Makes full surround sound from headphones - wonderful

None observed

The DSP Pro adds a lot to my Dolby Digital surround listening, especially at night when I do not want to turn up the speakers, then I can use this with headphones.

Make music richer, and does a fine job of creating a 5-speaker sound in your head.

If you are a computer gamer, you won't beleive how much this adds to the sound of a game. Now I can hear things ALL around me. Even with cheap headphones, it relly improves the games. And with good one (I got the Sennheiser 580's), both music and games are superb

Great Bass, Crisp treble, Very Comfortable.

Big/Bulky headphones

Picked the Sennheiser HD580 with DSP Pro for about $270 delivered. These headphones are great!! Good solid bass, trebles comes out life-like and can't believe how these headphones can almost sound just as good as any $1000+ speakers. The only thing I can say about the headphones is
"WOW". Hooked it up with my Nakamichi MD10 Cd player...unbelievable! Besides the bulky/big sized headphones, the sound is fanstasitc. Overall, 5 stars period.

Great Price for Combo, Very Comfortable Headphones,
Dual Headphone Jacks, Great Sound, lots of wire

None so far, maybe it could have decoded dolby digital, but pro logic is fine for headphones

I was looking for a product to allow me to enjoy my DVD movies late at night without disturbing the neighbors.
I bought a pair of wireless headphones thinking that would do the trick, what a mistake. There was static and interference every time I moved my head. So I returned them and found the DSP combo with 580 headphones, I am so happy with them. Not only was the supplied wires long enough to reach my chair over 15 feet, but the headphones are so great sounding and comfortable. The satin ear muffs keep your ears from sweating. And the DSP surround sound was something I didn't expect from headphones. I find myself watching more and more movies with them even in the day now.
And another great feature is that it comes with 2 headphone jacks so late at night my wife and I can bothe watch and listen to the dvd's with no problem. Great Product!!!

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Better than stereo for movies. Suprised me though?! Came legendary HD580s

Effect slight improvement

I intially bought these for the HD 580's since they were being discontionued. I love the headphones they are exceptional product. I didn't even take the amp out of the box since that just came with the heaphones and did read some bad reviews on it. I thought I would try it out on a few movies. I was really suprised! It does work, though to a limiting degree. I have a pair of Advent wireless and they suck compare to these. The amp is quite solidly built and has a vast array buttons and effects, though I thougt it was slite. I think the headphones helped too since they are vastly superior to my Advents. The surround effects are there. If you switch between stereo and surround you get some ambiance as if you were in a theater. Quite well done! If you want a terrific pair of headphones and a bonus surround device, I would recommend it. I have reviews on other toys of mine (not all though).

Paradigm 70p Main speakers
Paradigm CC350
Paradigm atoms
NAD 711 Pro logic receiver
Sony DVP S-3000 legandary first genration DVD Player
Sennheiser HD 580's headphone incredible!
Toshiba TW40X81 Excellent HDTV

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build quality, sound

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Bought the dsp pro with the Sennheiser 535 headphones shipped from spidergear $140. If you only have a dvd player and tv and are looking for a cheap entry into home theater this is a must buy.
The Pro has an amp built in so you dont even connect it to your receiver... you hook it into the audio outs of your dvd player (or vcr) and it provides the power. I have spent several thousand dollars on speakers, subs and receivers, and for $140 this doesnt replace them, but it sure sounds great!
It is very heavy and well built and looks like a large remote control. It comes with a 12' long cable that connects to your dvd player or vcr with rca connects and then into the pro with a s-video connection, then you phones connect into it. You can also connect another set of phones for a friend. Very cool.
There are multiple adjustments that can be made for volume, bass, seat position in room, ambience, and your personal ear settings. I also hooked up my phones directly to reciever for an A/B comparison...with the dsp pro the sound is more spatial and better bass and seems to have more kick...so you dont need a receiver at all to enjoy this product.
When you buy the Sennheiser 535 phones for $80 from spidergear.com you can buy the dsp pro for only $29...money well spent as you may need a extension cable anyway as i did that will cost you another $15 anyway.
If you are looking for a way to watch dvds without waking your wife or neighbors this is a great inexpensive way to do it.

I bought the Sennheiser DSP Pro/HD-580 combo for $199. After getting the ear type adjustments on the DSP right, movie sound really seemed to be coming from the TV instead of from inside my head. It's a neat trick, and it makes movies more enjoyable than without the DSP Pro. For my ear type at least, it really works, so I have to give it 5 stars.

I purchased the DSP Pro/HD 580 combination as an "open box" special at ubid.com for $116, which is an amazing bargain. If you can get a similar deal (spidergear.com has the combo for $159, refurbished), grab it. That said, I was disappointed in the performance of the DSP Pro, mainly because I respect the Sennheiser name so much. The unit is _extremely_ tricky to set up--the single test tone is thoroughly inadequate for gauging the subtle differences between the different transfer functions. (Instead, try selecting some good Dolby Pro material--e.g., something with crowd noise--and adjust for greatest sense of depth.) Regardless of the setting you settle on, the Dolby Pro mode always distorts the sound of dialogue. The synthesized "ambience" adds overhang and harshness to everything out of the center channel--exactly the opposite of the clarity that a good home setup brings. As an illustration, my cable box adds a "click" noise with every channel change. On the Dolby Pro setting, this click reverberates in a particularly grating way; imagine standing in the corner of a racquetball court and dropping a ping-pong ball, creating a slap-echo for 1/20 of a second. (Dialing the ambience setting all the way down helps somewhat.) Still, on action movies, the unit does create a pleasing sense of depth (sports, like Monday Night Football, are another good use), and the rear surround channels are convincing. One question that buyers will have is, "Will this unit work for classical music, like a Headroom amp?" Absolutely, positively not, not even in the "stereo ambience" modes. The "straight" stereo amplification is fine and is always selectable at the touch of a button, although you should be aware that there are only 15 volume settings. Ah, but the price! The 580 headphones alone are worth the $199 retail package price, and at $116 I wouldn't complain if the only add-in was a bumper sticker. So I'll give the DSP Pro 4 stars considering the overall value--but just don't expect it to be an all-purpose solution for listening to movies.

Imaging is great for movies, voices are "in" my head, background scores stay distant, very good at what it does.

Don't use this as an amplifier for music. It is way too harsh and causes fatigue.

I'd have to say overall I really like this product, it really delivers on it's promise, delivering a life like movie experience on a set of plain old headphones. In my case a pair of Sennheiser HD-580's. Though it'll never sound as nice as a good surround setup. But then again you can't really expect that from a pair of headphones. I give it 5 stars all across the board. The $179 price w/ the 580's was great. Now I just need a tube amp for music.

Great for movies, extra long wires, user functions

Music CD playback, user functions

I just bought this new for $57 a couple of days ago so that I could crank up my movies without disturbing others in my apartment, and so far it sounds great with movies (hooked up to my Sony DVD player). There are plenty of functions that you can adjust to match your hearing, but I had a difficult time setting it up. The instructions said to pick the tone that most sounds like it's one meter in front of you, and that's really hard to determine when you're wearing headphones. But when you actually get it setup it sounds great. There is just a tad of reverberation with dialogue, but I'm assuming that is just because it is trying to create a spacial sound. The highs are very crisp and the bass is very deep. For movies this is well worth the price I paid! For CD music, on the other hand, I agree with one of the other reviewers. It can be very harsh depending on what you are listening to. I first tried it with a CD in my DVD player and music with very deep bass, or very high highs were very distorted (almost like the speakers on my headphones couldn't handle it). Then I tried it with my CD player and, although much less distorted, I could still hear a slight vibration for the high highs, and low lows. I'm assuming that this is the way the Sennheiser is (and that I don't happen to have a defective one). Don't buy this if you mainly just want to listen to music (stand alone headphones are good enough for that), but if it's for movies then it's definitely worth it.