comfortable, lengthy cord, good warranty.

plasticy build quality, horrible sound.

During the Cold War, the U.S. always assumed that the Russians were making incredibly high tech fighter planes that could match or even exceed many of the best U.S. designs. After the long struggle ended, it was discovered that many of the so-called premiere Soviet fighters were actually poorly engineered copies of obsolete and/or inferior U.S. designs...Instead of designing planes to beat the F-15, the Soviets were designing cheap knockoffs of the 25 yr old F5.

The relevance of that to the world of headphones? Simply this: the Senn HD500s are a poorly done knockoff of the Koss UR20s, themselves a lower end model in Koss's line. (Although also selling for a third of the price of the Sennheisers!) The HD500s though an open driver design, versus the Koss closed driver, have the same sonic tendencies as the UR20s, though even more pronounced and at a higher cost. (Some places sell the HD500s for as much as $100, while the high price on the UR20s seems to be $25. Oddly, the UR20s sound better as well...).

What tendencies are those? These phones have an incredibly muffled soundstage. There is no feeling of life or immediacy to the music. The mid and treble sections are dead and flat, and the bass is muffled and thumpy. Anyone that likes these phones hasn't listened to anything decent. Look at the favorable reviews here (few that there are). None of the fans of these have listened to a Grado! Most of em are ex-Sony listeners. Maybe these are a step up from such masterpieces as the V600, but even that is questionable as the 600s are at least sturdy enough to stand being hurled against the wall repeatedly by disgusted audiophiles ...

Sound imaging (aka sound stage) is what really separates good headphones from crappy ones. Grados make you feel that you are on stage with the musicians. The music is neutral and well differentiated, the bass is tight and balanced. My Denon 210s are just about as good, especially for a closed design. Let's say that you'll feel as if you were in the front row if not on stage. My Koss UR20s make you feel as if you're say 15 or 20 rows back. And the HD500s make you feel that you're in another building down the block from the concert...

Positives? These are reasonably well made though entirely of plastic. They have a 2 year warranty, which you will probably need if you drop them on the floor from a height of more than 2 feet or so. My Grado SR60s (themselves not dramatically sturdy) seem much more solid, and my Denon phones seem like an M1 tank compared to both. The 500s are at least very comfortable, and could be worn for lengthy period if the boredom of listening to them didn't lull you to sleep! The 32 Ohm impedance means you can take these phones and their depressing sound with you on the road, hooked up to CD walkmans, MP3 players etc. And the cord is nice and long so you can pace around the room wringing your hands in distress as your favorite tune is anesthesized and saturated with thumps.

These really damaged Sennheisers image to me. They are known to me as the old fuddy-duddy headphone company, who make dull refined headphones that grandpa can use to listen to Strauss waltzes. They are known for needing fission generators to drive them properly (300 Ohm impedances) and for lacking any low end punch. I guess the 500s are the result of them trying to change this image.

The phones are marketed as the "fusion" series, meant for pop music, rock, and fusion jazz. Remember that the hydrogen bomb uses fusion as well, so the destructive effect of these cans on music actually sort of justifies the name. As for the aural characteristics, I can imagine some befuddled old Bavarian engineer being pushed to the brink by marketing types---"you vant BASS for der young people? I vill giff you BASS, all der bass you can use, und more! heh, heh, heh!"

The truth is that Senns become good headphones at roughly the $130 mark with the HD570s. If you don't want to spend $130-$350 on headphones, then buy another brand. Even at the $130 price point, the Grado SR125s are better phones for most non-fuddy-duddy users, unless your widdle ears get all sore from the mean ol Grados in which case the comfier Senns will have to suffice. The HD600s are called by some the best headphones in the world, but again I think that the Grado SR325s are likely superior if you listen to anything other than an exclusive diet of sedate classical works. Even Beethoven sounds better on Grados!

Whether it be the inert 490s, the tacky 400s, or the misguided disaster that is the HD500, Grado consistently shows an inability to make a decent headphone for young folk and/or penny pinchers. The fact that they are willing to make the effort by producing junk such as these phones only hurts their reputation. I am interested in seeing how some of the newer models like the 497s pan out---i.e. if Senn learned anything from the poor sales and rotten reviews that accompanied this mediocre design.

Similar Products Used:

Grados, Koss, Denon, Philips, Sony

Comfort, adequate volume level.

The low end is dark and muffled, and the midrange does not stand out. I demo'ed these with a portable minidisc and amp. The soundstage is nasty and lifeless.

These headphones are suited for cheap casual applications like plugging into your tv, when it needs to be turned down.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Grado

Great entry level headphone. Well, at least if you're looking for a warm sounding "filter". It excels particularly in soundstage and bass. Midrange is decent and treble is rolled off. A relaxing headphone. I would settle with AKG, Sony, or Grado for realistic sound but when you want a headphone for PC or Aiwa mini system (stuff that sounds like crap), this can't be beat. It is also the most comfortable light headphone I've ever tried. 4 stars for the performance, 5 stars for ergonomics.

Comfortable, good sound

for me-none, for others it might be too much bass

I bought this pair mainly for night listening to music, 'cause I can't turn on my stereo system(that would be unhuman). Even though they are considered open headphones, they are much quiter than 100W per channel stereo.
When i purchased HD500, I thought about using them on PC for games, but PC is not powerful enough to drive power into phones, so all i get is a little wisper.
Overall I'm happy with this purchase. One for sure is that they are really comfortable. Can wear them for hours.

Similar Products Used:

Sony MDR-600

Sound quality, comfortable, long detachable cord

Long "play-in-time"

I feel I have to write a response to mr Kelleher's review below, as it seems very unfair to me.

First of all I don't think he has listened to them long enough, they really need to be played in. I listened to them in store hooked up to a Musical Fidelity headphone amp and compared them to Philips HP890 and Senn's new HD497 but the HD500 were the far superior pair, the others had annoying distortion when played a little bit loud and not half as comfortable. The 500 were extremly clear and clean sounding with good - actualy 'feelable' - bass. I bought them but when I first listened to them at home I was very disappointed, most of the negative stuff that's been said below was true. I considered taking them back but decided to wait a couple of days, and I'm glad I did! After about 15-20 hours of continuos play the mids and treble litteraly came to life, and the bass tightened too. Now I'd rather listen to music using these than through my speakers (JBL)! After hours of listening my ears are not the least bit tired, and not very warm either.

It's true I haven't compared them to any Grado model, and maybe they are better, but I doubt they can be for $25!

(As for the aircraft analogy - there is no fighterjet in use better than Sweden's JAS 39 Gripen!)

Similar Products Used:

Koss Philips Sony

Lightweight (but does not appear flimsy), Comfortable, Replaceable Parts, Good Sound, monstrous bass :)

No noise isolation (like any open type headphone), monstrous bass :)

Originally i owned Technics phones, those were some beefy phones with 50mm drivers rated 3hz-30khz. However they were pretty heavy on the head, i guess around 350-400 grams, whats worse they were exaggerating the treble which everybody who heard them liked, but i hated it because i mostly care about accuracy not how "nice" it sounds. I wanted phones that were lighter and did not exaggerate heights i decided to buy Sennheiser EH2200 because of their 140gram weigth. So i did and i found that they exaggerated the treble even more than my Technics, i quickly got rid of those phones. However i was blown away by how light and comfortable they were so i decided to give Sennheiser one more chance, this time i read the reviews very carefully and identified HD500 as what i needed. So i got them, and they are simply GREAT. They have exactly the rigth amount of treble, very clear transparent sound, very comfortable and with very powerful bass. Admittedly they may be exaggerating the bass a little bit, but the problem of "booming" sound is exaggerated in itself :), they sound as if somebody turned a subwoofer one notch up too high thats all, its not bad.

i waited about 3 weeks before writing this review even though i liked them from the start, i just wanted to make sure that i will write what is my final opinion. People who said these headphones are a joke they have no clue. They probably have damaged hearing (like many people) and require excessively boosted treble to enjoy music, this headphone is not muddy or dull sounding, it is warm sounding though;

it does have a notch at 4khz (verified by running sinewave sweep on them) but hey, what do you expect, this is not STAX electrostatics, if you want absolute perfection better be ready to pay $750 for a pair of STAX

if these phones cost $750 i would give them 4 stars but for $79 they deserve SIX

Similar Products Used:

Sennheiser HD270, Sennheiser EH2200, Technics RP-F20(discontinued $150 headphone)

comfortable, light, open design.

build quality.

when i started looking for a entry level set of headphones, sennheiser was on the top of my list. i was looking to spend ~$100 and the hd500 seemed to fit the bill.

i mainly use them to play games on my computer. i can say that they do that very well. computer games have a very wide range of volume (from walking around quietly to massive fire fights) and the hd500 do a fine job of handling it.

as for music, i rarely just sit around and listen. thus, headphones are to limited and i would rather listen to my stereo.

i have watched many movies on them and really enjoy them. even after 2-3 hours of wearing the hd500, they are still very comfortable.

over all, i believe the hd500 to be a nice <$100 set of headphones.

Similar Products Used:

koss, pioneer.

Nice sound quality, can handle strong bass, comfortable, long cord

Bass can be a bit boomy, not as responsive with very high frequencies

This was the first pair of 'nice' headphones that I bought. I was in Circuit City and descided that I wanted to get a good pair of headphones and these looked pretty expensive so I figured "they're probably good" so it was kind of an impulse buy. Since I've used them I also bought a pair of Koss A-250's so I have something to compare them too.
The phones are nice quality, they are pretty responsive on bass. The high frequency seems a little quite but if you really listen to it, it is incredibly clear.
Bottom line, if you have some cheap pair of headphones that came with a diskman or something and are looking for something better, I would recomend these, they are decent. You could probably find something comparable for cheaper if you looked a little, but these are still nice headphones.

Similar Products Used:

Koss A-250

good sounding base, warm tones

lack of trebel may be appealing to some, but i cant have it so i am returning them tomorrow, when i bought them today..

if you like vocals when listening to music to be rich, wouldnt recommend these..

comfortable enough,

boomy bass, imaging is not up to scratch, poor lead

I bought a pair of these headphones, 1 week later I took them back - for the money they were a joke, unless you are a bass fanatic or listen to a bit of vinal but still you could buy much better. I can't recommend these to anyone, I used them on a variety of sources from a sony tcd-d8 DAT to a naim cdx and the sound let me down every time, very unusual for sennheiser.

Similar Products Used:

naim headline, Musical Fidelity X can, Jecklin Floats