wdahm519
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2010
- Posts
- 909
- Likes
- 21
[size=medium]
Well, I've hit just over three hours listening to the HD650's now (three hours total burn in). I guess its time to start typing up this comparison. As I type this, I'm going to be actively listening to both the DT990 (250ohm) and then compare how the HD650's sound, so it will best capture what I hear. I'm doing it this way because I've had an intimate relationship with the DT990's for about 10 months now, and I know how they represent certain tracks like the back of my hand. Comparing the sounds to the DT990 will help me describe how the HD650's represent the same tracks.
I should mention, I'm running both headphones out of a self built Opus DAC with a Ballsie Lite single ended converter, to a Bijou tube amp.
Dire Strights - Why Worry (16bit, 44.1kHz, FLAC):
The DT990's have a light sound here. The highs of the synthesizer sparkle, and the high notes on the guitar soar. The bass is there, but the low end doesn't feel like its boasting with warmth. The vocals here are definitely on light, airy end. Separation in the high end is really great. Since the DT990's are very bright headphones, the separation of all the high instruments, medium-high and high guitar notes are great. I'm noticing a bit of a blur in the mids however. I can't quite "see" all the instruments here quite as well. As for bass, the bass notes take up the entire floor of the stage, but aren't overwhelming. Its obvious its there, but its not dominating the sound. If anything its slightly recessed by the highs.
Right off the bat, the HD650's high end is not sparking nearly as much as the DT990s. The mids are what are standing out here. The middle guitar notes are really coming out nicely right now. I'm experiencing a lot of separation in the mids, and way less in the highs -- you could say from that respect the HD650 and DT990 flip flops strengths here. Okay, with the vocals, they mix much better with the lower instrumentation. Comparing this to the DT990's, the vocals there were the priority, and the instruments on the low end of the Hz spectrum were an afterthought. With the HD650's however, they are extremely balanced, working in perfect harmony. The high's are definitely darker with this headphone (which alludes to the lack of sparkle). The mids are really lush with this headphone. Overall you could say the HD650 sounds more balanced with less bass impact but a more full bass sound. The bass isn't has heavy, but it kind of wraps around you and hugs you. This definitely alludes to the laid-back nature of the HD650's.
I Ching - Gadamaylin (24bit, 96kHz, FLAC) (From the Open Your Ears album!):
In the introduction to this song/piece, the voices in the background are pretty pronounced. When the bass comes in, its punchy. The ticks from the percussion are bright and airy sounding. When the bass begins to elongate, its pretty heavy, but steers clear of the highs and doesn't interfere. The instrumentation of an ethnic background begins to play and its pretty lush, very smooth sounding -- obviously bright though. I'm again noting a lot of separation between instruments, but I should note that the lower of the ethnic instruments start to mesh together just a little bit (there's a harp sounding instrument and a bassoon). Not much else to say about this song, its somewhat short. Its a good one for the DT990 because this is kind of where the DT990 excels. Its good at separating those highs out, and adding a lot of detail up there.
For the HD660's, the voices sound similar, but darker (duh!), and there is a really warm undertone here that I didn't get with the DT990's. As the bass comes in, its also punchy, but less in quantity when compared to the DT990's. The ticks from the percussions are subsided slightly, but still detailed and way darker as well. Wow, the mids are soaring with these eastern instruments. Its really pretty impressive, and there is a heck of a lot of separation between the mid instruments. The high's here are way less pronounced. They're still detailed, but sound way darker. I'm surprised how clean it all sounds even though its darker. Its something I didn't anticipate. Hmm, here's something interesting too, the bass is more detailed. I can catch all the nuances in note runs that weren't sharp on the DT990's. This track is entirely different on the two headphones. It brings out the best in both of them. I'm pretty shocked by this, as I thought the HD650's wouldn't be so great here.
ATB - Autumn Leaves (16bit, 44.1kHz, FLAC) (This is slow, electronic trance):
The intro here gives a nice bass dive. Its odd how to describe this on the DT990's. It goes way deep, and there is "some" of it but its not overwhelming. As the female trance vocals enter, everything gets very bright which is odd for a dark song (if you know the song). The "S" syllables are kind of sibilant, as are some of the cymbal crashes, and pads. Mids seem recessed here as the song continues. They are slightly overwhelmed by the bright treble highs. I feel like some of the sibilance from overwhelming treble here kind of retracts from the sparkle quality of the DT990's that can make them so great. Also, there is a fluid pad going on in the mids that is being completely covered! I'm a bit disappointed because it sounds nice. Also another disappointing note is the the mids and lower mids having very little separation here, but nevertheless the highs are well articulated. As the piano enters for its debut, it sparkles like it should, and on a side note the person who mixed this song should have increased the volume on that channel -- its not loud enough. The bass in this song is pretty warm, and gives a strong footing on the signature, but doesn't overwhelm the overall character of the song. I don't know what else to say about it because its kind of a repeating legato pad and slow heartbeat all the way through the song.
The intro here gives more bass actually. It digs deeper and really surrounds you. I like it! As the pads enter, they are much warmer and stand out more than the DT990's. Wow the female vocals here are clearer because they're not sibilant at all, very nice sounding. The cymbal crashes are well controlled and sound natural, not sibilant either. There is definitely no brightness with the HD650's and this track. The mids are being emphasized way more, and I can hear that great mid fluid pad that I was missing with the DT990's. There is a lot of separation with the mids, but its not incredible. The highs have good separation too, but I think if you were to remove the sibilance from the DT990's they would be clearer up there. Since this is electronic trance, you're getting a lot of Hz representation from the entire bandwidth on this sound, and so you get a very good emphasis of how balance the HD650 sound really is. The piano enters and its a little louder -- interesting. Its clear but doesn't have the sparkle that it did with the DT990's. There is a definitely sense of the low notes really engulfing the sound (not dominating it though) and it creates that warm hugging feeling again. That persists throughout the track.
HD650 solo time:
I'm going to throw one more test to the HD650's alone. I don't need to perform this test with the DT990's because I know the DT990's really suffer on this track, which is why its a good test for the HD650's. The track is John O'Callaghan - Big Sky. Its a very sibilant trance acoustic sounding sound on the DT990's and really brings out a lot of the bad characteristics of that specific pair of headphones. The HD650's seem to be doing well so far, taking out about 90% of the harshness of the female vocal. The piano in the background is also pretty tame. Its not a very bassy track, but the bass it does have is pretty well balanced. As the acoustic guitar enters, its pretty well detailed as it strums along, but it gets a little lost behind the female vocals (but not entirely). I'm liking how separated the lows, mids, and highs are on this track. It was hard to discern the difference between them because so much was masked by the DT990's sibilance. I know I seem to be stressing the sibilance a lot on the DT990's so I just want to say normally it isn't so bad. There are certain tracks that will be pretty bad though, and this is one of them. The HD650's seemed to tackle it quite well though, and it was pretty enjoyable. Good job Sennheiser.
[/size]I should mention, I'm running both headphones out of a self built Opus DAC with a Ballsie Lite single ended converter, to a Bijou tube amp.
Dire Strights - Why Worry (16bit, 44.1kHz, FLAC):
The DT990's have a light sound here. The highs of the synthesizer sparkle, and the high notes on the guitar soar. The bass is there, but the low end doesn't feel like its boasting with warmth. The vocals here are definitely on light, airy end. Separation in the high end is really great. Since the DT990's are very bright headphones, the separation of all the high instruments, medium-high and high guitar notes are great. I'm noticing a bit of a blur in the mids however. I can't quite "see" all the instruments here quite as well. As for bass, the bass notes take up the entire floor of the stage, but aren't overwhelming. Its obvious its there, but its not dominating the sound. If anything its slightly recessed by the highs.
Right off the bat, the HD650's high end is not sparking nearly as much as the DT990s. The mids are what are standing out here. The middle guitar notes are really coming out nicely right now. I'm experiencing a lot of separation in the mids, and way less in the highs -- you could say from that respect the HD650 and DT990 flip flops strengths here. Okay, with the vocals, they mix much better with the lower instrumentation. Comparing this to the DT990's, the vocals there were the priority, and the instruments on the low end of the Hz spectrum were an afterthought. With the HD650's however, they are extremely balanced, working in perfect harmony. The high's are definitely darker with this headphone (which alludes to the lack of sparkle). The mids are really lush with this headphone. Overall you could say the HD650 sounds more balanced with less bass impact but a more full bass sound. The bass isn't has heavy, but it kind of wraps around you and hugs you. This definitely alludes to the laid-back nature of the HD650's.
I Ching - Gadamaylin (24bit, 96kHz, FLAC) (From the Open Your Ears album!):
In the introduction to this song/piece, the voices in the background are pretty pronounced. When the bass comes in, its punchy. The ticks from the percussion are bright and airy sounding. When the bass begins to elongate, its pretty heavy, but steers clear of the highs and doesn't interfere. The instrumentation of an ethnic background begins to play and its pretty lush, very smooth sounding -- obviously bright though. I'm again noting a lot of separation between instruments, but I should note that the lower of the ethnic instruments start to mesh together just a little bit (there's a harp sounding instrument and a bassoon). Not much else to say about this song, its somewhat short. Its a good one for the DT990 because this is kind of where the DT990 excels. Its good at separating those highs out, and adding a lot of detail up there.
For the HD660's, the voices sound similar, but darker (duh!), and there is a really warm undertone here that I didn't get with the DT990's. As the bass comes in, its also punchy, but less in quantity when compared to the DT990's. The ticks from the percussions are subsided slightly, but still detailed and way darker as well. Wow, the mids are soaring with these eastern instruments. Its really pretty impressive, and there is a heck of a lot of separation between the mid instruments. The high's here are way less pronounced. They're still detailed, but sound way darker. I'm surprised how clean it all sounds even though its darker. Its something I didn't anticipate. Hmm, here's something interesting too, the bass is more detailed. I can catch all the nuances in note runs that weren't sharp on the DT990's. This track is entirely different on the two headphones. It brings out the best in both of them. I'm pretty shocked by this, as I thought the HD650's wouldn't be so great here.
ATB - Autumn Leaves (16bit, 44.1kHz, FLAC) (This is slow, electronic trance):
The intro here gives a nice bass dive. Its odd how to describe this on the DT990's. It goes way deep, and there is "some" of it but its not overwhelming. As the female trance vocals enter, everything gets very bright which is odd for a dark song (if you know the song). The "S" syllables are kind of sibilant, as are some of the cymbal crashes, and pads. Mids seem recessed here as the song continues. They are slightly overwhelmed by the bright treble highs. I feel like some of the sibilance from overwhelming treble here kind of retracts from the sparkle quality of the DT990's that can make them so great. Also, there is a fluid pad going on in the mids that is being completely covered! I'm a bit disappointed because it sounds nice. Also another disappointing note is the the mids and lower mids having very little separation here, but nevertheless the highs are well articulated. As the piano enters for its debut, it sparkles like it should, and on a side note the person who mixed this song should have increased the volume on that channel -- its not loud enough. The bass in this song is pretty warm, and gives a strong footing on the signature, but doesn't overwhelm the overall character of the song. I don't know what else to say about it because its kind of a repeating legato pad and slow heartbeat all the way through the song.
The intro here gives more bass actually. It digs deeper and really surrounds you. I like it! As the pads enter, they are much warmer and stand out more than the DT990's. Wow the female vocals here are clearer because they're not sibilant at all, very nice sounding. The cymbal crashes are well controlled and sound natural, not sibilant either. There is definitely no brightness with the HD650's and this track. The mids are being emphasized way more, and I can hear that great mid fluid pad that I was missing with the DT990's. There is a lot of separation with the mids, but its not incredible. The highs have good separation too, but I think if you were to remove the sibilance from the DT990's they would be clearer up there. Since this is electronic trance, you're getting a lot of Hz representation from the entire bandwidth on this sound, and so you get a very good emphasis of how balance the HD650 sound really is. The piano enters and its a little louder -- interesting. Its clear but doesn't have the sparkle that it did with the DT990's. There is a definitely sense of the low notes really engulfing the sound (not dominating it though) and it creates that warm hugging feeling again. That persists throughout the track.
HD650 solo time:
I'm going to throw one more test to the HD650's alone. I don't need to perform this test with the DT990's because I know the DT990's really suffer on this track, which is why its a good test for the HD650's. The track is John O'Callaghan - Big Sky. Its a very sibilant trance acoustic sounding sound on the DT990's and really brings out a lot of the bad characteristics of that specific pair of headphones. The HD650's seem to be doing well so far, taking out about 90% of the harshness of the female vocal. The piano in the background is also pretty tame. Its not a very bassy track, but the bass it does have is pretty well balanced. As the acoustic guitar enters, its pretty well detailed as it strums along, but it gets a little lost behind the female vocals (but not entirely). I'm liking how separated the lows, mids, and highs are on this track. It was hard to discern the difference between them because so much was masked by the DT990's sibilance. I know I seem to be stressing the sibilance a lot on the DT990's so I just want to say normally it isn't so bad. There are certain tracks that will be pretty bad though, and this is one of them. The HD650's seemed to tackle it quite well though, and it was pretty enjoyable. Good job Sennheiser.
