Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

Yep. Even I will be there. jexby, we don't much do sitar at this end of India: veena is our local instrument. Somewhere there is a thread, otherwise check out Carnatic (South-Indian classical) music on youtube.

And I have to thank @Koth Ganesh for the presence of the HD800s on my desk for the past few weeks.

Sorry, it's all off topic, especially as my own loved headphones are the HD600s. But it all fits in somewhere!

 

Here is the former Frankenheiser's Monster in previous guise. It is about to be reborn as a newer improved creature,
awaiting its final tuning and improved appearance. It has has been revived with new capsules and pads and improved damping. It will be reborn shortly and will once again appear on these pages!!!!

Happy Listening

 

Good idea putting the towel down to soak up the tube oil.

 

More about just covering my nasty pitted and scraped up desk/worktable. Laboratory(sic) table. where all the mad experiments take place.

Muhaha!

 

That was a reply to Arun.

 

May be that's that's why @Koth Ganesh has placed the towel underneath.

 

That was my pathetic attempt to separate the ZDS from my power amp.

 

You put a towel on top of a power amp? Hope you have a handy fire extingu...

Oh wait, I just remembered which country we live in

 

DigMe:

Oops! Pardone! Was'nt paying enough attention. Just saw it followed and incorrectly assumed. And I did have a lab textile/paper towel under my headphones.

 

No prob. You replied to the wrong person and I credited the amp to the wrong person.

 

Scaling away with my Sennies. Jcat USB femto added to my Galvanic 3/ W4S RUR. Running Oppo Sonica heavily modded, with more in the pipeline, into Neco V5. Custom OCC litz copper 17Awg cable harness to the
650's. Also upgraded Fidelizer 7.10 to 8, more features and control of processor cores. It also allowed me to Run jpay in forced 32 bit on my 44k wav(Redbook) files.

Yes I'm neurotic...I am running AO and Process Lasso as well But damn it makes a difference!

Wow...wow...wow...can't stop listening. Magnitudes of improvement. So much more enjoyable. Easier to hear everything.

I want Auteurs...hoping for oxidized Padauk! My new years #1 resolution...I need more resolution...lol!

The Frankenheisers make the wait more than tolerable!

Very Merry Happy Listening New Year!

jgwtriode

 

Can I share my opinion about these amazing headphones for a minute?

When I bought the HD650 back in 2013, at the time I was coming from 4 full size headphones: Beyer DT880, Shure SRH-940, AKG K240 Studio, and Sennheiser HD 580. I liked each of these for some reason or another: I loved the Beyers for their detail, but didn't like their tonal balance. Shures were the same, lots of treble detail and good bass extension, but too bright for me. AKG K240s were my first true audiophile headphone and they are what got me into the hobby. And the HD580's I felt were great for relaxed listening, but I thought they rolled off too much in the treble with not enough bass extension.

When I got the HD650, it was the first time I listened to something that wasn't offensive in pretty much any way. I could almost describe it as perfect sounding for my tastes, and remarkably natural sounding like speakers. Since then, I've tried the HD800S, LCD-X, AKG K712, K612, and HE-400i, and the result is still the same. The HD650 is the only headphone I've tried that sounds natural and realistic without EQ. It really is remarkable for a $200-300 headphone, to have more natural tonal balance than most everything above it's price. I know everyone here loves the HD650 for these reasons too, and I am yet another huge fan here. The only complaint I have is how fast the pads compress and change the sound; I've bought 4 pairs in the past 3 years.

I'm also happy people on this forum don't automatically assume more expensive headphones are always better. That's why I browse SBAF much more than Head-Fi. I personally will never spend more than $2000 on a headphone, and the only $1,000+ headphone I see myself getting in the future is the Focal Clear. Until then, HD650 all the way.

 

Not really a reply just an ongoing statement of how stunned I am by the current sound my 650's are producing. Need to finish up clean up on the mods and repainting new DIY grilles. Then will post some beauty shots.

The Jcat femto is settling in and the sound has become expansive and densely layered.
I think opening the ports up a bit more gives new Frankenheisers more drive and better transients as well. Much cleaner and more detailed also, from the Jcat!


Fidelizer 8 is a substantial improvement. The focus, imaging and transparency are ridiculous using a couple of software tweaks Keetakawee ( lucifar) has programmed into it. Tonality and harmonics are much more realistic and more involving.

You would not believe Sennies can do what my beautiful monster is doing!

What the hell...just finished listening to the New Pink album. Not a pink fan but damn the album is good. And a new alternative album from New Politics. Quirky, clever, bouncy and fun with a raw almost punk Broadway showtime quality. Sennie M's or F's in my case strutting there stuff

Very Happy Listening!

 

If you're going to post more images, please include photos of the modifications that have been done. Some closeup shots would be appreciated as well.

 

An update photo....will post more as I complete the new Frankenheisers. This is preliminary and reflects new unpainted DIY grilles. I prefer mine to stock grilles. The sound is slightly more open and there is a hint less upper mid hardness. They are made from Walmart magazine file holders. They were cut with tin snips. Shaped by press fitting them to fit into the stock grilles. Then smoothing them out. They are held in place by the outer frame of cut out stock grilles. I press foam around the edge to help with diffraction and reflections. I use cheap paint brushes cut down..
When completed I will additionally use damplifier sticky butyl backing to hold down better and add some damping.

You will see rough cut doughnuts around the capsule port. I just cut from same paint brush type. Should cut more precise holes or punch out in final form. Not that critical.

I don't remember who suggested these doughnuts. But numerous other back damping attempts have shown this to help control mid bass bloat without impeding rear air flow. Much more preferable than directly covering with anything. It covers a damplifier pro doughnut underneath, which is covered with same butyl rubber. My favourite headphone stickum; holds foam doughnuts down. I leave two of the capsule ports completely open. I found that after all the damplifier pro all over the cups, I do front and back, mid bass was just a bit to much with all 4 ports open. I have tamed that mid bass with all the mods I have done. Enough so that I want to engage the slightly faster, more transient nature of opening more ports. Lower bass is also a bit more present and dynamics are a hint better. All of this should be tuned to your equipment and preference. Upgrades to my Dac and USB chain have also helped cleanup and control this aspect of the 650's.

Anyway not ready to go wide open on all 4 I put 1/8 inch foam mini blocks over the other two ports. I like this better...a more pleasing balance of all of what I previously mentioned. I may change it in the future but am moving on at this point. The rest is pretty standard SBAF mod with Damplifier Pro. Pro is better than Dynamat Extreme. I have tried both. It is denser, heavier butyl rubber. The black finish foil is nice as well.

The outside of the backplane is covered with 1/16" merrino wool felt, of course tacked with same butyl. About 1/4 inch from edge I switch to angle cut paint brush foam. Diffraction, reflection and another SBAFer mentioned felt to the edge created a 1kHz suckout. This also butts against the DIY grilles. Left a thin gap to the edge to set the grille into.

A bit tired. I will explain front side mods another day. There is also a cup edge/circumfrance mod. Also I will explain the mpingo ebony shun mook pucks. There is also my headband damping and tensioning mods to consider.

I run a Zenwave Audio DD2 OCC litz wire harness that Dave was kind enough to alter to suit my madness. Uses Eidolic Beryllium copper rhodium 1/4" and Furutech rhodium Sennie style connectors. Not an easy task to squeeze 17 awg down to those.

The story continues....!

Happy listening and modding!

 

Nice. I think they look pretty decent unpainted as well.

 

The story continues....!


The new paint job:


The Frankenheiser monster in all its DIY glory...I know its not the neatest or cleanest...but OMG!



A bit worse for the wear...but have a new headband assy to clean that up!

Now the details!


The skinny! Paint brush foam everywhere. Cheap and it works! Foam doughnut over Damplifier Pro around capsule
rear port. Free airflow with some rear wave control. Actually helps tame midbass bloat to some degree along with
filtering two of the paper filter capsule ports on the periphery of the capsule with 1/16" foam filters. Merrino wool felt, 1/16", on the backplane. Then 3/8" inch foam around that for diffraction and reflection. Bout 1/*8" inch spacing to set DIY grille into as previously mention. Standard rear plane damplifier pro treatment on backplane. All foam and felt tacked down with Butyl rubber stickum peeled of the Damplifier foil.

The front has the tool box liner and of course more damplifier pro as this picture illustrates. The liner is glued to the metal frontplane with paper glue to hold it in place and perhaps create additional damping.



Pardon the lower res picture it from the original mod. But its exactly the same in Frankie 2!

Okay edge treatment...! Two hairband elastics...I use these also for my suspension slash
extra clamping system. Here they are covered in butyl rubber to hold them in place over
1/4" strips of Second Skin's Luxury Liner. Their mass loaded vinyl damping material. It
is wrapped around the outside of the cups and then clamped as previously metioned. This
was a weird idea i had in some early morning post dream epiphany,. I believe it works, but
it is subtle. More detail and a hint more openess etc. Doesnt do anything to the tonal balance.

Its messy but hey as my art teacher used to say about painting a canvass. " Go ahead get in there
and make a mess!"



Some stray butyl...I should of done a bit more housekeeping but I needed to take the picture. Its a bit cleaner
now. But after all its about the sound! LOL happy listening and all!

And of course then there is the clamping system. I like them clamped, more than stock. I think they image better
and have a bit more oomph. I like the snug secure fit. YMMV! Just me! Hairband and you can see I even damp
the metal slides in fixed optimal position. I know nutty...but again there are subtle improvements that add up!



Oh yeah I forgot two mention one of my frontplane mods. It came after all this in the original mod anyway...so this is
an appropriate place. I remove the front spider/guard. I know its not safe. Didnt your mother say dont play with
matches. Well firecrackers were fun and my paper clip match guns. So in that spirit!

Anyway I noticed a noticeable improvement in image focus and a bit more layering of the soundstage. YMMV. A bit more
than subtle in my opionion. Ah go ahead take a risk!!! I really like butyl rubber stickum. I damp a lot of stuff with it...so
I had a bit more of a hole than I planned when cutting Sennies internal front pads. What better than butyl to cover
the metal...maybe damp reflections and well just more of the same as I have been doing on these!




Trilogies are popular these days so lets end here and we will finish the Story in the third installment.

Remember be nice!


Happy Listening not torching.....lol!

 

Another observation. Fiddled with USB chain swapping the order. Now Jcat to Recovery to Galvanic. Better that way. Now I can run the Jcats's onboard LDO filters as well ..even better. And the Sennies sound much better of course. They are like Tom Brady...much as I hate him...he just gets better.

Happy Listening

 

@James Whiting Watch your back around those things. Just sayin'

 

Indeed... They are frighteningly good!

Just bought Def Peppers Pyromania Super Deluxe! OMG...! Just retweaked my USB chain and Hot Damn. Loved this stuff back in college
days. So much better now. The Frankie's can kick some serious ass! Still doing After tax Auteurs! Going Blackwood after chatting with Zach but these are crazy good fun!

Happy listening