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

I doubt I'll get the chance to hear one as I'm pretty much in love with the Vali 2's sound!

I can never see myself going back to solid state any time soon but if the opportunity comes up for a demo somehow then I won't say no!

Man comparing the current LCD-2 to the 650 out of the Vali 2 is really tough! they both sound a perfect match with mids sounding pretty close and LCD-2's bass being just breathtaking.

I can't think of two better headphones to have if you love mids. The 650 is so much nicer to wear for longer hours!
 
I listened to some Stevie Nicks with my iPhone 6 and Beats. A lot of the recordings are quite harsh like most older recordings. To mask that out you'd need a huge mid bass boost and a smooth sail from the upper mids to the treble. High end headphones like the 650 won't eliminate that but they won't add to it either like an AKG.
 
I listen to mainly Japanese stuff and if headphones have any peaks Japanese vocals can really punish your ears. 650 does wonderful with them. If You want to test a harsh track, listen to She Wolf by Sia! That song is brutally shouty with the wrong headphones.
 
If you want more bass then open dynamic headphones are not going to give you more. Maybe something like the DT990 will make you happy? Sadly I find it a mess but your options are limited unless you spend a bit more and grab yourself a good planar.

The 650 has elevated bass but it's still in that bracket where i'd consider it balanced. There's information on the X2 in my headphone guide in the sticky but thats before I bought them them and only from reviewing but I don't think my thoughts have changed much since then.

My LCD-2 is a beast, it pushes large amounts of air and the driver is gigantic with rich deep bass, gorgeous mids and an articulate treble. When I game is sounds like I'm in the cinema, when I listen to music it sounds so alive. The X2 next to it sounds like a grainy mess, the 650 actually takes it on, that's all I need to say about the X2 vs 650 ;)
 
I love Japanese vocals. My wife absolutely hates them! There's a sense of emotion I get from them that I don't with any other. Even though sometimes I have not got a clue what they are saying, chances are I've played the game or watched the Anime so I can relate through that.

Some can be unbearable though, but a good Japanese singer is gripping.

This is an example

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tm7Xf9818FM

Emotional Anime and emotional song. I love listening to Sia on the LCD-2's that thump you get is amazing.
 
Spec-Chum said:
I had the DT990's but I sent them back to Amazon (got them on warehouse deal) as I couldn't warrant keeping 2 sets of "decent" open headphones and decided to keep the HP200's as I preferred the sound overall, especially on music, even though I found the bass on DT990's a little better.

I'm not looking for mega bass, just a touch more. DT990's bass with a little more balance would be fine; reviews of the X2 suggest they may be close(r)?

Maybe I'm chasing a Unicorn riding a Golden Dragon here?
Click to expand...

The best bass I heard on a dynamic Open/Semi Open headphone without the rest of the sound sucking was probably the Nighthawk. It has a very rich, deep bass fairly decent everywhere else..they are £499 though.

I think the 650 in terms of it's bass is probably probably below the X2 in level but I find the impact similar. They are quite close in level. The main difference is the way the bass meets the mids, the 650's meet with a slight haze giving slightly thicker lower mids which gives vocals a bit of weight, emotion. Again it does if by still staying in that natural bracket.

The X2 is a bit more U shaped bit more loose, bit more grainy. Less resolution. The X2 is £177, I think paying the extra £30 or so for the 650's gives you a big jump in SQ.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Just be pleased you've got a girlfriend who asks questions and doesn't try and belittle your tech purchases :D
Click to expand...

This!


My Wife rarely pays attention to my headphones, she complains about the noise mainly. I managed to get her to listen to my LCD-2's the other day, she thought they sounded awful! I wasn't impressed. The only headphones I managed to get her to like was my old Shure SRH440 and my Denon D2000's which she loved.

The rest are rubbish according to her ears!
 
To be fair she's pretty laid back about me being into gaming/audio a lot of other peoples wives I know are pretty difficult when it come to that sort of stuff.

Plus, she's easy on the eyes Haha :D
 
Last edited:
I have to sale either my LCD-2 or 650 to find for my gaming PC. Been making comparisons for ages and it's hard to choose.

I was gonna sale the K612 Pro but they perform better for games.

I'd always pick the 650 over the 400i and HE-500 though.
 
Last edited:
I liked the HE-500 better on mid range systems but on things like the Yggy and Crack and the Eddie Current range the HD650 was slightly superior but we are talking about very pricey equipment.

Thing with the large driver planars are they just have this exciting sound to them and distortion free bass.

I don't know how much I'd sale the LCD-2's for if I decided on them. I think the LCD-2's do a few things better but there's not much in it, I could easily live with either.
 
about 100hz or so they start to slowly slope. They don't roll dramatically like Audio Technica AD series.

The mid-upper bass is elevated so Faithless will still sound. It's a very resolving headphone. It's an open dynamic headphone so it's always going to roll off. The AKG k712, Annie and K7XX, K612, HD800 extend quite well but still drop off.

If you want to test your sub bass try this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLyYqmPbX8NR-MhMI9yv8N6WvVOQFxk31J&v=hmP7TYtDVUU

My LCD-2's shake my skull.
 
Last edited:
I think the 400i has more treble detail but the HD650 has more micro detail and is more cohesive, refined. I really like the 400i.

Hifiman's lineup is very good now. The Hifiman HE Edition X is a really nice headphone, loved it's tonal balance, shame it's so damn expensive.
 
titaniumx3 said:
Problem I have with these headphones is that they simply cost too much. I would have kept the 400i, but I felt £350 (or whatever I paid for it) it's just not worth it, especially when the HD650 costs over a £100 less, sounds better with 90% of the music I listen to, more comfortable and doesn't have a comically short cable.

Another one is the LCD2. Been eyeing this headphone for ages but the cost is just absurd. Half the cost is you paying for things that are all nice and pretty, but ultimately have little or no effect on the sound.
Click to expand...

Pricing is a big issue. We are unfortunate that we have "reputable" websites like Hype-fi using their atrocious ears :D to hype up their sponsors and headphone company's feed off that.

Also it creates a circle because everyone wants to create something to compete with the last FOTM which was already overpriced! I love the mid-priced category(Not gonig to call it mid-fi any more because those 4 are anything but mid-fi!) because there's so many fantastic flavours and good resolving headphones like the 650/600, k712, HE400i etc and tons of closed backs.
 
Iggy Azalea isn't too bad haha I've heard a lot worse. I'm very open minded when it comes to music and while most of my music collection is dominated by Japanese music, some good solid thumping bass with rappers cursing their heads off is always appreciated when I want to let the hair down.
 
I've only experienced ben in with headphones that use Biocellulose drivers like the Denon D600, Nighthawk and Fostex dynamic line up mostly because they are more like speaker drivers that use different materials. I doubt people truly notice a big difference with Sennheisers drivers after an hour or two. I can see the argument for bass being tighter after hundreds of hours but the 650 isn't really known for its bass control.


With my Nighthawk I could hear the change as the rubber became loser over time and the warmth, sluggishness or whatever people want to call it went away. The D600 was similar in that regard. It is also important if you own resolving headphones like the 650 and Nighthawks to note that testing with many different tracks can also give the burn in effect because some recordings have bass bloat and the 650 has high enough bass levels to show this so when II go onto a cleaner sounding track your 650's will sound crystal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom