Neutral(ish) headphones [Continuous poll]

Among the other constructive and/or encouraging posts, I take yours as a confirmation we should for now try to proceed with the thread. I personally hope it can go on at least for a while in order to give some of the later nominations a fair chance to outpace the original ones (especially HD600/HD650/PMX2). Considerable amount of solid candidates is not listed yet of course.

OK, I suggest to proceed with the following:

1. Keep the basic procedure - Somebody actually needs to take a clear stand and not only nominate a particular headphone but also explain in a useful manner why it should be nominated to the poll. (First-hand user impressions confirming it is a suitable candidate as well as at least one set of measurements available online are required.)
2. Once a particular model is nominated, let's give 7 days to others to react either positively or negatively.
   • Higher amount of positive/confirming reactions is required compared to negative/doubtful ones. (Liking a post either confirming or declining particular nomination is considered as a reaction too.)
   • I reserve the right to request a specific comment from 'SBAF Staff' members when in doubt about whether to include a particular headphone to the poll, or not. (Will try to use this option as infrequently as possible. Potential use cases: headphones recently released to the market, headphones with rather controversial impressions or measurements, DIY modded headphones, ...)
3. IEMs and DIY modded headphones can be nominated as of now. That being said, I need to find out first what is the actual limit of the poll (how many entries are allowed). By default, only one DIY modified version of a particular headphones is allowed. (To avoid having the poll flooded by various HD800/HD650 mods. )

Let me know in case you have significant concerns about my suggestion above, I am willing to discuss it. Also, I will go through the additionally suggested nominations and reply later-on about what is the current status/what is missing for acceptance.

 

Posting my impressions of the DT150.
I needed some closed back headphones for listening in bed that wouldnt leak to much sound! I work shifts and often climb into bed at odd hours and needed some closed back phones. I also wanted something that would work well with OTL amplifiers. I demoed the DT150s at a nearby music store and also demoed the DT100s at the same time. I took along my Modified Crack with Speedball an Arcam rdock-uni and my iphone6 and used tidal for the demo. My initial impressions were that the DT100 sounded dull and lifeless but the the DT150s were a different story..
They do have a bit of a bass hump and a slightly rolled off treble in a similar vein to HD650 but not so refined and do not have the airiness and sophistication of the HD650 the Bass hump can be tamed with Beyers own available plush velour pads and although I’m not usually a cable believer I did make a cable for the DT150s using a beyer connector, van damme cable and a neutrik 1/4 plug( but only as the Beyer cable is exceptionally bad, noisy and not fit for purpose).
On the whole I find the DT150 a very good value non fatiguing and fairly neutral headphone that does have some faults but at £115 from amazon I don’t know of any other closed headphones that come close to this level of quality.

 

First post is updated with additional requirements as per the current discussion. Second post is now more clearly distinguished on headphones with and without accepted nomination. Second post updated with non-accepted nominations. Any of the yet to be accepted headphones can be added to the poll later-on once the requirements are met. (As per the first post.)

 

Thank you for the impressions, this headphone is now under 7-day assessment period. Lets wait what the others think.

My personal take: Good entry level closed back headphones without all-over-the-place bass. Bass response is still elevated around midbass though which, along with also somewhat elevated treble response, makes for a mild U-shaped character. Mids tend to sound somewhat 'hard', sense of transparency leaves a lot to be desired. Probably due to larger stiff pleather earpads and elevated treble response, DT150 tend to provide unnaturally wide soundstage somewhat reminding me of AKG K7xx series. While not neutralish enough to my ears, these could be very nice for someone looking for the poor man's Beyer T5p.

 

From the recently nominated headphones, I am thinking about adding HD580 and HD650 KISS. That being said, I would like to avoid oversaturating the poll with Senn headphones. The list could get endless:

• HD650 stock
• HD650 black screen
• HD650 KISS
• HD600 stock
• HD600 black screen
• HD6XX
• HD660S XYZ mod
• HD580
• HD580 Jubilee edition
• HD5XX XYZ mod
• ...

I think that you get the point. The poll should simply include the most widely accepted models if there are so many neutralish Sennheiser headphones or their variants. Stock HD600 and HD650 for sure have a valid place in the poll but not sure about the rest of suggested headphones/variants/mods. I would therefore like to request more comments from those who havent spoken yet about HD580 and HD650 KISS. Do you want to have it added, or not? Why?

 

I think you're overcomplicating/overstating it. The HD650 KISS is a well known, well accepted mod. The HD580 is it's own headphone that measures in between the HD650 and HD600. It has been around for decades at this point. Sure, it has a Jubilee version, but that version is A) super rare and B) the HD600 before it was labeled as such.

You could also just modify the list to have the HD600, HD650/6xx, HD580, and HD650m. That covers everything that' neutral at Sennheiser.

 

I generally follow the Diffuse Field line of reasoning in terms of neutrality. Conversely the Harman target curve sounds like absolute warmed over trash to me, so take that as you will. You can clearly guess which two I voted for:

 

Thank you for the comments, they are actually helpful!

I gave the last chance to object against HD580 (for any reason) with my previous post. Since we are now past 7 initial days from your nomination and received no clearly refusing comments, HD580 is now included in the poll! Anyone please vote for it if you believe it deserves the spot!


That being said, still unsure about HD650:

• If we pick 'HD650 KISS' as the representative mod, is it actually? Or is there anything better out there (now or in coming future) for HD650 according to SBAF?
• If we just use the generic 'SBAF-modded HD650' entry, it may not symbolize the same thing for everyone.

The second option looks more reasonable to me so far as long as we make it clear we are talking about SBAF-modded variants (that are continuously being documented here on SBAF). You seem to suggest this too in your post.

 

Shit, that's my bad. I should have clarified: The HD650 with the KISS mod is usually refered to as the HD650m. It's even had listing on head-fi with that name, and it basically just easier to refer to it as that and not have head-fi mods say "SHIT THATS A SBARF MOD!"

 

HD650M is the first "official" SBAF HD650 mod.
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/sennheiser-hd650-m-compendium.3188/

The second of the two "official" SBAF HD650 mods is the HD650 KISS (aka HD650K, etc.)
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/hd650-kiss-mod.3440/

Edit: The KISS version is said to be the more neutral and seems to be the version that is more commonly done now.

 

Ah, I thought we just rolled it into one.

 

Thanks to the many who have trumpeted the Senn 650 and 600s. I have tried all sorts of mid priced cans. And thanks to the folks here and at Chang, have re-purchased 650s and just recently bought 600s. At one point when my hearing was more acute, (decade or more ago), I felt the 600s to be too bright. Not now, I like them more than my departed 650s. Now I like that little Lagniappe up in the lower treble.

Neither are prefect for me and I am not willing to go crazy and spend $500 + on cans. Maybe I should.... but for now I am content. The other revelation I am finding is that amp price has no effin correlation to SQ.