It’s looking very much like Sennheiser has done it again. The brand is a mainstay across audio for good reason, and the Sennheiser HD 505 – their latest set of open-back over-ear headphones – is a huge addendum to said reason. These headphones truck in the familiar form of the brand’s 5XX series, borrowing some elements from precursor models in service of creating a new market leader for affordable audiophile listening.
They represent great value for money, especially when you consider they ever-so-slightly redefine what’s possible in the entry level. But how do they do it?
Design
The model of HD 505 reviewed here is Sennheiser’s Copper Edition, which brings full swank with its copper-coloured banding around the rim of the earcups and the ends of the headband. It’s a nice-looking set, and a familiar style if you’ve owned a pair of Sennheiser’s HD 5XX series before.
The earcups are similar to the HD 560S, with a comfortable two-axis pivot that enables them to adjust themselves to your head swiftly and comfortably.
To wear, the HD 505 is a breath of fresh air – and in a somewhat literal sense, too. The combination of light chassis and open-back design really does make these headphones something of a transparent wear; apart from the light tension of the headband on your crown, these headphones draw little attention to themselves when worn.
This lightness isn’t just a function of the open-back design letting your ears breathe, either. Sennheiser’s approach to earcup comfort with the HD 505 is similarly refreshing, with exceedingly plush foam pads enrobed in a soft velour-esque fabric.
This comfort is a far cry from the firmer, pleatherette-finished pads that adorn a majority of entry-level headphones, and above and beyond the comfort levels of prior entry-level Sennheisers. However, there’s a world in which that foam loses its plushness somewhat swiftly – though time will only tell if we currently live in it. For now, and in short, the Sennheiser HD 505 is a fantastic choice for extended play.
Features
Being a set of wired, passive, open-back over-ear headphones aimed at the nascent audiophile, there isn’t much to the HD 505. You won’t find consumer mod-cons such as active noise-cancelling, built-in microphones or on-board controls – and a good thing too, in my opinion. The HD 505 is here to do one thing well, and at an affable price too.
The specs reflect this commitment, too. These headphones have a stunningly wide frequency range of 12hz to 38.5kHz, and a more-than-welcome input impedance of 120 ohms – a sweet-spot concession between loud low-impedance consumer fare and high-impedance, high-fidelity audiophile fodder. As such, the headphones will play ball with pretty much any device, and sound better doing so too.
The HD 505’s cable is detachable, by way of a proprietary locking connector on one end. In the box, you get the headphones, a 1.8 metre detachable cable replete with screw-on 3.5mm-to-6.35mm jack adapter, and a silky polyester drawstring pouch for carrying the lot if you so wish.
It's a small shame the HD 505 doesn’t ship with more cables, though; more are available for purchase from Sennheiser, but it’d be nice to be able to swap between different lengths out of the box.
Sound
The Sennheiser HD 505 are an immersive set of headphones. What they lack in noise cancellation or isolation is, in my view, more-than made up for by the incredible breadth it achieves in its soundstage.
Coilguns’ and Birds In Row’s collaborative EP You & I In The Gap gamely illustrates the HD 505’s tasteful dimensionality here, its off-right roomy screams and hard-panned hardcore instrumentation dropping you right in-between two excellent bands as they track 2024’s secret rager-of-the-year.
Slift’s Ummon is a great all-weather exploration of the HD 505’s lively frequency response, the title track’s intro guitars chiming with a distinct, almost peaky treble, supported by plump, rich mids in the bass beneath. The drop doesn’t carry the same fulsome weight that other headphones or systems might enable, but the low end is nonetheless structured, dimensional and highly gratifying; besides which, temperance is here a benefit to the crystal-clear quad-tracked guitars that rush headily in.
Death From Above 1979’s 20th anniversary remake of You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine does a better job of showing off the HD 505’s subby capabilities. Tasteful, though again overshadowed by a lively upper-mid range, ultimately demonstrating the headphones’ sometimes-itchy preferential treatment of upper-register information.
The alternatives
The Sennheiser HD 505 is a highly competitive set of budget open-back headphones, and heralds an exciting new era of opportunity for music-fans with a little less to spare. You’d usually be looking a little further up the food chain for competitive models – like, for example, the Beyerdynamic Amiron Home, which brings a little more weight in both form and sound.
As for a Sennheiser alternative, the Sennheiser HD 660 S is an old-guard model, but one highly regarded for its balanced and sound. These headphones – and particularly their more recent S2 upgrade – are a little warmer in character than the HD 505, but also a little less ‘smooth’ with respect to soundstage.
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