[Asmo]

I'd consider getting some 580s, a new soundcard, and decent headphone amp, rega ear? headsave classic? and buy some cds man.

 

[rincewind]

Ok yeah i meant lossy. oops.

BUT: I'm happy (at the moment) with the soudn quality from the mp3's. This thread kinda went on a tangent with the mention of amps.

What I was really after is whether the 650's have a more linear response than the 600's. Todd @TTVJ already confirmed my 590's would most likely sound poorer than either of these cans.

The difference I am after, without changing amp (just yet) is for my mp3's to sound better balanced. As they did with my 495's. You are ALL right when you say it will show up any deficiencies in the mp3s. The 495's were already doing that

But I was happy with the quality of 99% of my music and happy with the balance. It's just that my 590's, which I thought were going to have that same kind of Senn "balance" are junk. They are severely disappointing even compared to the 495's!

And I read the 600 have a slight bass/treble boost character to them and can be slightly grainy. So I am hoping to confirm the following:

1) The mp3's will sound as good as they did with the 495's and definietly better than my woofy and harsh 590's.
2) The 650's will be less grainy than the 600 (I've read that in a few places now)
3) The 650's area worthy purchase for future proofing - Next purchase will be an amp.

Hopefully that's cleared things up! Thanks for all ur help so far.

 

[IstariAsuka]

I had the 495s for quite a while, until I got my 650 about a week ago. Oh man, is it way better. And i'm still working on the whole "good setup" thing. Right now I've just got it running out of a 1212m unamped. (FYI, it sounds good straight out of the 1212m, but TERRIBLE out of my iMP-350.)

In the next half year or so I'm hoping to build a pretty simple amp, like the cmoy, then eventually the balanced dynahi. Oh, and mod the sound card, and, eventually, get new cables, though that's last priority by far.

Base line: you WILL notice the difference, right out of your current setup.

 

[zeplin]

If you know you'll buy the 650 later on in the future once you upgrade your rig, then you might as well just buy it now...if you have the cash for everything? I think you'll hear a slightly better sound as I think what you are after is a more balanced/warm sound. And the fact that the 650 being totally different sounding when compared to the 590, shows that it might uncover what you're looking for in the way the 650 presents the sound. You might be after a simple change in addition to wanting to improve the sound of your setup. I think you'de be happy with the 650's!

 

[DrewWinters]

I use my 650's with a Total Bithead and they sound excellent with MP3's. Of course, I can tell the difference between just about ANY level of encoding now (before, with my Klipsch 4.1 setup, I could tell anything below 160-192, but no difference between that and 320) - but I don't find it harsh or annoying. I notice more noise now, but for me at least, it isn't too bad.

Two caveats though: I'm using a Total Bithead, which means IT is my soundcard - your soundcard may vary. Second, your older amp may or may not be able to deal with very high impendance cans well. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Maybe that is the problem with your 590's.


If you plan on buying an amp in the near future - my suggestion would be to buy it first and see if it makes your 590's sound better. If it doesn't - you aren't out anything, since you were going to buy the amp sooner or later anyway - then get yourself a set of 650's. Just my two cents....