From HD650 to HD600

[SteveM324]

I purchased my first pair of 650s about 3-4 years ago and then sold them about a year ago. My second 650 was purchased about a week ago and it seems less boomy in the bass. How do you tell the difference between the white and black versions?

[robm321]

Originally Posted by Patu

Well isn't it my old friend robm321.

By the way we had the same pair of GS1000 in the meet, which I've auditioned several times before. Now in this meet they sounded quite ok with my own setup. I compared them to HD650. At least the sibilance was gone now. Not sure if it was my previous source causing it or are the GS1000 finally fully burnt in. Or then I've destroyed my hearing at night clubs and bars. Anyways quite nice. They still fit on my head like crap, leaving a huge gap between my jaw and ear.

I still preferred Sennheiser sound to GS1000 but now I must pull off my comments of them sounding bad, because they didn't at that meet.

Glad to hear we both have middle ground. I have mainly been listening to the K-1000 and HP-2 lately. But I can't seem to have the ability to offload the Senn HD-600/Cardas for fear of regret. Good to hear you are into speakers as well Patu

[HighLife]

Originally Posted by robm321

Glad to hear we both have middle ground. I have mainly been listening to the K-1000 and HP-2 lately. But I can't seem to have the ability to offload the Senn HD-600/Cardas for fear of regret. Good to hear you are into speakers as well Patu

Thats ok, you can send them to me for some comparison against my 650s =) While you at it, you can send me the cardas cable too =)

[Patu]

Originally Posted by iancraig10

I don't want my current ones to go the same way - I'm happy the way that they are now. My 600's are lighter sounding than my new 650's so I've got 3 shades of darkness .....

Nice

Originally Posted by SteveM324

How do you tell the difference between the white and black versions?

By taking off the earpads and the foam. Then you should see the color of the cover material. Check the pictures earlier in this thread.

If you mean the difference in SQ then you just have to use your ears.

Originally Posted by robm321

Glad to hear we both have middle ground. I have mainly been listening to the K-1000 and HP-2 lately. But I can't seem to have the ability to offload the Senn HD-600/Cardas for fear of regret. Good to hear you are into speakers as well Patu

Cardas seems to be very popular with HD600. I think I have to audition it.

[catscratch]

Originally Posted by Gradofan2

Also... I guess since they are 2 monoblocks, you must connect the left channel to one, and the right channel to the other amp - correct?

Correct. They're really very nifty little things for the money, and look and sound spectacular provided you don't need the power. 22wpc really does restrict you in your choice of speakers, but so far in this strange role they're performing well.

Originally Posted by tfarney

Catscratch, over here on the po' side of the audio tracks, I'm currently going through a very similar, sort of trailer park version of the same experience .

Inspired by Boomana's warnings against under powering 300 ohm Senns (I was coming out of a Mac laptop through an Airhead), and a post by Uncle Erik recommending vintage receivers as high-powered headphone amps on the cheap, I went and reposessed my 70s Harman Kardon A-402, a 45-watt pch, dual mono integrated from my dad. Now it's Mac>HK>HD580>my head, and I owe dad an amp...

The 580s sounded good out of the Airhead. Heck, they sounded good straight out of the Mac, which has pretty respectable sonics for a laptop. But out of the old HK, everything is a bit different. The most dramatic change, of course, is bass control, but the mids are more open and transparent, the highs are more present, and best of all, it delivers all of its goodies at very moderate volume levels. Before the HK, the system sounded closed and constricted at low volumes.

Gain, however, is an issue. I don't think the resistor in the HK that is supposed to knock down the output of its amps on the way to the HP jack is doing much. 9 o'clock? My ears would be bleeding at 9 o'clock. I have about an inch of travel in the volume knob from silence to the loudest listening levels I'm comfortable with.

Of course with the Mac as source, attenuating the volume is easy enough. I can turn it down in preferences or iTunes, before it goes to the HK. But I don't know if there are any adverse effects to doing that. Does anyone know if there is an impact on signal quality if you attenuate output from a computer or from iTunes?

Soon, I'm going to get around the Mac's soundcard via an Apogee Duet. When I do, I would assume I would attenuate there?

Tim

The rig actually isn't all that expensive; it can all clock in well under $2k used. Of course, once I drop the 840c in here it will be another story.

I'm glad you're enjoying the Senns. Boomana is right, they really only show their stuff when properly driven. That's not to say that you can't enjoy them out of a lesser system but you're only getting a fraction of their potential performance. There shouldn't be any kind of veil or congestion in these headphones; the only criticism I can make of their clarity is that their transient response is not as fast as a planar headphone - but I'll be damned if I can think of many dynamics that are faster. The Qualia 010 is certainly faster... and that's about it. They do, however, have a somewhat soft attack even compared to other dynamics like the K1000 or hybrids like the K340. This doesn't seem to hurt their detail or dynamic range any, but it does give the sound a lush, velvety feel rather than a crisp one.

I don't know if the Apogee Duet has volume controls, but if not, I think that a preamp could come in handy, or you could try some line-level attenuators. I haven't tried them and don't know what kind of effect they will have on sound quality. I'm guessing a detrimental one, but they're not too expensive an experiment. Headroom I know sells them in 10db and 20db varieties.

Originally Posted by Patu

Interesting findings by some of you, especially Zorander who has HD650 with less bass than HD600. Weird indeed.

The HD650 in my rig has less bass than the HD600 in most single-ended rigs. If anything, the bass is insufficient in quantity. I think that's more my source talking though, it's not known for its bass and with all silver cabling I'm getting a very accurate picture of it.

That's not to say that the HD600 will have more bass in this rig, but the HD650 does not have to be bass-heavy. It all depends on how you source it. It is revealing enough to show you what's going on in the signal path without the bass getting in the way. When it does get in the way, that's usually a sign that the headphones aren't getting enough power. Driving them balanced helps with their bass control even further, and they can have some of the tightest, most detailed bass around.

[jclaytonsound]

Originally Posted by Patu

But the HD600, me likes A LOT. If I should put it simply, they are HD650 with less bass (talking about bass amount, not deepness or punchiness) and more treble energy. To my ears the sound of HD600 was in better balance than HD650's. I tried to audition them critically with my test tracks, but I kept on finding myself listening through albums with them. I just fell into the music. After that I knew that because I can't go for Woo6 ATM, I must go for HD600 because it works very well on my current rig. And here we are, today I bought them for quite a good price and now I'm burning them in. Almost ten hours behind already. I know these need much much more. I'm going to keep my Enigma Audio cable with them.

I recently bought a pair of HD600's, and I have had a very similar experience. I am pretty new to this forum, and I am only just starting to build my rig. I decided to try the HD600 after hearing the HD650 in the store,
and feeling that it was a little bass heavy (at least in the rig at the store). I couldn't be happier with my HD600 purchase. I started with my usual test tracks as well, but I kept listening through entire albums. So far my K501's haven't touched the HD600 in terms of engagement, but I will not judge until I get a real source and possibly an amp upgrade.

Just my two cents.

[pp312]

Originally Posted by Penchum

Later, when I picked up my MKV Dual Mono SS headphone amp, the HD-600's really turned impressive! They sound much better than the HD-650's on the MKV.

Though I don't doubt your findings, this seems to confound expectations. I have both 650 and 580, and to my ears the 580 is the more aggressive, more sharply etched phone. This suggests that it would be best served with a tube amp, and the more laidback 650 with an SS amp. Yet your findings run counter to that. As I've just ordered an LD Mk V, I'm very interested to read any further comments you might have on this apparent conundrum. Am I likely after burning in the Little Dot to throw my 650 straight out the window in favour of its older, cheaper brother?

[Patu]

I just picked up Cardas Sennheiser cable for audition. I'll do some comparison between Enigma Audio and Cardas.

[Bozz_Keren]

isn't the material around the driver is some kind of metal, mine has grey colour, so that means mine is older version?

[oatmeal769]

Hmmm. I'd like to hear just a slight amount more bass with my HD 600's. Maybe I'm due for a set of 650's?