[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by Audio&Me The HD600 sounds muddy and bright until broken in. It took 72 hours straight to settle mine in, and two weeks to be completely broken in

I'm sorry but I find that hard to believe. My HD 600's are 3 years old and they sound basically the same as they did when I got them. And they've had a lot of music pass through them.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by eeyssjr sennheiser (580 and 600s) because of their etched treble which is simply awful. Very fizzy and fake.

Yet another "I've never heard them with a good source and amp" person

"Etched treble?" "Fizzy and fake?" Not the HD600 or HD580, that's for sure.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by MacDEF Yet another "I've never heard them with a good source and amp" person "Etched treble?" "Fizzy and fake?" Not the HD600 or HD580, that's for sure.

I agree 100%. Someone is giving us the gears, I suspect.

I have been listening to my HD600 since Friday and I experienced a ka-THARSIS! I am convinced that as an overall package, the HD600 brings out great sound like no other headphone I own. I have been listening through my Grado RA-1 and these dang things are clear as a bell, no veiling, no tizziness, no muddiness, no etched highs, just clean open and velly balanced. The longer you listen, the better it gets. I prefer the open highs and quickness of the AKGK501 but the HD600 does a lot of things better. Grados are probably more 'musical' but don't do 'flat top to bottom' as well as the HD600.

I'll tell you one thing, and this speaks volumes...

The HD600 has told me more about what is going on with SACD than any of my other phones. You can hear the breaths, the spittle, the vibrations in the room on "Kind Of Blue".

Yeah, I use the RA-1 and there is no veiling that can be attributed to the phones or amp. Maybe the very top high frequencies are slightly attenuated compared to the K501 but I hear everything sounding so natural on "Kind Of Blue" and my other SACD titles.

I do hear a bit of veiling or lack of transparency with the X-Cans.

 

[legoman]

Quote:

Originally posted by RemedyLane Interesting thread. I will get my 600's in a few days, and I will use them with my NAD amplifier. It will sure be interesting, with regards to this thread.

Ok, this is mostly hearsay since I haven't have been able to try my NAD 304 with my AKGs, but there have been several posts where people claim that as regular amps go, NAD has one of the better headphone outs. So maybe you get lucky and enjoy the sound.... (and save $$$)

 

[Audio-Me]

Beagle - dude, I'm on your side! I wouldn't trade either of my HD600s for any other headphone, screw you band wagon manufacturers! It's just that both of my sets did initially sound bright and muddy, but that most definately didn't last long. It quicky went away after leaving them running overnight. The next day was warm rich sound.

I'm with Beagle about the Senns, I'm absolutely apalled by these hysteric notions.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Matt For instance, on synth lines, where I originally heard a note play "waaaaaaaaaaaaah," I could now hear the subtle modulations of pitch (or amplitude, depending), making it "waawaawaawaah." Just stunning. Another thing is I could hear these beautiful, watery echoes behind synth bass hits, where other cans haven't yet picked up these delicate things.

Cite examples, please! I wanna hear what you are talking about...

 

[bootman]

Matt, can you try the 600 with any other amp?

 

[Matt]

Bootman: I guess I could do it with a one 9V JMT, but I doubt that'd be any better.

Dusty: for instance, there is a track on Deee-lite's Sampladelic Relics and Dancehall Oddities (track: "I Had A Dream...") where the deep synth bass starts thumping and a "fweeeeeeeeee" glissando shoots up to heaven from a square-wave/sawtooth-wave synth tone.

First off, the bass was tight and controlled on the Sonys, where it is now woolier and far less refined. Since these in-ears basically cap off your ear canal, this isn't particularly suprising. The Senns are KSC-50-esque, in that their bass tends to overtake the music.

In the "fweeeeeee" glide up, not only can I hear it with more of it's natural body (I am used to being in studios with such classic synths as a Moog modular, a Minimoog, a Prophet 5, an eMu modular, etc.), but I can also hear "into" the timbre of the frequency sweep (by this I mean it is better-described to me, like I could draw the subtleties of the timbre, as opposed to just pretty much hearing the fundamental and the first overtone or two, maybe. The harmonics are far better and more realistically presented).

I'm telling you that I've heard live jazz bass, I've heard, up close and personal, a ton of the actual synths used, directly hooked up to a soundboard, unrecorded, that these studio musicians are using, I've heard a live vocalist in a well-insulated environment and the POS Sony vertical in-ears do a better job of convincing me when it comes to the make-it-or-break-it subtleties than do the HD600s.

Plus, they keep me listening: the Sonys I wanted to keep on (and pretty much every time did) for hours on end. I was consistently being hypnotized, drawn into the music and taken on what literally was like a drug trip. It was engulfing and pleasant.

When I put the Senns on, even after two days of burn-in, after a minute or two, I find myself just taking them off. It's Grado all over again. Unpleasant, not euphonic, not convincing. I'd rather listen to my POS 1990 JVC boombox.

I am going to be bringing in a DVD-A player and whatever better IC's I can get my hands on with the EMP + '600s to see if I can strike some better synergy between components here. If it does sound better, I will also be sure to test it with the Sonys and see if those improved, too, or what.

- Matt

 

[Audio-Me]

At least your honest Matt.

 

[Matt]

...yeah, frankly I'm quite sick of going "uhhh...yeah....*huh huh*...it does sound...uhhhh...great....uhhhh....I really....uhhhh...like it!"

You splash a ton out only to find it wasn't nearly what you were hoping for. Plus, if some contingent says something is way great, beyond belief, incredible and utterly delicious, I'd think any naive someone would go "oh ****, I'd better not pipe up."

I was doing that all through my trip through Gradoland. These days I really don't give a fudge and I am not embarrased to publicly recognize that I spent a fist-full of cash on something that is wack for the price. Yow.


- Matt

 

[RemedyLane]

@Matt:

How much did you pay (incl. shipping) for the 600's?

 

[Blighty]

Quote:

Originally posted by Matt These days I really don't give a fudge and I am not embarrased to publicly recognize that I spent a fist-full of cash on something that is wack for the price. Yow.- Matt

I applaud you for your sense of honesty and not bowing down to the herd mentality. It is hard for most people to admit that something they spent a large sum of money on is not quite up to par with a pair of $20 sony verticals. Although I do admit that your case is a bit on the extreme side heh. Now I will definitely seek out a pair of those MDR-A44Ls.

 

[Matt]

Blighty: remember that my verdict was that the Sony vert's were good from the EarMax Pro and they lost a lot of their "magic" from the JMT. Vertigo-1 states otherwise, however, and says that from the JMT they're nice.

RemedyLane: I did the Jan Meier thing.

Just to demonstrate once and for all that I am not out to get the Senns, I will list their strong points:

1. (The "duh" ones) Comfort and delightful build-quality. Also, the "kitchen counter" speckles are not nearly as gaudy as I though they'd be. Yay.

2. They are letting me hear things I haven't before (however, these are CDs I haven't extensively listened to with the Sonys and won't for another week or so...to get used to the Senn sound). The kewl thing is the way they present those details: it's a sort of "yeah, so" fashion, very coolly presented, like it was there all along.

The problem is that the overall presentation, though, is awful due to an unnaturally scratchy, rough and emphasized treble (compared to the Sonys' natural, not-emphasized-but-not-rolled-off-character). Also, voices which once sounded rich and full now sound h o l l o w and compressed. It feels "reproduced" to a marked degree, one high enough to render a verdict of "unpleasant" and "unlistenable for long-ish periods of time."

An example: the sustained cymbal at the beginning of "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" from George Michael's "Song From the Last Century" is not a cymbal, it's just the proverbial "beam of hiss." Yikes. And it can't be the IC's, the D-25S or the amp, because I was hearing well into the timbre of that cymbal, much less hearing it's basic character, on the Sonys with the same setup.

Overall, I feel like I'm listening to my boombox on detail-steroids (i.e. an overall "electronically reproduced" feel, rather than an organic, breathy feel).

It's like having a wonderful bathroom with a wonderful bathtub and gorgeous decorations, but the ****ing tap only spills one water temperature, scalding blood hot. That ruins it.

Again, I am using the exact same setup that with the Sonys I was being 100% pleasantly hypnotized.

There's no doubt


- Matt

 

[Spad]

Me thinks brother Matt is having us on. Is this a joke, Matt? Will you give us your word that you are serious?

 

[Matt]

...I'm dead serious.

Again, I was easily falling into trances with the Sony, Piece of ****, vertical in-ears and with the Senn HD600s, I am itching to take them off, after seeing how long I can possibly take it.

I have this creeping feeling that I am going to buy a pair of A44Ls, love them to death and use them forever with my EMP (or at least until I can get some R10s and a suitable amp).

- Matt