Calling all audiophiles.

[VulgarDisplay]

A simple question. Audio-Technica AD700's or Senn. HD555's?

These will mainly be used for gaming, so I'm interested if anyone has any first hand experience with the positional audio for both these headsets.

Also, if anyone has any idea how the HD555's perform after the hd595 mod has been done that would be great too.

 

[JAG87]

Neither, spring for the hd595, it's a totally different sound, really a big jump in quality from those sets.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

You can mod HD555's quite easily to make them sound like 595's because almost everyone says the drivers are virtually identical. There is a piece of foam behind the driver on the 555 that dampens the sound.

I ended up buying AD700's because the pretty overwhelming consensus on the internet is that they sound comparable to the 595's for half the price.

 

[Ika]

Do you know what kind of sound you prefer? I personally love the AD700s, but having never heard the HD555/HD595s, I can't actively compare them. For what it's worth, I believe similar threads at head-fi (which is where you should search - there are tons of threads like this over there) have shown the AD700 ahead by about 2:1.

But I really don't think you can go wrong with either of the two. The AD700 has a much wider soundstage, but the HD555 will have more bass. It mostly depends on what kind of sound signature you like.

I don't know what the HD555 costs (and I don't feel like looking it up) but the AD700 is easy to find for $80-100. I think I did see a used HD595 for $100 though...

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Yeah I ended up buying the AD700's for about 80 bucks on Amazon a little bit ago. I'm not a bass head at all. All these new cans have to do is give me good positional audio in game and be more comfortable than my razer barracuda's. Shouldn't be hard to pull off.

 

[JSt0rm]

I see you already purchased but to expand on the subject of good gaming headphones I like using closed back phones to give isolation from the outside world.

 

[uhohs]

The ad700's are recommended a lot on head-fi for gaming because of their soundstage.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Yeah I ended up buying the AD700's for about 80 bucks on Amazon a little bit ago. I'm not a bass head at all. All these new cans have to do is give me good positional audio in game and be more comfortable than my razer barracuda's. Shouldn't be hard to pull off.

Sounds like you made the right choice then. In addition to the big soundstage and accuracy with positioning subtle details in games, the AD700's are very comfortable. Some people find that they don't stay on their head too well, but I don't have that problem, and I'm a pretty small guy (5'8, 130lbs).