Sennheiser HD650

Anyone know if the retermination guide of the HD800 would apply to the HD650?

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-stock-sennheiser-hd800-cable.917/#post-69120

 

@Dino

More or less. The HD650 cable has individual ground wires and the 4-pin xlr standard is universal. As long as you wire everything up like so you'll be fine.



A multimeter with continuity test is handy for checking that you're actually connecting the right wire to the right pin. But you can improvise this part too depening on your level of MacGyver skill...

 

There you go, @Delayeed

 

Thanks seems easy enough.

 

I was a little impatient so I salvaged my foam speaker stand and turned it into a headphone measurement rig! This is all hashed together pretty quickly, but these values kinda visualize what I'm hearing between Dynamat and Sorbothane. Hope this helps, and it was really fun throwing the rig together. I'm also down one speaker stand.
The hd650's are coin, spider, foam removal, and one cup is dynamat, other is sorbothane. I also have some arctic cotton on the way, so I'm excited to measure it when that happens.

Sorbothane is yellow, Dynamat is purple-ish?

Sorbothane distortion values:


Dynamat distortion values:

 

Tweaked the measurement rig and added a sorbothane ring radiator on top of the magnet.. Sonically, increased clarity near the upper midrange, acoustic guitars strums sound more layered, and my volume knob's down a hair because of it. But overall, I'm really enjoying this change.. (I'd imagine a dynamat ring would provide similar results, but I haven't tried that yet)

And I'm no longer suffering from that double/triple bump at 4-6kHz, now it's just one mega lump.

Bifrost Multibit > Jotun > Hd650's
Red line represents the "stock" sound (coin, spider removal, standard sorbothane dampening)
Green line represents additional sorbothane ring on magnet.

Seeing mods come to life on the graph is really cool btw!

 

Hi there. I just got my first pair of HD650's, heavily modded by SoupRKnowva, These are pretty darned good. How come no one knows about this hidden gem headphone?



It even has a great feature that Sennheiser doesn't advertise. The clamp is so tight it will pop all your zits!

I added a little EQ curtesy of Sonar Works, and I'm impressed.

 

Yeah, after a year's worth of general use and multiple attempts at bending the springy metal headband, they're just about the right clampness for me.

And there's actually a ton of talk in the hd650 love/appreciation thread. This thread is small potatoes in comparison to the plethora of information given there: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...ve-appreciation-thread.44/page-63#post-100789

On a side note, my headphone measurement rig imploded when I accidentally ripped the solder pad off of my mic. Waiting for parts arrive for rig #2: Electric Boogaloo.

 

Also in a semi-related-but-not-really note, I've since replaced my dynamat'd headphones with sorbothane, and I've noticed that tar portions of the dynamat had "weeped" into the paper parts of the driver in some headphones, permanently staining it. I live in a hot/dry climate, so I was wondering if anyone else experienced this?

 

yikes, that's discouraging me from using dynamat if I ever wanna resell

there's like a two percent chance i ever will, but my weird OCD is still tingling trying to stop me

 

Well, it looks like I will finally be joining the HD 650 club having just purchased @brencho 's modded pair (awaiting it in the mail). I have always preferred the HD 600 to the 650 in stock form. And the modded 650's that I enjoyed always struck me as sounding very much like the 600. Anyway, my hope is that the modded version will have close to the tonality I like of the 600 with better technicalities. Plan on comparing the two and then offloading the least preferred one (although I am such a hoarder I might end up with both). Will report back here after I have had time to compare.

 

I had to send the Abyss back to the US for a repair and I'm using the HD650 full time. They continue to surprise me on how good they sound. They make me forget about the technicalities and just enjoy the music. Found an interesting tube combination with the Stratus which makes them great for my tastes. I am surprised about the tonality of these headphones, they sound spot on as you would expect a real instrument sounds.
I got a good deal on a Kimber cable upgrade because as I remember when I reterminated the stock one it was a very thin wire and might be room for improvement. I will try to report back if I notice any difference.
I may try to shoehorn some HD595 pads as my ears are touching the stock ones.

 

All, the Sennheiser HD650/M Compendium is now live. Hoping SBAF visitors and members alike find it a helpful resource going forward. Please PM me if you have suggested revisions or know of other helpful resources to add.

 

Are my HD650 driver caput?
Theres a "scar" in it, where the flash is, and that other dent right next to it....
Sounds kinda fine tho. My OCD cant handle it so I think ill order new HD650 drivers either way

 

If I remember the IF hd600 assembly video correctly, it should be fine as long as it doesn't tear. And if it sounds fine and doesn't get worse, you should be ok.

 

Don't sweat it. It's perfectly fine. You won't hear any difference.

 

Opinions on HD6XX synergy with Woo audio WA7?, i've been tempted to get a Jotty but the WA7 just has such a nice footprint on my desk.

 

You won't find much love for that product around here. Tried using a custom Google search on the site and found the below:

Spoiler: some relevant WA7 hits

• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...ali-2-discussion-thread.789/page-6#post-21045
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-integrated-dac-amps-options.1424/#post-35833
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-open-backed-headphones.773/page-2#post-20358
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/oppo-ha-1.1017/page-2#post-26715
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/woo-wa8-eclipse-portable-tube-amp.1594/
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...tream-of-consciousness.2669/page-4#post-74103
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...in-audio-fest-impressions.48/page-2#post-1840
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...love-appreciation-thread.44/page-8#post-13416
  
• http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...se-tube-amp-review-not.2260/page-3#post-57614

Given that you already have the unit, just wait until you get your headphones and try them with it. You can try something else later once you've acclimated to the sound.

 

After a day with the Kimber cable the best I can say is that it's a bit less grainy sounding in the high end. Worth the 60£ I paid for it. I guess I could have DIY a cable of the same quality for even less.
I also did the Dynamat mod which seems to have reduced the mid bass hump and made the low end much more balanced. At first I used too much which had a negative effect in that it almost removed the low end.
Very happy with my modded 650. Now to top it off I am running it from a 125W Moon 600i amp. In short it's the best I've hear these, better than the Stratus or GSX MK2. I made a resistor network so the amp sees 8ohm so there shouldn't be any issues.
Tomorrow I will start building a bottlehead beepre to inject some 300B goodness with elrog tubes.
I would love to bring this setup to a meet so people can see how good the HD650 can sound and slap to the multi thousand headphones. A reality check is in order(says the guy with the Abyss).

 

Got the HD 650 yesterday. Coming from DT 880 and HE-560, I can say to anyone who thinks in 2016 that this headphone is warm, dark, veiled, or laid-back: you're drunk. Go home.

I've used the phrase "Beyer Ear" to refer to people who have adapted to the prevalence of overly-bright headphones. Like death-grip masturbation, it prevents you from appreciating natural stimulation, i.e. HD 6X0. Get your pair today and begin the process of healing.