Massdrop x Sennheiser HD58X Jubilee

I see the distortion and run away.

HD6XX is looking mighty fine if you want a starter Sennheiser.

 

Similar impedance and very similar FR curves. My guess is that these are 660s drivers that don't meet spec.

 

One could get a really nice original HD580 for $150.

 

In the Head-fi thread, @CEE TEE said the drivers in the HD58X are 38mm while the ones in the HD660S are 40mm.

 

Starter headphone? The 6XX headphone is a finisher headphone!

 

Ha true, for most that is the case.

 

I wish I could find one for that, if it didn't need pads.

 

What is with the recent hard-on for making headphones that are "easier to drive".

 

HD660S LEFT, HD650 MIDDLE, HD58X RIGHT​

 

What is that blob on HD58X driver? Dampener?

 

Seems to be be a marketing appeal to get portable users to try full over the ear headphones. Makes no sense to me. Portable users are usually in a noisy environment where headphone like this wouldn’t work at well.

@gbeast What is your take on the drivers? Seems like the same driver with mods.

 

I looked on ebay for a month or so, early this year. I saw several in otherwise nice shape for around $100. I bought one and replaced the pads so it was about $150 or $160.

 

All three above are different drivers according to the sources. The part about the 58X driver is that it doesnt have the spider on the back. The 660S seems like it would be the toughest to mod because the back parts seem embedded in each other. There feels to be really nothing over the back of the 58X driver except for the foam sheet.

I know the 660S measures the best but my subjective tastes would leave it alone and just get the 58X if I wanted a different flavor. It is a 149 dollar headphone for petes sake and I don't expect much from it. The fact that I like it over the 660S for its better soundstage width, handling of busy passages, and mids that are more laid back like the hd650 make it a decent dollar spent compared to the 660S at full price.

At first I didnt understand the crying about the 660S being 499 because it is the same price as the 650 brand new but it lacks the ability to keep composure, and as was mentioned to me has 'tunnel vision' like soundstage. It sounds like it should be priced at the 600 or really not even exist.

I understand what marv says about them tapping out to sell to normal people but at the same time the fact that this is the direction that Sennheiser is going means that they will not be making a really improved 650 for the market that gave it its reputation to begin with. Now that makes me only want to look at higher tiered models released from Sennheiser for improvements.

 

Not everyone gets the whole separate DAC/headamp thing. Most people use an iPod or smartphone as their only source, even with speakers. While smartphones do tend to be used on the go, there's no reason why they can't be used sitting on the couch in a quite setting.

 

I understand that from a user standpoint. Just doesn’t make sense from a mass marketing standpoint. .

 

And to your point, it also doesn't make sense from a Massdrop standpoint since they are a specialized audiophile reseller. Massdrop has a significantly smaller and different consumer audience than mass market stores like Amazon or Best Buy. Though I suppose at the entry level price the HD 58X Jubilee is intended for novice audiophiles that may not own powerful headphone amplifiers.

 

I think people shouldn't really be concerned with 'ease of driving' either way really, and I think there has been a lot of misplaced focus on the incidental impedance of the 660/58X rather than how they actually sound.

All things considered, it is more convenient in general to have a headphone that is compatible with a wider array of common power sources. While lower impedance will restrict the usage of higher output impedance tube amplifiers, isn't the more important thing how the headphone actually sounds, instead of trying to fix the headphone with upstream gear? If a headphone can be properly powered to it's full potential by a phone, that's great.

As an analogy, a car which uses exotic race fuel only sold at one gas station might be appealing to some who appreciate the engineering behind the high compression application, but all things considered if a company can make a car with the same performance that can run on 87 octane, they probably should. It would be a bit silly to market the former "hard to drive" inconvenient fuel to customers as a bonus, but in the latter case, it makes sense to market the ease of use.

Where things like the 58X and 660 fail is that they don't have the performance of the headphones they aim to replace, but IMO it has nothing to do with impedance either way.