The headband material will peel off after a year or two, making them look horrible. Sound is ok, but nothing special, I´ve expected more from Sennheiser at this price. Honestly these doesn`t worth more then $100..I mean c`mon HD6xx is at $220 now
Well I just want everyone to know you can get the 599SE for 180 on amazon or the tan color for 150 so please don't pay 200. The 599SE is an amazon exclusive and it's all black that is the only difference. I got my 599s on Cyber Monday for 100.
Just bought two pair of these as Xmas presents for my siblings (neither of whom are into headphones, audio gear, or fancy-pants HiRes music). I also sent each of them a FiiO Q3 Headphone Amp and a 1-year subscription to Qobuz so they'd have a source of good music and a way to power the 599s.
So far my brother (the youngest) is up and running and "hears" the difference. My sister won't get her's until tomorrow. That will be a different story...
And no, incase you're curios, I didn't buy any of that kit here. Not that I've never purchased anything here (or perhaps because I have), it's just that when it comes to something as crucial as a Christmas present to one's family, I couldn't risk the chance of becoming one of those pitiful customer service stories one reads about from time to time on these pages. Pity too, because I have made numerous purchase here in the past (and no, not any bloody keyboard purchases).
But I digress. The price for the cans on Amazon was the same as it is here. If you buy them here, you get points. If you buy them on Amazon you get next day delivery or at least the day after, with ZERO risk and a ton of tracking updates.
But I digress again--my brother (who had nothing to compare these cans to except the Bose QC IIs I sent him last year) reports a significant improvement over the Bose ;- ) Wouldn't it be a pisser if he didn't?! He's a homebuilt Windoze guy with an off-brand phone and did say the connection dongles shipped with the Fiio weren't a match for that phone. He found something in a drawer that finally let him do it, and ultimately was able to download and install the driver for his computer.
Fortunately, my sister uses current era Apple gear (as do I).
My brother did say the cord (on the 599s) would take some getting used to. I told him he was lucky he only had to deal with one side.
Here's a shot of my Mother and brother from a few years back (he's the one on the right).
I unno about cost or whatever, but i daily drived these for like 3 years or so, was rough as hell with them as well, threw them loose into my bag, changed the cable from stationary setup at my desk to the shorter wire for going out to school or whatever multiple times a day, they were cracked, ear pads were falling apart, but hell if they still didn't work like day 1 even after all that. They are also 50 ohms, so they could easily run out of my phone or pretty much whatever i plugged them into no problem. I recently moved to some 770 pro cause, as mentioned, 599s were falling apart, but i still miss and prefer the sound of them sometimes. (im also a very casual user btw, I like good sound a lot but not much audiophile at all in me, mostly cause im too poor and not invested enough :j )
I would say that the sound in these is relatively warm-neutral, good for classical/old music and movies/games. If you are using these for techno stuff or rock music there are better options at lower prices I would dare say. Any other entry in the 500 series will sound less warm than these and likely have a bit stronger bass.