DAP and Sennheiser 650 HD options

[Matthewlawson3]

Hi, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 650 headphones and I am looking for a portable Hi-Res music player that can work well by itself (No amp required) with those headphones. I am considering the Hiby R6 Pro or Sony NW-ZX507/S Walkman Hi-Res. Would this work? Any other recommendations? I'm open. I would like to be able to stream Tidal on it as well as play FLAC files.

Also, I will need a good 4.4 Balanced cable for those headphones. What do you recommend? Somebody said to get copper cables rather than silver.

Thanks!

 

[gimmeheadroom]

The 600/650/6XX need a lot of voltage to sound their best. You will get enough volume out of a high power DAP but you will be shorting yourself on sound quality.

Cables don't change the sound unless something is wrong with the cable. The important thing is that it is well made of reasonable materials.

 

[Matthewlawson3]

The 600/650/6XX need a lot of voltage to sound their best. You will get enough volume out of a high power DAP but you will be shorting yourself on sound quality.

Cables don't change the sound unless something is wrong with the cable. The important thing is that it is well made of reasonable materials.

So you are recommending another pair of headphones for the players I mentioned?

What do you recommend? I hate to buy another pair of headphones, as I just got the Sennheiser 650 haha.

I have them hooked into a MOTU M4 to my computer, but would really like a portable player to listen with on the go.

 

[Matthewlawson3]

So you are recommending another pair of headphones for the players I mentioned?

What do you recommend? I hate to buy another pair of headphones, as I just got the Sennheiser 650 haha.

I have them hooked into a MOTU M4 to my computer, but would really like a portable player to listen with on the go.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

So you are recommending another pair of headphones for the players I mentioned?

What do you recommend? I hate to buy another pair of headphones, as I just got the Sennheiser 650 haha.

I have them hooked into a MOTU M4 to my computer, but would really like a portable player to listen with on the go.

The Motu will also not drive them well enough. Let's see if anybody else can recommend a DAP that will sound ok with 300 ohm Sennheisers.

 

[Matthewlawson3]

The Motu will also not drive them well enough. Let's see if anybody else can recommend a DAP that will sound ok with 300 ohm Sennheisers.

Are you saying the Motu needs an amp in between it and the headphones?

 

[Matthewlawson3]

The Motu will also not drive them well enough. Let's see if anybody else can recommend a DAP that will sound ok with 300 ohm Sennheisers.

Just to add to my last post...I did e-mail MOTU before I bought the Sennheisers and they said " The M4 will be able to drive 300 Ohm headphones as well! The headphone output's impedance is less than 0.05 Ohms. You will not need an additional headphone amplifier in order to use your headphones with the M4."

 

[Matthewlawson3]

Also, what about using the Fiio M11 Pro with the Sennheiser HD 650s? Is this possible or do I need IEMs to use the player by itself?

B&H Photo Video is recommending that and are saying for me to use the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter to go into the Fiio using the 650s. That the sound quality difference using 1/8 is minimum. That the 650s are not natively balanced and would need the HDVA 500 amp to be balanced. Thoughts?

 

[Matthewlawson3]

The Motu will also not drive them well enough. Let's see if anybody else can recommend a DAP that will sound ok with 300 ohm Sennheisers.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a DAP to use with the Sennheiser HD 650? I've been recommended the Fiio M11 Pro by B&H Photo Video.

They recommended the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter to go into the Fiio using the 650s. That the sound quality difference using 1/8 is minimum. That the 650s are not natively balanced and would need the HDVA 500 amp to be balanced.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Just to add to my last post...I did e-mail MOTU before I bought the Sennheisers and they said " The M4 will be able to drive 300 Ohm headphones as well! The headphone output's impedance is less than 0.05 Ohms. You will not need an additional headphone amplifier in order to use your headphones with the M4."

Output impedance should be approximately 1/10th of the headphone impedance.

Anyway, a USB audio interface will not supply enough voltage to drive 300 ohm Sennheisers well as far as I know. They sound lifeless out of my Behringer.

 

[Matthewlawson3]

Output impedance should be approximately 1/10th of the headphone impedance.

Anyway, a USB audio interface will not supply enough voltage to drive 300 ohm Sennheisers well as far as I know. They sound lifeless out of my Behringer.

Thank you! Is there a portable headphone amp that I could run between the 650s and a Fiio M11 Pro or Higby R6 Pro? I've accepted I'll need an amp to get good sound out of a DAP.

 

[easo91]

Thank you! Is there a portable headphone amp that I could run between the 650s and a Fiio M11 Pro or Higby R6 Pro? I've accepted I'll need an amp to get good sound out of a DAP.

Look at stuff by ifi, I think it’s the ifi dsd. They’re portable amps should give you enough power. I agree with the above that a DAP won’t give you the juice you need to drive the 650s.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Look at stuff by ifi, I think it’s the ifi dsd. They’re portable amps should give you enough power. I agree with the above that a DAP won’t give you the juice you need to drive the 650s.

Yeah, of the portable devices, the ifi black label micro has huge output power for a portable. I forgot until @easo91 posted.

Check carefully, there are a few devices from ifi with similar names.

 

[Matthewlawson3]

Yeah, of the portable devices, the ifi black label micro has huge output power for a portable. I forgot until @easo91 posted.

Check carefully, there are a few devices from ifi with similar names.

Thank you. I think I found the one you mentioned.

Yeah, of the portable devices, the ifi black label micro has huge output power for a portable. I forgot until @easo91 posted.

Check carefully, there are a few devices from ifi with similar names.

I think I found the one you mentioned. Is it the iFi Micro iDSD Black Label DAC/Headphone Amplifier/Preamp with MQA and DSD (see link below)?

https://www.amazon.com/iFi-iDSD-Black-Label-Headphone/dp/B01MTNK3ZT?th=1

Would this allow me to drive the Sennheiser HD 650 in conjunction with a Fiio M11 Pro or Higby R6 Pro or any other DAP and provide good sound quality on the go using FLAC files or Tidal?

 

[VNandor]

The HD650's sensitivity is 103dB SPL @ 1mW. They are also a 300ohm headphone. This means they need a little bit more than a half volts to get it that loud. If the amplifier is free of distortion and noise at that output level that also means they are going to sound good. Only caveat is that if you are listening to nice and dynamic recordings your average listening levels shouldn't be much more than ~80dB SPL if you don't want to get your peak levels distorted.

To put all that in context the FiiO X1 (an old 100$ DAP) can output 8mW into a 300 ohm load with very little distortion. This would get the HD650 to ~112dB.

The HiBy R6 Pro can output 245mW into a 32ohm load. In comparison the FiiO can only output 65mW at 32ohm. Point is, the Hiby has more power than the FiiO and the FiiO could, in theory, already do a pretty good job with the HD650.

I have a pair of HD600 which needs more voltage than the HD650 and I still never had a problem driving them with proper gear. They didn't sound their best with some of my phones though (without an external dac/amp), they sounded like a worse HD600 but still like a HD600.

If you get something with a good dac/amp they are going to sound great as they don't need an insane amount of power or voltage to sound good, they just need "clean" power.