Ranma172, I think that you should move away from those Senn HD 650's...I have a recabled set that I initially enjoyed until I moved to other headphones...they really are a dark headphone. They were my first big "audiophile" can and I defended them until I started to expand my collection a bit. I love my ALO modded Grado 225's compared to them as well as pretty much any other headphone I own. The 225's would probably be considered an inferior can to the 650's(and my pair is not really anything close to stock) but for what you mentioned for what you are listening to we have some music interests in common.
On that note though, I'll plug my 650's into the Isabellina HPA tonight, I have been wanting to see how they sounded with the Isabellina HPA but I had just have been really busy over the last couple weeks and have been enjoying the Isabellina with other cans up to now.
I haven't really found a set up for the 650's that I really enjoyed in a long time. I disliked the Senns enough that I ended up going for the PS1000s versus the HD800s. I am sitting over in Afghanistan so not a lot of opportunity for me to listen to stuff that I don't buy first but the 650's pretty much put me off Sennheiser in general. I know that that is a bit short sighted on my part, the HD800s seem to be getting stellar reviews. So, I am a bit biased.
I mainly listen to classic rock, blues, melodic metal (doom, progressive, etc), alternative, electronic, etc, etc...I have close to 1TB of music in apple loseless. As I told my buddy over here, I like music...not necesarrily "good music"...I like what I like.
I have alot of non audiophiles (but music guys) check out my system here as it is an anomaly in my world (even more than it would be back in the States) and they all move away from the 650's once they hear the other cans in my inventory here. The 650's have never really grabbed me. I am not saying that you need to grab a set of 1000 dollar headphones but you may find that you would be happier with a lower price point Grado can for the music that you mentioned you were listening too.
We all have our own ears and preferences but there are alot of great cans out there that might bring the joy of this fine amp to you ears! Just my two cents. I have found that the Isabellina does great with great recordings but at the same time has smoothed out some recordings that I thought were a bit simblant before...some of this could be that with the Wadia iTransport I am getting a better access to the source files.
I'll give them a listen this evening and see what I think.
I hate all the you are doing this wrong posts when you mention you don't like something that everyone else does but from personal experience I think there are probably alot of similar price point cans that might bring the music magic to you a bit more than the Senns you currently use. Again, not trying to flame you, just giving you a bit of a perspective from a guy that puts his music enjoyment before his "audiophileness"....thought from what you wrote you might be in a similar state of mind.
I have some Denon's on the way and am looking at a pair of the Edition 9's and will try and get some impressions if I go that route.
I have nothing but good to write so far with the Isabellina. I personnally do enjoy the sound signature that Vinnie puts out with his products...been a fan for many years with the Imod prior to the Isabellina HPA.
Happy listening gents, the Isabellina was enough of a step up for me to spend many hours going through my music picking out the little details that I had been missing in my previous set ups. I really do love it when you get a new piece of equipment that is enough of a step up to make all your old favorites sound like a first listen again.
Oh well that is the way the world turns.
