y place (or Amazon).

(The processor manufacturers make their price structure clear. They make the
good ones, part of it is broken, so they turn off the broken part and sell it
to you as a lower-end model. And if there is no demand for the fully-working
ones, and they don't have enough broken ones to meet the demand for them, they
just cripple the good ones. But like unscrewing the headphone and taking out
foam, you can just change the multiplier and enjoy the increased performance.
So why complain unless you already bought the high-end product?)

~~~
russss
> So the plastic bag that supposedly contains the driver is labeled, "System
> with resonator left side". Is "System" what they call the driver?

Well, the driver itself in those headphones is an integral part of a larger
piece which includes some more acoustic parts. That's what you can see there,
and it's not symmetrical, so it has left-hand and right-hand versions.

> I'm interested in seeing what Sennheiser's justification for this is. It
> seems odd to piss off buyers of high-end products, because they're the ones
> that do the research.

It's worth noting that the 595s have a better standard of finish and come with
a few accessories such as a nifty desk-mounting hook. Not that that justifies
it.

------
ent
In case anyone is interested, I just did this mod for my hd555s and can
confirm that it does seem to make the sound clearer although I can't really
make a good comparison for obvious reasons.

~~~
Qz
I'm interested in trying it, mine are beat up as is. How do you get the ear
pads off to be able to unscrew the parts shown in the pictures?

~~~
ent
I just pulled them off. They are attached with small plastic clips but luckily
not the nasty ones that break. The fabric mesh under those also comes off just
by pulling. You should probably be careful with pulling the ear pads, they are
glued to a plastic ring and apparently it is possible to just pull them off
the glue (my friend did that to his ones).

------
m3mb3r
Brilliant. Brought my HD-555 alive.

------
troydavis
FWIW, Sennheiser USA's CEO says the mod upgrade claim isn't accurate:
<http://twitter.com/#!/SennheiserUSA/status/37092187850153984> ("Urban myth
deserves no response. Read the specs; do the tests....all factual. Listen to
both and you be the judge.")

I interpreted "urban myth" as a slam instead of a firm answer, but he
confirmed that's their position:
<http://twitter.com/#!/SennheiserUSA/status/37163867276574720> ("Urban
Myth=Not True.")

I asked him to comment here, since I'd like to hear more than can fit in a
tweet. With 170 comments in 16 hours, it should be in their interest to
describe any manufacturing differences in more depth.

------
ramchip
According to Amazon, the HD595 is actually heavier by 10g than the HD555. Is
the headband different?

~~~
deltaqueue
Yes, the HD595's have a leather headband and some sort of chrome accents.
Also, the 595's come with a headphone mount/clip you can attach to your desk.

------
juiceandjuice
Sennheiser is a company I've always tried to steer clear of because of this.
There's a lot of companies that take advantage of their branding (i.e.
M-Audio, Monster cable, etc) to jack up the prices on mediocre hardware.

Once stuff hits guitar center and best buy, you're probably going to be
getting ripped off somewhere. You can buy better quality Mogami mic cable from
a pro-audio supplier than you can from Guitar Center for half the cost. The
audiophile world (along with the "guitar aficionado") is a very strange place.

~~~
mambodog
I think the key is to actually find out about what you're buying and get some
word-of-mouth recommendations rather than relying on brand alone as a measure
of quality. I think the pro-audio industry is small enough that nearly all big
players expand into the consumer region eventually. That doesn't mean that all
their stuff is crap. I still think my Sennheiser HD-25s are some of the very
best DJ monitor headphones, but they are a world away from the Sennheiser
consumer stuff.

------
xal
Great bargain. Additionally, the HD-555 can be had for about 100 on eBay. I've
been buying my Sennheisers there for years, always the 570 model but that's a
bit dated now.

------
spiralganglion
The added piece of foam has to cost them something. So, really, the "broken"
headphones should be more expensive, right?

In any case, my friends and I have long held the belief that "If you can't
open it, you don't really own it". If my toaster breaks, you can be sure I'll
open it up and try to fix it before I think of buying a new one.

Though before anyone thinks of flaming, I'm ok with my iPad. I can make an
exception for this type of tech!

~~~
jasonlotito
And even then, you still have ifixit to fall back on to get it done should you
want to. =)

------
cypherpunks01
I just did this, and performed a very rough A/B test with one earpiece modded,
while leaving the foam on the other. The bass (on a bass-heavy song) was _very
noticeably_ more muted on the stock earpiece, sounding almost completely dead
compared to the one without the foam. Needless to say, I quickly removed the
other, and now they sound better than ever. Highly recommended!

~~~
carterschonwald
how do you remove it properly? after removing the earpads I don't quite see
how to pop out the rest.

------
teyc
Actually, this is an article that'll make Steve Blank proud. His SuperMac
cards were all the same, but tuned slower for the cheaper versions.

------
js4all
This is called Product differentiation. Every company is doing it. And if not,
they will likely lose to their competitors.

This is Marketing base knowledge:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_differentiation>

------
omarqureshi
Having tried this mod out about a year ago - there is a definite increase in
sound quality.

However, it does turn your headphones into the most annoying things ever for
people who are in the same room as you as they too can hear, quite loudly and
clearly.

------
krakensden
It's pricing like this that leads people to just buy the cheapest offering
available, without doing any research. If you already know you will be taken
for a ride, why not just pay the least amount possible for the 'privilege'?

~~~
vacri
Er, no it isn't. People pay the least amount possible because they're tight.

Some people are actually offended when I tell them "you get what you pay for"
- particularly for services rather than products. There's this weird consumer
fantasy land where you get top quality for fire sale prices.

------
scotty79
You manufacture your product and you intentionally damage part of the volume
to sell it cheaper only to make the price of other part of the volume
justifiable.

If that's not sign of pathology of free market than I don't know what is.

------
Semiapies
Maybe I'm just cheap, but $200 for the _cheaper_ headphones sounds ridiculous
to begin with, and well into "anyone paying that much probably deserves it"
territory.

~~~
nathos
$200 isn't the actual market price for the HD555. You can get a pair from
Amazon (US) for $85.

If you've only listened to your music with cheap earbuds, you haven't truly
heard your music. Rediscovering your existing music collection, particularly
if it's high-bitrate compressed or lossless, is a joy. Well worth the money if
you enjoy music at all.

~~~
Qz
I agree on them being worth it. That said, the best sounding headphones I've
head (better than my HD 555's) were some 30 dollar Sony G74 (or something)
'street' headphones that they don't make anymore. The trade-off was that they
were easily the most uncomfortable headphones ever devised. It was literally
too painful to wear them for extended amounts of time.

------
sudonim
I just did this mod and posted a pic:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/colin_n/5451298732/>

------
sudonim
If only there were a mod to add an Apple headphone connector and a Zalman
microphone to the sennheiser 555, that would be an amazing VOIP headset for
the Mac.

~~~
jarek
Break out the soldering iron and duct tape, nothing's stopping you.

~~~
sudonim
I was lying in bed last night think about how to do it. Im thinking of cutting
the end off of old iPhone buds and then soldering the mic, and headset
together with that on the end. Fun times! Thanks for the encouragement.

------
javanix
In case anyone is wondering, I just did this on my almost four-year old pair
of HD555s and you can definitely tell the difference.

Sure glad I bought the cheaper pair now.

------
edge17
looks like you can just pay $150 bucks for HD 595 on Amazon -
[http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD595-High-Grade-
Premiere-H...](http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD595-High-Grade-Premiere-
Headphones/dp/B0001FTVE0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297662051&sr=8-1)

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levigross
Man that is one expensive piece of foam.

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thristian
Not at all, it's worth _negative $200_.

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siika2000
Anyone know where I could buy some of that?

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yigit
[http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-
Headphon...](http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-Headphones-
Channeling/dp/B0001FTVDQ)

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georgieporgie
I'm not an audiophile, because audiophiles are the homeopathic suckers of the
audio world. I do, however, like high-quality sound.

If you want a good over-the-ear headphone, the Sony MDR-V6 is quite nice. They
sound decent, are built a tank, and have been in continuous production since
the mid 80's. They're $90 on Amazon.

If you want in-ear, get Etymotic ER-4's. They're the only headphone I've ever
found that can compete with my NHT 2.5i speakers. They should be available
around $200.

