đŸ”¶ Sennheiser HD560s

Senn released a statement about this and they said that the 560s should be considered separate from the the normal 5XX series. So either it’s to kill Drop or maybe just to be shot at Hifiman and all the ‘supposed’ better headphones at the 200 to 300 prices.

All this suspense
will be glad when some reviews show up here. :wink: Of course, we could just go with DMS and buy it. :joy:

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I pre-ordered a pair on 8/24 and I haven’t gotten any shipping confirmation, so I don’t know when they will start going out.

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that makes no sense
a 500 series headphone shouldn’t be considered a part of the 500 series headphone? wat?

I hope they respond well to tubes.

also, interesting they named it after a headphone that was an absolute flop, the HD560 Ovation.

Sort of inline with what the 580 was and 58X is but staying with the 500 series chassis is a choice. Seems like a fresh take on what they want the 500 series to be moving forward.

Might do well on something like a tuba but it’s lower impedance rules out the usual otl suspects I would think.

My HD 560s arrived today. Actually to my surprise 
 I pre-ordered on Sept. 24th (out of curiosity triggered by DMS) at the Sennheiser.de web-shop. First they informed me that it will be released one day early (28th), then the next day they wrote about an undefined delivery delay. Nevertheless, it was delivered today without further notification 


It is much too early for a real sound impression but the low end is very pleasing and it is well-balanced in sound. I also like the soundstage and imaging. Since the drivers are slightly angled, the positioning of the cups matters a bit. It is light and very comfortable but the clamp force is a bit too strong out of the box for my rather big head


I do not like the 3m cable however. Fortunately, other Sennheiser cables work and the HD 560s can also be run balanced. Years ago I bought a balanced 4-pol 2.5mm-to-Sennheiser locked 4-pol 2.5mm cable for a HD5**. Have a look at the picture - I actually don’t know anymore where I got that one from. It is too stiff but it works; the L and R grounds are not connected in the headphone (BTW the resistance is about 118 Ohm for each channel) and the balanced layout is correct. The cables for the HD 598SR (I also own) are working as well. Including a short and thin aftermarket one.

I tried it only a few minutes on some amps each (THX 789, DV 336se, RebelAmp, ifi ZenCAN, Topping L30) and it seems to perform very well with the L30 and the ZenCAN (balanced). Again, too early for a real impression. Needs a bit of juice but nothing extreme.

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I pre-ordered them the same day and I haven’t gotten any shipping info at all.

I also did not get any shipping info - just the shipment (DHL) :grinning:

My defaulted to UPS for shipping. I though DHL was mainly for Asian companies.

Within Germany DHL is the number one delivery service and works in collaboration with our national postal service.

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Glad to hear a few of have these coming our way. @theFritz nice write up on early impressions :+1:

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I am in the USA. It seems people in Europe got them earlier then us. I emailed Senn and they replied in like an hour saying they are shipping soon.

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I just noticed that the balanced cable I use looks very similar to the one linked above by @FireLion44
The connector housing on the cup-side is however slightly different and a bit longer but I guess that is cosmetics. 


does it need that weird cable that sorta has a twist lock like the HD599se?

Yes, exactly that twist lock-mechanism is used. Here the tips of the stock cable and the balanced one.

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the HD600 family doesn’t use this twist lock does it?

really annoying to have different interfaces between headphones from the same company.

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No they use the dual entry senn proprietary connectors

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Sennheiser love their proprietary connectors but their headphones are popular enough for them to have a lot of third party options.

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Chanced upon the following from the Sennheiser account on head-fi.

From post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-new-hd-560s-linear-acoustics-at-a-breakthrough-value.943107/page-3#post-15882531:

Sound quality: “between the HD 58X and HD 660S in quality, though the presentation will be a bit different with the angled drivers”.

Ear pads: “These use the same pads as the HD 559”.
[But in a later post they say the HD 599 pads are the same except brown in colour.]

Upgrade from HD 599?: “both are good, suited to different tastes. The HD 599 has a more bass-emphasized, “music enjoyment” tuning, while the HD 560S has a more balanced presentation of frequencies, as well as some changes to the driver membrane. Technically, it could be considered an upgrade, but subjectively some may prefer the warmer HD 599 sound”.

From post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-new-hd-560s-linear-acoustics-at-a-breakthrough-value.943107/page-7#post-15884559:

Manufacture location: “Final assembly for the HD 500 series are in our China factory, and the transducers are made in our Ireland factory.”

From post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-new-hd-560s-linear-acoustics-at-a-breakthrough-value.943107/page-30#post-15897510:

“We expected the HD 560S to be popular, but it’s turning out to be a hit beyond our high expectations! We are blown away by the positive response we received, which turned into a significant demand for the product, globally. Unfortunately this has now caused a backlog in shipping.”

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I found this way funnier then I should’ve.

Tbh it is possible. However, you do have to take into consideration that Drop has gotten major sales for their collabs with Sennheiser - 120k sales with just the HD6XX
 like, that’s major profit.

What could be the reason why Senn would want to get out of the Drop contract? I haven’t personally been impressed by the Senn quality from Drop - doesn’t really meet up to my perception of Sennheiser (funnily enough, I found my HD598 far superior in quality compared to the HD6XX). At the end of the day, even if it is something regarding the contract - that’s private business that we will “never” have access to, so in the meantime we can support these great theories!!!