Driving Miss Daisy? For those of you who have seen the movie you might get the analogy.
You hear a lot on HiFi forums regarding the Sennheiser HD650s. Phrases like ‘legendary’ abound in many amateur (and some professional) reviews and you get the impression that these headphones are the best thing since sliced bread. Glowing superlatives regarding sound stage, imaging, bass control, detail retrieval are there in droves. I own the HD580s and love them so eventually I bought a pair of the 650s just to see what the hype was all about. And my initial conclusion after running them in was just that – hype!
Running the 650s through my Burson Playmate 2 what I heard was definitely underwhelming.
Bass – somewhat bloated, not well controlled and it rolled off in the upper levels. Some slam but not really enough and they didn’t go low enough without losing definition
Midrange – smooth, almost urbane but vocals didn’t impress as they often sounded a bit timid
Treble – definitely dialed back and taking all the fun and excitement out of lead guitars
Imaging – three blobs of sound (left, centre and right) that seem to meet up at the edges
Sound stage – narrow and compressed with no depth
Detail – what detail? Things I’d heard on cheaper cans just weren’t there.
So I went back to the reviews and wondered if the pundits were using the same cans as me. Why were these reviewed so positively, what were the factors that made these supposedly so good for the money? After a while one factor from my research began to stand out - scalability - with driving power a major aspect. Quite simply what they were saying was you need the right amp. To cut a long story short it became evident that my PM2 (a great DAC/Amp) that while being classed as powerful still didn’t have the chops to get anything near the best out of the HD650.
Enter the Schiit Asgard3 which I bought just to see what the HD650s could do – not something I’d normally do. With four times the power of the Burson and recommended by many it was also a reasonable price. Would it prove the HD650 fans correct and bring them to life? The answer is Yes.
I’ve spent a few weeks with the HD650s as my only listening device. I wasn’t trying to make comparisons so no need for my Audeze LCD1, HD580s, etc. I just wanted to hear what the Asgard3 did to the 650s without having another set of headphones colouring my opinion. So why did I say yes, what’s improved? Let’s go back to my original criteria
Bass – possibly this is where the biggest improvement is for these Senns. Slam, good definition (but it doesn’t quite go all the way down) and the roll off has been minimized to the point where you don’t really notice it. It’s not bass head stuff but it’s enjoyable and it’s definitely faster and tighter.
Treble – Yay, there is now some sparkle and you definitely hear it on the upper registers of guitars and similar instruments. What’s more it’s cleaner and tighter without getting peaky.
Imaging – also a huge improvement. The three blobs are gone and the whole sound stage is now covered albeit with one or two little dead areas.
Detail – of course with improved imaging then those little details that I couldn’t really hear using my PM2 have emerged.
Midrange – you’ll notice I’ve left this for last as, for me, there are some ambivalences. Often touted as one of the HD650s strengths it’s also a bit of an achilles heel IMHO – or at least with this set up.
The midrange is warm, smooth, almost beguiling. It’s at it’s strongest in the lower mids and I feel that this is to the disadvantage to the higher registers of the midrange which don’t project anywhere near as well. The mids seem to try to smooth over recording imperfections and a good example of this is vocal sibilance which is usually caused by poor use of a mike and a lack of basic vocal technique. I imagine that this drives recording engineers nuts as it’s almost impossible to correct without compromising the recording. On Mary Black's beautiful rendition of ‘Bright Blue Rose’ you can hear the sibilance on just about every set of cans I’ve ever used except the HD650s. The other effect of the somewhat recessed upper mids is to push many vocalists into the background. Imagine that they have taken two or three steps back towards the drummer and are singing from there – that’s the effect that I hear. And it’s also this effect, along with those slightly recessed vocals and the ‘smoothing effect that gives rise to the old chestnut, the Sennheiser 'veil'. I don’t think the A3 has totally removed it.
In conclusion, yes, I believe that these cans definitely scale up when paired with an appropriate amp and what the Asgard3 has done has made the 650s a keeper for me, they now sound great with above the caveats above excepted. The Audeze LCD1s I own blow these out of the water in just about every department but we are talking two different beasts here with quite different sound signatures so the comparison lacks some validity.
I’ve yet to hear all that some claim these 650s are capable of but do I want to spend a disproportionate amount of money for an amp considering the cost of the 650s to find out? No, I’d rather get a better set of headphones and preferably ones that are not so picky about the amp.
