The Sennheiser HD 598 gives out a stylish and sophisticated look, thanks to its artificial leather, accented wood knots, and a pair of soft pads. It is made from high-quality plastic materials that are highly durable and lightweight, making it comfortable to wear.

I tried them while gaming as well and found the same issue I had with music listening were present there as well. Not clear enough to be a satisfying gaming headset for me. Honestly I wonder why these cans aren't more recommended all over the place, these are ridiculously good even at 180€, far better than the 598CS and the classic 598. Even in gaming these are better than the 598 because the soundstage is more precise and more sperical compared to the regular 598 and their tunnel-like soundstage (at least that's what I remember from before I sold the old 598). The HD599 – according to Sennheiser – lets the listener enjoy their choice of home entertainment with exceptional wearing comfort assured, thanks to the large ear cups and soft, replaceable ear pads. Created with Sennheiser’s “Ergonomic acoustic refinement” (E.A.R.) technology, the headphones have been designed to more effectively channel the audio signal directly into the ears of the listener for a more satisfying listening experience. Offering a step into the world of audiophile sound, the HD599 is a premium headphone for those seeking sophisticated sound, design and build quality. The top-of-the-range model impresses with a natural spatial performance. But i had only 200Eur budget for next upgrade so i got the HE4XX instead of 6XX and i totally don't regret it, they're clearly level above the 598 ( maybe they're even better than 6XX especially for gaming ). In the end, the HD599 is poorly tuned in the low and lowermid frequencies and that elads to a messy bottom that just doesn't anchor the sound and leaves the higher frequncies colored and weak. Pretty disappointing overall. They are very comfortable and very stylish and are probably a good successor to the 598, but they aren't for me.The HD599 has an Impedance of 50 Ω, and not the iconic 300Ohm of the audiophile level units. Its frequency response is 12- 38,500 Hz, the sound pressure level (SPL) is 106dBSPL (1kHz/1Vrms) and THD, total harmonic distortion is <0.1% (1kHz, 100dBSPL).

Also what do you dislike about them? For me the 598 was quite decent and had that nice sound profile where everything is almost perfect and well balanced. The best gaming headphones IMO, are the ones that are best at reproducing binaural soundfields accurately. Newer game engines are becoming more realistic with spatial audio and headphones such as the 600 can actually create a more realistic sounding reproduction of a binaural sound field over the 598. It's the reason both HD700 and HD800 are good for gaming as well.The HD 598 and HD 599 are extremely close in sound performance, with a slightly tweaked driver. Indeed the specs are the same – it’s mostly a facelift with different colour scheme and materials used. I also found out you can put the 598CS pads on the 599, this makes the sound closer and bass heavy, on the other hand the 599 pads on the 598CS makes the sound super tinny and just awful. I think the 599 is basically a perfect headphone, for my taste as is, I don't even need to EQ the bass unless I'm listening to literal basshead stuff. I wish I could try the HD600 "to see what lies beyond that" but I can't afford them.

Without too much emphasis/deemphasizing the mid bass, the frequencies of the sound profile are excellent. The most relevant feature of the HD 599 is the technical performance. First off, imaging is very precise and you can notice different layers and air among instruments. On the other hand, soundstage is both wide and deep, better than HD 600 family. This makes the HD 599 a great option to consider for gaming, it's a shame that connecting a mic is not that easy.

Major HiFi Newsletter

Lower-Bass is excellent. Very good for RapCaviar and other modern rap songs, may get in the way for songs using acoustics but you can EQ that down and problem solved. Doesn't remove detail, just is a distraction to it. On "Don't Drift...", they're essential to the openness of the song. It sounds very spacious in there and you're relaxed. However, it can be a bit overpowering there as sometimes it can distract you from the detail, but more often than not, you will feel relaxed and happy with this mid-bass open on this song. On classical same story.

In 1960 Sennheiser presented the MD421 to the world and it put the Sennheiser name on the map. Four years later Sennheiser created their first headphone, the HD414. I’m sure you’ve seen it before as it is very easy to remember with the yellow colored pads. Sennheiser produced it for 15 years and sold over 10 million units which is extremely impressive. They patented the open ear design for 25 years. Sennheiser employs 1300 people in Germany (of which 400 are in production) and 2800 people worldwide. However, the 560s also exist. I recently tried them out at Best Buy and I love the detail in those because its straight in your face. The 560s are the overachiever kids, the streaming service with a premium subscription. The 599s gives you what you need, but are more chill and know how to relax. I don't know what Sennheiser was trying to achieve here. Low midrange is accentuated making male vocals and guitars louder, while high midrange is recessed. This is pretty evident with good records where the voice is not mastered very loud. Detail is just average. I would recommend FiiO K3 ( low power @ ~200mW its like the E10K just new and better ) or the FiiO K5 ( no DAC, but you can use FiiO DAP as DAC - 1.5W ). Also HE4XX that i currently use doesn't have much bass by default, but with some EQ they have it more than enough and its really nice and realistic bass, the sub bass is pretty good ( sounds like my subwoofer, while the 598 for example is artificial af and has pretty much zero sub bass ), but to get the good bass on planars u need good AMP, since its like +12dB ( -12dB preamp ) on low end to compensate the volume.I'm going to add a few more details even though nobody seems to care about these cans for some reason.