Spatulaorama
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
- Posts
- 16
- Likes
- 13
A non-audiophile’s layman-terms impressions of the sacred Sennheiser HD 650
Hello everyone again, it’s been well over 2 ½ years since my last post here; I was on my merry way enjoying my Sennheiser 555s immensely since summer of 2006. It has kept me quite happy. So one might ask, why the change to what many would consider one of the great pinnacles of audio bliss? Aren’t I happy to stick with the tried and true 555s?
A few house keeping items, I would never consider myself an audiophile, and can’t tell ohms, impedance, frequency response, and all that other fun jargon - differentiating them from head to ass. It’s tough to read up on reviews when many of them spew out terminology that just leaves me baffled with what looks like ancient Greek. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few newbies like me to the audiophile world just are too intimidated to step out and ask questions while fearing to make mistakes etc.
Also there’s lots of pictures taken (yeah for those of you who own the 650’s – not much to see here, just go look at your own ^__^).
I would also like to keep this as my impressions of these cans, not so much a review to say its good/bad/or whatever, simply because who am I to say what’s great or not. For some of you (and albeit mind you, Head-Fi *IS* Audiophile-country), this might bore you, while I’m trying to target this to the non-initiated crowd who would like to try on high end audio equipment. I’m more than open to constructive criticism, corrections, and the like, but please should I say something wrong or inaccurate, try not to flame me (sweat drop).
Ever receiving my 555s, I’ll admit I was blown away just by it and the sound it produced, but I knew there was just something more. The 555s had a very inviting sound, but I found that after a while, it just seemed to phase out during bombastic orchestrated music. Even so, the 555 is an excellent piece of kit for the start out music enthusiast.
I think I’ve had my mind on these 650s or the AKG K 701/702s for over a year now. I started doing quite a bit of research and read up every little tad bit here and there, and mainly consulted the reviews of headphone.com (where I also learned about the 555s), and basically read these 650s were some serious business kick ass cans. The truth is, I never got to audition them out ever, so it was a huge step of faith, as well as a hit in the wallet to take the plunge. The entry fee of $500 Canadian plus (from what I’ve read, an appropriate amp to fuel these or a sound card) isn’t exactly something many young adults can just sniff and shrug away at. After talking to quite a few friends, and the astonishment of one friend in Montreal after trying these out, I seriously wanted to check these out.
Also note that my exposure to high end headphones is next to nil, the 650s excluded. At this time, I’ve really only been able to check out Sennheisers. We can’t get Grados where I live (hell, I read Grados aren’t sold outside of US soil), and I guess just not enough electronic stores, including the big retailers like Best Buy in Canada, don’t have a very good selection for the top tier stuff. I learned about Sennheiser from my dad, and just as habit, have stuck with them first since getting “ye old Senn 495s”.
Now down to business: the Sennheiser HD 650s in the eyes, and ears, of your average Joe looking for good sound reproduction.
I’ve had these for about over 24 hours now, and have pretty much let them start the break in process of feeding it music. Reading that it takes anywhere from 100 to 300 hours minimum for the full burn in effect for the 650s to really sound optimal, I’m far in the early stages, imagine a newborn 650 if you will. I’m using stock cables and have read quite a bit of how upgraded cables (heh, another $200-300 mind you) will vastly improve their sound. I’m not skeptical, but as my wallet has taken quite a hit, I think I want to wait on this for a while. Besides, it’s pointless to have the best sound but not have any reference before. It’s like having the worlds best beef stake served to you from the AAA cattle, but lo and behold, it’s your very first time having stake, ever. The same thinking can be applied to me trying out the stock cables, and then maybe when I have a bit more money coming in, I can move up in cables.
I bought this along with the Presonus Audiobox USB 2X2 from Axe Music in Canada. Everything came to about a cool $750 Canadian, somewhere around there. At first they didn’t have the 650s in stock, so I put down a twenty as a deposit and was told they’d be in 2 weeks.
I’ve connected this to an Audiobox thingamabob soundcard since after explaining that 99% of my music listening will be from my PC. It’s a beast of a machine – an old Pentium 4 with XP and a cheapo $5 soundcard made in your friendly neighborhood China – hence the need in the upgrade to a more decent soundcard. The guys at Axe music made it quite clear that yeah, the $5 integrated soundcard ain’t going to cut it. Its like hooking up your HDTV to regular analog cable, or even worse, rabbit ears - or hooking up your Playstation 3 to an HDTV via composite cables, oh joy.
As of yet, I have not done any modifications to the 650 (reading of how some might take out the padding or something), and as stated before, am using the stock cables. To make it a fair comparison of how it fares from the 555s, I have to address a few experimental differences/errors that would greatly affect the testing.
1)The 555s were hooked up using the stock 1/8” connector plug into the $20 Creative Labs and a crappy integrated soundcard on the motherboard.
2)The 650s are hooked up to the $200 Audiobox with the quarter inch plug.
In the impressions, you’ll see of how I may sound critical against the 555s, but then again its two totally different realms. It’s like trying to compare a $15,000 Canadian Nissan Vera to a $50,000 Subaru WRX STi and saying the STi has better performance. Gee, I wonder why. (I’m a Subaru driver and fan by the way ^__^).
The 555’s can totally hold their own in the $100-200 price range – I have no doubt, so yes I know its not a fair comparison, but I’m glad I can actually tell the audio difference between these two, or else what the hell did I exactly dump my $750 on?
(Actually, what a helluva difference the soundcard makes, even the 555s sound FAR better, obviously, after plugging in and trying the 555s on the Audiobox)
For the headphones themselves – they looks pretty sexy. From the pictures, I initially thought all the gun-metal colored parts were metal, but they’re more of a, I don’t know, I guess a very high quality plastic. The thin black bands that connect the pairs of cans to the head band is metal for sure. It’s thin and flexible but not flimsy. The feel of the thing is generally quite solid. You know you’re in for a treat. The box pictured is like a collector’s item, although I sort of wished the outer grey shell had a bit more, finesse to it. It’s minimalist and does away with all the squabble you’d normally see on regular merchandise. Simply because most Joes wouldn’t even consider the 650’s for their price range, and those who know what they’re getting into don’t need any more coaxing from box advertising – they’ve done their homework long before hand.
The band is tighter than what I’m used to. The 555’s sat nicely on my head. I don’t have a fat head, but its not small either. It’s average I guess – my head size. The 650’s more or less act like vise and clamp to the sides of my ear.
It’s open aural so naturally you can hear outside sounds and the outside can hear what you’re listening to. Not exactly something that’s portable to carry around with your ipod but that’s not the point for these. For something like that, you’d be looking at Shure IEMs (which are AWESOME in blocking out sound by the way). Anyways your ipod wouldn’t have anywhere near the juice capacity to fuel these cans.
Initial impressions (right out of the box at zero burn in-hour up to hour 30):
1) Very rich sound, but doesn’t have that punch I’m used to. I’ve read about this “veil” business of how new 650s just don’t quite jump out and grab you by the neck. But honestly this isn’t what it’s all about. I think that many non-audiophiles equate brightness, attack, and ferocious sound as something that is “better” than the subdued but nuanced sound the 650 is sounding right now at the 30 hour burn mark. I’ll admit that I wanted to get that “oh shi~” impact of making a mess in my pants, but instead received somewhat of an understated treble. I didn’t dismiss it though as negative, as the clarity and the nuances that I never imagined just let the music flow.
I think this is one of the “disappointments” some may find when they first plug it in expecting to be blasted away with rock and hard hitting stuff. I’ve read its more geared for jazz and classical (which incidentally what I enjoy listening to most of the time, but I do enjoy dance, house, R&B, some heavy metal, and world music from time to time). As stated before, I’ll agree that what it doesn’t quite equate to in audio brute force, it strikes back with a vengeance in fidelity. The sound only gets better with more hours clocked through it. Maybe it’s a placebo effect of me wanting to like the 650s justifying the hard earned cash I spent, but I doubt it – I certainly hear a difference, and for the better.
The more I’m listening to this, I grow to enjoy it. Already after 30 some odd hours, the treble is picking up. I like equipment like this, where the more you use it, the more you start to grow to like it. It’s like good wine that ages well.
2) Incredibly balanced. Hell, I don’t know if this is even the word I’m looking for. Everything just seems so right, all the notes just fit in the right place. You just aren’t listening to music, you’re listening to a jigsaw puzzle in action where my ears couldn’t believe, despite listening to an old song over hundreds of times on the 555s, and how well it anticipated and melted at the precision of where the next beat would land. It’s hard to explain in words, especially in lay-mans terms, but the 555s just sort of spat out where your next beat would be, the 650’s stepped up right to the plate and delivered in spades of what you ears really wanted to hear.
I’m a pretty big video game music OST fan. One of the most cluttered and a bombastic piece that has lots of detail is Ace Combat Zero – Track # 26 – Zero. It’s in a flamenco guitar theme that has lots of percussion and vocals. Where the 555’s just merely tried to emulate what the sound would be, and sort of made a mess of it all jumbled up, the 650’s neatly and effortlessly sorted out all the different layers and said, “here you go sir” on a silver platter like Hors d'œuvre.
3) Smooth and refined. Any high notes seem to roll off effortlessly without making my ears hurting, something the 555s wouldn’t be able to pull off at volumes this loud. Again, the treble doesn’t have that same punch I’m used to, and it does have a distant laid back feeling (which now I see what the prior reviews have been talking about, the treble does seem to have a mind of its own, which I think is a unique characteristic).
4) Organic music that just seems alive, rather than some digital computer spit out of what it thinks is music. Most of my sources are ripped in MP3 from CDs I borrowed from the library at 320 kpbs (constant bit rate, it seems I can’t get VBR), or FLAC for a few lucky albums I managed to snag online.
This is a layman’s impression of what I get when I listen to the 555s versus the 650s.
Me: Okay, lets play some music!
555’s: Sure okay boss.
Me: I want to listen to some cool jazz, say Stanley Turrentine for example.
555’s: Okay boss here you go. I’m trying my best! (and the music starts playing)
Me: Now I want something that is in the high range and lots of high notes, but please don’t hurt my ears
-650’s-
Me: Show me what you’ve got son.
650’s: Don’t even underestimate me.
Me: Lets do some cool jazz again, lets try some modern jazz by Keiko Matsui.
650’s: Not only will I reproduce it good sir, I’ll reconstruct it in such a way that makes your ears jump with excitement and not hurt them. Of course I’m new and got to get out the kinks, but in time, I’ll make your ears love me forever.
Of course, I don’t know if I’m going over the top with my monologue analogy; the 650’s won’t work miracles to ALL your music the instant you plug it in. Some of the music sounds the same, others radically different. But as stated before, it’s a learning process your ear picks up each time you replay the music.
5) Layered sound, rather than a flat 1 dimension sound from the 555s. Similar to point (2), it builds upon layers that you haven’t realized before in music you’ve listened to dozens to hundreds of times. Note that not all of the music I tested differed significantly. Some sounded about the same on the 555s as the 650s while others were worlds apart. I found the ones that had the greatest difference in inflections were probably the Jazz and some house music. The rock and heavy sounded roughly the same, but the 650s seemed to do a better job at keeping pace and just making things fit. The sound isn’t fatiguging and enjoyable to listen to. It’s a nice lounge set of cans.
6) Non-music sounds are simply INSANELY accentuated. I used my 555s to watch a lot of TV on the PC, usually anime or Asian dramas, and while they sounded nice, they didn’t add that depth to the action. With the 650’s, watching J-dramas or even youtube, you can hear even just the faintest of wrinkle of papers, the slamming of doors, the wisp of the wind, the plop of objects coming to rest on a table, the quite foot steps, almost to a point where you’ve in the studio itself. I swear I was able to hear the back ground crew of the cast shuffling around a bit sometimes (I’m not making this up) whilst in the midst of filming. Basically back ground noise is like, 1000 times magnified (okay now that number is made up but you get my point).
7) Live sound, its actually THERE. This sort of goes back to points 4 and 5. Some have complained of the “distant” sound similar of you sitting in the back corner and the front stage is dozens of feat away from you. While I agree there is this affect, I don’t think it’s for the worst. What this helps to alleviate is the “sound coming from the middle of your head” syndrome that I experience with the cheap $20 in ear buds, and projects a live sound stage. This is especially true like in point 6. The people just almost sound like they are there, or you are at the sound stage.
A little quib about the Audiobox. I honestly placed my faith in the people of Axe Music and they recommended this Presonus thing. (I’ve done business with them with my 555’s and Shure E2Cs and they really know their stuff, they aren’t Best Buy that just tries to sell you extra **** for commission, you can tell). I kept asking for an amplifier – as this is what I kept reading on lots of 650 related boards, but what they said was really needed was a proper sound card. Their initial impression was that I was going to stick these into the stereo receiver, which is not the case. The music source is directly from the PC. Glad I got that straightened out. I read quite a few negative comments and reviews about the Audiobox but I personally (again coming from a non-audiophile) don’t see what the fuss is all about. Yeah it’s more/less used for recording music rather than pure playback, but it does its job. It’s powered by USB from your PC and installation of the driver is simple. Mac users don’t have to worry about installation of the driver for some reason, its just plug and play for them. I was about to get the Total Bithead amp from headphone.com but I’m not sure if that’s what’s really needed. Plus I’m rather weary of ordering products online. I just have been stung in the past from an unrelated company/product – and it wasn’t through Ebay - and don’t feel like having to go through that again any time soon.
In summary, there’s lots to love about these new cans and its worth every penny spent.
I’ve hoped that I’ve managed to spread some light to potential music enthusiasts that have heard about the 650s but maybe were a bit too sheepish to ask (like myself for example). It’s a musical journey that’s worth taking the dip if you’ve got the cash – or the save up to (lol at our current economy).
Hello everyone again, it’s been well over 2 ½ years since my last post here; I was on my merry way enjoying my Sennheiser 555s immensely since summer of 2006. It has kept me quite happy. So one might ask, why the change to what many would consider one of the great pinnacles of audio bliss? Aren’t I happy to stick with the tried and true 555s?
A few house keeping items, I would never consider myself an audiophile, and can’t tell ohms, impedance, frequency response, and all that other fun jargon - differentiating them from head to ass. It’s tough to read up on reviews when many of them spew out terminology that just leaves me baffled with what looks like ancient Greek. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few newbies like me to the audiophile world just are too intimidated to step out and ask questions while fearing to make mistakes etc.
Also there’s lots of pictures taken (yeah for those of you who own the 650’s – not much to see here, just go look at your own ^__^).
I would also like to keep this as my impressions of these cans, not so much a review to say its good/bad/or whatever, simply because who am I to say what’s great or not. For some of you (and albeit mind you, Head-Fi *IS* Audiophile-country), this might bore you, while I’m trying to target this to the non-initiated crowd who would like to try on high end audio equipment. I’m more than open to constructive criticism, corrections, and the like, but please should I say something wrong or inaccurate, try not to flame me (sweat drop).
Ever receiving my 555s, I’ll admit I was blown away just by it and the sound it produced, but I knew there was just something more. The 555s had a very inviting sound, but I found that after a while, it just seemed to phase out during bombastic orchestrated music. Even so, the 555 is an excellent piece of kit for the start out music enthusiast.
I think I’ve had my mind on these 650s or the AKG K 701/702s for over a year now. I started doing quite a bit of research and read up every little tad bit here and there, and mainly consulted the reviews of headphone.com (where I also learned about the 555s), and basically read these 650s were some serious business kick ass cans. The truth is, I never got to audition them out ever, so it was a huge step of faith, as well as a hit in the wallet to take the plunge. The entry fee of $500 Canadian plus (from what I’ve read, an appropriate amp to fuel these or a sound card) isn’t exactly something many young adults can just sniff and shrug away at. After talking to quite a few friends, and the astonishment of one friend in Montreal after trying these out, I seriously wanted to check these out.
Also note that my exposure to high end headphones is next to nil, the 650s excluded. At this time, I’ve really only been able to check out Sennheisers. We can’t get Grados where I live (hell, I read Grados aren’t sold outside of US soil), and I guess just not enough electronic stores, including the big retailers like Best Buy in Canada, don’t have a very good selection for the top tier stuff. I learned about Sennheiser from my dad, and just as habit, have stuck with them first since getting “ye old Senn 495s”.
Now down to business: the Sennheiser HD 650s in the eyes, and ears, of your average Joe looking for good sound reproduction.
I’ve had these for about over 24 hours now, and have pretty much let them start the break in process of feeding it music. Reading that it takes anywhere from 100 to 300 hours minimum for the full burn in effect for the 650s to really sound optimal, I’m far in the early stages, imagine a newborn 650 if you will. I’m using stock cables and have read quite a bit of how upgraded cables (heh, another $200-300 mind you) will vastly improve their sound. I’m not skeptical, but as my wallet has taken quite a hit, I think I want to wait on this for a while. Besides, it’s pointless to have the best sound but not have any reference before. It’s like having the worlds best beef stake served to you from the AAA cattle, but lo and behold, it’s your very first time having stake, ever. The same thinking can be applied to me trying out the stock cables, and then maybe when I have a bit more money coming in, I can move up in cables.
I bought this along with the Presonus Audiobox USB 2X2 from Axe Music in Canada. Everything came to about a cool $750 Canadian, somewhere around there. At first they didn’t have the 650s in stock, so I put down a twenty as a deposit and was told they’d be in 2 weeks.
I’ve connected this to an Audiobox thingamabob soundcard since after explaining that 99% of my music listening will be from my PC. It’s a beast of a machine – an old Pentium 4 with XP and a cheapo $5 soundcard made in your friendly neighborhood China – hence the need in the upgrade to a more decent soundcard. The guys at Axe music made it quite clear that yeah, the $5 integrated soundcard ain’t going to cut it. Its like hooking up your HDTV to regular analog cable, or even worse, rabbit ears - or hooking up your Playstation 3 to an HDTV via composite cables, oh joy.
As of yet, I have not done any modifications to the 650 (reading of how some might take out the padding or something), and as stated before, am using the stock cables. To make it a fair comparison of how it fares from the 555s, I have to address a few experimental differences/errors that would greatly affect the testing.
1)The 555s were hooked up using the stock 1/8” connector plug into the $20 Creative Labs and a crappy integrated soundcard on the motherboard.
2)The 650s are hooked up to the $200 Audiobox with the quarter inch plug.
In the impressions, you’ll see of how I may sound critical against the 555s, but then again its two totally different realms. It’s like trying to compare a $15,000 Canadian Nissan Vera to a $50,000 Subaru WRX STi and saying the STi has better performance. Gee, I wonder why. (I’m a Subaru driver and fan by the way ^__^).
The 555’s can totally hold their own in the $100-200 price range – I have no doubt, so yes I know its not a fair comparison, but I’m glad I can actually tell the audio difference between these two, or else what the hell did I exactly dump my $750 on?
(Actually, what a helluva difference the soundcard makes, even the 555s sound FAR better, obviously, after plugging in and trying the 555s on the Audiobox)
For the headphones themselves – they looks pretty sexy. From the pictures, I initially thought all the gun-metal colored parts were metal, but they’re more of a, I don’t know, I guess a very high quality plastic. The thin black bands that connect the pairs of cans to the head band is metal for sure. It’s thin and flexible but not flimsy. The feel of the thing is generally quite solid. You know you’re in for a treat. The box pictured is like a collector’s item, although I sort of wished the outer grey shell had a bit more, finesse to it. It’s minimalist and does away with all the squabble you’d normally see on regular merchandise. Simply because most Joes wouldn’t even consider the 650’s for their price range, and those who know what they’re getting into don’t need any more coaxing from box advertising – they’ve done their homework long before hand.
The band is tighter than what I’m used to. The 555’s sat nicely on my head. I don’t have a fat head, but its not small either. It’s average I guess – my head size. The 650’s more or less act like vise and clamp to the sides of my ear.
It’s open aural so naturally you can hear outside sounds and the outside can hear what you’re listening to. Not exactly something that’s portable to carry around with your ipod but that’s not the point for these. For something like that, you’d be looking at Shure IEMs (which are AWESOME in blocking out sound by the way). Anyways your ipod wouldn’t have anywhere near the juice capacity to fuel these cans.
Initial impressions (right out of the box at zero burn in-hour up to hour 30):
1) Very rich sound, but doesn’t have that punch I’m used to. I’ve read about this “veil” business of how new 650s just don’t quite jump out and grab you by the neck. But honestly this isn’t what it’s all about. I think that many non-audiophiles equate brightness, attack, and ferocious sound as something that is “better” than the subdued but nuanced sound the 650 is sounding right now at the 30 hour burn mark. I’ll admit that I wanted to get that “oh shi~” impact of making a mess in my pants, but instead received somewhat of an understated treble. I didn’t dismiss it though as negative, as the clarity and the nuances that I never imagined just let the music flow.
I think this is one of the “disappointments” some may find when they first plug it in expecting to be blasted away with rock and hard hitting stuff. I’ve read its more geared for jazz and classical (which incidentally what I enjoy listening to most of the time, but I do enjoy dance, house, R&B, some heavy metal, and world music from time to time). As stated before, I’ll agree that what it doesn’t quite equate to in audio brute force, it strikes back with a vengeance in fidelity. The sound only gets better with more hours clocked through it. Maybe it’s a placebo effect of me wanting to like the 650s justifying the hard earned cash I spent, but I doubt it – I certainly hear a difference, and for the better.
The more I’m listening to this, I grow to enjoy it. Already after 30 some odd hours, the treble is picking up. I like equipment like this, where the more you use it, the more you start to grow to like it. It’s like good wine that ages well.
2) Incredibly balanced. Hell, I don’t know if this is even the word I’m looking for. Everything just seems so right, all the notes just fit in the right place. You just aren’t listening to music, you’re listening to a jigsaw puzzle in action where my ears couldn’t believe, despite listening to an old song over hundreds of times on the 555s, and how well it anticipated and melted at the precision of where the next beat would land. It’s hard to explain in words, especially in lay-mans terms, but the 555s just sort of spat out where your next beat would be, the 650’s stepped up right to the plate and delivered in spades of what you ears really wanted to hear.
I’m a pretty big video game music OST fan. One of the most cluttered and a bombastic piece that has lots of detail is Ace Combat Zero – Track # 26 – Zero. It’s in a flamenco guitar theme that has lots of percussion and vocals. Where the 555’s just merely tried to emulate what the sound would be, and sort of made a mess of it all jumbled up, the 650’s neatly and effortlessly sorted out all the different layers and said, “here you go sir” on a silver platter like Hors d'œuvre.
3) Smooth and refined. Any high notes seem to roll off effortlessly without making my ears hurting, something the 555s wouldn’t be able to pull off at volumes this loud. Again, the treble doesn’t have that same punch I’m used to, and it does have a distant laid back feeling (which now I see what the prior reviews have been talking about, the treble does seem to have a mind of its own, which I think is a unique characteristic).
4) Organic music that just seems alive, rather than some digital computer spit out of what it thinks is music. Most of my sources are ripped in MP3 from CDs I borrowed from the library at 320 kpbs (constant bit rate, it seems I can’t get VBR), or FLAC for a few lucky albums I managed to snag online.
This is a layman’s impression of what I get when I listen to the 555s versus the 650s.
Me: Okay, lets play some music!
555’s: Sure okay boss.
Me: I want to listen to some cool jazz, say Stanley Turrentine for example.
555’s: Okay boss here you go. I’m trying my best! (and the music starts playing)
Me: Now I want something that is in the high range and lots of high notes, but please don’t hurt my ears
-650’s-
Me: Show me what you’ve got son.
650’s: Don’t even underestimate me.
Me: Lets do some cool jazz again, lets try some modern jazz by Keiko Matsui.
650’s: Not only will I reproduce it good sir, I’ll reconstruct it in such a way that makes your ears jump with excitement and not hurt them. Of course I’m new and got to get out the kinks, but in time, I’ll make your ears love me forever.
Of course, I don’t know if I’m going over the top with my monologue analogy; the 650’s won’t work miracles to ALL your music the instant you plug it in. Some of the music sounds the same, others radically different. But as stated before, it’s a learning process your ear picks up each time you replay the music.
5) Layered sound, rather than a flat 1 dimension sound from the 555s. Similar to point (2), it builds upon layers that you haven’t realized before in music you’ve listened to dozens to hundreds of times. Note that not all of the music I tested differed significantly. Some sounded about the same on the 555s as the 650s while others were worlds apart. I found the ones that had the greatest difference in inflections were probably the Jazz and some house music. The rock and heavy sounded roughly the same, but the 650s seemed to do a better job at keeping pace and just making things fit. The sound isn’t fatiguging and enjoyable to listen to. It’s a nice lounge set of cans.
6) Non-music sounds are simply INSANELY accentuated. I used my 555s to watch a lot of TV on the PC, usually anime or Asian dramas, and while they sounded nice, they didn’t add that depth to the action. With the 650’s, watching J-dramas or even youtube, you can hear even just the faintest of wrinkle of papers, the slamming of doors, the wisp of the wind, the plop of objects coming to rest on a table, the quite foot steps, almost to a point where you’ve in the studio itself. I swear I was able to hear the back ground crew of the cast shuffling around a bit sometimes (I’m not making this up) whilst in the midst of filming. Basically back ground noise is like, 1000 times magnified (okay now that number is made up but you get my point).
7) Live sound, its actually THERE. This sort of goes back to points 4 and 5. Some have complained of the “distant” sound similar of you sitting in the back corner and the front stage is dozens of feat away from you. While I agree there is this affect, I don’t think it’s for the worst. What this helps to alleviate is the “sound coming from the middle of your head” syndrome that I experience with the cheap $20 in ear buds, and projects a live sound stage. This is especially true like in point 6. The people just almost sound like they are there, or you are at the sound stage.
A little quib about the Audiobox. I honestly placed my faith in the people of Axe Music and they recommended this Presonus thing. (I’ve done business with them with my 555’s and Shure E2Cs and they really know their stuff, they aren’t Best Buy that just tries to sell you extra **** for commission, you can tell). I kept asking for an amplifier – as this is what I kept reading on lots of 650 related boards, but what they said was really needed was a proper sound card. Their initial impression was that I was going to stick these into the stereo receiver, which is not the case. The music source is directly from the PC. Glad I got that straightened out. I read quite a few negative comments and reviews about the Audiobox but I personally (again coming from a non-audiophile) don’t see what the fuss is all about. Yeah it’s more/less used for recording music rather than pure playback, but it does its job. It’s powered by USB from your PC and installation of the driver is simple. Mac users don’t have to worry about installation of the driver for some reason, its just plug and play for them. I was about to get the Total Bithead amp from headphone.com but I’m not sure if that’s what’s really needed. Plus I’m rather weary of ordering products online. I just have been stung in the past from an unrelated company/product – and it wasn’t through Ebay - and don’t feel like having to go through that again any time soon.
In summary, there’s lots to love about these new cans and its worth every penny spent.
I’ve hoped that I’ve managed to spread some light to potential music enthusiasts that have heard about the 650s but maybe were a bit too sheepish to ask (like myself for example). It’s a musical journey that’s worth taking the dip if you’ve got the cash – or the save up to (lol at our current economy).
