Sennheiser HD650 - The classic beauty in a grey dress Appreciation thread!

Ryanr1987 · 15 Aug 2016 at 22:17

I bought some 650's the other day as it looks like I'm going to be stable money wise for a while.

I traded my 2016 LCD-2's for a 2010 pair of LCDs and oh my god it's amazing how alike they both are but the LCD-2.1 are smoother more effortless and seductive it's a shame Audeze can't keep this sound signature.

650's will be a permanent back up pair especially with those cooler velour pads.

Disco_P · 16 Aug 2016 at 17:36

So I bought a Vali from Twst but have never owned a headphone amp before so I am not really sure how to set it up. At the moment I have my 650 plugged into my Xonar Xense which I use the 300-600 Ohm setting in the drivers and then adjust volume in windows (normally between 10-40%).

Do these settings need changing for the Vali or does it really not matter?

Also should I avoid putting the vali on my desk with my mouse and keyboard cause of the ringing that you get with tube amps?

rids57 · 16 Aug 2016 at 18:34

Ideally you want to feed the Vali with full line out voltage, so max the volume in Windows and adjust with the Vali's volume control.

Ringing should only happen for the first 30 seconds or so after powering on or if it gets jarred in any way. Apart from that it shouldn't be audible. I used mine sitting on the desk without any problems for months.

ps. what are you using to feed the Vali? Using your card's headphone out is not a good idea as you will be double amping and that's never a good idea as it introduces noise/distortion from both amps.

Disco_P · 16 Aug 2016 at 22:23

I was going to use headphone out but my card has an adapter that allows for line out.

Ryanr1987 · 16 Aug 2016 at 23:18

Disco_P said:
So I bought a Vali from Twst but have never owned a headphone amp before so I am not really sure how to set it up. At the moment I have my 650 plugged into my Xonar Xense which I use the 300-600 Ohm setting in the drivers and then adjust volume in windows (normally between 10-40%).

Do these settings need changing for the Vali or does it really not matter?

Also should I avoid putting the vali on my desk with my mouse and keyboard cause of the ringing that you get with tube amps?

Unless you bang your table when you rock out. The Vali isn't that bad with ringing at all. If you tap it with pressure it will ring for about half a min at the most. I didn't find the Vali to be suspectable to interference like the Ember I had.

Disco_P · 16 Aug 2016 at 23:23

I occasionally slam my mouse whilst dying in video games

rids57 · 16 Aug 2016 at 23:47

^ at which point a faint ringing from the amp would be the last thing on your mind

Disco_P · 17 Aug 2016 at 00:02

I dunno - might make me more angry!

Last question for now, what is the deal with people spending hundreds of pounds, dollars, euros and rupees on custom cables for the 650? I assume snake oil - most of them are named after snakes, spiders and dragons.

rids57 · 17 Aug 2016 at 01:06

Brilliant marketing and gullible audiophiles.

Most I would pay is £20~£25 for a very well made, good looking OFC cable or £25~£35 for a well made, good looking silver/hybrid cable

henson0115 · 17 Aug 2016 at 15:21

rids57 said:
Brilliant marketing and gullible audiophiles.

Most I would pay is £20~£25 for a very well made, good looking OFC cable or £25~£35 for a well made, good looking silver/hybrid cable

this, although not just restricted to audio leads, think hdmi etc to

Disco_P · 17 Aug 2016 at 20:30

rids57 said:
Brilliant marketing and gullible audiophiles.

Most I would pay is £20~£25 for a very well made, good looking OFC cable or £25~£35 for a well made, good looking silver/hybrid cable

henson0115 said:
this, although not just restricted to audio leads, think hdmi etc to

I thought it was snake oil but had doubts as it is an analogue signal that can be seriously affected by poor cables. As a kid, I used to fight for use of the decent scart cable as we had one that was awful and make everything really blurry.

rids57 · 17 Aug 2016 at 23:15

Basically ALL cables will degrade the signal to some extent and the worse the cable is, the more it will degrade the signal. However, you don't need to spend hundreds of pounds to make that degradation negligible / inaudible, just make sure it's well made and uses good materials, any other claims are pure snake oil.

Disco_P · 22 Aug 2016 at 20:45

HD650 heaven

rids57 · 22 Aug 2016 at 23:39

I have the same except mine is a Magni 2 and I also want to get a Sys for switching between them.

The one I'm really wondering about is the Modi Multibit, which is a bit of a stretch from £90 to £250 but it is reputedly almost as good as the Bifrost MB (Bimby) for a lot less money.

The question I have to keep asking myself is whether or not I would be able to hear a difference as my ears aren't getting any younger

Rroff · 24 Aug 2016 at 15:47

Disco_P said:
HD650 heaven

I see your stack of Schiit and raise you pile of **** (In fairness this works pretty well).

(The more observant might have noticed the re-used IcyBox NAS enclosure).

rids57 · 24 Aug 2016 at 17:57

All it's missing is a snazzy enclosure, which in a lot of cases (groan) is the main difference between products.

Rroff · 24 Aug 2016 at 18:00

Couldn't fit the input film caps into my normal enclosures.

rids57 · 24 Aug 2016 at 18:08

enclosures come in all sizes though

Rroff · 24 Aug 2016 at 18:17

The box enclosures one like with the O2 is about £10 while the bigger ones of that model jump to £60+ :|

Finally got the OPA2228 playing nice with the O2 style with the amp above - quite nice with the HD600s though maybe a touch too thick sound signature.

rids57 · 24 Aug 2016 at 18:35

tuning an op-amp based amp circuit seems to be as much of a dance as it is with valves