Sennheiser HD 560S Review – For The Masterful Not The Typical

Hey, welcome everyone to a review of the Sennheiser 560S over the ear, open back, wired headphones.  

Despite how long the cable is, thankfully it doesn’t tangle that easily in my experience. I found that if I jumble it up and pick it up quickly, it’s very easy to just kind of unwind and plug in to whatever device I need to. 

When wearing the headphones, any tugs or pulls on the cable itself does not distort or crackle the audio in any way. It always sounds crystal clear. 

Accessories 

There are no accessories included in the box except for a kind of like a zip tie, which allows you to keep the cable organised if needed. Not sure if that’s really an accessory though, but in case you’re wondering, it’s included in the box. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the 6.3 millimetre adaptor, it can go on to the top of the 3.5 millimetre ending of the cable. 

I mentioned earlier that these headphones are not designed for travelling and portability, but if you do need to take them with you on the go for whatever reason, there’s no carrying case included, not even a soft one. That is a bit of a bummer, especially this price point, because the cable length is quite long and I mentioned that there’s a zip tie included in the box, but I much rather prefer having a case included instead to keep it all together. 

Design & Comfort 

I have to admit I find that it has a very appealing design to how it looks. The thing that stands out for me is that the headband frame wraps towards the back of the earcups and that stands out to me a lot. Mainly because most other headphones from other manufacturers, including Sennheiser, have the headband frame kind of go straight down to the middle of the ear cup and stop there, whereas these ones kind of wrap backwards. 

You also have a grill mesh on the outside of each earcup because they’re an open back design and open back headphones are not that common, so it just adds more to the unique appeal. 

These headphones do not collapse and fold in at all. It’s a solid frame when wearing them. 

They’re incredibly comfortable, like one of the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever worn. Even when testing them with non-prescription glasses see, it’s not irritating with glasses. I notice that the glasses frame kind of snug in slightly, not a lot. Nothing that would disturb you, but you can notice it ever so slightly. That’s probably because the headband flex is a little on the tighter side. Nothing unbearable because again it’s super comfortable even with glasses, but I can notice that’s a bit on the tighter side compared to other headphones that I’ve reviewed. 

The earcup cushioning is thick and super, super soft. It’s one of the softest material that I’ve ever worn on headphones that I’ve reviewed thanks to the velour material. One annoying thing about the ear cup material is that it does attract dust rather easily. Nothing terrible, but you will certainly notice it. 

The interior headband cushioning is also quite thick and soft for people that have next to no hair. That’ll be a great joy for you. I honestly have to say it’ll be very difficult to find someone complaining about comfort with these headphones. One of the most comfortable I’ve ever used on any headphones that I’ve reviewed. 

When it comes to working out, I do not recommend this at all. When I’m stationary not doing anything, my ears don’t get sweaty, hot or irritated. They’re very comfortable. But these are over the ear headphones. When you are working out, your ears are going to sweat like crazy no matter the circumstance just because your ears are encompassed in the earcups, but because of the velour material, it’s going to get even more irritating and more agitating. You also have the cable kind of dangling down. So, for most exercises like, say, weight training, it’s dangerous. But even if you do cardio exercises, don’t use these, they’re not meant for it. You might wear them out rather quickly. 

If you’re looking for a certain colour to match your preference, unfortunately that’s not really an option as it only comes in a black colour. 

When you look at the Sennheiser website it’s listed as weighing a total of 280 grams, except that’s with the cable included. Without the cable (just the headphones alone), they were 240 grams, which is not too bad. But even if you do consider 240 grams to be heavy which honestly, it’s not that bad, you won’t really notice them on your head because they’re just so comfortable. 

I do have to admit the body construction is not that strong, so be cautious if you plan to travel often with them, even though it’s not designed for that as I’ve mentioned several times now. 

This shouldn’t be a surprise, but if you look in the manual it mentions, keep them in a dry environment, which automatically means that they’re not going to be dust and water resistant. 

In case your earpads do get damaged Sennheiser does not sell official replacement units, but I did find some third party sellers online that sell their own type of fabric replacement. 

If you need to adjust the headband, it’s done in notches, it is not a slider mechanism. 

The earcup rotation is rather minimal when it comes to going forward and back. Not too bad though, because the headband flexibility to go forward and back helps with the situation. 

When resting on my neck it’s not a good experience at all because the earcups are so huge that looking left and right is like rubbing up my chin and it’s a bit difficult to look further left or right. Looking down is just as annoying because the earcup cushioning is so thick, I can hardly get my chin down. But they’re not designed for that purpose, they’re designed for stationary use in a single environment. When not using them, just take them off and put them down.

Controls 

There are no controls on the headphones at all. Not on the body itself, not even within the cable. These are simply designed for high quality audio listening and that’s it. 

Noise Cancelling 

Switching to noise cancelling, there’s no ANC (active noise cancelling) whatsoever.  

There’s no transparency mode either, which basically means that if there are microphones built onto it, it’ll project sound from the outside into the headphones so you can hear your exterior environments easily. There’s no technology whatsoever of any kind. 

Honestly, you wouldn’t even need transparency mode because wearing these you can hear almost everything around you easily. These are open back headphones designed to be used in a super quiet environment to really enjoy the quality of the audio you’re listening to. These are great to be used in say, an office of your own. If you’re in a quiet house (even though my kids are usually yelling and screaming at me), it’ll work great.  

Although if you plan to use it in a quiet environment like a library and you’re jamming to jazz or lounge music while studying, it’s not going to work that well. Mainly because these are open back headphones, there’s going to be a lot of sound leakage. If someone is sitting next to you in the library, and you are playing music rather loud while studying or something, there will be a lot of sound leakage on purpose, so the person next to you might be disturbed. This should be used in a quiet, independent environment.

Battery 

There is no battery to be used with these headphones. It is purely powered by the auxiliary cable plugged into the device.

Microphone 

Switching over to microphone, well there is no microphone. Again, this is designed simply for high quality audio listening, which brings us to the main meat and potatoes of the review. Except the meat would be the main part of the review and the potatoes would be the side, I think? 

Audio Quality  

Anyway, audio quality, that’s what you’re probably interested in. These sound great and it’s really hard for me to explain, especially if you haven’t heard of this type of experience before. It sounds like you’re listening to vinyl, so if anyone’s listened to a vinyl record before, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m not sure how that’s possible because the sources I’ve been plugging into or digital, but I have high quality audio files and it sounds like I’m listening to a vinyl record, which is a good thing. 

It just gives that unique type of sound that say, Spotify (which is not a great quality experience) or a CD just doesn’t provide. 

Out of the box with a flat profile, everything is kind of well balanced. Although I found bass to be lacking a little bit. I’m a bass enthusiast, but even if you’re not a bass heavy centric person, I found it a little bit on the lower side.  

Regarding adjusting with an equaliser, though, I found performance to be stellar when adjusting the bass levels. It can get very deep, surprisingly, of course if the song is correct, like certain hip hop songs, although despite it getting very deep, it doesn’t provide a kind of subwoofer punch in your head, like some Sony headphones would. It’s not designed to do that. It’s designed to increase the bass level without giving it a punch, because then it would kind of take away from the other audio, which is the mids and highs. 

When it comes to increasing vocals. I have never heard vocals so clear in my life on any headphones that I’ve reviewed, and I reviewed headphones that after taxes in Canada come out close to 550 bucks, closer to $600. These output the best vocals I’ve ever heard. It sounds like the person is singing in the same room as me, live in person. It’s just absurdly damn good. 

Increasing highs, if you tweak it up just slightly, it’ll get kind of sharper and fuller. Although if you increase it a little too high, it’ll get piercingly annoying. But you don’t have to do that, of course. If you’re in a quiet environment, like I mentioned earlier and you just want pure audio bliss, these headphones will not disappoint. 

Software 

Lastly, there is no software whatsoever, not even from Sennheiser. If you want to adjust it with an equaliser you have to get a third party one for your computer or cell phone.

Conclusion

Whatever is connected to this are designed to be used in a super quiet environment in which you can just sit back, relax, and just listen to audio almost as fine in quality possible given the price point. 

I do wish it was a little bit cheaper though, considering how many trade-offs you must make, which is rather significant. I know the focus of this is just simple audio quality bliss, but these could have been a little bit cheaper.