Sennheiser HD 598
Sennheiser’s approachable open-back: warm, wide, and comfortable, the classic first step into real headphones.
Our take
The HD 598 is the friendly on-ramp: an open, spacious sound with warm mids and a soft top that flatters most music. Not as resolving or neutral as the 600-series, but comfortable, easy to drive, and hard to dislike. A little presence EQ wakes it up.
Measured on a Head Acoustics HMS II.3 artificial head — raw response, left/right averaged, normalized to 0 dB at 1 kHz. From the Sonic Temple Archive(2008–2014, one unit per model). Honest limits: seating variance runs ±0.4 dB in the mids to ±3.9 dB above 12 kHz, and open headphones read bass-light on this fixture — don’t read fine treble detail as settled. How we measure →
Common questions
Straight answers — the same ones our measurements support.
Does the HD 598 need an amp?
No. At 50 Ω and sensitive, it plays loud and clean off a laptop or phone.
HD 598 vs HD 600?
The 600 is more neutral and resolving; the 598 is warmer, wider, and easier to love casually. The 600 is the reference; the 598 is the easy listen.
If you like the HD 598
Close on the graph, or a deliberate step in one direction.