Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

I've done exactly this. Back foam removed, Dynamat added, front foam intact. Sounds great to my ears.

 

Neither the US or DE online stores show the 049789 foam, only the complete earpad. The UK Sennheiser online store is the only official source I've found for just the foamy. I'll try emailing Sennheiser HK and see if they'll send me some (hopefully for less shipping charges than from the UK).

Glad to hear it! I'll try it out soon.

 

I only did the rear foam and Dynamat mods. No quarter mod because I don't want more treble.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any Dynamat to apply the mod and have no means of obtaining any since I live in SEA. Did you listen to the HD650 only with the back foam removed before you applied the Dynamat and what was your impression?

 

@Ash1412 I'm still free a week or so, if you want I can send you some Dynamat for just shipping or whatever. I've got way too much and shipping globally (albeit just in an envelope) is about 2,50 Euro in that fashion. If you're interested send me a PM and I'll try to ship some your way. A chunk like that can make 3 mods.

 

Thanks for the offer but I'll have to decline. Shipping from anywhere to my house is just too complicated, especially for such a small package. I had to contact a friend who worked in FedEx once because my package was late by more than a week.

 

I got my Dynamat and applied the mods the other day (thanks again @philipmorgan)

Listened to them a few days with just the Dynamat and rear foam removed. Loved the smoothness and improved bass punch, but couldn't help but feel they still sounded a bit veiled or muffled up top. So I finally went all-in and cut circles in the front foam, a mod I thought I'd skip as I generally prefer a darker sound.

To echo what others in this thread have said, there is a certain synergy that I found with all 3 mods completed. Yes, cutting holes in the front foam does mildly increase perceived treble (though I'd estimate only 1dB or so) but it really helped add that final bit of realism/engagement, air, and detail that was missing with just the other two mods completed. Thanks to Sonarworks EQ module, I can give it a 1-2 dB tilt to slightly reduce the treble if needed, although I only feel the need to do that on tracks that are inherently sibilant. On a side note, I felt Sonarworks EQ to be a necessity with the HD650 in stock form, but now with the mods completed it's not as imperative. It still helps, and I still use it, but I dialed everything back a few notches - not as much correction is needed now IMO.

While my HE-500 w/ ZMF pads still has a wider soundstage and better control in the very low sub-bass region (< 40 Hz) I now found my HD650 to exceed it in virtually every other category. My HD650 now sounds simultaneously more realistic and less sibilant/fatiguing in comparison, and more "engaging". Even with electronic music, which I found the stock HD650 to be OK with but not great, now sounds fantastic - even better than the HE-500.

As of now, the "stage 3" modded HD650 with Sonarworks EQ is overall the best sounding headphone I've yet to hear.

 

damn, sounds like i need to get off my ass and mod my 650s i just like them as they are so i hesitate, but your impressions echo so many others that i've read! in other words, an anecdote is not the singular of data, but many consistent anecdotes just might

 

@Ash1412 I have yet to directly compare with Dynamat, but you can try and find some "blu-tack" type material, perhaps at a stationary store. That's what I did here in Taiwan and it made a difference to the bass.

Heard back from Sennheisier HK. They want about US$2.50 per foam disc and $6.50 to ship it to me in Taiwan. Ends up not being much cheaper than ordering from Sennheiser UK if I buy 2 (£8.11), and more expensive if I order 4. Plus I have to pay Senn HK by wire transfer.

I asked above but nobody's replied yet:
Has anyone ripped the cushion of their pads off of the mounting ring by repeatedly removing them?
I haven't seen any cautionary tales so I guess not, but I'm still curious.

 

I've repeatedly removed the earpads to try different foam mods, but what you described has never happened to me. It hasn't even occurred to me that such thing could happen.

 

Thanks for your reassurance @songmic. Maybe mine being brand new were particularly tight. But the force required to remove them, pulling on the cloth that I can only assume is glued to the mount seemed to be enough to possibly tear them off over time. They seem to be coming of more easily now.

What kind of foam mods have you tried?

 

I just noticed these while adding more blu-tack tonight, but made a point of not covering them as I didn't know what the effect would be.

There are 4 white sectors above and below the magnet that look like vents of some kind. Had anyone played around with these?

 

First of all, simply removing the foam mod altogether. That turned out too bright and shouty like Marv warned. Not sure what Alex of APuresound (who pulled off a "Mikhail" on the HF community a few years ago) saw in this mod.

Basically I tried several more mods using different hole sizes using different sized coins until I managed to perfect--at least to my standards--a coin mod done with a Japanese 1 yen coin. I believe I took the earpad in and out more than 10 times during this process.

Don't worry too much about your earpads. If there is one thing I learned from owning several Sennheiser products over the years, very good and consistent QC is one of their highly upheld virtues that other companies like ADZ or HFN should aspire to.

 

Well, I guess I'll just have to put back the back foam until I have some damping material to replace it with. Has anyone tried to do this?

 

@Hands pics?

 

Well, @Hands forced me over to the... er, bright side. I snapped off the plastic spider over the magnet, Dynamatted the magnet, and snipped a slightly smaller than quarter-sized hole in the front foam on my HD 650s.

Pics if you're interested: http://imgur.com/a/glLJn

Subjectively, I like it. It's a subtle difference, but Destroyer's bright-sounding-to-me Kaputt still sounds great. Very present, energetic, and alive even with the cheapo C5D I'm using at the moment (Gungnir Multibit, Vali, and the rest of my workstation are packed away while I'm on Christmas/NY staycation).

The lead guitar stabs on Cake's I Will Survive border on too much, but I think that's just how that song is mixed. I think it's supposed to hurt ya a little bit. Instruments in this kind of rock song resolve into their separate spaces just so well on my modded 650.

Bass on Cibo Matto's Sugar Water is tons of bouncy, driving fun (with Sonarworks bringing up the low end a bit).

Margo Timmins' voice borders on silibant on a few tracks on Trinity Sessions, but not unpleasantly so.