(NEW) Sennheiser HD 599 SE Open Back Headphones (Open Box)

To preface I am an audiophile, at least by definition. I don't do super duper hi-fi to the point where i'm spending thousands and thousands on headphones. The most expensive pair I own and use are the: Meze Audio 109 Pro's, which sound god tier to an almost untouchable level on anything real and analog, but perfectly amazing on everything else. You can mix, master, track, and enjoy these but I baby them so I really only use them for music enjoyment. I also own a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 1770 Pro's the MKII s, which are my second favorite pair, that I use a bit more in the studio for double and triple checking mixes. That are certainly becoming my favorite pair and will likely be my workhorse in the studio, once I get over the $700 price tag for fear of breaking and heres why... I had to replace my DDT770 pros for the third time in like two years. I absolutely adore them but their build quality is very fragile and not made for anything other than soft "respectful" use. Anyone with these who is unruly, a bit careless, or not paying attention, will have their lifespan cut in half if not by more. As well to make matters worse the versions I had didn't include a breakaway cable so anytime it got tugged or twisted it just did more and more damage till eventually being completely unusable. The pair I had originally lasted a year, the second lasted about eight months before it did the same, and its all in the cable just from everyday use of 15+ hours. I originally started years and years ago on the HD280 Pros by Sennheiser for tracking and recording and they were awesome, so I went back to Sennheiser when I saw these were on sale for$85. I saw someone say these were certainly an upgrade over the DT-770 Pros, and another user on Reddit said they're more of a side grade. I disagree with both. Here's why: The Bleed: The big difference between the two is that these are open back and the DT770 pros are closed. That being said, the bleed on these is insane. In a discord call, everyone can hear what I'm listening to even when I'm not speaking. When recording voice overs the thing I'm listening to also comes through. It's pretty wild how bad it is. This is my biggest gripe with these as other open back headphones I've had sure had bleed but these are really really bleeding through to the audio source being recorded with no way to hide it. My SM7B about two to four inches away from my mouth, it's incredibly clear as if I was sharing the song to you, and at 6-7 inches away it's still very audible just with a bit more distance, and it's crazy to say that even 5 feet back it's still audible but as background noise. It started to lose the audio pickup of the headphones entirely around 9 feet away. That's crazy to me, considering how with my DT-770 Pros I could be basically inside the mic and no bleed was coming through at all. Just for this reason I may return them as I do a lot of recording. For Mixing: To mix music, these are a lot more different in terms of frequency response than the DT-770 Pros. They're so much bassier it's crazy. While I grew up as a "bass-head" and loved bass the boost is around 150hz and then again in 7.5k. So that's bass, thump, and clang, as well as vocals and air. Drums are VERY dynamic, mixing drums on these is "fun" but guitars, and other mostly mid focused instruments have a bit more hype in the lows and highs than I'd like. Things do sound fuller and more clear on these over the DT-770 Pros but its a different kind of clear and full than I'd like. I think mixing on theses and using them as mixing headphones after about five different mixes (genres of music) and ten hours of mixing through a few days with breaks in between is slightly better, it's just a different approach to how I did it prior so this is going to mess you up if you were mixing on DT-770 Pros and are coming over from them to these. While learning any new pair of headphones is a thing for sure, the learning curve from the DT-770s to these are a bit trickier. I think these sound a bit closer to mixing with the Sony MDR-7506 so if you're used to them, these will probably feel very similar. It's just the MDR-7506's are much flatter. The biggest shock from mixing on these to the DT-770s or the MDR-7506's was how it felt going back and forth between my main monitors, all three pairs of headphones, and then my monitors again - to find the differences and how they translate. I was hearing things in the 599s that I wasn't in the MDR-7506's and then when going back into my favorite pair of headphones the DT-770 I knew what to look for, and what was missing from the mix. I fixed them in the DT-770s waited about twenty minutes and rechecked on the 599s and its like that frequency is entirely missing and doesn't sound good cause now my mix sounded terrible. I go back to my monitors and its also a bit more balanced but still feels off. I was second guessing all my mix work and truthfully I was quite frustrated. I decided to do a few mixes with both and then mix them up in a set of blind tests a few days later on A or B, I was picking the mix I did with the 599s most times than not - in the car, on my home theater system, in non treated environments. Then on my monitors hearing them, in my studio, treated, and on my Airpods, I was going to the DT-770 Pros every time just about. This test made me question much more outside of the headphones. It added to my frustration. Ear Fatigue is a real thing and option paralysis is too, even with blind tests, the back and forth I'm not sure which of the pairs I like better for mixing, I think they're both good, i think they both deliver quality results, I just think its how you mix on them, what you're mixing, the room you're in that'll change what choices you make. I do mostly Metalcore, Pop-Punk, Post-Hardcore, Pop, and Hip Hop/Rap. These sound good for low end stuff cause there is that slight boost, rap and hip-hop, trap, edm, all were much easier to mix with these. Enjoying Music: As I mentioned above these are bass boosted in the 150hz area, low end snare, kick, bass guitar, pulsating bass, synth bass, or low vocals such as mongolian throat singing is wild. It's so thick and full, in fact if you hear any side chained bass that ducking out any low frequencies in these headphones, the mix is night and day. It's like toast with butter, then dry stale bread that sounds like flaking crusty trash. On the low end stuff that sounds so fat and huge. You notice it instantly. When listening to people talk, everyone has thicker, deeper, much low ranged voices due to that boost. If you're a bass-head and love thick low bass you'll quite enjoy these. It also has that boost in the highs over at 7.5/8k and so vocals sound nice and sizzle on snare or any sort of pop from a plucked synth or guitar solo cuts on these also. The rest of the curve is flat so music comes through as it's mostly intended, thus making them really solid for listening and mixing. I do think I prefer listening to music on these over the DT-770 Pros, but i'll say this, it took about two weeks to feel that way. Thoughts: Where I feel these would excel, at the gym, where you need to hear your environment but still want a great sound while working out. I love Airpods, I think they're one of the best sounding headphones you can get for like $100 that are in ear and small. These do the doggy poop all over Airpods and make them literal trash in comparison. They're a no brainer. It's just these are huge and massive. If you don't care about massive headphones these would be the choice with no question. I also think using a headphone amp on these or a preamp makes the experience all the more better. I would highly recommend that if possible. Listening to analog music this way through a preamplifier is amazing. I spin records on my table and listened with these through my preamp and it was awesome. Really solid, made everything feel so alive and real, if you don't feel like kicking on the big speakers and want to sit in a room and just vibe. The pros here are the length of the cable that it comes stock with for headphone 3.5mm to the 1/4inch input. It's huge, I hated that about the DT-770 Pros. It's not as long but it's also nice for them to include a 3.5 to 3.5mm cable for phones and laptops and stuff, as well as a 1/4 inch to 3.5mm converter. The build quality is nice as is most things from Sennheiser. My original pair of HD280s I still have as a tracking pair in one of my rooms, they're beat to heck, scratched, and not a single part is broken, I change out the pads like every year or so. I would expect these to do the same. The fact they have the break away cable is nice, all companies need to do this as breaking a cable is the easiest thing to do and it should be the quickest thing to fix, not having to take a part the pair and re-solder, etc. I will also say these came in "frustation free" packaging. Which was just a little brown box, no fancy opening experience like say an Apple product or something premium, if you didn't know what you had you'd think these were cheap as dirt. While I said the sound boosts at 120hz so low frequencies, and again at the 7.5k so high frequencies. The musical spectrum is great. Almost everything I put through these was solid. As a great first pair of "serious" phones, these are absolutely worth it. I wouldn't go to anything less. If you're coming from the DT-770s or anything by Beyerdynamic this is like Soup vs Salad. It's gonna take some time. I'm still not sure I want to keep them. As I'm still within the return period, I may get rid of them. I may keep them for the gym, idk. I paid $85 but at $200, I don't feel they're worth that point at all i'd suggest the Beyerdynamics all day everyday. Headphones or love or hate and brand loyalty is weird, so as someone who has a studio and is giving a mix of both sides, hopefully this can help you. If I never heard the Beyers and my other open backs didn't bleed this bad, i'd say these could sit with the big dogs, but for those reasons I gave them a 3 star. Though it's more like 3.5/5. Especially at the $85. If it's the normal $200 or even $150 they're mostly marked at, it's a 3/5. Mixing 4/5 Mastering: 3/5 Tracking/Recording/VA Work: 2/5 Listening: 4/5 Build Quality: 4/5 Feel: 4/5 Price: 3/5 Packaging: 2/5