Sennheiser HD 490 PRO Headphones Review

The Sennheiser HD 490 PRO have a sleek look reminiscent of headphones in Sennheiser's consumer audio line. They have perforated metal grilles similar to those of the Sennheiser HD660S2, with glossy, black plastic yokes, ear cups that resemble the MOMENTUM series, and an adjustable padded headband. They come with two different sets of earpads. The 'Producing' pads are made of a black velvet-like material, while the 'Mixing' pads are made from a rougher, gray, cloth-like material. Their design also means you can plug in the audio cable on either ear cup, allowing greater flexibility and range of motion. They come in one color variant: 'Black'. It's also possible to pick up the 'Pro Plus' variant, which comes with additional headband padding.

These open-backs have a very comfortable fit when using the 'Producing' pads, even if you wear glasses. The pads have a supple, velvet-like padding that feels great on the skin. While these headphones feel light on the head, they also feature soft, comfortable padding on the headband that minimizes pressure on the top of your head. The 'Mixing' pads are less comfortable but will still allow you to achieve a solid fit if you wear glasses.

These headphones aren't particularly portable, which is normal given that the manufacturer markets them as studio headphones that aren't designed for on-the-go use. While their ear cups swivel so they can lay flat, they're still very bulky and will take up a lot of space in a bag or backpack. They also lack a case to protect them from damage while they're being transported.

These headphones have a good build quality. Although they're mostly made of plastic and look cheap at first glance, this material keeps them lightweight yet sturdy. The ear cups have a nice depth, and the two sets of washable pads seem durable enough. The 'Producing' pads are made of a soft, velvety material, while the 'Mixing' pads are constructed from a coarser, cloth-like material. The headband is also easily adjustable, with replaceable padding that provides a good amount of cushion. However, the construction is let down by flimsy plastic yokes that feel less solid than the other components. Our unit also has two screws fall out of the left hinge, but this doesn't seem to be the norm for other units.

These headphones have decent stability, which will be sufficient for most studio applications. They'll easily stay on your head while you sit at the mixing console but will likely fall off and need re-adjustment if you find yourself headbanging aggressively to your latest mix.

• Sennheiser HD 490 PRO headphones
• 1/8" audio cable (1.8 m/5'9")
• 1/4" to 1/8" adapter
• 'Producing' pads (attached to the headphones)
• 'Mixing' pads
• Quick start guide and warranty information

The Sennheiser HD490 come with two sets of pads designed to facilitate different professional audio applications. As a result, switching between the two sets of pads results in a different sound profile. We tested these headphones with both sets of pads, but we derived our scores from the tests carried out with the 'Producing' pads, which scored better according to our methodology. Overall, these pads have a more pronounced bass response, while the 'Mixing' pads feature a slightly boosted mid-range that can be useful if you're trying to listen analytically. It's great to have this versatility, as the increased comfort and more exciting sound profile can be useful when arranging and building a track up from the ground. You can then turn to the 'Mixing' pads, with their underemphasized bass and boosted mids, to fine-tune your mix.

With the 'Producing' pads equipped, these headphones have a fairly balanced and slightly warm sound profile. They have a surprisingly good bass response for open-back headphones, though the low-bass frequencies are de-emphasized in favor of some extra high-bass boom on kick drums. While the low and mid-mids are also somewhat elevated, leading to easily intelligible lead instruments, the high-mid response sounds a little distant. This dip carries over to the low-treble range, meaning the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments sound a little dull and lack a bit of detailed articulation. The rest of the treble range is more excited, so there's plenty of air and high-end brilliance.

The frequency response consistency is amazing. Once you find a good fit, you can achieve consistent bass and treble delivery. Both sets of pads perform similarly in this regard, too, so even if you wear glasses or have thick hair, audio delivery consistency won't change if you switch out the pads. You can see a graph of the frequency response consistency with the 'Mixing' pads.

You can see a graph of the raw frequency response with the 'Mixing' pads.

The bass target compliance is remarkable, especially for open-back headphones with dynamic drivers. While the low-bass is slightly underemphasized, meaning your mixes lack low-end rumble, the rest of the range offers a healthy dose of bass. Kicks and basslines still have plenty of punch and slam for applications like sound production. On songs like Massive Attack's Teardrop, the kick sounds punchy and has a fast attack while still allowing the bassline to sound clear and present. You can see the same graph for bass with the 'Mixing' pads.

The mid-range target compliance is impressive. The response is virtually flat, though tilted to favor the low-mids, which beefs up bass instrument harmonics and rhythm guitars a bit. In the center of the mids, it's very flat for clear leads and speech. The top of the high-mid range is somewhat recessed, though, which can dull the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments. You can see a graph of the mid-range's target compliance with the 'Mixing' pads.

These headphones have great treble target compliance. While the response never deviates greatly from our target curve, there are some inconsistencies across the entire range. There's a dip in the low-treble range that weakens the details of vocals and lead instruments a bit. The upper frequencies of the low-treble into mid-treble response trend towards exaggeration, which adds zing and attack to acoustic guitars and the bells of ride cymbals. For a warmer treble response, the 'Mixing' pads, as shown in this treble target compliance graph, are worth consideration.

The peaks and dips performance is great, and these headphones control their own sound profile handily for the most part. The bass and mids are very flat up until a small drip in the high-mid and low-treble, which robs instruments and vocals of their upper harmonics of detail. A series of small peaks and dips in the low treble into the mid-treble results in sibilants that alternate between sounding a little dull and bright, depending on their pitch. Finally, a sharp peak at the top of the mid-treble adds a harsh, piercing quality to higher-pitched sibilants.

The Sennheiser HD 490 Pro have great imaging. Imaging performance generally indicates good ergonomics and quality control, which we expect from Sennheiser's professional line. Our unit's left and right drivers are well-matched in group delay, ensuring that bass response is tight and treble reproduction is transparent. They're also well-matched in phase and frequency, although there were some slight mismatches in their amplitude. This kind of imaging performance ensures that objects are well localized within the stereo field. However, imaging tends to vary between units.

The Sennheiser HD 490 Pro have a decent passive soundstage performance. Their open-back design helps create a soundstage that sounds open and spacious, especially compared to closed-back headphones. However, they still sound a little unnatural. They aren't as immersive as top-of-the-line audiophile headphones like the Sennheiser HD 800 S, as their design doesn't facilitate audio interaction with the outer ear in quite the same way. You can see a graph of the soundstage with the 'Mixing' pads.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. There's a sharp high-treble peak in the right driver when listening at regular volumes, but this will be difficult to notice with regular audio content as we lose sensitivity to this range over time. Otherwise, all frequencies fall within good limits, producing clean and pure audio at moderate and high volumes.

These are the settings used to test the Sennheiser HD490. We used the 'Producing' pads for all tests. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Sennheiser HD 490 Pro's full range noise isolation performance is terrible, which is normal for open-back studio headphones. As a result, they block almost no bass or mid-range noise by virtue of their design. So if a drummer is rehearsing in the studio next door, lower-pitched elements of the kit, like the kick and snare, will make their way into your audio. They provide a slight amount of passive isolation against higher-frequency noises, like fridge hum, but it's minimal. In this case, the open-backed housings have a much greater impact on their lack of noise isolation than the ear pads, both of which isolate roughly the same amount.

The open-backed headphones are terrible at isolating noise in common scenarios. Very high-pitched sounds are slightly muffled, but keystrokes and HVAC noises still reach your ears unimpeded.

The leakage performance is terrible. While these headphones don't leak quite as much audio as other open-back models, like the Sennheiser HD 660S2, their design still means that others near you can very easily hear what you're listening to. Escaping audio is primarily concentrated in the high-mid and treble ranges, so it sounds quite tinny. If you plan to use these exclusively in a quiet studio environment, this will be fine, but if you take them on the bus or train, others around you will hear your audio at regular listening volumes.

The Sennheiser HD 490 PRO come with a 1.8m (5"9') audio cable, with a 1/8" audio jack on one side and a proprietary connection type on the other that plugs into the headphones. They also come with a 1/4" adapter, so you can use them with professional-end devices, like soundcards and headphone amps. Latency via analog connection is virtually non-existent; this is great if you ever need to use them for tracking instruments like synthesizers, as you won't experience any delay between your keystrokes and the audio signal.

You can connect these open-backs to your PC via their audio cable. However, you can't send audio to your PC without purchasing a standalone mic.

These headphones are compatible with PlayStation-family consoles; you can plug their cable directly into your controller. However, they don't have a mic, so you can't send audio.

These open-backs are compatible with Xbox-family consoles if you connect them to the controller's AUX port. However, you'll need a standalone mic to communicate with your teammates.