Funny of Sennheiser to announce a new 600 line headphone with angled drivers the day before these go on sale. But closed back! Cheaper too. Probably not deliberate (and both announcements/on-sale times probably are timed to coincidence with the Munich audio show, if anything) but still. Funny timing.
I'd like to buy both but feel like I have to pick.
I think there’s room for both to coexist.
I’ve been hoping for a closed-back HD 660S for years!! The HD 620 is a very different product serving a different use case, I feel. Closed back headphones will sound better than open backed ones
in environments with distracting background noise, and they’re better outside too because you’ll hear less whistling of wind. Arguably they’re more versatile. And I’m glad to finally see an HD 600 series headphone with an angled driver.
But at the end of the day, an open back headphone is going to have a higher potential for sound quality. There’s all sorts of physics involved with less resonance and acoustic impedance with the driver in open back headphones like the OAE1 able to vibrate more freely with less influence from the cups. One of Axel’s (and colleagues) last projects at Sennheiser, the HD 820, sought to reduce these factors and many of the innovations from that project are still with the company, as well as Axel’s former colleagues and people he sought to share with. However, the OAE1 is simply one of the most open headphones ever, so it stands in stark contrast. And where the $2400 HD 820 had a few tricks up its sleeve to sound almost like an open headphone, I’m shocked by the sub bass response this open-backed OAE1 is able to develop! The HD 620’s driver angle is, from what I saw, nowhere near as extreme, so the OAE1 is also going to have more human/individual impact on the sound and intuitively believable. Soundstage and the sense of depth is also influenced by moments where the mix of soft ambient environmental noise cannot be distinguished from recorded sound coming from the OAE1.
So anyway, I’m still writing and I’m going to end my little break here. I could justify owning both the HD 620 and OAE1 for different reasons even if I wasn’t a collector, and I suspect (even without hearing it) that the HD 620 will be a long term stablemate for Sennheiser. But right now, I’m in the flow writing about the OAE1, I’m wearing it right now to keep my listening impressions fresh (and in case I hear something extra I want to mention), and it’s the headphone I’ve been reaching for since it got here… to the point where it’s a bummer to reach for something else for the sake of comparison in the review
I’ve carefully started my review with descriptions, listening notes, and comparisons before sharing my opinion at the end, but spoiler: the overall impression is very positive.
) and after that the normal ones without this "Signature Limited Edition Blah-Blah" addition.
