Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

I'm pretty delighted that a good, affordable balanced amp that works so well with them came out recently, too. It's stupid how good my relatively affordable little chain sounds. I find myself borrowing the Stax at work less now to top up my levels of listening glee.

 

I'm also comforted by knowing that the 650s have been around for so long with a large body of knowledge.

 

The world is such a strange place ... always full of surprises ...

I've had my original HD650 since 2003, and bought a 2nd pair earlier this year. Until this week I'd only run them single-ended, and always found them an enjoyable and musical listen. And, while I'm not generally pre-disposed to finding/expecting big transformations going from SE to balanced connections, it does seem to pay useful dividends in resolution and apparent cross-talk with headphones.

Unusually so in the case of the latest HD650.

I might even have to start using the term "plankton" around these things (yes, I'm relatively new to these parts, if not to audio/headphones in general). While with my HD800S, Abyss or Utopia I'd become accustomed to hearing subtle things like Stevie Nicks dragging a nail on her guitar strings, I can't recall ever consciously registering that with my HD650.

Apparently that's always been there, since now I've heard it on them, I can even pick it out single-ended, albeit somewhat less readily. But it's far more apparent in balanced operation. The scalability of the venerable 650s, seemingly, respects no bounds!

 

quick question, what is the best under 50$ balanced cable for the hd650?

 

quick answer, read and search the thread

 

If your'e moderately handy with a soldering iron, you can put something fairly pretty, and very solid, together for $40 or so (depending on your choice of splitter, which is the bulk of the cost in my case). I don't know of any pre-made cables for under $50. Best I know of is $68 with a simple heat-shrink splitter, which would be via Impact Audio. Not to say there aren't other's though.

 

Someone on this forum recommended this cable. check it out.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-SENNHEISE...-MOGAMI-CARDAS-NEUTRIK-BALANCED-/122143439018

 

Someone is trying to sell some 650's for $300 USED at HF. More power to ya, bud.

 

On scalability ...

~17.5 seconds into "The Chain" (Rumours, Fleetwood Mac) [same spot on both my HD-Tracks download and my needle drop from a 45 rpm cut/pressing], a reference to the guitar-string-nail-dragging from above ... and my HD650 are fully in contention with the rest of my headphone stable.

And that's being fed with: Roon -> Dante VSC -> RedNet 3 -> AES/EBU XLR -> Yggdrasil -> AudioQuest Colorado XLR -> WA5-LE Mk2 (w/ parts upgrades, Takatsuki 300B and 274B and Sylvania 6SN7GT glass) -> Balanced Output (for convenience ... the WA5-LE is a single-ended designRed).

So ... a $299 headphone (what I paid at Amazon for my new pair in February of this year), on the end of, oh, $13,000 or so of electronics ... and it is absolutely holding it's own.

 

On the other end of the scale...

PonoMusic Player (Black) - Ranges from $400 to $300 new
SanDisk Ultra 200GB Micro SD card - $80
Venus Audio Balanced Cables (from when they used Cardas cable) - $100
Sennheiser HD650 (stock) - $350
Well mastered FLAC files from a variety of sources

For a guy who has preferred LPs all along and tried unsuccessfully to get into dedicated headphone listening for decades - total listening satisfaction for under $1000.

 

Yep, people are always a bit diffident about the benefits of going balanced, as it's a bit of a crapshoot whether it actually improves things.. but I was pleasantly surprised by the HD650 too- I wasn't expecting to notice much. It seems that they have the right stuff, but just really need a powerful amp that brooks no nonsense to actually whip the drivers into shape. It's lovely to hear the crisp attack on percussive notes, hear more of the room, hear Tori Amos swallowing to clear her throat at the start of a verse, on a pair of sub-£300 cans.

They are a bit warm out of the box, but I rather like that. One day I will get around to getting a pair to mod, to hear what the other lunatics are hearing.

Aye, though it does appear that they have undergone some driver tweaks and things down the years, judging by what The Interwebs has to say, though they also indicate that the changes are for the good, making them sound clearer, so it's no bad thing.

..but yes, agreed. Also, being Sennheiser, they have pretty good QA, and spares are readily available. If feels a lot less of a shot in the dark than HiFiman or Audeze with their pricey and sometimes unreliable wares!

 

My new man-flu cheer-up HD650s arrived. Immediate impression vs my early HD600...ooh a bit more bass, smooooth, bit less up top, are these really less than 250 quid, smooooth, blimey they squeeze yer head a bit, these have got some potential.. [switch to HE1000]... Hmmm... [switch back to HD650]....wow nice mids...Crikey these are pretty good. [gets onto ebay and orders some dynamat]....

 

Its amazing how little things on these make such noticeable differences! For example the nickle mod sounds more correct then the quarter mod. Futzed my foam a bit to resize the holes. Used a teeny bit of dynamat rubber goop on tips of shelf liner to hold it that way. Result...less brightness from upper mids...more detail even in the bass...a bit more space...and a bit more pace...more lyrical...more like a good rhyme...ahhh there is a reason I love these so....gotta go!

Happy Listening

 

@James Whiting , you are taking this to the next level, maybe a post summarizing your mods with photos? Also curious, although I'm sure it's been posted, but what is the rest of your chain?

 

I'm amazed at how well the Jotunheim brings to life and controls the 650. I've been listening all evening and some of these songs have given me goosebumps and emotional reactions. This is with a totally unmodded 650. This may be my new standard.

 

@Merrick glad you like it! How does 650 compare to 600?

 

It's crazy for the price, isn't it? I spent a lot of last Saturday listening to very expensive headphones in a shop, and didn't feel the urge to reach for my wallet once.

When you're supposed to be listening to your chain critically, and you find that 40 minutes have passed and you're at the end of the album, not sure where the time went- that's a good sign, right? Mine are making me grin just as much listening to "The Wall" as Beeth Oven's ninth.

Question for you modding types.. looking at Dynamat locally.. I can find two sorts of Dynamat on Amazon UK

Superlite:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E9ERHN6/

..and

Xtreme:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E9ERHN6/

Are either of these suitable, or neither?

 

Beeth Oven's.

 

I think Xtreme is the one people have been using mate

 

Ah, you're right- people were buying it in tiny amounts, like so:

https://www.amazon.com/Dynamat-19100-License-Plate-Kit/dp/B00020CATW

..but the speaker pack looks reasonably sensible, too.