[Ashirgo]

In my opinion you should give them more time, not merely burning them in, but listening to them. I do not believe it is their highs that makes you feel pain, you are probably used to HD 595 recessed highs and a sudden change leaves your brain in a confusion. Believe me or not, there are many headphones with more quantity of highs and few people complain about it. The other scenario is that your recordings or particular HD 600 are flawed. Note that recordings, made primarily to sound good with speakers (which usually have rolled-off highs), may sound unbalanced with headphones.

 

[hifidk]

That is very weird. I never had any problems with my HD600 and no sibilance or bothering highs whatsoever. Oh and by the way, I tried them straight out of my PC (x-fi), laptop, iphone and several portable/stationary headphone amps.

 

[spickerish]

I also have a pair of HD600's and I felt the same way as you when I first got them. But this was because I didn't have an amp. A few hundred dollars down the road and with a Corda Cantate on my desk, I am perfectly happy with my HD600's. So my best advice is, buy an amp and DAC. And you will fall in love with yours too.
Using the HD600 without an amp really isin't worth the money you paid for it, you really need an amp (and DAC) for it to perform.
Good luck!

 

[Nocturnal310]

ya i just plugged in my HD600 to laptop directly..and they sound worse than $100 headphones.


if u dont have a dedicated amp...u wont like HD600


u cant run Boing 747 with 737's engine.

 

[BMWWW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nocturnal310 /img/forum/go_quote.gif ya i just plugged in my HD600 to laptop directly..and they sound worse than $100 headphones. if u dont have a dedicated amp...u wont like HD600 u cant run Boing 747 with 737's engine.

I praise and worship the Headphone Gods that I can forever live in my innocent ignorance, as I'm currently quite satisfied with mine unamped.

There will be plans to grab a dac/amp combo, but I hope for my wallet's sake, that these past few unamped-months will make me appreciative of the upgrade, and keep me satisfied for years on end!

Ok, maybe only a small amp upgrade only!

 

[Schlosser]

Thank you guys for all opinions! I see you maintain 2 basic points of view on the topic question: some of you (the majority) consider that the problem is the lack of good equipment while the rest of you consider that the sound signature of HD600 maybe is not for my subjective taste. There was one interesting opinion that my taste is influenced by my HD595 experience.

In fact before the purchase of HD600 I tested them at the shop plugged into a thousand dollars studio equipment YAMAHA. They sounded fantastic - the bass needed only a little minus correction and the highs a little plus (!!!) correction. At this settings the overall sound was sweet, fascinating and absolutely balanced for my taste. Especially the cymbals sounded very natural without any harshness and sibilance. After the purchase I was disappointed listening to the phones with my Xonar DX unamped. So I tested them again on a different setup - Cambridge Audio CD Player and Cambridge Audio Azur 340A amplifier (the latter ~$300). The highs still sounded harsh (not so much) and needed minus correction. Overall I was not happy with the Cambridge setup.
My budget for an amp is ~$300. Considering this I am not very sure that HD600 are for me. Maybe ~$300 amp plus the HD650 (the silver/white screen) are the better choice. Unfortunately in my town (in Bulgaria) I have no opportunity to taste HD650. But I see many opinions at this forum that the new HD650 are brighter than the old HD650, but darker than the new HD600. How much darker I do not know. Can anybody compare the highs of the new HD650 with the highs of the HD595? The latter are too rolled-off, muffled and recessed in the highs zone for my taste.

 

[niggle]

Burn in need time. My HD600 sang after almost one month. And an amp is necessary. I use a little Dot II tube amp and Graham Slee Solo SS amp. Both of them are good for HD600. The source is in most occasions PC.

 

[Bina]

And what about driving HD600 from Asus Xonar Essence? It has quite good built in amp.

 

[tdogzthmn]

Im currently listening to an un-amped HD580 and it still puts out quite a performance.

 

[Schlosser]

Finally I bought an Asus Xonar Essence. Good card that produces very clear, clean and uncolored sound. Very decent built in amp. The HD600 now sound better. Much better. The mids have more body, but still not enough. The highs are now not so harsh, but still too strong. In conclusion I am still disappointed with my Senn HD600. In short for my ears their mids and highs sound dry and sharp - not natural. IMHO these phones are very detailed, maybe neutral but not natural. I think they are overrated.

 

[moonboy403]

One man's garbage is another man's gold.

Some people swear by Stax and some don't care much for them. So the HD600 is of no exception.

 

[hifidk]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I cannot believe you think the highs of HD600 are harsh. Either amped or unamped, HD600's highs are not harsh at all compared to 325i, DT770/880, K701, AD900, HFI780 etc.... you get the point.
Well.. we all have different ears but I find this very interesting.
Maybe it's due to your source (bad compression) or recording itself?

 

[Uncle Erik]

I read here that your original soundcard puts 80mW into 600 Ohms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bína /img/forum/go_quote.gif And what about driving HD600 from Asus Xonar Essence? It has quite good built in amp.

That soundcard gives you 140mW of output, but I haven't been able to find out at what output impedance or find an output impedance curve.

For comparison, a desktop amp like the Gilmore Lite will give you 1W (or 1,000mW) of power.

My experience has been that Sennheisers need a fair amount of power before they open up and sound really good. If I were you, I'd try to put them on a more powerful amp before deciding to sell them.

 

[john53]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I cannot believe you think the highs of HD600 are harsh. Either amped or unamped, HD600's highs are not harsh at all compared to 325i, DT770/880, K701, AD900, HFI780 etc.... you get the point.

When i first bought my hd 600's(5-6 years ago) i was using a sony str db 840 av reciever to drive them.I experienced sibilance too,even with good recordings and i needed to eq the tremble to get acceptable sound.
But after i bought the x can v8,i have no problem.(it was a bit thin at first,but it smoothed out now)

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schlosser /img/forum/go_quote.gif Finally I bought an Asus Xonar Essence. Good card that produces very clear, clean and uncolored sound. Very decent built in amp. The HD600 now sound better. Much better. The mids have more body, but still not enough. The highs are now not so harsh, but still too strong. In conclusion I am still disappointed with my Senn HD600. In short for my ears their mids and highs sound dry and sharp - not natural. IMHO these phones are very detailed, maybe neutral but not natural. I think they are overrated.

My expereince is similar, and it is what made me look for other cans. Too prominent highs, and unmusical mids, made them sound unnatural for some music. Other music sounds absolutely stunning through my HD580 (should be very similar to your HD600). Maybe some of my music was mixed for gear with rolled-off highs, maybe the HD580 doesn't like some heavily compressed music, and maybe with some songs there is bad synergy with the 0404usb/xcanv3. But the end result is what counts.
I have no plans for selling my HD580 though, since it can sound so good.