Regular readers of this website might be familiar with my turntable journey, where I fell hard for the vinyl revival a few years ago and upended my home system (and rearranged furniture) to make space for a turntable system.
My original system was modest and patched together: a Rega Planar turntable hooked up to the tiny Fono Mini A2D MkII phono stage and then connected to the Ruark MR1 Mk2 desktop speakers I've had for years. It was a lovely little set up and, most importantly for me, I did find myself using it regularly to play my slowly growing vinyl record collection.
But, as someone who loves traditional hi-fi separates, I was hankering for something more ‘proper’, and last year I finally graduated to a pair of Neat speakers and Naim’s Nait 50 stereo amplifier.
The Naim upgrade meant a couple of crucial things. First, it has a fantastic moving-magnet phono stage built-in, so my system actually ended up being neater as I no longer needed that outboard phono stage.
Second, it has a headphone amplifier with a 6.3mm socket. This section is completely new – it wasn’t on the original Nait 1 amp from 1983 – but the 50th anniversary homage adopts the headphone amp circuit from the five-star NSC 222 streaming preamplifier.
While I haven’t taken advantage of it so far, I have been thinking about finally getting a pair of wired headphones. As the summer days get longer, I find myself wanting to listen to my records late into the night while the rest of the house has gone to sleep – but obviously without disturbing my husband, my cat or my neighbours.
I have been eyeing up the awesome Sennheiser HD820 closed-back headphones for ages. We tested these five-star premium audiophile headphones a few years ago, noting their full-bodied, detailed sound and satisfying punch and agility in the low frequencies.
The problem is, the HD820 are way out of my budget even with the discounted price of £1299 at Sevenoaks. As I kept searching for something more in my price range, I found that the Sennheiser HD 505 wired headphones we tested last year are available at a much more wallet-friendly price of £180 at Amazon – and I’m tempted.
It’s not just the price that’s appealing – although that £50 discount off the original £230 test price is pretty good. That they're also an open-back design is what has caught my eye. I do find listening to closed-back headphones quite fatiguing after a while, so an open-back pair – with their more airy, open presentation – might be more amenable to the way I like to listen to music.
We say in our review that the HD 505 headphones’ “top end is wonderfully smooth, with no undue sibilance or brightness – overall this is as easy-going a listen as you could hope for.” That sounds ideal to me. The more budget pricing doesn’t mean Sennheiser has cut corners either. We found these headphones particularly talented in the midrange, with voices delivered with subtlety, clarity and a refinement that’s impressive at this level.
Grado’s SR325x and the Austrian Audio Hi-X65 are snappier, punchier and more agile open-back rivals (and are pricier), but I think I’ll prefer the Sennheiser’s smoother balance and more comfortable, lightweight build quality overall. During our testing, we found the earcups to be roomy enough that over-heating wasn’t an issue, and they weren’t fussy with partnering equipment, which means they should play nice with my Naim amp.
The HD 505 are a great entry point to Sennheiser’s audiophile wired headphones, and the relatively affordable price helps too. Will they transform my late-night vinyl listening sessions? I can’t wait to plug them in and find out.
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