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There has been some talk in the forums about headphones, particularly for LANs etc where localised sound can be important. For me, using my computer late at night to play games or watching DVDs is also an issue, so as to not disturb the neighbours or anyone else in the house. Whilst at Castle Towers (Castle Hill shopping centre) recently I decided to check out the various Sennheiser headphones that the Sydney HiFi store there had on display. In short, I decided that the most top-of-the-line one they had available were the ones for me, the HD570, however I didn't purchase them from there (more on that later). Going off specs, I would have preferred the HD595 Prestige, but I don't know of anywhere in Australia that sells them. And after seeing how much the HD570's retail for, I highly doubt I could have afforded the HD595's.

What are they?
Headphones. Well ok, there is more data than that available on them, from www.sennheiser.com. For those that are too lazy, here is the technical data:

The box I have has slightly different specs to the above, namely the Characteristic SPL is 102 dB, and the Ear coupling is stated as "supra-aural, open". I also got a pair for a friend at the same time I got mine, and his box again has slightly different specs. His match the above, but the Nominal impedance is 120 ohms. Whether the model has been changed between revisions or the data simply re-evaluated and written differently remains unknown, because both pairs of headphones sound exactly the same to me.

Physically, they are made of highly flexible plastic, which makes them feel light and seem somewhat flimsy at first glance. However I've done many (fairly) extreme flex tests on them and they seem to be as tough as you'd expect on such an expensive pair of headphones. I think they'd survive quite admirably if you sat on them accidentally, though I'm not quite willing to go that far in my testing.

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The ear pieces are made of a very soft padded fake velvet type stuff, and are extremely comfortable to wear. They surround your ears entirely and there is little or no contact with them, the pads resting entirely on your head around your ears. The band is also padded with the same material, and rests comfortably on your head. The wire comes out of one side only, which seems to be the norm these days. It is also a lengthy 3 meters, enough to stretch across a moderately sized living room.

How do they sound?
In a word - superb. Bass response is extremely good as you'd expect, and the sound is very crisp and clear with very little distortion or "muffling" that you get on cheaper headphones. They sound better than your typical ~$1000 sound system if that gives you a ballpark figure. Add a good subwoofer to your stereo though and it would just edge out the HD570 in the bass department. The bass is only slightly worse than my 3' Jaycar sub woofer that resides behind my chair, but I never expected them to top that. Of course this is all rough guesstimation anyway, the sound from a set of speakers is not really directly comparable to headphones because the acoustics are all different. A good subwoofer is probably going to get a better bass feeling than any headphones, because a pair of headphones isn't going to cause your thorax to vibrate the way a good sound system can.

I can't speak in relative terms for any headphones that sound better because unfortunately I've not had the chance to listen to anything better. But they are far and away the best headphones I've ever used. They aren't a fully soundproofed unit, so you can (sort of) hear surrounding noises, but you won't be able to follow conversations if there's any sound playing. You will hear an explosion from the street (if you live in a rough neighbourhood), but you probably won't hear your mum calling you for dinner or a phone ringing from the other side of the house. People will be easily able to sneak up behind you and scare the crap out of you if you have your back to the door. This level of sound proofing makes them good for blocking out nagging relatives/housemates, and unless they burst into your room unexpectedely they won't even realise you're doing it! Far less confrontational than a stereo wound up to 11 to block out the sound of people yelling at you.

Issues.
I have 2 minor gripes with them, the first being you need to wind up the volume more to get the same output than with other headphones. It would under most circumstances necessitate having to adjust the volume whenever you plug/unplug the headphones. The second issue is that if you move your head, you can sometimes (depending on the movement) hear the ear pads rubbing against the inside of the velvet coating. With moderately volumed music you can barely hear it, and unless you're the kind of person who moves his head around lots when using headphones it shouldn't be much of a problem. As I say, they are minor gripes and don't bother me on the most part.

How do they compare with my old headphones?
This wasn't intended to be a headphone shootout but there are many things to compare here with my old pair. My old Koss headphones are called HV/PRO and were superseded many years ago. The ones I had were purchased in 1992 from Sydney HiFi for $150 (probably ~$250 in today's money with inflation) and apart from having to replace the ear foam once (non-warranty because it's a consumable part, cost $20) there has never been a fault with them. I emailed Koss for the technical specs recently and these are the only they had available, from an old catalog:

Even though the frequency response is greater for the HV/PRO, both the low and high frequencies sound better on the HD570. This just proves you can't go off frequency response data alone when judging headphones, and this is even mentioned in the leaflet that comes with the HD570.

The Koss HV/PRO are far from a bad unit, in fact if I could have somehow transplanted the sound of the HD570 to the HV/PRO I probably would have kept them. The Koss also has a few things which I think are superior to the HD570. Namely, the longer warranty (lifetime as opposed to 2 years), the on-cord volume control (which is of such good quality that after 8 years there is still no oxidisation on them), slightly better design in the band (easier to adjust), and the ear cups can turn further, to be horizontal to one another in either direction, instead of the restricted 30 degree or so movement of the HD570. You can actually flex the plastic enough on the HD570 to get a fully horizontal ear cup (if not further), but it would uncomfortable to hold in this position for any length of time. The Koss have metal pivots and sit flat easily, but flex no further than horizontal. The Koss's ear cup pads are circular bits of foam which rest partly on your ear. This in theory could get to be uncomfortable after an extended period of wearing but I never experienced this even after several hours of use. The benefit of this single non-coated foam design is there is no induced noise from turning your head. The downside to this design is because there is very little pressure the headphones tend to slide around on your head. The HD570 with its fully surrounding cup hangs on a lot better. I believe that Koss have entirely ditched the direct foam-on-ear design in favour of the fully-surrounding pad, probably for this reason, at least on all their high-end units. The other main downside to the HV/PRO is that there is one wire leading up to each ear piece instead of in one side and up around the headband to the other. This was a MAJOR pain in the arse and I was glad to be rid of it. Fortunately most or all new headphones have a single wire now. I sold my HV/PRO for $70 to a friend, but I would say that they would have been easily worth $100 to anyone else. They may be even worth more than my HD570 after the 2 year warranty period is up because the HV/PRO will be covered by warranty until I die :)

I think the HD570 are more suited to a LAN party than the HV/PRO though, because they are entirely made of plastic and more flexible, which should make them more likely to survive a rough car trip when deep down inside a tightly packed equipment bag.

Buying them.
The only two places I know where to get them from are from Dick Smith Electronics and Sydney Hifi, both retailing at about $320. At the $320 retail price I would not have bought these headphones, my old HV/PRO are good enough that I would have been happy to keep them if my "upgrade" cost would have been $250. However, wholesale price is under $190 (inc GST) which is what I luckily managed to get them for (please don't ask how, and no the discount had nothing to do with this website so other people should be able to find them at wholesale price as well), and if you can find them anywhere for under $200 I would definitely recommend them.

Conclusion.
If Koss have not let their quality standards drop over the last 8 years though (and I suspect they haven't), I would not hesitate to purchase a good pair of Koss to replace these HD570, because my HV/PRO are a much better designed unit even though the sound is slightly inferior. Looking at www.koss.com, the A250 model at US$149 seems to be the quality/price equivalent of the HD570 (if not even higher-end Sennheiser models), and if I could find them cheaply enough here I wouldn't mind upgrading to them. And the extra warranty is definitely nothing to be sneezed at, Koss are far more confident of their product than Sennheiser. However, if your price limit for headphones is around $200, and you can find the HD570 at wholesale price, I don't think you can go past the HD570.