[Typewriter]

Hi, my name is Markus. My buys are a bit too chaotic.

Sorry, I have to state it like this. I have been searching the net for a lot of stuff for the last few years to find out I want the HD 650.

I had them a few years after they came out, they are very hard to drive, failed totally on some DAC (it was 2003 or so and all I had was a really awful Tascam USB DAC).

But the HD 650 sounded so wonderful on a hifi set, it was some big amp with lots of static noise. Orchestra sounded absolutely stunnnig.

So, I like these cans, am a bass head in some way (I want all the low-to-uppermost bass actually for melodies. For acoustic tone textures I actually would need the highs, which is why AKG with K701 introduced my crisis so to say).

No I have ordered K612, received them by mail today, tested it for 2 minutes and knew I need to send them back or need Equalizer APO to tilt the bass up and the treble down. I Installed APO on my Thinkpad X1 for which I want the headphones, and APO does nothing. Can't get it to work at all on the X1, but I know how to make it work on my desktop PC.

So, that's no good start. For the amount of research (months) I put in that really didn't go well.

I actually want to order the HD 650 now, it's around 350 Euros here. But I'm afraid the X1 maybe won't have the "oomph" to drive the wonderful bass of the HD 650. So I might end up wanting to buy a DragonFly, too, then ideally the cobalt version I guess. If the Realtek DAC inside the Thinkpad has the power for the HD 650, that would be so cool, but I'm afraid it might not.

Wanted to spend 130 Euros, might end up spending 450 to 650 Euros. And to be honest, I broke my last Sennheiser HD 600 on purpose, because I had a bad day, and the pads are flat after a few years anyway, and the varnish on the grill starts to have missing spots and there was also kind of tiny amounds of choclate behind the grill.

How do I end up spending so much? Anyway, I guess I have to do it, and try looking after my stuff better.

PS: A lot of headphones failed for me because of comfort. If the Momentum 2 just were comfy, I would have no problem at all. They do everything, sadly, including hurting my ears by clamping from around the ears, because they (even version 2) are not really around-ear for my ears.

"Z" (Youtuber) recently reviewed mini-planar phones that would cost just 80 Euros, might have the bassy sound I want, and might even be comfortable because they are definetly on-ear and not a in-between-thing like the Momentum 2. But they apparently don't sit well on the head or so. Usually a buy like that ends up only in my cupboard.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Massdrop (Drop) sells a version of the Sennheiser HD650, it's called the HD6XX.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/MASSDROP-S...514038?hash=item445bf44ff6:g:TDQAAOSwab5e1ovR
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Massdrop-x...540482?hash=item3429520502:g:sAIAAOSwkwte1YUo
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sennheiser...118604?hash=item34294b950c:g:TU4AAOSwvIJe1R6p

 

[Chris Kaoss]

@PurpleAngel is on point.
If you like the sound signature of the HD650, take the 6xx instead and buy a device like the iFi hip-dac, or similar.
That's all you need for your musical satisfaction, imo.

If you want to take a step further, get the Quad Era-1 for a similar sound to the HD650 with better tonality.
But you need a dac/amp too.

@Typewriter
Das X1 kannst mit beiden Kopfhörern vergessen. Ist nicht kraftvoll genug.
Habe es an meinem Surface Pro 7 getestet, welches ähnlich ausgestattet ist.
HD6XX benutzt den gleichen Driver wie HD650 mit kleinen Änderungen in der Dämpfung.
Era-1 ist ein Magnetostat, welcher, bei ziemlich gleicher Tonalität, mehr Dampf unten herum hat, dabei aber umfassend feiner auflöst.
Für beide benötigst du jedoch einen kleinen Dac/ Khv.

Ich benutze unterwegs dafür den Fiio BTR5, gibt aber Besseres, wenn du auf Bluetooth verzichtest.

All the best
Chris

 

[GREQ]

Wanted to spend 130 Euros, might end up spending 450 to 650 Euros. And to be honest, I broke my last Sennheiser HD 600 on purpose, because I had a bad day, and the pads are flat after a few years anyway, and the varnish on the grill starts to have missing spots and there was also kind of tiny amounds of choclate behind the grill.

The grills can be pulled off by hand. In fact the entire headphone can be FULLY disassembled by hand without the use of any tools.
It's the most user-friendly modular design ever made, making it very easy to clean, repair or replace all parts of the headphone.

 

[Typewriter]

I didn't know you can remove the grill, have to look into this. Admittedly I have also never replaced the pads, I fall into believing that I was too bored by the sound signature after a year or two, but it could be the drivers just got too near to the ears and also some bassy sound leaked at the bottom.

 

[Typewriter]

@Typewriter
Das X1 kannst mit beiden Kopfhörern vergessen. Ist nicht kraftvoll genug.
Habe es an meinem Surface Pro 7 getestet, welches ähnlich ausgestattet ist.
HD6XX benutzt den gleichen Driver wie HD650 mit kleinen Änderungen in der Dämpfung.
Era-1 ist ein Magnetostat, welcher, bei ziemlich gleicher Tonalität, mehr Dampf unten herum hat, dabei aber umfassend feiner auflöst.
Für beide benötigst du jedoch einen kleinen Dac/ Khv.

Ich benutze unterwegs dafür den Fiio BTR5, gibt aber Besseres, wenn du auf Bluetooth verzichtest.

All the best
Chris

Hi, sorry, I wanted to think about my decision making before answering to you, but now I think it's better to say thanks, danke, for your kind reply. My decision making did go more complex, stormy weather here, thinking about closed back. And there's a few contrary goals, many variables. I want to add to this thread what I have bought when I have bought it.

Deutsch:
Danke für die Hinweise. Gut zu wissen, dass ein Mobilgerät einfach nicht den Dampf hat. Und beim 660S liest und hört man ja, dass der nur marginal leichter anzutreiben sei. metal571 sagt dazu "sowas wie +3db", gefühlt. Da bin ich nicht sicher, ob das "mobile" das Kernversprechen von Sennheiser sein soll.

Bei DAC verging mir die Lust, weil ich einen Audioengine D3 gekauft hatte und eine schlechte Firmware erwischt hab, vllt old stock, wie auch immer. Jedenfalls hat der die Lautstärke zu vorhersagbaren Gelegenheiten auf 100% gesetzt, und der hatte ja Power, also hat mir der Momentum ins Ohr gekreischt und ich hab das D3 Ding frustriert entsorgt.

Okay, also, danke nochmal.
/Deutsch off

 

[Typewriter]

Bought Mackie MC-250. I was looking for deep earcups and isolation.

I'm not sure if I should write this in a Mackie MC-250 thread or here, so I want it to write here and with saying that I can't compare them side by side and have high expectations. I bought them and I'm a bit disappointed.

The earcups are deep, pads are soft and go around my ears and get more flat when on my head, because oft the softness. It is comfortable.

There's very few isolation, lots of outside noises seem to go directly through the plastic cups through the driver into my ears, not so much through the pads, but anyway, that's not what I was looking for.

The highs are good, a bit much, mids are ok, bass information is there but not much. It sounds like what it costs. It's less bright than the 612, from that point of view I maybe should keep them, but I'm disappointed. Bass extension is good on the Mackies, but I can't get much bass details except some bass string pick sound or something like hat coming with some bass.

Sometimes I think, big ear cups and good isolation, must make so bad sound (reflections inside cups or whatever), I'm looking for a thing that does not exist.
Well: Momentum 2 sound > Mackie MC-250 sound.

If just the Shure 1540 looked better, I don't like metal at the outside of headphones when it looks like it could be sharp (it's not). Isn't visually pleasing for me and I often buy headphones made out of plastic for their matt and homogeneous look.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Oh gosh.
He did it again. ^^
I'd recommend to set the par a little higher to avoid such disappointments.
Get the Meze 99 for a closed back headphone, if you don't want to go open back.
My preferred Monitor 5 as closed back is a bit beyond your budget, i guess.

For open back headphone get a new set of pads for your HD600 and the iFi Hip-Dac and your done.
No more hassle with other, crappy headphones.

Hope you can get a refund for the Mackie.

Good luck on your further journey.

 

[Typewriter]

Yes, the Monitor 5 is EUR 999 and quite an investment. May I ask why you like it?

I had looked into the Meze 99 thread and had the impression there could be coming a new version with more comfortable ear cups, hesitated, then saw Sennheiser Urbanite exists - on Tyll Hertsens Wall of fame, quite at the top. So I kind of had to order these first, got them today, and they are interestingly weird or weirdly interesting.

Urbanite sounds a bit like Momentum 1, tells a lot about reverbs, has sound that might help a producer to make sound that really gets engaging. On the other hand this head phone is not very engaging itself, localisation is indeed (I had read a review here) mostly in the head. Bottom extension not that much, top not that much, highs a bit like separated from the rest of the sound (but telling about different instrumentation parts or frequency parts in this region, seemingly). The headphone tends to be analytical while non-fatiguing. Comfort is okay to meh. Cable is very good, it goes away from the body due to a kink near the ear cup, and the length is what I needed.

That headphone is a bit strange, I think I want to jump to the below $500 range, finally trying the 1540, going on reading about phones in the $500-$999 range. It has indeed become a journey, and it's hard to tell me what to actually do, sorry if that is the impression of my thread.

I have made a decision. I will keep the ZEKLER 1. It has superb isolation, plays 4'33" in repeat-mode and has endless battery life.