Sennheiser HD515 User Review – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

[Freddie]

I’ve finally have in my possession a set of headphones I’ve been yarning to own for nearly two years having demoed these bad boys in London while I was killing time between appointments. Now given that a lot of people have the attention span of a five year old watching the 10 o'clock news and don’t want to read a wall of text consisting of a lot technical jargon I’m just going to break this review into digestible bullet points.


The Good
- Dedicated stereo headphones non of his surround sound crap that I’ve had in the past.
- Even after prolonged use they don’t get to hot that I feel the need to take them off.
- Fantastic highs and lows, good for rock and metal, new age and world.
- Good cable length, not long and not to short, Sennheiser has this spot on.
- 3.5mm to 1/4" jack converter so you can plug these into a dedicated amp or mixing desk.
- Durable, adjustable and comfortable padding.
- Great for games, explosions, car engines, guns being fired just sound so much more realistic then they did with my Razer Barracuda HP-1 and especially my 2.1 desktop speakers
- Value for money. Given the performance of these cans they stack up and beat the Bose equivalent which cost £30 more, frankly it should be Sennheiser who should be charging extra for the name not Bose.

The Bad
- No cable tidy or pull cord. This would be handy to stop the cable from getting tangled up and cut down on cable mess.
- No inline volume control. For gaming this would have been really handy and convenient as now I have to use the in game sliders to alter the volume which is cumbersome. When in windows this isn’t a problem as I can adjust the volume via my keyboard or on the task bar.
- Bass is somewhat lacking IMO which might be a problem for R&B lovers but it’s good enough for explosions and for gaming purposes.

The Ugly
- Leakage! Sound leaks out these cans like oil flooding out of a certain BP well.
- When I have these on while in windows and not listening to music or watching a video I get static background noise. This could have been fixed with the correct resistor.

I can’t deny these are good headphones but I’m somewhat confused as to who they are aimed at. For most consumers these headphones are overkill, you really need an amplifier to get the best out of them at which point it starts to get expensive (not to mention a music catalogue of 320Kps mp3's). Then on the other hand the HD515’s are really aren’t suitable for audio techies or studio bods who would be better of with something more expensive such as the Beyer Dynamic DT100s. Overall I’m happy with these, they pretty much fix all the issues I had with the Razer HP1’s are much lighter and give a shaper sound.

Inline volume control, better bass and a cable tidy and it’s an 8 but for now….

7/10

[Top-Tier-Tech]

How could you not understand that these were open headphones before buying them? It's not a con, it's a feature. I greatly prefer open headphones as they actually have airflow (less heat on the ears), it doesn't force the sound right down your ear canal, and the open design sounds different than closed cans. Even the HD800 is open and it's certainly for a reason.

I have the 595's. They're great although they don't compare to my actual speakers.

[Freddie]

I was fully aware of what I was buying but the sound leakage is very bad especailly when compared to my mates Sony's and my uncles Bose. Sorry if you don't like what I have to say but it wouldn't fair if I didn't mention this in the review and made people aware of this if they were looking at buying these however it hasn't really effected my overall score I wanted to give these cans.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Sorry if you don't like what I have to say but it wouldn't fair if I didn't mention this in the review

Of course it should be said, but not as a con when it is designed to be open for a reason.

That's like buying a Jeep and complaining (under your con section) that it has an open top and you get wet when it rains.

[Freddie]

I see your point but the leakage for me isn't a problem but it might be for others and have had a chance to test other cans with a smiler design (i.e 'open') I feel the amount of leakage is unacceptable on these.

[Nanny de Bodemloze]

great review, I love it when people write stuff like this around here. I used to own the same headphones, but the leakage was the main problem I had because for my work I need to block out the outside sounds and there is construction near my apartment all the time. So last year I bought the BOSE QuietComfort 15s and problem fixed. Your pros and cons are well stated.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Well I guess I haven't tried the 515's. With the 595's The leakage isn't bad at all, although I certainly wouldn't try using open cans anywhere there is lots of noise pollution.

[snuggans]

no microphone correct? i'm using Sennheiser PC350 which is aimed towards gamers and has a microphone. if i could change one thing about them it would definitely be more bass, which is why i was disappointed to read in your post that the HD515 is also lacking in bass.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

no microphone correct? i'm using Sennheiser PC350 which is aimed towards gamers and has a microphone. if i could change one thing about them it would definitely be more bass, which is why i was disappointed to read in your post that the HD515 is also lacking in bass.

All sennheiser headphones lack bass. It can be easily corrected with a soundcard that has an equalizer. The Senns lack bass how they are but they reproduce it well when you increase the bass with your source.