[Mini review] About 25,000 yen Sennheiser "HD 560S", lightweight and high-quality sound open type charm-AV Watch

It's been more than a year since I couldn't go out or go out casually, and remote work has drastically reduced the chances of touching the wireless earphones and DAP that I used to use every day for commuting. On the other hand, I spend more time using speakers and wired headphones at home... There are probably many people in the same situation as me.

Until now, I've focused on "outdoor use" for earphones/headphones, so I've always used headphones that have little sound leakage. However, if you use it at home, you don't have to worry about sound leakage. Then, I became interested in open headphones, which I hadn't heard much about before.

At that time, Sennheiser released open headphones for around 25,000 yen. Even if I can't afford a high-end machine at all, I can afford it if I do my best, "open type". I was very curious about what it sounded like, so I borrowed it and tried it out. I would like to introduce its appeal to people who, like me, have not been exposed to the open type.

For AV Watch readers, it's a "review" story, but headphones come in closed and open types. The driver unit vibrates the diaphragm back and forth to produce sound. The sound emitted from the front of the diaphragm reaches the ear, but of course, the same sound is emitted from the rear of the diaphragm. The closed type covers the back of the unit with a sealed housing made of resin or wood to prevent leakage. On the other hand, the open type is designed so that the housing is made of mesh so that it can be seen outside.

As a general advantage, the closed type makes it easy to produce low frequencies because the housing itself resonates like the housing of a musical instrument. In addition, of course, noise such as outside noise is hard to hear. Therefore, noise-cancelling headphones are also closed type.

The advantage of the open type is that the sound is not trapped inside the housing, so it is easy to escape and an open sound field can be produced. It is also suitable for people who are not good at localizing sounds in their heads. In addition, the housing itself is lightweight, so there is also the advantage of being able to create headphones that are light and do not cause fatigue even when worn for a long time. On the other hand, it is a disadvantage that outside noise is easy to hear. Sound leakage is also severe, so it is difficult to use it in a train or bus.

Due to the above differences, most of the portable headphones that are mainly used outdoors are closed type. The open type, which is often used indoors, is often found in high-end machines, and is often placed in the back of home electronics retailers.

The HD 560S is such an open type, but the point is that it is not so expensive. When you open the box, you will find the headphone itself, a 3m long 6.3mm standard plug cable, a 3.5mm stereo mini conversion adapter, and a paper with notes. Detachable by unplugging the cable. There is a groove on the headphone side of the cable that can be fixed by twisting it to the right after plugging it in.