[mulveling]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilPeart There may be more than "a few" people who prefer the HD650 to the L3000.

Heh. Must be time for a poll

 

[kin0kin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philask I'm not the kind to collect for profit, but as classics I'd like to hang on to them

very well said

. There are better investments out there than headphone.

This may have been said many times, diminishing returns get greater and greater after a point. i believe the 650 is at the sweet spot. As a matter of fact, lots of bucks are accounted as premium and for cosmetics on the L3000 more than many other phones. Each L3000 driver only worth US50 on bluetin, and the phone worth a few K. anybody gonna do an implant soon? I had thought of that.

 

[PATB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mulveling Of course I can't argue that you may be one of the few who finds the hd650 superior, but it's still a bit difficult for me to comprehend

You will be surprised in the number people who prefer the HD650 over "high-end" headphones, irrespective of price.

 

[neilvg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilPeart There may be more than "a few" people who prefer the HD650 to the L3000. The L3000 is an excellent headphone and one of the best dynamic cans but it certainly has its flaws and shortcomings. That said I find amplification really affects the L3000's performance. I'm a fan of the DHA3000, but the more I hear the balanced L3000 with the SDS-XLR, the more I lean toward that pairing. I'll take the SDS-XLR/HD650 combo over the SDS-XLR/L3000 anytime!

Count me in... I'll even go so far as to say that the HD600 / 650 are in a different league technically, and sonically, far more appropriate for a larger range of material. I find when the l3k's excel, they sound better than anything else, but when they don't which is often, they sound harsh, dim, and with a low level of detail and speed.

its weird though because if I only listen to the l3k's for a while, I really start to enjoy the sound... its just when I go back to the 600's... I'm a fan of laserlike accuracy and speed... hence my HE60's being my current main phone for the home rig...

At their best, the l3k's are warm, very musical and for lack of a better word 'analog' sounding. The Senn offerings tend to be very crystaline in comparison yet with good amplification they are very warm as well...

The DHA3K is nice, and it makes the L3k's sound better than anything else, including an SDS-XLR most of the time.

Neil

Edit: The other thing to take into consideration here is, NeilPeart and I were raised on the Senn House sound... and like many others, my ears have come to see this sound as the reference.. I have mixed music with these phones, I have come to understand many a musical recordings through these phones... The AT sound to me just seems so colored, I cannot for my life 'trust' it...

 

[GoRedwings19]

philask>I think there is nothing wrong in you not liking the l3k's. I like your honesty in posting an opinion which is currently against the current l3k status.

 

[razer]

Oh gosh...Guess i found a clone! The HD650 was definitly better than the L3000 brand new. The bass and the highs were the most significant. However, after burning them in for a week and three days at a volume that's 20% louder than my normal listening volume, its true like what others have said, the L3000 did come to live. First of all, its the transparency that had me wowed. And the L3000 is definitly a more detailed pair of can. The bass is not as boomy as the HD650 but it extends really deep and is tight as well as impactful. But I still think that the HD650 is hard to beat when it comes to the bass department. Of all the headphones other than the BOOM BOOM BOOM from my HF-1s, the HD650s got to have one of my favourite bass. Of course the L3000 is great but it now boils down more to what kind of bass i want when I'am listening to music. Sometimes, I want the L3000, while for techno, I would choose the HF-1s over any of the two.

I guess you've just got to leave the L3000s there and burn them in for around 250 hours and then listen to them often and hear them evolve bit by bit till it reaches perfection.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen Murphy I am using HD600s which I love as well, and the soundstage is equally impressive. I really wonder about the few folks here who say Senns 580/600/650 all suffer from "3 blobs in the head" soundstage. I really don't know where they get that from because, like you, I am hearing the whole picture, not blobs. I guess we all hear things in different ways.

Perhaps this is easier to "see" with your eyes closed. If you concentrate on the area of sound in front of you and to your immediate sides, you'll "feel" that there's sound coming from you directly in front of you (north) and to your immediate sides (east and west), but that there's almost a complete lack of information coming from diagonally left and right in front of you (northwest and northeast). Thus it feels as if the headstage is strongly seperated into three distinct areas...you hear something playing directly in front of you, and to your extreme sides. It's not one continuously smooth half circle playing area that wraps from one ear to in front of you to the other ear.

I suppose just how strongly your hear this effect depends on just how good the rest of your system is at soundstaging. Also aftermarket cables for the Sennheisers seem to affect this quite a bit...the three blobs effect is very strong with the stock cable, but the Equinox for instance seems to practically eliminate this problem and gives the HD650 a wonderfully large and cohesive headstage.

 

[Yikes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mulveling Heh. Must be time for a poll

A poll would be useless. There are so many SennHeads that would chime in that any results would be wildly skewed. I have owned the HD-650’s, but I only have about ten minutes on the L3000’s so I’m incapable of offering an informed comparison.

If there was a way to limit the poll to people who have extensive time listening to both headphones, but such a poll is a fantasy.

I realize that the suggestion for a poll was made in jest.

 

[razer]

So the verdict is: the HD650 for its price with or without cable upgrades + a good source is hard to beat!

Stop debating and go enjoy the music!!!

 

[halcyon]

Although it pains me to see a fellow headfier not like his new expensive purchase, I must say that the post itself is worth applauding.

Not succumbing to hype, trusting your own ears and then posting the reasons why. That's ready commendable.

The only thing I recommend is to give the L3000 (or whatever phone one may be initially disappointed with) a bit longer duration of mental break-in.

Maybe you end up liking them after two months and keep switching back and forth with HD650 and L3000.

Sometimes our baseline reference of that is "good" takes a bit longer time to change than we like to think.

 

[EricP]

From the other side of things, I have come back to the 650 over and over again only to have it disappoint me each time. The presentation, to me, is very jumbled.

 

[akwok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricP From the other side of things, I have come back to the 650 over and over again only to have it disappoint me each time. The presentation, to me, is very jumbled.

Me too..

But different strokes for different folks, liking the HD650 over the L3000 is a good thing for your wallet

 

[PATB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akwok liking the HD650 over the L3000 is a good thing for your wallet

Not really. The HD650 scales tremendously with higher end gear. Makes you want to get that Reimyo player and SDS-XLR.