[thee mutz]

Look what the mail brought me today: in an very good condition and with the original box:

A philips N 6330. Why do i post this in the sextett topic? Well, because it is a sextett in disguise.
It has the sextett drivers and the twelve membranes. In this case it is a Late Period version.
It also has a steel headband frame thingy and a system with a flat spring to automatically adjust the headband instead of the elastics of the 240. It is also quite a bit heavier,
I'm very happy with it, especially as i messed up the last one i had ( lost my temper during repairs and fubar-ed the steel headband thing... hmmm )

 

[Coug]

Those look like maybe new in box.

 

[thee mutz]

Yes, it could be, but the foam inside is in pieces so i want to replace that. It is a different kind of foam than in the K240, this foam is grey and has a more dense structure. I probably have to make the rings myself.

 

[kl884347]

Finally! Joined the Sextett club. A very nice guy was selling them locally for cheap and I just couldn't pass them up. I'm really surprised how different they sound than the Realistic Pro 50s I have. I thought they'd be more similar than they are. Very interesting.

 

[quimbo]

I found the same thing. Mine had the same pads from when my uncle got them in the early eighties. Brainwavz XL aren't bad on them, but Dekoni elite hybrids are fantastic.

Picked up the Dekoni elite hybrids after reading this and have to agree, they are fantastic.

 

[DeweyCH]

Well, apparently re-filling the hole wasn't the solution, so I made another hole.

Now I have a (successful) pair of Sextetts modded for removable cables. MMCX, balanced.

For those who don't know - and that's probably everyone, because who TF am I anyways - I tried to mod my LP Sextetts a while back for a mini XLR port. Carved out some space in the plastic disc, but ended up not being able to fit the mini XLR port in b/c of not enough space in the housing.

So I wussed out, clipped the original cord a few inches below the housing, and soldered in a simple 3.5mm female jack (pigtailed).

Then when prepping to do a removable cable mod on my TH-X00s, I decided, heck, I'll finish the job on these properly and put a MMCX connector in each side. Make it balanced and make it a proper removable cable rather than a wussed-out pigtail mod. Lo and behold, it worked great, except that when I went to disconnect the cables the first time, the right-side MMCX port just ripped clean out of the housing. Because the space I carved out for the mini XLR was too big.

Well, after a lot of trying to fill in the hole - with Sugru, then JB Weld PlasticWeld putty, and then regular JB Weld PlasticWeld epoxy - and getting nowhere, I had the brilliant thought of, hell, why don't I just carve more holes in the disc? Can't make it worse, right?

So I used my Dremel to basically rotate the entire disc like 15 degrees. Carved a new hole for the headband (where there's 2 holes already in the disc) and another new one opposite it where the MMCX jack was to go.

Aaaaand, hell, it worked. Worked surprisingly well. Easy. And now, here I can enjoy my MMCX-modded LP Sextetts.

Long story short, TLR, hey look, these are neat.

 

[thee mutz]

i have some questions:

does each cup has his own cable connection now?
do you notice a difference in soundquality after the cable mod?
what is that grey “ crown” on the akg sign?

 

[thee mutz]

I have another question to the people who use a headphone amp to drive the sextett:

what is the difference in sound quality compared to when you drive it with your smartphone/ ipad?

i use it only with my smartphone and it sounds good and loud enough for me. I am curious however what the sound with a seperate headphone amp would be, is it really a big difference?

 

[DeweyCH]

i have some questions:

does each cup has his own cable connection now?
do you notice a difference in soundquality after the cable mod?
what is that grey “ crown” on the akg sign?

Yep, each cup has its own connection now. I desoldered the left side driver wires from the terminals that feed through the headband and soldered them directly onto their own MMCX connection I put into the housing. It was crazy easy, all things considered.
I think there's been a fairly decent improvement in SQ. Not sure if it's because of the cable quality, or because it's balanced, or simply because the old one was worn out.
The crown is a stick-on magnet that lets me attach a wireless boom mic for Zoom calls.

 

[TMM]

For those wanting to try Beyerdynamic pads, here's my 2c: Get the DT990 pads, not the DT770 pads. The 770 pads add far too much midbass which drowns out the treble and lower bass. The DT990 pads give a far more balanced sound. There isn't as much bass as the stock vinyl pads but it extends deep. Using the beyerdynamic foams makes them even more comfortable but kills the upper treble a bit. I cut a ~1" hole in the beyerdynamic foams to get the best of both worlds.
EDT 990 VB pads:

I have another question to the people who use a headphone amp to drive the sextett:

what is the difference in sound quality compared to when you drive it with your smartphone/ ipad?

Apart from being able to drive the headphones to louder levels, most of the 'quality' difference from amp to amp or source to source comes from differences in the output impedance, or distortion (e.g. from tubes in a tube amp). Headphone driver's or speaker's impedance is not constant versus frequency. For most of the frequency range the impedance is close to nominal (600ohm for K240) however at low frequency (in the mid-upperbass of the K240) there will be a hump where the impedance rises up due to the mechanical resonance and at high frequency another rise to due the voicecoil inductance. This means that when you plug them into an amp with a high output impedance you get a slight boost in the mid-upper bass and upper treble as the amp finds it easier to drive the headphones there and outputs slightly higher power over those frequency ranges. The higher the impedance the headphones are, the less they are impacted by the output impedance of the amp, thus changing between sources/amps with differing output impedance will impart almost unnoticable changes with a 600ohm headphone. With a low impedance headphone (e.g. 32ohm) the effect is much more pronounced.
If you have an amp with a low output impedance (e.g. less than 1ohm), it will drive every frequency of every headphone with ease and therefore outputs an almost perfectly flat frequency response regardless of the impedance of the headphones used.
Whether having a high or low output impedance is preferable depends on the headphones. The slight boost at certain frequencies works for some headphones, while others are worse for it.

Distortion is well, distortion - it's highly subjective whether or not it is 'better' adding a device to the signal chain which introduces distortion.

The limiting factor of portable sources like smartphones is usually that they have a limited output voltage as they are powered by low voltage batteries. A 600ohm demands a fair voltage to play loudly, hence you generally find yourself needing to put the volume fairly high on your smartphone. If you aren't maxing out the volume (80%+) on your smartphone/ipad, you probably won't notice any major difference adding a solid state amp. A tube amp might impart a subtle tonality change due to distortion, or may not do anything audible at all, depending on the design.

 

[thee mutz]

Thanks for your explanation. i was thinking about buying a Schiit Magni 3 Heresy to power my AKG 600 ohm headphones, but now i have doubts if they are going to add just more volume ( which i don’t need) and not a better soundquality.

 

[Coug]

So, I did a little experimentation. Plugged my phone (LG V50, HiFi setting, no special DSD) into four different amps (Schiit Valhalla, Asgard 2, Asgard 3 and Bottlehead Crack + Speedball) via a 4 way splitter box, matched all volumes using my phone and a sound level app playing Man in the Box by Alice in Chains (that chug chug chug made it easier) at 64 dB SPL max (as sensed by the phone - not likely the real SPL, but not real loud, and matched...kinda). Phone volume set at 75 (100% volume - "dimed"). Listened to each amp and phone with the sextetts. Not much difference other than the character of the amps (this one a little cleaner, that one a little sweeter, another a little darker).

But, I initially screwed up and compared the phones output to the amps supplied by a MB Bifrost via the phones USB. Huge difference, especially definition and separation. Treble was pulled back (or bass was increased) and tightened. Bass had more impact. And the difference from amp to amp seemed more apparent.

Purely subjective. With the phone as the source to the amps, very little difference noticed in sound quality (except a little coloration of the amps). But with a different (better?) source (Bifrost) a very different sound came through, with more apparent differences from amp to amp (though not night and day, subtle, but noticeable, especially soundstage - and that's headphone dependent too. sextetts do a pretty good job on soundstage IMO).

I've noticed bigger differences from amp to amp with other headphones, but this could be due to lower impedance 'phones on the tube amps not liking each other, and other "synergy" type things. Heck. I'll even say I'm not immune to expectation bias either... But I'm pretty sure I could pick out each of my amps in a A/B test - maybe have to try this soon - I've got a A/B/C switch collecting dust.

So there you have a subjective opinion. One I wouldn't have believed, except I did the experiment - Amps (at this price level) don't have nearly as much of an impact as the DAC (not at the same price range - a $20 DAC in a multi-function phone vs. a dedicated DAC that cost more than the phone). So, a better DAC will require... an amp. And an amp will also allow you to increase the volume if and when you want to (and the Sextetts really sound great loud too!).

Oh no, I've probably opened up the whole 0s and 1s are all the same so all DACs are the same debate, but i can say I heard a BIG difference. (Could you imagine the argument that grooves are grooves so all turntables are the same? - Blasphemy!)

Please remember, its just my opinion ( and you know what they say about opinions...) based on a limited subjective experiment with what I got on hand, and what I have between my headphones.

 

[thee mutz]

Thanks for taking the time to do these “ experiments”. funny to read that they had a result you did not expect yourself. It makes me wonder why a lot of reviews and comments claim that these headphones need a separate amp to power them. ( and not just an ordinary amp but an amp with a high output to 600 ohms like the shiit magni 3 or the JDS labs Atom). How much mV power would a smartphone or ipad deliver to a sextett?

maybe i can try a amp/dac combo like the shiit hel or Ifi Zen, so i can judge for myself if it is worth to buy such a device. ( i believe you can send items back to Shiit or Amazon if you don’t like them).

 

[Coug]

Why, volume level. They sound very similar at the matched volume from the phone or amps. Increase the volume on the amps and there is increased volume (energy). Out of the phone the volume level is just a little louder than a conversation. You can’t get loud with the phone. Not saying anyone should, but personally,I like it loud sometimes.

These have been able to handle just about all I can give them without distortion or pain. Another observation is being not very sensitive, they lose or gain noticeable volume depending on changes in recording level from track to track, requiring substantial adjustment of the amp to correct.

There is also the headroom argument, that if driving an amp at full gain you could introduce clipping and other distortion, altering the sq. So you would want some additional volume control left over once achieving your desired volume level (headroom). Like the example of 80% volume for listening from the previous poster, TMM. IIRC, this is the reason for VU meters in older amplifiers, tape decks, etc., if you went into the red, you risked clipping (truncating, or flattening the top of the sine wave) How much depends on the amplifier (including the one in the phone).

I think Schiit charges a 15% restock fee on returns.

 

[GreenNeedle]

I tend to agree and disagree with the above. I can sort of understand the talk of it being DACs but then is the output of a smartphone (I don't have a smartphone) linear from low volume to max? Does having to push the volume of the smartphone higher to get the "desired" volume mean it is more distorted or struggles to maintain consistency?

I didn't understand the talk of Scalability a few years ago but I do now. There is a vast difference between listening to my HD580s/Sextetts direct in my laptop than through a sufficient headphone socket of an amp of course via a an external DAC.