[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif The treble is an improvement, too. More under control. The 600 has just a little hiss in the upper regions.

true, but most found the bass improvement more obvious and some say, compared to the hd600, the hd650 is lacking in the higher regions. I would say, they are softer, but nothing is missing.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif The treble is an improvement, too. More under control. The 600 has just a little hiss in the upper regions.

"Hiss" cannot be generated by the headphone. It is only revealing what the amplifier sends to it.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

I didn't mean background noise hiss, I meant a "hissy" sound caused by a treble spike in the 10khz region.

 

[Febs]

Off-topic:

Tourmaline, have you ever wondered what this button does? -->

 

[robm321]

Count me as another that has heard the smearing - even re cabled, balance and amped right. Like J-pak has stated this affects the imaging but does not make it sound bad or flawed by any means. It's just a characteristic.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't mean background noise hiss, I meant a "hissy" sound caused by a treble spike in the 10khz region.

Hiss is more apperent in the high regions. The better the amp and the headphone can reproduce high frequencies, the more obvious hiss becomes. Hiss is also dependant of recordings, i have recordings with alot of hiss in the high regions and recording where the hiss is completely absent!

I noticed, when i modded the amp with much better caps with better frequency responce, the hiss in recordings also became more apperent. Due to the systems ability to reproduce detail and high frequencies more accurate.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Count me as another that has heard the smearing - even re cabled, balance and amped right. Like J-pak has stated this affects the imaging but does not make it sound bad or flawed by any means. It's just a characteristic.

So, it is the way the hd650 is build, or the driver used.

I am getting more and more curious about the new 2008 sennheiser.

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by heretical /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's not so down here. The K701 is slightly more expensive. A few days ago I saw in a ...ehm, how do you say, those big shops... the K601 sold for 249 euro! Go figure! I paid my HD650 (in a shop nearby) just 199 euro (admittedly I was lucky).

over here they pretty much have a fixed price of 399 euro's. You would have either bought the hd650 in a sale or you would have been darn lucky.

Over here no serious audio shop would sell the hd650 for 199 euro's. They know what it's worth and they are pretty much fixed to the recommended importers price of 399 euro's.

The k701 is considderably cheaper then the hd650 at my end.

 

[esuko]

Hello Gurra1980

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gurra1980 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes I guess this is the case, some like it more than others and i really liked the HD650, but as the OP said, sometimes it sounds like different notes goes in eatchother, a little muddy and smeard sound. As I see it the "FAT" sound is a result of lacking detail in certain freqs, but it sure is smooth and addictive. This has been said before but the HD650 is a really colored HP, most people like it, since the HD-650 is the most popular dynamic HiFi-headphone on the market.

HD650 realy colored headphone? Coloration usually is a spike in frequency or in distortion response. Changing tone of particular instrument or voice affected by the problem region. Looking HD650 response graphs from Headroom you do not find either.

Actually HD650 is well behaved headphone and it's frequency response imitates quite well total radiation response of a speaker in a room. Most recording engineers mix music for speaker listening and HD650 has a nice frequency response that in mind.
If someone has insight to this HD650 coloration please do not hesitate to response.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

Quote:

...and it's frequency response imitates quite well total radiation response of a speaker in a room.

That's how I've always thought of it. In fact, when I first put them on, for the very first time, my very first though was "Wow, these sound like speakers!".

Also, if you compare the two, the HD650's FR matches the gradually falling characteristic of a pink noise readout:

Looking at those, you could say that the HD650's sound reproduction has equal energy in all octaves! (Except for the deepest bass.)

 

[robm321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourmaline /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, it is the way the hd650 is build, or the driver used. I am getting more and more curious about the new 2008 sennheiser.

That I couldn't tell you. Probably the driver design.

So, has the new Senn been officially announced for 2008? I missed that one.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't mean background noise hiss, I meant a "hissy" sound caused by a treble spike in the 10khz region.

Ah, that makes more sense. Sorry for misunderstanding you.
The difference between the 650 and 600 at the peak is only a couple of db.

If you knew what you were listening for, you should be able to hear that difference.

 

[Stoney]

I found the HD650 had lower treble distortion, and a more natural timbre in all frequency ranges. The 600 had a broad midrange bathtub like dip to my ears. I wouldn't be able to live with them.

But, the HD650 sounds great in some settings. Try it with Cardas cable on the WA5, with which it is the ultimate of musical balance; or on a Max Balanced Home from Headroom... so much detail that you can't possibly use the term "smearing."

The best sound from the HD650 requires:
foam removed
great cable
great amp, esp balanced

Even Sennheiser admits the 650 is designed less for measured linearity, more for musical appeal. The graphs don't seem to show how different they really sound. Hearing is multi-dimensional; FR graphs yield so little information that, for example, they can't reveal differences among obviously different amplifiers.

 

[AS1]

Here's a quote from Headroom:
"The measurements of these headphones are as close to perfect as we’ve seen, and the sound is probably as close to perfectly neutral as we’ve heard from Sennheiser."

It's puzzling to me that people think the HD650 is colored.
I suspect people who have heard bright headphones start to call the HD650 colored. I don't think that's fair...

 

[Agent Kang]

Even Steve Hoffman feels that the 650 has a bloated bass and prefers the 600s. His ears I trust.