This is supplemental information to the article: The Digital Music Revolution Sound Investments: Headphones, Part II   by Al Gordon

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• Don't buy more headphone than your music format requires. MP3s and the other common digital music formats are "lossy" -- meaning they achieve their data compression by discarding some of the original information, hence lost fidelity. [There is a new generation of "lossless" encoders now emerging, but they offer only 2:1 compression.] Encoding at "audiophile" settings gives you reproduction nearly indistinguishable from the original, but only "nearly." The sound quality won't be high enough for you to benefit from the highest end headphones discussed here. Those "cans" should be used to hear CDs and other original sources.
   
• Don't buy more headphone than your original music requires, either. Britney Spears isn't suddenly going to become talented because you're listening with fancy headphones. In fact, hi-fi cans will emphasize all the recording studio tricks used to make her performances halfway palatable. But let's not just pick on her, recording companies go for heavy bass in most rock and pop ballads, so cans that have strong highs and midranges can be a waste.
   
• Speaking of which, beware that even music with a substantial dynamic range can be recorded badly. One thing you learn with good headphones is that the recording industry has variable quality control and also that there is great disagreement over proper reproduction of old recordings. For example, Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammophon have many of the milestone classical performances of the '50s, '60s, and '70s in their archives but they are inconsistent about cleaning up the tape hiss from the analog recordings of those performances. With good headphones, you will hear the hiss.
  
• A note on pricing: Headphone makers are very finicky about trying to defend their suggested retail prices, Etymotic just as much so as Sennheiser. Retailers often are required to post the SRP, and purchasers must seek out the actual selling price. Usually that means adding the item to your shopping basket online or asking your salesperson on the phone or in a store. Bottom line: in this price range, it pays to shop around for the best deal.
   
• Above all, let your ears rule. Don't buy on the basis of specs. Specs do not capture ambiance. One the the hallmarks of the new Sennheiser headphones is that the listening experience is akin to hearing a performance in a venue with great acoustics. You can't really measure this. According to the spec sheets, for example, the difference in frequency response between Sennheiser's top-of-the line HD 650 and former top-of-the line HD 600 is minimal; shouldn't even be audible, in fact. But the 650 simply sound more alive. It's like the difference between listening from a good seat in a concert hall and from a great one.

The entry point in the Sennheiser high-end range is the HD 515 ($100), If you listen primarily to high quality MP3s, these are your headphones. I think they have too much emphasis on bass with not enough clarity on the high end, but of course, that makes them just perfect for the rock fan. HD 515s perform well from most standard headphone jacks, without needing additional amplification. As with the rest of the new 500 series, the earpieces are large and have a velvety covering to make wearing them very comfortable.

An alternative to the 515 is the HD 280 Pro, which is available for the same price. The 280 is a "sealed" headphone, meaning that instead of having air grills on the outside, the case is solid. This shuts off outside noise, albeit at the expense of some sound quality. If your reason for using cans is to be able to listen to your music without interference from background sounds, these are for you. It is not a new model per se, although Sennheiser has freshened its look by offering a black-and-silver model in addition to the original all black.

One of the best buys in this range is the HD 555 ($150), pictured right.

At the pinnacle of headphone-dom is the aforementioned HD 650s, pictured at the top. It is about as close to really being at a live performance as the current state of the art in headphones permits. Sound is breathtaking. Of course, so is the price: about $450. Don't look for much in the way of discounts; this is a product aimed at audiophile users with deep pockets.

You would opt for the 650s only if your home audio system is high end itself and you want sound through the headphones that matches up to what you hear with your speakers. You also want to use them primarily for listening to CDs or the various "super CD" and audio DVD disc formats. The phones are a total waste for listening to music digitally encoded with anything other than the Apple or Microsoft "lossless" technologies. Conventional MP3, WMA, or AAC encoding throws away virtually all of the extra sound information that the 650 is capable of reproducing.

A terrific high-end alternative is the HD 595 (below), which is at long last available. A fire at Sennheiser's factory in Ireland early in 2004 disrupted production of all these headphones, and made the 595s nearly impossible to find in the United States. In the course of harassing Sennheiser's U.S. spokespeople for months in pursuit of one to sample, I kept grumbling that they had better be worth the wait. They were.

The sound quality is very close to that of the 650 -- I could hear a difference between the two but frankly only by concentrating very hard. If, like most of us, you do not have musicians' ears you are not going to suffer any meaningful lack of high fidelity. What you are going to do is save at least 200 bucks, and probably a little more if you find a retailer that offers big discounts.

The 595 gives superb reproduction of CDs and also adds life to digitally encoded tracks. I am not sure it would make a lot of sense to pay the price premium over the 555 simply to listen to an iPod, but you wouldn't be wasting your money either. Moreover, the 595 is a really excellent choice if you want a pair of cans that will be suitable both for portable music players and your CD collection at home. I wouldn't suggest that headphones with a pricetag north of $200 are a bargain. Nevertheless, the 595s' versatility does mean that you get a lot for your money.

One thing that's not so great about the new 500 series is the 1/8th" (miniplug) adapter shipped with the phones. Up until now, Sennheiser had designed its headphones so that the "base" plug -- the one that is wired into the cord -- was a 1/8th" minijack and you snapped a 1/4" stereo component headphone adaptor on top of it. The company properly recognized that making the high-end plug the secondary unit didn't make much sense. So they now reversed the arrangement so that the 1/8th sits on top of the 1/4.

The problem is this setup makes for one really big, awkward plug that puts too much leverage on sometimes fragile minijacks. A better solution, used in the HD 650, is to build a short length of cable into the adapter. You can buy the 650 cable directly from Sennheiser's parts department (it's Item No. 092595) for $8.50, and I recommend doing so.

After all, when you make a sound investment, you ought to protect it.

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