Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, Sep 27, 2015.

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  1. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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  2. BioniclePhile

    BioniclePhile The Terminal Man - Friend

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  3. Registered_for_pics

    Registered_for_pics New

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    Alright, got my O2 now. To make a long story short: I literally cannot hear a difference between the Fiio E10K (High Gain) and the O2, except that the O2 can get even louder, although we're entering deafening territory.
     
  4. Aelms

    Aelms Facebook Friend

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    That's probably because there isn't much of a difference, if any. The O2 does its job giving your headphones a volume boost.

    I don't think you'll find too many O2 fans around here.
     
  5. Registered_for_pics

    Registered_for_pics New

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    Well, at least we know the Fiio E10K is not underpowered for the HD650.
     
  6. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    My dynamat should be coming in later today. I'll give the mod a try and report back on my results.
     
  7. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    The O2 is exactly what it is described as: a wire with gain. It's good for that. If your transducer is seriously flawed, you might not want that.
     
  8. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    Yep, the dynamat applied accordingly to Austin's picture works as advertised. It's not a significant difference but it's noticeable. It helps tighten up the bass a bit and gives it a tad bit more impact while improving slightly on bass resolution. I dont hear any trade-offs either. It's a cheap mod, reversible, and very easy to do.
     
  9. fierce_freak

    fierce_freak Friend

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    I'll have to pick up a sheet soon and give it a go.

    Still stock this go around so far. Aprehensive about the coin mod.
     
  10. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    Maybe Sennheiser will sell you the foam if you give them a call. The sennheiser reps that I've talked to on the phone were always nice. There are also these VEVER replacement foam on amazon. Anyone want to give those a try to see if they make a sonic difference or not? Just $9, or $12 for 2 pairs of foam. Could try using 1 pair as-is and one pair with the coin mod.

    http://www.amazon.com/VEVER®-Replac...TF8&qid=1446341220&sr=8-1&keywords=hd600+foam

    I performed the coin mod within a few hours of receiving my hd650s so I can't tell you how much of a difference that it makes. I just remember the hd650s being a bit too laid-back before I performed the mods.
     
  11. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    I've now pulled the foam out of the back and added Dynamat Extreme where @AustinValentine indicated. I probably spent 45 minutes doing it because I wanted the pieces to fit perfectly.

    I have no plans to do the coin mod because the highs are right where I want them.

    Differences? Subtle. I kinda wish I did the full mod to one side first then the other, because I couldn't be sure I perceived differences between the two sides in a minute listening test (downmixed to mono) with the Dynamat (I already pulled the foam on both sides last week).

    The good news is that it's not a night and day difference. Better? Perhaps slightly, but only a little different from the HD650 I already loved.
     
  12. TomNC

    TomNC Friend

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    To my ears the dynamat mod produces a more than subtle difference in bass. With this mod, my HD650 is notably bassier than HD800 to the point that I don't want to more bass as this would hurt the coherence of frequency bands. I have some dynamat on the top metal plate too, though not sure how much a difference that makes. One plausible explanation could be that my HD650 is driven from speaker taps which tend to have ample power for bass. I don't have a decent dedicated headphone amp to do some comparisons ATM.
     
  13. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    Could you show a pic of where you placed the dynamat on the top metal plate? I could give it a quick try later. When I use my hd650s or hd600s with my virtue one.3, I find that they do have slightly harder hitting bass however at the cost of sounding thinner overall compared to the valhalla 2. Perhaps it's caused by the very high dampening factor on the speaker amp compared to the 14ohm on the valhalla 2.

    Also, what's your speaker amp?

    I'm going to play around with dynamat on my hd600s. I already have a layer of open cell foam provided by Hands, which have helped a lot in taming the treble hump.
     
  14. fierce_freak

    fierce_freak Friend

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    Where are you placing the foam?
     
  15. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    In front of where the stock foam is. Hands had some measurements in one of the changstar hd600 threads.
     
  16. fierce_freak

    fierce_freak Friend

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    Marv'ed my hd650 tonight. I like it. Gotta get some dynamat and give that a shot now.
     
  17. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Tyll posted measurements of my modded HD650. Essentially the same thing Marv did, but without Dynamat (yet) and with some drawer liner in front of the silver mesh and under the foam. Oh, and the head clamp is much, much less than stock due to me bending the headband a good bit. I did swap on some newer pads when Tyll measured these.

    My HD650: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD650DIYModHands.pdf
    Stock: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD650.pdf

    Note that these are not the same pair of HD650s. Differences are not huge regardless of mods.
     
  18. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    It just measures bettar.:p

    I actually like how my HD600 sounds with my O2 better than with my 2i2. I feel it's a bit more detailed. Maybe just expectation bias. YMMV. There are better amps too which may or may not give you better audible performance.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2015
  19. Huhnkopf

    Huhnkopf Friend

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    Damn.

    I finally got the HD 650 now and while I don't have a dedicated DAC until the Gungnir Multibit is available again in EU (sold my D2) I still have the Valhalla 2. Running it from a lowly Sound Blaster Z in "Stereo Direct" Mode (bypasses the Core3D Chip) to the Valhalla 2 I can still get a good glimpse how great this headphone is.
    Have a Creative X7 LE as well which I use for my consoles but it's on loan until the end of the week, so using it until the Gungnir Multibit will give another boost again until the Gungnir Multibit arrives.

    I love the very clean mids (damn) and the treble. I love using the overprocessed "Marina & the Diamonds - Shampain" as a cringe/pain/torture track to see if a headphone hisses (please don't try this with a T90 and Ultrasone) and it passes effortlessly.
    There's some bass bloom and lack of articulation/texture/extension which the HD800s (sold them a few days ago) don't have and I notice less depth than the HD 800 (very noticable) but the width is fine and not at all inside the head.

    However the basis for this is not adequate enough for more indepth impressions, but they are here to stay until I might decide to look at TOTL again sometime next year.
     
  20. logscool

    logscool Friend

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    Sennheiser part #50635 includes new ear pads and the foam baffle covers ~$60.
     

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