Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, Sep 27, 2015.

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  1. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    Way to keep that scarface mansion blue marble theme alive...

    [​IMG]
     
  2. lm4der

    lm4der A very good sport - Friend

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    Nietzsche understood this before there were headphones:

    "When you stare long enough into the driver, the driver also stares into you."
     
  3. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Yes, full Dynamat even over little holes. Subjective and measurable changes to response were basically nothing. Impulse got a bit better. Bass might be tighter? No change to mids.
     
  4. Jun

    Jun Friend

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    I am thinking about putting dynamat directly back on my drivers again and probably put some extra anywhere that has potential to shake.

    I noticed on some bass heavy tracks the headphone housing shakes and I can feel the sub bass rumble through the pads. Sometimes its fun because it feels like tactical transducers, but It's probably not good for the overall sound quality.

    I hope I won't rip the dynamat off the drivers again next week.
     
  5. dllmsch

    dllmsch Friend

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    Did some measurements with K240 foam and stock foam on a spider cage removed + dynamat HD650.
    foam.jpg
    The main difference seems to be above 7kHz with stock+quater mod> stock > k240 + quater mod> k240 quantity wise. No notable difference with the direction of the K240 foam.
    There's no damping on my measurement rig (yet) though so take it FWIW.
     
  6. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Thanks for sharing. Roughly matches my subjective impressions, except the stock K240 foam sounded like it reduced those frequencies more than your measurement indicates. Subjective impressions @dllmsch?
     
  7. dllmsch

    dllmsch Friend

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    I haven't done any subjective comparison yet, have been using the coin modded stock foam which suppose to have most "air". For the past few days I was overwhelmed by the bass quantity of the my freshly modded HD650 and was doing some tube rolling with my vali 2. Even with supposedly lean sounding tubes I still find the bass was too much. Turns out I have been using high gain the whole time and 5.8ohm impedance was too much for my taste. I guess I will have to reconsider finding an OTL as my amp upgrade. I need to get used to the sound and am liking it so far, will do some foam rolling later.
     
  8. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    I recently picked up a pair of new HD650s and am trying to figure out what to do next. I love many things about them, tone, frequency response etc, except that - and I can't exactly analyse what's going on here - I think some combination of slow transients and the missing bottom octave leads me to perceive anything with sharp transients (esp electronic) as having a slightly offputting plasticky tone. Chain is Gungnir Multibit -> Mjo2 w/LISSTs -> HD650 balanced.

    I am wondering if this is something that the mods suggested here will improve in any meaningful sense. I understand that they are not going to change the HD650's into a planar, but it seems plausible that the plasticky tone could come from resonances in the plastic, so that the dynamat would improve this, and that the quarter mod could improve transient response which might ameliorate the problem a bit. If anyone has any before/after comparisons on this point, I'd gladly hear them.
     
  9. juanchotazo99

    juanchotazo99 New

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    So, a friend flew to the US and managed to get some dynamat extreme for me in the process, the speaker kit (2 10x10" sheets) for 14 USD. Owe the guy a few beers. I already had the plastic spider + rear foam removed, and the front hole in the foam done.

    Applied dynamat on the magnet and the driver sides... It's quite the improvement. The headphone housing istelf now vibrates a little less, as expected. Everything tightened up, clarity is up, drumming/bass and other instruments are now clearly separated and discernible (some recordings would have them a little smeared together before the dynamat)... to sum up good recordings sound even better, average recordings sound better, crappy ones just sound crappier. Love it. Dynamat on the baffle (+ the driver).. now I didn't like the effect too much.


    The set of mods, overall, transform the HD650 into something else. I can see myself stopping at this point as far as headphones are concerned... I'll focus on the rest of the chain next. A decent DAC is up next to replace my Xonar DX. Next time a friend flies to the US, I'll see if I can get him to buy some schiit :D
     
  10. FlySweep

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    I damped the driver/donut with dynamat (not pictured) & applied the rug liner damping on the front of the baffle (under the stock foam):
    20160715_112655.jpg
    Pre-mod:
    -dynamat 90% complete on rear baffle
    -quarter mod on foam.
    -spider cage removed (no dynamat on driver)

    Post-mod:
    -all of the above + dynamat on driver & rug liner on front of baffle.

    I'll need to do some comparisons but I definitely like what I'm hearing post-mod vs pre-mod. Tighter, more textured bass. Mids are incredibly clear and open. Cleaner overall sound.. namely the mid & upper treble. I sensed some mid/upper treble shout/glare/harshness/whatever in the pre-mod version.. that's gone post-mod. midrange and treble resolution has me dropping my jaw.. again.

    It's been said a million times.. these are end-game phones in stock form.. but especially once modded. Off my current rig, this HD650 sounds like it had a baby with the CFA Andromeda.
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2016
  11. Ryu

    Ryu Friend

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    Anyone got some spare Dynamat laying around? I can pay for shipping. I'm in Maryland.
     
  12. GettingBuckets

    GettingBuckets Almost "Made"

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    Ugh I just decided to put a bit more dynamat on the back ring, and my barely fitting earpads fell off again. It is such a grind to try to get those suckers on especially when they are worn in over time and don't hold their shape.

    I guess it's time to get some new ones that are f'ing overpriced to death just because they are official Sennheiser pads, and everything else is a Chinese knockoff that does not work half as well or even stay on...
     
  13. GettingBuckets

    GettingBuckets Almost "Made"

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    What kind of rug liner did you use? I'm probably going to go with that instead of the k240 foam since it doesn't fit on the headphone as well.
     
  14. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    Just know that if you have big ears like I do the increased thickness of the rug liner can cause the foam to brush up against your ears which is... not terrible but distracting. It's only a few bux to try, so don't hold back from experimentation.

    I used this rug liner: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AH8PLI/
     
  15. KurtSvensson

    KurtSvensson Friend

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    I have basically gone back to dynamat, cage removal with back foam added in using a swedish equvelent of blutack, just placed the foam onto the "blutack" placed around the "driver hole", worked great, midbass back to acceptable levels. No hole in front foam, too many hairs on the driver causing shitty bass and bass rattle, had to remove hairs once / week. I'd rather just EQ the treble 1 db.

    In other words, almost back to stock, dynamat and cage removal still rocks though.
     
  16. SteelCannon

    SteelCannon Friend

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    I tried various sizes of rug liner on my modded hd650s(coin, dynamat, rear foam/spider) and none had a positive impact in my opinion. I heard muddy, slightly elevated bass and muffled low level detail.
     
  17. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    OK, so I just tried, in this order:
    - Dynamat (actually Second Skin Damplifier as suggested by @M3NTAL)
    - Rear foam removal

    I followed @zonto's excellent guide here:
    http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...ove-appreciation-thread.44/page-39#post-57053

    The Damplifier seems to have little effect on the frequency response but does an amazing job of eliminating the slight plasticky resonances I heard previously. Transients are still a bit slow (inherent to the driver I guess) but don't run into each other anywhere near as much. Midrange becomes much more transparent, and a slight edginess of the stock phones seems to be tamed nicely.

    Originally I added the Damplifier in the same places as @zonto, ie everywhere possible without blocking the holes. This sounds great. Adding more dynamat covering the six vent holes really messed things up. Bass seemed to be over-dampened, upper midrange became rather recessed and the whole presentation just fell apart, i.e., just like this:

    Dunno if this is due to covering the vents in particular, or just an effect of adding too much dampening material.

    Not convinced by rear foam removal. Compared to just the Damplifier, there is just an added touch of air at the top, but at the cost of the midbass hump getting way out of control. Since I thought it was airy enough already, I put the foam back in again. If you curl it into a ball you can stuff it back in the spider (though don't push it too far into the magnet hole) and then pull it flat(-ish) with a pair of tweezers.
     
  18. MLegend

    MLegend Friend

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    I've been listening to my recently modded pair after coming from just removing the rear foam. Current mods are rear foam + spider cage removed and second skin dampener pro applied exactly as in zonto pictures. *All of my impressions are coming from using the 650s with a SS amp.

    I was taken aback by how much resonance was actually happening(making the sound more full)with just the rear foam removed. With the dampener on this headphone sounds so much leaner. Treble is definitely more noticeable. So much in fact that I am now positive I will never do the quarter mod. This is borderline treble level for me. Low level detail is more noticeable now as well which is to be expected and appreciated. Even though the sound is more lean, bass does seem to hit a bit harder. I won't lie, when I first listened to these after finishing the mods I was disappointed. The fullness I really liked from the 650 (even in stock form) was missing now.

    However, after listening for a few days i'm starting to like the tighter sound.
     
  19. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Do you think midbass is back to something like stock levels after doing this?
    I still have the spider attached and am weighing up whether to remove it (to remove resonances and get dampening material on the magnet) , but only if it's possible to get the foam back in there in a way which keeps the midbass under control.

    By the way, for anyone with the spider still attached, splodging some dampener onto the outside part of the spider, like this (haven't done this properly yet, so it's a bit ugly):
    [​IMG]
    seems to have a huge positive effect, as significant as adding the other dampening material I would say. Adding the other dampening reduced resonances, but this final step seems to really speed up the transient response a lot. They sound as fast as my PM3's now, which is pretty amazing. I think I also hear greater midrange clarity, but I think that might just be because of the better defined leading edges. Net effect is that I can listen at lower volume levels without feeling like I'm missing out on detail.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2016
  20. KurtSvensson

    KurtSvensson Friend

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    I'd say it's back to stock levels, yeah. Maybe even less or I just can't recall how much midbass it added in the first place. I will however say that it's ugly as f**k, your dynamat job looks great so figured you should be warned before your HD650 start looking as bad as mine.
     

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