[orian]

I have both the HD650 and K7XX. Currently listening to Tool out of the balanced output of my new Jotunheim, that just got here an hour ago.

Both headphones are very good all-around open cans for the money. The K7XX has a wider soundstage and more sparkle in the treble. I agree that the 650s are more laid back and have a warmer, darker sound signature. They both need a pretty decent amp to sound right, they do get loud enough to listen to out of my iPhone 7 but they don't sound anywhere near their potential.

HD650 is 300 ohms but fairly sensitive for its high impedance. You need an amp that puts out a lot of juice at 300 ohms, which my Vali 2 puts out 270 milliwatts and sounds good with the 650s. The Jotunheim puts out 350mW with the single ended output and a whopping 900 mW with the balanced out. It's only been about an hour but the Jotunheim really rocks these cans!

K7XX is 62 ohms but very power-hungry for its low impedance. The Vali 2 is a good match for the K7XX, I really like it. It puts out 500-600 mW at 62 ohms. The Jotunheim seems to drive it a bit better out of the single ended out, but Vali 2 is very good.

My point is that both are very good headphones, and I would probably pick the K7XX if metal is all you listen to and you don't want to pay the $400 for a Jotunheim. If you do, then maybe the 650/6XX is your best bet. Don't be fooled by the $199 price for each headphone on Massdrop, you really need a good DAC and a good amp to run either one. 650/6XX is less picky with gear though overall.

Clear as mud? You probably have 15 more questions after reading this but I have a fair bit of experience with both headphones.

listen i ordered the HD6xx cause i just had to buy them..... XD
i really wanted in one hand a forward headphones that will just give me that punch in the face (well i dont know how to explain myself but i guess you got me)
but in the other hand some seperation of the instrument so it doesnt sound like a mess cause most of the people in the internet talk about thrash metal and death when speaking about metal but my taste is mostly heavy metal which is much less agressive ----- avanged sevenfold and metalica for example
didnt like the grado cause they are so small and looks like they are on ear headphones wich i dont like
so yea i could just buy them and an amp and then just sell them and get another headphones if i dont like them no big deal.....

do you think the magni 3 amp will do good with the HD6XX ? its 100$ from thier official web and 36$ shippinh (cuase im from israel and shipping cost to here is the problem most of the times)

 

[orian]

I listen to quite a bit of metal...This is my metal music thread...enjoy!
IMHO neither the Senn6XX nor AKG 7XX are great for metal.Thats the bad news.
The good news is you can get an AKG K240 sextett,either early or mid production for about half of what the the other two would cost and be in metal Valhalla.
You will need a good amp for them though.

Other than those,in that price range,I'd grab a Grado 80e,or perhaps a HiFiMan HE-400.

didnt know how to quote you in the same post... ^^^^6

 

[cossix]

listen i ordered the HD6xx cause i just had to buy them..... XD
i really wanted in one hand a forward headphones that will just give me that punch in the face (well i dont know how to explain myself but i guess you got me)
but in the other hand some seperation of the instrument so it doesnt sound like a mess cause most of the people in the internet talk about thrash metal and death when speaking about metal but my taste is mostly heavy metal which is much less agressive ----- avanged sevenfold and metalica for example
didnt like the grado cause they are so small and looks like they are on ear headphones wich i dont like
so yea i could just buy them and an amp and then just sell them and get another headphones if i dont like them no big deal.....

do you think the magni 3 amp will do good with the HD6XX ? its 100$ from thier official web and 36$ shippinh (cuase im from israel and shipping cost to here is the problem most of the times)

Magni 3 is perfect for the 6xx! Best 100 dollar amp hands down IMO

 

[orian]

Magni 3 is perfect for the 6xx! Best 100 dollar amp hands down IMO

do you think i will need a dac ? i am using the built in msi motherboard thing (i dunno how to even call it)

 

[cossix]

do you think i will need a dac ? i am using the built in msi motherboard thing (i dunno how to even call it)

A dac will help for sure, but if you're just listening to lossy mp3 files then it may not be worth it. Modi 2 is a good one

 

[MtnMan307]

I listened to the Magni 3 last weekend. It may be the best $100 amp ever made.

 

[orian]

A dac will help for sure, but if you're just listening to lossy mp3 files then it may not be worth it. Modi 2 is a good one

well i dont know
untill now i mostly consumed my music through spotify and youtube.... i dunno XD

 

[orian]

A dac will help for sure, but if you're just listening to lossy mp3 files then it may not be worth it. Modi 2 is a good one

yea and i also see its gonna be also 136$ including shipping for me so its too expensive for me
but i hope that the motherboard will do well with it

 

[cossix]

well i dont know
untill now i mostly consumed my music through spotify and youtube.... i dunno XD

I'd say hold off on the DAC for now

 

[ProtegeManiac]

i thought i was confused before i asked quetions here no i am more confused XD
i mostly listen to avanged sevenfold, metallica ---- heavy metal
and i look at the grado headphones.... well doesnt look like my style and i wont be able to get them for a good price where i live and at all, getting good prices for headphones in israel
with the shipping cost included is hard.... taking into account i need also to spend like 100$ at least more on a proper amp, maybe one that is combained with a dac cause i m currently using the motherboard cheap built in one... its alot of money
thats why i was thinking about the HD6XX and K7xx i can get for a good price through massdrop
but maybe i will have to stay with the taskar pro 80 for now....

The thing with the Grados though is that, given their high sensitivity/efficiency, you don't really need to spend more than around ~$100 on the amp, unless you need one that has SPDIF inputs, but basically it doesn't need an amp with a large power supply surrounded by fat capacitors. Even a $60 Fiio Q1 can drive them well. I'd be more worried about ambient noise than the amp since these have zero isolation.

With the HD6XX and K7XX, even if you managed to get one that you would otherwise like, if the amp isn't doing well enough on either you'd have already spent money and not sure if it's the headphones you really dislike or just the amp struggling with either (although the HD6XX will tend to have less issues owing to high impedance and high sensitivity, barring severe voltage limitations like driving it straight out of a smartphone).

do you think if i dont have a sound card (just the one built in on my motherboard) i will have to buy also a dac ?

It depends on the motherboard. Some have a decent audio circuit, most don't. Although I'd still much rather shorten the analogue signal path and use digital output from the motherboard, even if it's a Gaming series board with a DSP chip that has virtual surround (if so you just need to use SPDIF output from it to use that DSP chip's features).

 

[ProtegeManiac]

i thought i was confused before i asked quetions here no i am more confused XD
i mostly listen to avanged sevenfold, metallica ---- heavy metal
and i look at the grado headphones.... well doesnt look like my style and i wont be able to get them for a good price where i live and at all, getting good prices for headphones in israel
with the shipping cost included is hard.... taking into account i need also to spend like 100$ at least more on a proper amp, maybe one that is combained with a dac cause i m currently using the motherboard cheap built in one... its alot of money
thats why i was thinking about the HD6XX and K7xx i can get for a good price through massdrop
but maybe i will have to stay with the taskar pro 80 for now....

The thing with the Grados though is that, given their high sensitivity/efficiency, you don't really need to spend more than around ~$100 on the amp, unless you need one that has SPDIF inputs, but basically it doesn't need an amp with a large power supply surrounded by fat capacitors. Even a $60 Fiio Q1 can drive them well. I'd be more worried about ambient noise than the amp since these have zero isolation.

With the HD6XX and K7XX, even if you managed to get one that you would otherwise like, if the amp isn't doing well enough on either you'd have already spent money and not sure if it's the headphones you really dislike or just the amp struggling with either (although the HD6XX will tend to have less issues owing to high impedance and high sensitivity, barring severe voltage limitations like driving it straight out of a smartphone).

do you think if i dont have a sound card (just the one built in on my motherboard) i will have to buy also a dac ?

It depends on the motherboard. Some have a decent audio circuit, most don't. Although I'd still much rather shorten the analogue signal path and use digital output from the motherboard, even if it's a Gaming series board with a DSP chip that has virtual surround (if so you just need to use SPDIF output from it to use that DSP chip's features).

 

[orian]

The thing with the Grados though is that, given their high sensitivity/efficiency, you don't really need to spend more than around ~$100 on the amp, unless you need one that has SPDIF inputs, but basically it doesn't need an amp with a large power supply surrounded by fat capacitors. Even a $60 Fiio Q1 can drive them well. I'd be more worried about ambient noise than the amp since these have zero isolation.

With the HD6XX and K7XX, even if you managed to get one that you would otherwise like, if the amp isn't doing well enough on either you'd have already spent money and not sure if it's the headphones you really dislike or just the amp struggling with either (although the HD6XX will tend to have less issues owing to high impedance and high sensitivity, barring severe voltage limitations like driving it straight out of a smartphone).




It depends on the motherboard. Some have a decent audio circuit, most don't. Although I'd still much rather shorten the analogue signal path and use digital output from the motherboard, even if it's a Gaming series board with a DSP chip that has virtual surround (if so you just need to use SPDIF output from it to use that DSP chip's features).

I was told the schiit magni 3 is good enough for the 6xx right?
The 6xx cost me 215$ including shipping
The schiit magni 3 cost me 135$ including shipping
So its 350$ for both of them insted of 350$ only for the hd650
I have a msi mother board from the time of 4000 intel series so i hope it is going to be good enough

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I was told the schiit magni 3 is good enough for the 6xx right?

In terms of output power and distortion/noise levels, yes.

I have a msi mother board from the time of 4000 intel series so i hope it is going to be good enough

It's not the CPU nor the motherboard chipset series that determines if it's good or not.

That said, most people won't hear a difference unless there is a marked voltage output discrepancy (vs the Sony standard 2v, although a very clean 1.2v trumps a noisy 2v++) or an outright crappy circuit, and even then, probably not without listening back to back vs a cleaner DAC.

 

[orian]

In terms of output power and distortion/noise levels, yes.
thanks, then i will get it





It's not the CPU nor the motherboard chipset series that determines if it's good or not.

That said, most people won't hear a difference unless there is a marked voltage output discrepancy (vs the Sony standard 2v, although a very clean 1.2v trumps a noisy 2v++) or an outright crappy circuit, and even then, probably not without listening back to back vs a cleaner DAC.

yea when i was noting my motherboard chipest series i meant to just say that is not the newest one around but my english didnt really come up to be able to express myself XD
ok so what i get from what you say is ti dont really need to be worried about the dac for now (still if i wanna get one its again like 135$ more so its doesnt seem to worth it at least now)

thank you for the help !

 

[orian]

In terms of output power and distortion/noise levels, yes.




It's not the CPU nor the motherboard chipset series that determines if it's good or not.

That said, most people won't hear a difference unless there is a marked voltage output discrepancy (vs the Sony standard 2v, although a very clean 1.2v trumps a noisy 2v++) or an outright crappy circuit, and even then, probably not without listening back to back vs a cleaner DAC.

In terms of output power and distortion/noise levels, yes.




It's not the CPU nor the motherboard chipset series that determines if it's good or not.

That said, most people won't hear a difference unless there is a marked voltage output discrepancy (vs the Sony standard 2v, although a very clean 1.2v trumps a noisy 2v++) or an outright crappy circuit, and even then, probably not without listening back to back vs a cleaner DAC.

and yea thanks i will get that AMP for the hd6xx