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

My HD650's are finally on their way and will be with me tomorrow :)

It's just occurred to me that I read (in this thread I think) that it is recommended that 3rd party better quality cables are worth having..?

If this is indeed the case can anyone recommend a set please?

Cheers.
 
Main reason for the 3rd party cables are either convenience (the stock one is rather long) or for balanced amp usage - for most (99%) people you'd need incredibly highend equipment and listening environment to discern any sonic improvements.
 
Rroff said:
Main reason for the 3rd party cables are either convenience (the stock one is rather long) or for balanced amp usage - for most (99%) people you'd need incredibly highend equipment and listening environment to discern any sonic improvements.
Click to expand...

Ah okay thanks.
 
The stock cables, although long, are of very high quality, so unless you want a shortie or balanced there is little point in getting a replacement.

When you start listening to the HD 650, give it some time, because if you are used to a bright headphone it will sound as though you have a pillow over your head.
Give your brain time to adjust and the detail will come flooding in and they will sound glorious. :)
 
rids57 said:
The stock cables, although long, are of very high quality, so unless you want a shortie or balanced there is little point in getting a replacement.

When you start listening to the HD 650, give it some time, because if you are used to a bright headphone it will sound as though you have a pillow over your head.
Give your brain time to adjust and the detail will come flooding in and they will sound glorious. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I have read so much about them that I had to get them... ;)

I'm currently using HD518's paired with the TEAC UD-H01. This is a nice combo and I have just Googled the 518's to confirm they are open back. Basically when I use them the missus does not complain about the noise so I assumed they were closed back!

Guessing these must let more sound escape as it's mentioned quite a lot.

The 518's have been great and I suspect I will keep them. The UD-H01 literally is my favourite bit of tech at the moment (and that's despite a new PC). The difference between that and the on-board on my new motherboard is remarkable. In fact the motherboard sound is not meant to be too bad "Crystal Sound 2" on an ASUS Z-170E board.

I have been concerned if the UD-H01 would be powerful enough to drive the HD650's to their potential. I found information on this sparse and a tad unclear. However, I did come across a Head-Fi thread though where one user used the UD-H01 to drive DT880's 600 Ohm headphones with great results. So given that the 650's are 300 Ohm I'm assuming they will fit the bill...
 
I'm still extremely impressed with the 650s when I put them on to play music, games or watch videos. Only annoyance is the long cable but I'd bundled it up using a velcro table tidy so all is well I guess.

Don't know if I will ever need a "better" headphone at greater expense now considering how authentic they sound.
 
I love my 650's, perfect for chilled reading sessions. I own most hi end sennheiser and found these headphones have benefited the most from amp upgrades.
I also have hd700, hd800 and ie800. When all three are shining, i would pick all three over the 650's. BUT, the 650's have a signature that a can't do without. So, i must pick all four headphones.

There is not one headphone that everyone will like. I pick a different headphone depending on mood. So instead of calling excellent headphones like the hd700 garbage, maybe understand that different people weight different aspects of music differently. One persons tonality could be another persons sub bass control.

I'm also convinced people interpret the word "natural" and weight the many variables involved differently.
Someone saying they look for natural sound and think the 650 are the most natural, but sound better on a tube that adds that lovely gooey bass distorted harmonic. Is just as unnatural to my ear as the exaggerated treble spikes on the hd700. Now we have different flavours of "natural". Who sets the boundaries between flavour and colouration?

Back to the hd650:

Great detail

Slightly rolled off treble. I can crank the music louder than real life and have no ringing in my ears. Can this be described as unnatural? Maybe unnatural, but one of the reasons why it will always have a place on my must haves.

Bass that hugs my brain, warms it up. Maybe a 4-5 db more bass than HD600?

Mids that have a warm bias, giving vocals that warmer "emotional" feeling.

Now, i read my HD650 description and realise that if you haven't listened to them before, you can read descriptions all day and only get 50% of the picture. Best to try them out at a shop or order different pairs and keep the ones YOU like the most.

Currently running from Graham Slee Ultra linear DE.
 
There's a new aune T1 tube amp out the lse it can now amp on it's own and not only via using the dac on usb to a pc.
 
I have the mk1 and it has both RCA inputs and outputs (plus USB).

The inputs bypass the tube and go straight to the solid state amp, so it misses one of the biggest features - tuning the sound via the tube.

Where the new SE version differs is actually in the front end, it's the USB controller and DAC that have changed, to XMOS and DSD1793 respectively. I think they may have changed the op-amps in the CMOY amp too as that was the weakest link.
 
Haven't heard the 650s have the 600, most say the difference is minimal and those with both forget which set they have on at times.Most forums, aka headfi, innerfidelity etc tend to favour the 600?
 
Probably due to the 600s sounding very similar for less money so bang for buck etc.
 
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