Sennheiser HD660S Speculation

Who cares?

 

One of those If I squeeze any harder this will really hurt grips on somebody's balls?

I was rather hoping for more in the treble. But I guess Sennheiser has more sense than to design around my hearing. The advertising material is obviously aimed at the young.

International pricing madness: The price of HD600, at the moment, on Amazon.india is not only more than HD650, it is higher than the USD price for these HD660S.

 

Source, if you really want to know.

No distortion measurements, just the usual gear list + whitepaper for dick-measuring purposes.

 

My question was rhetorical.

 

I guess my answer was, too.

 

I thought that 650's are already good as a harman's target (without the +4db bass emphasis, making them "speaker" like above 40 hz). I superimposed the "flat speaker in the room" line from harman's curve (the green line) and hd650 follows it nicely. This response comparison looks to my eyes as the same bass, slightly less emphasized mids and lower treble, and very simmilar presence/brilliance/harmonics. Am I missing something?

Also since when is Jude interested in measurments? Strange. Good change I guess.

 

I'm actually quite happy that these use a completely different driver. At least they've actually done something new and not just made a lower impedance version of the old one for silly reasons. In that light Jude's measurements look very surprisingly similar to 650. I'm thinking they don't sound that similar because of the new driver, but we'll see.

 

Looks like HD600 comparisons might be more justified.

 

Says "available soon" every damn time I check it. Ugh...Maybe later in the week, I'm hoping.

 

If this scales up as well as the HD650 on uber-tube rigs, then hell and hallelujah, I want one; if this pulls a Klipsch HP-3 and outdoes the HD650 on lower-end gear (more accessible, I think the phrasing was?), then screw it I'm jumping head first.

... After impressions I can trust go up, haha.

 

I can't see that this will be targeted primarily at mobile use. Overall the HD660S just does not have an outdoor sensibility in my view, at least not based on the images I have seen or how I imagine it relative to my HD650 or HD600. I would not wear either the HD650 or HD600 in the Toronto subway or while walking on Yonge St. I would, and have worn my HD25 of M40x though.

To me this new product looks like a way to ensure that they don't get forgotten as being innovative at this price point. The HD650 is my favorite headphone, but its been around for a while and may be seen as stale to some people. This suggests that there should be something new coming from them to fill this need to show progress so to speak.

I never really saw the HD700 as the HD650 successor based on price alone, at least in Canada. I never heard the HD700 and I was not really motivated to seek one out given that I have an HD650 and an HD600. I would at some point; however, buy an HD800 or HD800S but that is not at all in the same price range and does not compete with or replace the HD650 at all in my view. The HD650 evolutionary step is still to be made if you ask me.

I just hope that any bass response changes they are apparently delivering don't result in something too boomy or bass-head oriented. We will see. I just bought the IE 80. While I like bass, the IE 80 is a heavy-handed in this respect, as much as it sounds a bit rough to my ears. I hope the HD660S does not go in this direction and that they present an evolution of the HD650 if anything.

Even so, the future (for home use or for mobile) is likely going to be wireless as DSP technology and bluetooth (or similar) gets better and better. Interesting times are to come.

Speculation for 2049 ...

Computer: tea, Earl Grey, hot. Computer: forget the tea. I want warm jazz and a red wine with all the deleterious effects in tact. Computer: replicate the HD650 circa 2017 and add some bass to the tuning. Make the clamping moderate and forget about the wire. Put the jazz though the head phones. I feel nostalgic. Thank you, Computer.

 

Somebody wake me up when we get close to Thanksgiving. This might be a turkey. Sorry, so far this is a snoozer for me. Perhaps these will be an improvement, but the low key launch from Sennheiser is starting to make more sense.

 

Interesting, Solderdude thought that it had more subbass, may end up sounding like some of the modded versions from people here...?
http://diyah.boards.net/thread/1660/sennheiser-hd660s-he1?page=1&scrollTo=28412

Moar expensive thought....

 

Why the hell would they put the Senn logo off center on the top of the headband. Doesn't Senn know that most headphone geeks have OCD?

 

But the button logo alters the sonic signature! Look at the tight manufacturing tolerances of Grado and how much they had to rework their drivers to accommodate the RS series losing the buttons!

.... I'm done trolling I'm so sorry please don't kill me XD

But really, this isn't any worse than the 800/700 cups. Much improved, in my opinion, but that isn't saying much, I suppose, if you consider they both look worse than the 6-series. Looks classy, if you're into asymmetrical designs.

... Has anyone tried slapping HD700 drivers into 6-series enclosures? Would be interesting to see how those stack up against the 660s

 

Interesting. Why does it make sense to you? Do you think they are downplaying it due to a potential fail?