Any open-cans that sounds like the ATH-M50 and HD650 got married and had a kid?

Lunatique, would you say the bass of HD650 is quite similar to the m50 after the EQ tweak? What setup are you using to power these headphones? I'm actually returning my m50 because of abnormal static noise and I was wondering if instead of getting m50 replacement, I should just get the hd650, which I know will require dac and an amp to drive them fully.

Oh wow I just noticed this thread is a year old...I hope someone can still answer my question...No one seem to compare m50 with the hd650 so I don't know...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lunatique 

Overall, I'd trust the HD650 more than the M50, and by adding a bit more sub-bass, the HD650 does fill out better, and overall with the EQ'ing, it's more accurate than the M50. You don't want the HD650's bass to be totally identical to the M50 because the M50's bass prominence is a bit exaggerated. The M50's mids are also slightly too lush, and its treble a bit etched/metallic. HD650 doesn't have those those problems.

 

I power my headphones with just plain vanilla pro audio gear that costs a fraction of the boutique audiophile amps, and they sound totally pristine and have been very reliable. Don't buy into the diminishing returns hype--it's the dumbest way to poke a hole in your bank account. Today's DAC in even typical consumer audio devices are already far superior to professional DAC's from a decade or so ago, yet people are still bitching and moaning and spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on dedicated DAC units. How many people can say that they hears a "dramatic" difference between the DAC's of a $200 audio interface and a $1,000 standalone DAC unit--the kind of difference that justifies the extra spending? It you are not a serious audio professional doing critical mixing/mastering work, it really is overkill. Seriously, to most people on head-fi, music, audio, headphones...etc is just a hobby, and for hobbyist listening, you'd be surprised by how little money you have to spend to get enormous satisfaction. The tiny little differences and improvements are meaningless in that context because as soon as you stop doing rigorous A/B testing and straining so damn hard just to hear that tiny bit of improvement/difference, and simply enjoy the music, movies, and video games, your ears are perfectly happy. But if you are financially well off and have money to burn, then the sky's the limit and you can get whatever you want and don't need any justification.

 

Great post Lunatique. Compared to most here, I've only sunk loose change into amps and dacs. At present though I feel entirely content with my modest setup and I'm confident I've dodged the slippery descent into the maddening realm of diminishing returns.

I've locked horns with some who have mistakenly pegged me as a shill for expensive gear, but I've always maintained the value found in some "entry level" components. I feel it's good to inform people of the pitfalls of this hobby but I also think it would be a disservice to not mention the improvement that can be found in improving one's chain. This is particularly relevant for the HD650, which is quiet a revealing headphone that will not flatter any bottlenecks in a setup. To me this explains the often baffling claims that the HD650 is slow, veiled or boring. These are things that can be addressed even without spending the big bucks on gear.

It's all about finding the right synergy. I've found it in my setup and I haven't broken the bank in doing so. My ears are perfectly happy and so is my wallet.

I agree. Actually, as just a college student, I don't think I'll ever be able to justify (at least in the near future) spending several hundred dollars on audio gear. More and more I read in head-fi forums, I'm convinced that this hobby is quite expensive, although with some doubt with comments like such set up is "night and day difference," which seem to be a justified enough reason for many to spend so much (IMO) money into their headphone gears (which is at least a graspable concept to me until it goes onto cables that cost several hundred dollars. However, no offense intended for readers who believe otherwise and can hear the difference.)

I definitely do not want to go into spending a lot of money for little improvement in sound quality. If I decide to buy the hd650, I am thinking about just buying the fiio e7/e9 combo, as it is a fact that hd650 has to be amped with enough power. I don't have any DAC and headphone amp yet, and many agree that it's a great bang for the buck type of a deal just like the ath-m50 

I actually have a question! Sorry if I'm a little too straight-forward, but I can't understand spending over a thousand dollars on headphones either! Lunatique, as a critic of overly dramatized hype on audiophile gears, do you still think there's a good enough reason to spend the money to buy high-end headphones you have? Perhaps because I'm still a financially bound college student, but thousand dollar headphone is just as a diffficult concept for me as a couple hundred dollars spent on buying aftermarket cables...