HD 650 or HD700
- Thread starter easyrider
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they sound better
The HD700s and HD650s head in different directions from 1kHz on up. The HD650 has lush, rich mids while the HD700's mids are scooped and those two treble spikes are definitely going to make themselves heard.
If all you are going to do is play games then the HD700 would be good as they have lots of top end detail, which is where the positional audio cues hide but for music I would go with the HD650s every day of the week.
For a gaming headphone I would still go with the AKG K712 - I have a modded pair of K702s and they are very hard to beat when it comes to gaming.
The HD700s and HD650s head in different directions from 1kHz on up. The HD650 has lush, rich mids while the HD700's mids are scooped and those two treble spikes are definitely going to make themselves heard.
If all you are going to do is play games then the HD700 would be good as they have lots of top end detail, which is where the positional audio cues hide but for music I would go with the HD650s every day of the week.
For a gaming headphone I would still go with the AKG K712 - I have a modded pair of K702s and they are very hard to beat when it comes to gaming.
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I'm trying my best to not answer this as HD700 owners will kill me but I can let anyone waste money so the HD700 is one of the worse sounding high end headphones I've ever heard beaten only by the Audeze EL-8C and the whole Ultrasone line up.
Technically it performs well, images well, has fairly low distortion but it frequency response looks like it's been tuned by a monkey. What were Sennheiser thinking?!
Compared to the 650 the 650 has a smoother response from top to bottom, nothing sounds out of place, even the gentle roll off is natural, has more soul to voices no grain or dips. HD700 has distant mids, almost recessed to my ears, wonky treble, that graph even if it isn't accurate, is exactly how I hear it.
If you want to spend load's of money on headphones buy something that sounds good, HE-500,650/HD600, LCD-2(Current or pre fazor) Nighthawk, HE-400i
Please don't ask what you shoudl get out of the HD650 and EL-8C.
Technically it performs well, images well, has fairly low distortion but it frequency response looks like it's been tuned by a monkey. What were Sennheiser thinking?!
Compared to the 650 the 650 has a smoother response from top to bottom, nothing sounds out of place, even the gentle roll off is natural, has more soul to voices no grain or dips. HD700 has distant mids, almost recessed to my ears, wonky treble, that graph even if it isn't accurate, is exactly how I hear it.
If you want to spend load's of money on headphones buy something that sounds good, HE-500,650/HD600, LCD-2(Current or pre fazor) Nighthawk, HE-400i
Please don't ask what you shoudl get out of the HD650 and EL-8C.
Soldato
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The HD650 is going play better with majority of the amps, whereas the HD700 can sound quite harsh at times on the treble spikes as Ryanr has mentioned.
I used my HD700 with both my a) STX and its headphone amp and b) the Aune T1 MK2, and at times in the vocal on the high note and the breath, it sound like having a needle pierce through my ear drum.
I now using my STX's RCA out to connect to the Schiit LYR 2, and it seem to have resolved the ear piercing problem now and sound quite well, most probably thanks to the high voltage output of the amp together with the double tube.
For convenience's sake, just go for the HD650 especially since it is cheaper as well. I think the HD700 "might" have a larger soundstage than the HD650, but the trade-offs in terms of the hassle in getting it right really doesn't seem to worth the hassle.
I used my HD700 with both my a) STX and its headphone amp and b) the Aune T1 MK2, and at times in the vocal on the high note and the breath, it sound like having a needle pierce through my ear drum.
I now using my STX's RCA out to connect to the Schiit LYR 2, and it seem to have resolved the ear piercing problem now and sound quite well, most probably thanks to the high voltage output of the amp together with the double tube.
For convenience's sake, just go for the HD650 especially since it is cheaper as well. I think the HD700 "might" have a larger soundstage than the HD650, but the trade-offs in terms of the hassle in getting it right really doesn't seem to worth the hassle.
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I suspect they were trying to make a certain element of the music stand out - though I don't have my head around the frequency response enough to guess at what - they use a similar trick with the MX580 I use a lot to create an artificial sense of separation - which granted isn't great for overall accuracy due to the recessed nature of some elements of the sound but is also awesome from a listening perspective for certain scenarios.
Owning the 598 / 600 and the 700 I can't answer for the 650 lol . But I personally can't fault the 700's If your undecided try go visit a hi-fi shop if one is near .
The 598 are actually better than the 600 imo , pick out far more detail. The 700 for me are going nowhere for a while ... I paid £600 for the damn things grr lol
The 598 are actually better than the 600 imo , pick out far more detail. The 700 for me are going nowhere for a while ... I paid £600 for the damn things grr lol
It's really weird because Sennheiser engineers are fantastic but they haven't really made anything that's been a hit for a while. The HD800 was their last success and the recent HD800S looks to be a modded HD800. Since then they have been making mediocre portable headphones like the urbanite line which are good for a fun portable but not something ground breaking or high end.
I think they are just a crazy little experiment by combining aspects of the HD800 and the HD650/600 and went a little too silly with it. That waste of time could have gone into a HD600/650 successor with more sub bass and they would have everyones money!
Soldato
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So you are saying the HD700 is like a Predalien?
Yeah it is kind of weird - the Momentums are awesome fun headphones as well but ultimately flawed (the build quality is nice as well) but the Momentums show hints of what could have been a killer high end headphone without the gimmicks (they response really well to corrective eq, etc. but obviously that is also flawed).
They just want a slice of the beats market.
Number 1 priority of sound being replaced by style. At the end of the day as long as they're making HD650s they're still making fantastic headphones.
Pretty much the design seems that way too. I thought the momentum were not too bad I thought the signature wasn't right for the closed cup design as it made them sound too congested. Some velour pads would have been a big help too to let them breath and lean out that mid bass. Once you hear past that though they had some good qualities.
Funny you mention beats I actually like the Beats Solo2 over a lot of the portable Senns.
the design seems that way too. I thought the momentum were not too bad I thought the signature wasn't right for the closed cup design as it made them sound too congested. Some velour pads would have been a big help too to let them breath and lean out that mid bass. Once you hear past that though they had some good qualities. Funny you mention beats I actually like the Beats Solo2 over a lot of the portable Senns.
Soldato
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Well... They made the Orpheus lol
Tbf, the evolution of headphone is really slow compared to those in GPU market.
DT880, HD650 and K701 were considered King of Cans for a good tens of years I think? Only replaced by T1 & HD800 (&K812?) in the recent years.
So there's still a long way till the refresh of the crowns I rekon.
Thing is nobody knows how good the new Orp is as nobody credible has given impressions yet.
I don't think the whole crown thing fits in today as there's too many different headphones and preferences. Years ago many looked down on the 650 as it was too warm but now hey release it was actually the most natural sounding out of the old trio Haha. AKG's best headphones are still the old AKG driver all those years ago and arguably the 650 driver is still the most refined outside of the HD800.
I don't think the whole crown thing fits in today as there's too many different headphones and preferences. Years ago many looked down on the 650 as it was too warm but now hey release it was actually the most natural sounding out of the old trio Haha. AKG's best headphones are still the old AKG driver all those years ago and arguably the 650 driver is still the most refined outside of the HD800.