One thing to note is that the mentions of sound leakage are all buried in reviews that all say the same thing. In the case of the HD 598, we found that the open-backed design allows for a lot of sound to bleed out.'), but it's about 1,000 words into the text.

The review from digital trends gives the best warning possible ('Of course, no set of headphones come without at least a couple of drawbacks.

Those around you will likely hear your music if you're listening at moderate-to-high volumes.'

The PC Mag review does make a mention! 'Since the HD 598 is an open-back design, it does project some audio outward.

Without expanding any of the reviews, I didn't see anything that would have led me to understand the potential for sound leakage. When I searched for 'Sennheiser HD 598 review' in Google, I went through the top results to see when I could find something explaining the potential for sound leakage due to the open design. It's a very vague claim to say the least. Unless you're familiar with headphone terminology, that doesn't sound like it's talking about sound leakage. > Open-back headphones allow ambient noise for a more natural sound experience The closest thing you get is this blurb in the description: If you look on the product page on amazon, you'll notice that there is no reference to sound leakage, either from the description, the top reviews, or the top FAQs. I don't know the jargon, but all the reviews talk about how great they sound and I just want great sounding headphones'. I look at the picture and they look like headphones. You think to yourself 'well, headphones are headphones.

You look at the specs and see things like 'open back' and 'over ear', but they're tucked in with things like sensitivity and resistance, which are terms you don't really understand. You go look around at some other reviews around the internet and see that everyone has the same things to say about the headphones. You read a ton of things that talk about how great they sound, and how well they perform. You start looking at the reviews and come to find that the HD598s are reviewed very well. Maybe you have some Amazon gift cards, so you decide to go on Amazon.

Let's say that you decide that you want a decent pair of headphones and land on a budget of $200.

Audioengine d1 dac hd 598