[SirMarc]

Going to be using an Ember II so I should be good.

Nice! Good luck, hope you dig them

 

[bavinck]

What is the consensus on the Grace Design m9xx for the 650?

 

[mikoss]

 

Yes, per above, grin and bear the 650's for a good week. Your brain may become accustomed to the sound, vs the "illuminated" treble of the Grados.



The Aune is ok, but not great. It does a decent job with the 650's at the lowest dip switch setting... I found changing it higher caused compression and loss of details.



FWIW, the 650's have an ability to sound much more clearer/resolving than the Grados, despite the difference in tuning. This is due to the differences in ability and distortion in the drivers themselves. (If you want some lulz, go look at Grado measurements... I mean seriously.)

 


That's very interesting. I *do* hear tons of resolution in my 650, like I can see into the texture of each musical object, even though I have not read that that this is their reputation. But again, I sure hear it. Could you elaborate or point to any material that could confirm what I sense that I hear?
It is definitely my impression that these are very insightful and resolving headphones, even in the bass where I think there is nice transparency and detail, something that is hard to do. I think the bass transparency is better than Grado.

 
Without trying to generate any kind of controversial comments, I took a pic of some measurement comparisons taken by Tyll. They are all available at these links:
Grado SR325 measurements http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR325.pdf
HD 650's: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD650.pdf
modded HD650's: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserHD650DIYModHands.pdf
 
I just pasted them in Paint for a quick comparison... I hope it's quite obvious the 650's have an ability to present bass with less distortion, along with pretty much everything else. Their square wave response also resembles a square wave (with less ringing than say a pair of HD700's... which is a whole other story).
 

 
Just for the record, I don't believe everything can be measured, and I also detest a bunch of headphones that you'd think would sound fabulous based on their measurements. 

 

[CanadianMaestro]

^ good comparisons.
 
in other words....measurements are good to have, but they don't always tell the "whole truth" about an HP. 
 
Me ears are still da best metrics of HP sound quality.....

 

[raybone0566]

That's why it's always best to audition headphones if possible. Impressions can be just as misleading as measurements.i actually enjoyed my grados when I had them way back.

 

[rockyraccon]

The problem is that it is hard to audition high end headphones. All the headphones I have were never auditioned before purchasing. There are no places around me that have any of the headphones I wanted. Sometime measurements, reviews, and word of mouth is all people have to go on.

 

[BobG55]

  ^ good comparisons.
 
in other words....measurements are good to have, but they don't always tell the "whole truth" about an HP. 
 
Me ears are still da best metrics of HP sound quality.....

Subjective vs Objective = another eternal debate in the audiophile world.  Since I don't understand measurements & God knows I've tried, I'm in the Subjective camp.
 
I've owned the HD650 for quite a few years & have owned and sold many other headphones, most costing more than the HD650.  So in my case I've also relied on my ears & the HD650 has always been more pleasing than many other headphones.

 

[kman1211]

 
Subjective vs Objective = another eternal debate in the audiophile world.  Since I don't understand measurements & God knows I've tried, I'm in the Subjective camp.
 
I've owned the HD650 for quite a few years & have owned and sold many other headphones, most costing more than the HD650.  So in my case I've also relied on my ears & the HD650 has always been more pleasing than many other headphones.

Definitely. I fall under the more subjective camp myself but I am a bit objective at times, I can read graphs pretty well but don't find them the end all, I have bought headphones based on graphs and it sometimes turns out well but not as well as I expect to and other headphones I bought blind with similar luck. I've gotten to the point where I have good enough handle on how driver technology, materials, and dampening works in practice(don't understand the theory as well as I should) to usually tell if I will like a headphone or not simply based on looking at the driver and it's implementation and not even caring about measurements, though there are some surprises here and there. Some headphones I like the sound of so much I don't even care if it measures well or not because all I care about with them is the music. 

 

[SirMarc]

Hey, what do you guys think of the Momentum 2.0 over ears? Got a really good deal on a pair and should have them Thursday

 

[koven]

The problem is that it is hard to audition high end headphones. All the headphones I have were never auditioned before purchasing. There are no places around me that have any of the headphones I wanted. Sometime measurements, reviews, and word of mouth is all people have to go on.

 
i see you're in socal, the source AV in torrance has literally every flagship for demo w/ TOTL amps, i spent hours there last time i was in socal

 

[rockyraccon]

   
i see you're in socal, the source AV in torrance has literally every flagship for demo w/ TOTL amps, i spent hours there last time i was in
 

 
I didn't know that. When I take some leave I will check them out. I am originally from the Bay Area and stationed in San Diego. I don't get a lot of time off. So thanks for the info.

 

[jdpark]

Hey, what do you guys think of the Momentum 2.0 over ears? Got a really good deal on a pair and should have them Thursday

I wasn't a huge fan of the 1.0 when I auditioned them, mainly because of the mid-bass boost. Probably tons of reviews on Amazon for the 2.0, since they're super popular. 

 

[Deftone]

Im thinking about pairing the 650s with a woo audio wa2. Anyone got any experience with the pair?

I prefer a fast, dynamic and detailed tube amp over the smooth syrupy ones.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

Im thinking about pairing the 650s with a woo audio wa2. Anyone got any experience with the pair?

I prefer a fast, dynamic and detailed tube amp over the smooth syrupy ones.

imo, if you want speed, then do SS.
 
If WA2 is OTL, then it could be a perfect pairing. I had WA6 (not OTL), and really enjoyed it with my 650. But my BHA-1 kicked its butt L and R. 

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

Im thinking about pairing the 650s with a woo audio wa2. Anyone got any experience with the pair?

I prefer a fast, dynamic and detailed tube amp over the smooth syrupy ones.

 
The WA2 is a slower more syrupy amp.  I think its not the best HD650 pairing.  More of an HD800 kinda amp.  Might want to check out the WA6, because its a bit more speedy.  And there are even faster tube amps (The Zana Deux Super comes to mind), but they come at a hefty price.
 
Solid state stuff is also a good suggestion. The Schiit Jotunheim looks like a real winner with the HD650, and I hope to audition one, in the coming weeks...