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Sennheiser HD 550 (Quick Look) - A Gateway to Audiophile Sound
These headphones are designed to pave the way for consumers to experience quality sound, all while being in a lightweight and minimalist body.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome to another Gamereactor Quick Look.
Sennheiser is a legendary manufacturer, I think that is fair to say in most cases, and they built their reputation mostly on the back of good reference-style headphones."
"These are semi-expensive, you might call them, but they're open-back nature and while open-back headsets are becoming rarer and rarer by the year, it is still used, particularly because the venting of air leaves less pressure and therefore can, in some cases, create a more distinct and more accurate soundscape."
"These are the HD 550 and they're a €300 headset from Sennheiser and it's meant to be an all-purpose, high-quality hi-fi headset for, among other things, gaming, if that's what you want, but also just music listening and, as you can see, it is wired.
Not only is it wired, but as it comes out, it has standard jack."
"I'm pretty sure you can unscrew this for a smaller jack if that's what you want, meaning that this could go in a jack port on a headset or on a controller for consoles or if you want to use it on your phone, if your phone has a jack, that kind of thing, but like this, it could probably be run by a DAC or something like that for high-quality usage on a PC because this has 150 ohms of impedance, so while it can be driven by most devices, you really ought to give it the more space that it needs, the more power that it needs, from a high-power DAC and that is pretty well indicated by something like this, but it's very worth, I think, making the stand that it can be used for regular gaming if that is a choice that you want to make."
"First and foremost, though, it is made to have a low clamping force, meaning that this is meant to be airy, something that doesn't create that pressurization effect on your head that you might be used to from closed headsets, so when you wear them, it does feel like that you are out and about in the world."
"That is actually something that we have made a point of here on the show before.
If for instance, you don't want to get all too closed in when you play or when you listen to music, this will very much keep you much more part of your immediate surroundings because there is no natural noise cancellation to prevent outside noise from getting in."
"At the same time, people around you will be able to listen more to what you're doing, but it is all in the name of getting better sound quality, at least according to Sennheiser.
So these are made to be natural sounding and neutral sounding, even without a DSP or any other types of sound voodoo."
"They look nice.
I think this little perforated pattern here indicates quite nicely that it is open back.
It has a synthetic leather headband here, which could do, mostly when I'm wearing something for instance for gaming for longer periods of time, I prefer to have stretchy headbands here so that the top of your head isn't in direct contact with this brace because just below the synthetic leather band, there is the metal brace and that I think creates discomfort over hours of say play."
"For 300 euros, it is also quite expensive.
You can get a pretty good gaming headset for that and you can also get a pretty good Bluetooth headset for that.
So you really have to be married to this concept if this is something for you."
"We will be reviewing this in full very soon, so stay tuned for more.
See you on the next one."
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