[davidvanderbilt]

I got my HD 600s in today..... I got them on amazon warehouse deals in "very good" condition - according to the description there was "minor blemish on front and side of housing". Well I don't see any blemishes at all. They look new, smell new haha, and I only paid 338.00. Just FYI for those cautious about warehouse deals. Anyways my first impressions - I plugged them into the headphone jack of my NAD AV-716 with the ODAC and they sound great! I am upgrading from the sennheiser HD 598. They are clearly more detailed and have a more refined sound. So far I have been listening to nine inch nails and pink floyd and I am definitely noticing things that i've never noticed before. I listen to a lot of electronic and rock, but am sensitive to bright treble, and so far these headphones seem to tame bright highs in the electronic music i've been throwing at them which I really like. They sound natural and have good detail in the treble region without being harsh. Rather they are smooth and I'm really enjoying the sound! I can't wait until my bottlehead crack arrives! Well, even though I have to put it together. Like I mentioned before I ordered the HD600s about a year ago and tried them with my Ibasso D4 mamba and was unimpressed. Clearly, it was not doing them justice. Sound great with my receiver though! I also tried hooking them up to my NAD 7220 PE using my ghetto rigged headphone ---> LR speaker wire adapter (unbalanced) and they didnt sound good. The soundstage sounded very strange, and unbalanced largely to one side. I'm almost positive the reason, which I have experienced in another receiver, is that this particular amp's channels can't share a common ground, they have to be separate. Anyways, back to listening...
 
My ghetto rigged adapter:
 

 

[spurxiii]

I'll also will be trying the HD600 with speaker amps once I get my balanced cables hooked up via my speaker amp taps. I can't wait to see how it sounds from my Topping TP60s and some other integrated amps

 

[davidvanderbilt]

I'll also will be trying the HD600 with speaker amps once I get my balanced cables hooked up via my speaker amp taps. I can't wait to see how it sounds from my Topping TP60s and some other integrated amps

 
Which balanced cables are you using?

 

[spurxiii]

Which balanced cables are you using?

I'll be ordering from compicat. Anyone else used him? I already have the speaker taps into XLR to connect to. Any other suggestions?

 

[spurxiii]

My previous balanced cable to XLR was from BTG Audio. Excellent cables but Brian is a bit snowed under and I want this quicker

 

[amcananey]

Why use speaker amps? The HD600s aren't hard to drive. Speaker amps generally have a noise floor that is way too high, except for use with the HE-6s and AKG K1000s. My advice would be to stick to headphone amps...

 

[spurxiii]

I'm loathed to buy another amp just to drive the HD600s but curious to see what it sounds like through the TP60 amp since it brings so much detail out of the orthos. I just want to see if I can get better sound before I go attack my wallet again. Everything in my signature has been bought in the last 3-4 months and Inneed to slow down. Or maybe not

 

[davidvanderbilt]

I didn't have any noise coming from my amp, but it's rated at 20 watts per channel at 8 ohms.

 

[rigodeni]

Using the speaker output of a receiver on the HD 600 is a first for me. Most have a 1/4 inch output for headphones.... at least all of the ones I have seen. The HD 600 really doesn't need that much power.

 

[LugBug1]

I'm finding the HD600's respond well to speaker amps. But only through the hp out. Haven't tried the taps before and really wouldn't want to. 
 
Most speaker amps just have a resistor in between the main power supply and tend to have very high impedance output. This can work really well with the 300 ohm Senn's. 
 
I would say that if you can hear the noise floor of the amp then its either old and in need of servicing or not a very good amp. Impedance mismatching can cause hiss etc but you'd more likely hear this with low impedance phones. 
 
Speaker amps can be a nice and cheap alternative these days and the results can be very surprising ime

 

[blueangel2323]

Be careful with connecting the HD600 to speaker outputs. You don't want to blow the drivers.

 

[rigodeni]

Most receivers I have seen are between 4-8ohm on the speaker output. Isn't that a complete mismatch for the HD 600? In terms of cost, the O2 or E09k are going to cost considerably less than a receiver. I got my SMSL SAP III for $65 shipped, sounds fantastic with tuns of power to spare. I am sure the headphone output of a decent receiver can sound as good or ever better than your average headphone amp. But such a receiver would be much larger and more expensive.
 
Most who already have a decent receiver do not have it connected to their PC rig, which is where most people will be listening to headphones. My receiver is in my basement media room, where I would much rather listen to my more expensive tower speakers with dedicated woofer. If I don't want to bother anyone, I would stay at my PC rig. I guess one could connect the receiver to their PC rig, but then there's the issue of clutter, a headphone amp is smaller and more affordable.

 

[Keithpgdrb]

hooking up the 600's to speaker taps is a very bad idea.  you will damage them, and its a lot of unnecessary wiring.  just use the HP out on a good receiver.  essentially it is the speaker taps with a resistor.

 

[LugBug1]

Heres a pic of my latest integrated amp (posted in the HD800 thread). Pioneer SA-508 from 1979, cost me £60 ($80?) and I'd confidently let it compete with any headphone amp under $1000. It can be very hit and miss with regards to getting good condition vintage amps especially regarding their insides. But very worthwhile considering the cost.  The sound with the HD600's is; large soundstage, strong warm controlled bass, rich treble and lots of depth.  
 
 
 

 

[spurxiii]

I have a couple of vintage integrated amps I want to try via both the HP output and the speaker taps. Via the speaker taps I'll either use resistors or a pre-amp to control volume. At the moment if I use the preamp volume down I can have my speaker amp at full volume powering HE500s and it not be that loud, and this is via an amp that's got 50w into 8ohms. I believe the HD600s are 300 Ohms so even lower real world watts.

IMO, the hd600 is a warm sounding can so would benefit from the Topping TP60 which is very neutral, cold, detailed, and analytical.

My goal is to get the most out of the HD600s with what I have and not go out buy another amp just to drive them properly. Will post results once I have a good listen