Sennheiser HD650 or HD595?

Alty

Alty

Alty

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Ok, so the choice is narrowed down to these two models of headphones. I am a lil concerned of the price of the 650s even tho they are the top spec model.

Is it really justified paying £100 MORE for the 650s than for the 595s? (595s - £90, 650s - £190). They will be used solely for PC useage. However, if the cheaper ones were bought then probably would be used for portable MP3 player, etc. No way would I walk around with £200 quids worth of headphones in public for fear of accidental damage etc.

They would be powered by an amp and not directly fed into the sound card/mp3 player. A specific headphone amp is also a serious possibility.

Anyone got any views on these 2 models? I just wanna see if peeps think that the £100 price increase on the 650s is justified or could be better spent elsewhere.
 
£190 on headphones?? :eek:

have they got multiply speakers in the cups to give a surround sound effect of something??

for quality of sound you can get awsome quality out of dj'ing headphones for £100 region (ive used them and i cant see how another £100 is going to add anything worthwhile at all)

try and get to a shop that sells the above headphones and the below and compare them

Technics RP DH1200 Headphones
Pioneer HDJ 1000 Headphones
Sony MDR V700DJ Headphones
Sennheiser HD25 Headphones
 
The Above Senns are open back and designed for home use, rather than the closed back DJ designs stated by jaxon. TBH it doesn't make a huge amount of difference whether you go for open or closed ones, it's a question of personal taste.

Some people spend tens of thousands of pounds on hi-fi to get the best sound. £190 for a set of almost range topping and apparently brilliant cans really isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. You wouldn't get the best out of them without a headphone amp though.
 
I've just bought a pair, be aware that when you buy them you will need to 'burn them in'. I asked my music tech lecturer (the cheapest pair of cans he owns are the 650's) and he advised playing a classical cd on loop at (not much) above average listening volume for 55 hours minimum to properly burn them in.

The difference between a pair that have been properly burned in and a pair that are brand new/badly burned in is quite noticeable.

And imo, for general listening purposes the 650 arent worth the extra wonga. When i'm mixing i try to be as thorough as possible, i listen thru a pair of mackie monitors, alesis monitors, yamaha near fields, eltax home speakers and 3 sets of cans (if its for an assignment), and i always find that the hd595's give me the better point of reference. Can't go wrong imo.
 
Benneh, you make it sound like knocking in a cricket bat! I was under the impression that running in speakers and headphones just meant using them as normal and that they got better with time!
 
I suppose ideally that's what you would do, but in a studio environment you havent really got the luxury of being able to produce lesser recordings while the headphones burn in. Same outcome either way though.
 
In the same postion myself, the 650s were dubbed proberly the worlds best canns.... but the 595s are 100 quid from richer sounds.

They say that the 650s have good bass, which is what the 595s/600s were missing, but all 3 cans have different sounds...

As for burning 595s/650s in ive heard even after a week there still improving for most users:)

Im gonna op for the 595s myself, there easy and simple the most comfy senns going and can drive easily, will get a good stereo amp also though.
 
Those quality senns last years, my 580s are still fine after 6 and a half years, so you'll have them for ages, not listening first is crazy why to purchase things like that
 
Senn HD-650's for computer use :eek:

glad you decided otherwise!

These 650's are so so transparent and super critical! they will pick out every imperfection and make the shortcomings of poor quality copy/recordings all to obvious. like the saying goes crap in crap out.
To get the best out of them you have to run them off a good quality headphone amp. I recently got a cardas upgrade cable to replace the standard crappy cable on my 650's and the sound quality has been lifted even higher! It took about 100 hours for them to completely loosen up and sound as good as they do now.
 
Well got my HD-595s and there lovely, still burning them in for 100 quid from Richersounds is a bargain too.

Im currently using it off a Nad c352 stereo amp headphone out and checking to make sure the amps providing a better sound/Was considering a good headphone amp but will see...

If the nads not providing a good output, back it goes ;)

You cant go wrong with HD580-650 range there all highend, all cans have good points/minuses though, ive read enough to suggest HD595s seem nicely balanced :)

But be warned once u listen u will be left wondering why I didnt do this years ago, its like listening to tracks again for the 1st time!
 
nad make great amps generally, I'm sure it will provide a good headphone output. A uni mate had a last gen c370. beast of an integrated amp it was! didnt quite go as loud as my rotel power amps though :)
nope, for maximum detail you cant beat a good set of headphones!
 
Yeap will definatly be giving it a good workout/testing gonna let it burn it some more the amp/HD595s.

The one thing I dont want is the X-fi soundcard headphone output sounding better then the Nad headphone output!

So far there quite even, dare I say it the X-fi sounding slightly better, this wasnt the case with my old Sherwood AV 8 year old amp difference was night and day but ive sold that one now :(

Will have to see lol
 
it defiantly wont have as much gain as the nad amps headphone output I can tell you that for a start!
tbh you can get well carried away when amping these awesome headphones I built my own single ended OTL tube amplifier to power my hd's. each output capacitor alone cost me 85 pounds and each channel requires 2 :rolleyes:
 
Yeap that nads definatly giving more kick/bass but the vocals are tad different.... not in a bad way perhaps just need to get use to Nads signature :)

ill let it settle and do further testing over weekend, but I can perhaps understand why people spend £400 on a headphone amp.

Ever since I listened to my m8s Sens HD595s ive registered to headfi forums.... and now im thinking £85 per capacitors pretty much nothing compared to those guys I think I could see myself bankrupt in fact lol

Was it worth it in the end with your tube amplifer? do u notice the difference in sound quality ?
 
I prefer the sound of Grados (own RS-1's) over the Sennheiser line. Build quality on Sennheisers need to improve really, too flimsy and plasticky. But at least Sennheiser's are priced reasonbly £250 for the HD-650. RS-1's in the UK are three times that.

Definietly need a headphone amp for Sennheisers, Grados can get away with less.
 
HighlandeR said:
Yeap that nads definatly giving more kick/bass but the vocals are tad different.... not in a bad way perhaps just need to get use to Nads signature :)

ill let it settle and do further testing over weekend, but I can perhaps understand why people spend £400 on a headphone amp.

Ever since I listened to my m8s Sens HD595s ive registered to headfi forums.... and now im thinking £85 per capacitors pretty much nothing compared to those guys I think I could see myself bankrupt in fact lol

Was it worth it in the end with your tube amplifer? do u notice the difference in sound quality ?
Click to expand...

yeah your headphones will open up loads with time, its real gradual but in the end pretty noticeable.

tube amps really are a heck of a lot better at amplifying audio. mainly down to 4 reasons, tubes use simple circuits, produce only even-order harmonics when overloaded (solid state distort with odds and thats why they sound so horrendous when overloaded) tubes are more linear, and therefore,
they require less overall negative feedback thus retaining the detail and immediacy of the music.

basically solid state amplifiers give sterile and boring, lifeless sound,
tube amplifiers get emotion and life out of the music, simply more real sounding imo.

so yeah I'd say it was worth it in the end :)
 
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