[Apocalypse_HD650]

Hi,
After careful consideration I recently purchased the Sennheiser HD650's. I previously had a pair of Sennheiser HD497's, which although uncomfortable, had pretty good sound.

My source is an Audigy 2 Internal PCI Soundcard. Although I was sceptical about purchasing the HD650's due to there high impedance and my low-end source material; a combination of an excellent deal (for the UK at least) and assurance from a very reputable UK dealer in high fidelity audio equipment that 'they are simply the best, and will blow your 497's away', convinced me to buy them.

Now I've 'burned them in' for over 60 Hours and I am not impressed. In terms of volume the HD650's are simply too quiet for me and aside from no audible hiss I simply cannot recognise a vast improvement over my 497's in sonic quality. Both factors which I was assured by the 'experienced' dealer will not be an issue. The only saving grace is that I do find the 650's to be enormously comfortable.

At present I feel cheated and can simply not justify the huge price difference between my original 497's and these 650's. I really don't know what to do. I was considering getting a headphone amplifier anyway (was looking at getting the gilmore lite, and for the mean time a cheap Cmoy from evilfire). Will this really help me, because as it stands I am considering returning the 650's (although return policies in the UK suck). Will getting a headphone amp make these considerably better then my 497's? Because if not I just cannot justify having them.

Please any advice in my frustrating position would be much appreciated.

 

[DaHoboFest]

that sucks, all i have to say.

 

[plus_c]

The high impedance is likely your problem, I wouldn't think that the output from the Audigy is very strong. The HD650's, if you read on this board, demand good amplification and a better source. If you plan on staying with your source and without an amp, a 595 or 555 might be a better bet.

 

[gsferrari]

Tha fact that you trusted a dealers word over what members would have told you is the clincher. You should have seen it coming. No offense but there is no merit to your dissing the HD-650s with a craptacular source like yours...

 

[GoRedwings19]

dude 60 hours is not long enough for the burn in, for a start. Also using it with a soundcard???? The 650's are hard to drive so it;s no wonder why they sound quiet to you. Try a better headphone amp and things will improve a bit. You should post in the amp section they might be able to help you there.

 

[Jahn]

from what i read, the 650 takes HUNDREDS of hours to burn in, and you aren't at the 100 mark yet even. also, you really should get an amp, even a tiny little cmoy - you wont get the great dynamics, but at least your soundcard wont die trying to push your can to listenable volumes without clipping.

 

[Thaddy]

No wonder they suck, you are driving them straight from your sound card

That's like putting regular in an F1 car

Anyways, what kind of budget are you on? For best results, you should really get a new source and an amp, but you can probably get by with just an amp for now. Maybe you can sell you Audigy and put that towads a sound card more geared towards audio? Give us some more info and we can help you out more.

Quote:

that sucks, all i have to say.

Great...nice post.

edit: Wow, talk about fast fingers! You guys lapped me

 

[PTheD]

That does suck. I don't have any experience with the HD650, but I do have experience with headphone amps. The amp does make a differance. Just like headphones each amp has its own sound, but...the big but is that both of them are supposed to have their own sound and aparently the headphone part doesn't apply to you.

I don't want to sound like I am just working in cricles here but if the headphones don't sound any diffirent or worse than I am unsure if the amp will help any or if it will just sound worse. I would seriously doubt anyone would interpret an amplified headphone as worse or the same as an un-amped headphone, but then again I would never have thought somebody would have said that about the 497s and the HD650s.

First I would try it with a few different sources and music to see if the different sources did anything then maybe borrow an amp if you could or try one out at a hi-fi store. I deffinitly wouldn't recomend buying an amp without being able to try it out first, if you do you could quite possibly make your ordeal worse and more costly to fix...

 

[dknightd]

Buy an amp. Let the 650 run for 200 hours. Then see if you think they better the 497s (it is hard for me to imagine you won't, but, I suppose it is possible, maybe)

 

[kunwar]

Please oh please hook up a cmoy to even an average CDplayer and then listen to the HD 650 It absolutely NEEDS a good source and amp. It is a good headphone , unfortunately it doesn't have the same capabilities as say the DT531 to sound good out of a mediocre source.


Kunwar

 

[errorich]

Hd-650 without an amp?

Dude thats your problem right there. A soundcard on its own will not have enough juice to drive them to anywhere close to their potential.

Edit: Do you have room in your budget for an amp?

 

[overlunge]

Hi Apocalypse_HD650,

I was in a similar position not long ago when I first purchased my HD650. I managed to fork out some fund to buy an amplifier (though not great) but it has turned the performance of HD650 around. As (maybe) all the HD650 owner would tell you, get an amp. Or take them to a hi-fi shop to try out what's your HD650 can really do with an amp and good source.

Best of luck,

overlunge -->soul searching for a decent source...

 

[Jahn]

check out the guy's sig above. 0404 to ppa to 650. that sounds like the rig that you'd want without breaking the bank.

audigy to 650 really isn't going to cut it.

650 is scalable. with crap, it will sound like crap. depending on what you consider the "sweet spot" it can go all the way up to a balanced cable to a KGSS into a meridian before you're satisfied that the 650 has hit its limit.

therefore, have patience on the can, kill your wallet, and step up to a source and amp that will do it justice. it's a long expensive road...

 

[Apocalypse_HD650]

Quite frankly I trusted what I was informed to be a very experienced and reputable dealer. I was well aware of the crappy source, need for power etc. I maintain the HD650's are excellent headphones-but they just weren't right for me. Unfortunately I found this forum after I bought them. I probably should have gone for the HD555's or something. The thing is though I got these for £150=$286; which I really thought was a good deal for what they are.

 

[DaHoboFest]

i think he gets the point it needs an amp, it was repeated like 4 times.