Why you possibly can belief TechRadar
We spend hours testing each services or products we overview, so that you may be certain you’re shopping for one of the best. Find out more about how we test.
Sennheiser HD 505: two-minute overview
The brand new Sennheiser HD 505is a refresh of one of many cornerstones of its mannequin ranges: entry-level, open-backed, hard-wired over-ear headphones. This new design makes use of a variation on a confirmed transducer, and makes pragmatic decisions the place supplies are involved to provide a headphone that’s gentle, snug and constructed to final.
The Sennheiser HD 505 are fine-sounding headphones in some ways, too. The open-backed aspect of the design of those headphones permits them to sound open and expansive, they usually’re organized and authoritative too.
Their tonal steadiness is simply someway appropriate, their frequency response is considered they usually have the type of dynamic headroom that enables the modifications in quantity or depth in your favourite recordings to be fully obvious.
They’re removed from the final phrase in bass heft or punch, although – so regardless of the quantity of low-frequency element they reveal and the naturalistic approach they’ve with rhythms and tempos, there’s little question some listeners will need extra, bass-wise, than the HD 505 are ready to provide.
These listeners are invited to take a look at different choices among the many best wired headphones – and notably the corporate’s personal HD 600, which have been round lengthy sufficient to be obtainable at common reductions that deliver them very near the value of the HD 505.
The remainder of us, although, can simply go forward and marvel at how open, revealing and, sure, entertaining the HD 505 sound.
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Value and launch date
- Launch date: February tenth 2025
- Value: $249 / £229 / AU$449
Clearly the HD 505 have had no time to turn into any extra reasonably priced, in order that they discover themselves competing with the likes of Beyerdynamic (with its DT 900 Professional X) and Grado (with its SR325x). Additionally they, relatively sadly, discover themselves competing with their HD 600 siblings, which have had loads of time to come back down from their £399 launch value to one thing a lot nearer to HD 505 cash…
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Specs
|
Weight: |
237g |
|
Drivers: |
38mm full-range dynamic |
|
Cable size: |
1.8m |
|
Cable terminations: |
3.5mm with 6.3mm adapter |
|
Frequency response: |
12Hz – 39kHz |
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Options
- 38mm dynamic drivers
- 1.8m cable with 3.5mm/6.3mm termination
- 120Ω nominal impedance
Provided that this can be a pretty reasonably priced pair of wired over-ear headphones, you shouldn’t actually count on a complete host of options – and, certain sufficient, the HD 505 concentrate on the necessities. That doesn’t imply that these options aren’t totally match for objective, although.
Sennheiser has drawn on the comparatively long-serving 500-series transducer in an effort to take care of sonic transparency, however added a little bit low-end heft and substance. And the outcome, so it says, is that the 38mm dynamic driver design is now good for a frequency response of 12Hz – 39kHz – which in layman’s phrases is ‘extraordinarily deep’ to ‘very excessive certainly’.
A nominal impedance of 120Ω isn’t probably the most promising quantity you ever heard, however however the HD 505 received’t be troublesome for all however probably the most weedy smartphone or laptop computer to drive.
And actually, there’s solely the cable left to debate the place ‘options’ are involved. The left earcup is hard-wired with a 2.5mm jack that connects through a ‘twist and lock’ technique that guarantee it will not be yanked out.
On the different finish of the 1.8m cable there’s a 3.5mm termination with a screw-on 6.3mm adapter equipped. It might have been good to see a balanced cable as an choice too, however I suppose you possibly can’t have every thing…
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Sound high quality
- Detailed, dynamic and direct sound
- Spacious, organized presentation
- Is not going to fulfill bass-fanciers
The pluses, it’s honest to say, comfortably outweigh the minuses the place the sound of the HD 505 is worried. So whereas the deficiencies should not insignificant, it appears solely well mannered with all the various issues these Sennheiser cans get proper.
Thanks in no small half to their open-backed configuration, the HD 505 are an expansive, wide-open hear – they usually can management a soundstage simply as confidently as they lay it out within the first place. Even in a recording with heaps happening (Fela Kuti’s Colonial Mentality, as an example), the soundstage is correctly outlined and straightforward to comply with.
Each aspect of the recording has a pocket of area to itself by which it may well unfold out and categorical itself, and the areas in between are given the weighting and emphasis they deserve too.
They’re a reasonably dynamic hear, too, capable of put plenty of distance between probably the most contemplative and probably the most intense passages of a recording with out sounding in any approach harassed. They’re simply as skilful in the case of dealing with the dynamic points of harmonic variation, too – the moments of unaccompanied bass guitar through the Fela Kuti tune have their fluctuations described in eloquent style.
Tonality is pleasantly impartial, which permits the sound of a recording to take priority over the sound of the headphones. Element ranges are excessive at each level of the frequency vary – the highest finish is brilliant however substantial, and enjoys simply as a lot variation because the swift, correctly managed backside finish.
In between, voices are given the area and the positivity to disclose the trivia of their character and method – a take heed to Doechii’s Alligator Bites By no means Heal lets you understand the HD 505 are very adept certainly in the case of permitting vocalists to correctly categorical themselves.
The frequency vary is dealt with with confidence, too – nothing is underrepresented, nothing is overstated, and the sweep from backside to high and again once more is easy. However it’s on the backside of the frequency vary that the Sennheiser reveal themselves to be barely lower than the completed article.
The management of bass sounds is straight-edged and direct, so the headphones don’t have any drawback describing rhythms in a pure and unforced method. Element ranges right here, and tonal variation, are simply as satisfying as they’re elsewhere within the frequency vary.
However there’s a particular lack of substance and weight to the underside finish, a bony and flimsy high quality that’s going to disappoint listeners who’re used to (and doubtless count on) one thing approaching ‘punch’ from their new headphones. Actually the Doechii album is completed no favours by any means by this flyweight angle.
- Sound high quality rating: 4 / 5
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Design
- Coated reminiscence foam on the contact factors
- Metal mesh earcup coverings
- Hid headband adjustment mechanism
There’s nothing particularly luxurious in regards to the Sennheiser HD 505 – they’re principally made from plastic – however they’re constructed and completed to the type of excessive customary the model established ages in the past.
With out the cable, they weigh simply 237g, and allied to some properly judged clamping power they show a snug proposition even for longer listens. The quantity of reminiscence foam that makes up the within of the headscarf (the place it’s coated in artificial leather-based) and the earpads (that are coated with artificial velour) doesn’t do any hurt on this respect, both.
The headscarf adjustment mechanism is hid inside the headscarf itself, and operates with a type of clicky positivity. The rear of the earcups is roofed with a amount of steel mesh, and carries some understated branding – however as design prospers go, that’s going to must do.
The main points within the majority of the world are in a pleasant copper shade – in China, there is a mannequin with gold-colored particulars that actually supplies extra bling.
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Worth
- Informative, entertaining however barely light-weight sound
- Correctly constructed and completed, though removed from tactile
- Gentle and cozy
In fact, the HD 505 aren’t a lot to have a look at, they usually’re not precisely tactile both. This doesn’t imply that they’re not correctly constructed, you perceive, or that they received’t final for the lengthy haul – and there’s at all times the cachet of that model identify so as to add to your the pleasure of possession.
Add within the trim weight of the headphones and, much more so, the deftly completed sound they make, and there’s unarguable worth on your cash on supply right here.
Nonetheless, as I discussed additional up, you will get the Sennheiser HD 600, that are the ‘step-up’ variations of those headphones, for very near the identical value as these in the actual world. So it is exhausting to say the HD 505 are the cut price of the century when the HD 600 may really qualify for that moniker.
Ought to I purchase the Sennheiser HD 505?
|
Part |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Options |
Good drivers, two plus sizes – disgrace about no balanced cable, although. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Sound high quality |
Insightful, detailed and dynamic, however bass is a little bit missing in substance. |
4 / 5 |
|
Design |
Very snug and well-made, although the plastic would not really feel very premium. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Worth |
Very robust sound high quality for the value, although the HD 600 are solely a little bit dearer. |
4 / 5 |
Purchase them if…
Do not buy them if…
Sennheiser HD 505 overview: Additionally think about
How I examined Sennheiser HD 505
- Related to a FiiO M15S, to an Apple MacBook Professional and to a Naim Uniti Star
- With plenty of several types of music, from plenty of totally different codecs
- Alone, after all, as a result of to do in any other case can be impolite
‘Quiet time’ is important to take heed to the Sennheiser HD 505, if for no different cause than they let a distracting quantity of sound leak out of the again of their earcups, as all open-back cans do.
So I sat at my desk with them connected to my laptop computer and to my digital audio participant (through its unbalanced output, tragically) and sat relatively extra comfortably with the headphones connected to a community streamer that additionally preamplified a turntable and a CD participant.
So a lot of totally different codecs had been obtainable, as had been a lot of several types of music – and per week of this (on and off) was lengthy sufficient to be taught all there may be to find out about these headphones.
First reviewed: March 2025