FoL#1 Ellie has nicked my Sennheiser Momentum 2 on ear cans.
I use them with my phone and iPod, mostly when I’m walking the dog or just being unsociable. She’s using them with her TEAC A-H500 amp to listen to her K Pop shite when she’s been told to turn it down.
No problem I thought, they were like £45, I’ll just get a nice new pair. Not anymore, more like £150.
But I’ve seen some Sennheiser HD598 SR in the outlet shop for 75 quid, down from £200. Or some HD599 for £69, down from £179.
But they’re open backed, and as they’ll be new and mostly shiny (b stock, so maybe a mark or 2 on them), I might have them and let Ellie have the Momentums, but just how much noise do they kick out? Are they obnoxiously loud?
And also, are the models mentioned above decent enough for the outlet price?
Ah, well maybe not then. It’s been ages since I had some but they were quite loud in the same room. I was imagining her in the same room for some reason.
Surely there’s a lot of variables? One pair of headphones leaking more than another, and dependent on how loud the volume is. Yes they leak, but not necessarily enough to disturb everyone around. How long is a piece of string?! I have some Audeze LCD-2s and they are open-backed, but at an average volume, you can’t really hear them when someone else is wearing them.
I hardly ever listen to cans in the house, I’m lucky enough to have my own room and I get a fair amount of leeway for volume levels through my speakers so I think, realistically, I’m going buy them for Ellie, because the Momentums are nicely portable, and if she’s listening in her room leakage isn’t going to be an issue.
So, out of the 598 and 599 which is the better sounding?