I have had an old pair of Sennheiser 212s connected to my Electric Piano for going on 20 years, and much like the famous broom joke with its many new heads and handles, these cans have had new cups, headband and cables and now some of the plastic was wearing loose, so time for an upgrade!
I searched for some new Open Back headphones and went straight to Sennheiser again since the previous ones had served me well.
Open Back vs Closed Back. For practicing piano, you probably want Open Back headphones, they can be more comftable and give a better sense of space. Some sounds leaks in and out, so you would not want to use these on a train, but in a home studio, Open Back headphones are often ideal.
Searching around for some moderately priced Open Back headphones I was drawn to the Sennheiser HD599, they are affordable, lightweight and have a warm sound profile and wide soundstage.
When I first put them on I found them very comfortable with the large over the ear cups and soft velour cushions, also I found the sound to be much more bassy and with a higher fidelity than my old headphones. It took me a while to get used to and I found myself dipping the Bass on the piano EQ to replicate my old cans, but after a few days, I got accustomed to the sound and reverted the EQ back to neutral. Speaking of EQ, I am testing on the excellent Yamaha CK88 stage piano, it has an easy to grab global EQ and reverb controls on the right hand side so its simple to tweak the sound without any menu diving.
On my last headphones the cables did break after some years. The Sennheiser HD599 came with 2 cables a long and a short with both 3.5mm and 6.35mm jack size and an adaptor too, a nice unexpected bonus. As is typical of headphone cables the cable that connect to the drivers are the smaller 2.5mm size, but you also have to twist the cable 90degrees to unlock it. This is good because it will stop the cables getting pulled out when I stand on it, but bad because its slightly proprietary, but since the Sennheiser’s model range using this cable is so prevalent you can buy alternatives from thirdpartys.
The SE apparently stands for Special Edition, which I believe just means they are a different color. Also note that headphones often get discounted in Black Friday (when I got mine) and other sales events, so be sure to be mindful of that when checking the deals!
Sennheiser HD 599 SE on Amazon
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