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

mrk said:
An hour isn't enough to listen to a good broad variation of your favourite music really :p
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Yep, I'll give it a proper go over the weekend. I think I was expecting more of an impact from the off but my work mate reckons it's a slow burner and something I'll appreciate as days/weeks go on.
 
The impact with the 650s over the AKG is purely in the mids and vocals from my experience. The AKG has more bass and wider soundstage, but that is colouring the sound and is only apparent once you compare the two with more time (or if you have quite analytical ears I guess). The 650s just sound more natural and focused for a broader music range.

Either way, once you figure them out it's very hard to go back, as I found no matter how good the AKGs are!
 
DagsJT said:
Had an hour with these last night and although they're not as treble-y as the K7xx and less bassy, I can't say I can notice too much difference.

I'm sure I haven't got Golden Ears etc but I was expecting to hear a bit more of a difference. They're only 2 weeks old and I don't know how much the seller used them so maybe they need burning in.
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I can't see them changing dramatically - I swear the bass improves on most Sennheisers with about 50-100 hours of music though but never seen much change in the mid-range or treble.

Personally I find its the amping that separates the 600 series from other headphones.
 
I'm falling in love with my hd650's all over again. My old JVC beast gave up the ghost recently so i bought a cheap DAC and amp to handle speaker and headphone duties until i really decide what to do and i'm really really impressed with them for the cost. I've got an SMSL A2 amp for the speakers and an sd-793ii DAC/HP amp combo. For 50 quid each i'm blown away. Although it isnt entirely suited for 300ohm loads it does a good enough job of driving my hd650's to uncomfortable levels with no audible noise floor - i'm hearing detail that just wasnt there with the old amp. It wont win any awards but for the cost i really cant fault it.

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half decent headphone amp, Burr brown 192/24 DAC and a 2x channel digital amp with enough power for pretty much any desktop speakers for £100 all in. Rather happy with them :)
 
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Quite a bit of what was once regarded as cheap Chinese audio gear is actually very good - as you have discovered.
 
Yeah Chinese have (mostly) perfected pumping out cheap and high quality PCBs and decent op amps, etc. and even run of the mill capacitors from the far east these days are orders of magnitude above what they used to be 30 years ago heh. You could probably decently improve the noise floor though with higher grade resistors, etc. on the more mainstream designs.
 
easyrider said:
why would you put 225 quid headphnes into a 64$ Dac?
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Probably because in the realms of reality, the difference between a low cost DAC and a high cost DAC isn't really as great as you think it is. :p Past 100 quid you're getting completely transparent DACs anyway.

You should always aim to spend the most money on your drivers/speakers as that is what makes the most difference to the end sound.
 
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james.miller said:
sd-793ii DAC/HP amp combo. For 50 quid each i'm blown away. Although it isnt entirely suited for 300ohm loads it does a good enough job of driving my hd650's to uncomfortable levels with no audible noise floor - i'm hearing detail that just wasnt there with the old amp. It wont win any awards but for the cost i really cant fault it.
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Tephnos said:
Probably because in the realms of reality, the difference between a low cost DAC and a high cost DAC isn't really as great as you think it is. :p Past 100 quid you're getting completely transparent DACs anyway.

You should always aim to spend the most money on your drivers/speakers as that is what makes the most difference to the end sound.
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Right could I do this?

Xonar DX TosLink to Mini Optical into a sd-793ii DAC then the output from the sd-793ii DAC into a Fiio e9 (senn 650) ?

Currently using the anologue out of the Xonar DX into the E9... (Senn 598) would I get better results?

worth a punt for 45 quid...?

Miller where did you order yours from?



Edit : goes off to buy a Fiio Taishan D03K DAC To hook up my xonar DX and FIIO E9 amp

Edit again : why am I doing this ? Will I get better results from the digital out on the xonar dx to a FIIO DO3 then e9 that analogue out from the xonar DX to the E9 ?
 
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^^ Not a simple answer to that one - well other than no a random dedicated headphone amp won't automatically mean superior sound to the headphone output on a regular amplifier - you'd have to compare it on a case by case basis.
 
Google suggests the CS4398 has better SNR, lower distortion, etc. though it seems there is a lack of a proper breakdown on actual performance specs of the CS8416 (maybe because its newer or maybe because they aren't that great).
 
Rroff said:
Google suggests the CS4398 has better SNR, lower distortion, etc. though it seems there is a lack of a proper breakdown on actual performance specs of the CS8416 (maybe because its newer or maybe because they aren't that great).
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Not an upgrade then on my internal xonar DX FIIO e9 setup...

What would be noticeable setup for £150 ?
 
The $12,000 Astell & Kearn AK500N network audio player uses two CS4398 DAC chips, so it's likely they are pretty good :D
 
Argh doing some PC research has bought me out of my slumber early for a few weeks so hello!

I'm looking into getting a good gaming PC and don't have a single clue about all these parts so It's looking like I've got a lot to research!

Seeing that cat sitting in the 650 box just gives me nightmares!
 
You can't really go to far wrong with a gaming PC these days - most i5 and i7s are more than fast enough, don't go mad on fancy RAM as it will give no benefit in most games unless you have like 4 GPUs and a CPU in the 5GHz range, 8GB is adequate 16GB means you won't run out of RAM in games for probably quite awhile yet. GPU is where it gets tricky as the current ones have been around awhile but there isn't a firm timetable for the next generation.
 
I've had the HD650 for about 4 years now, love them. I use the FiiO E17+E09K combo with them which I'm very impressed with for the price. I did have a Graham Slee Solo but didn't enjoy the sound as much.
I switch between the HD650 and HD25-1 II depending on use and music.
 
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