[mellowyellow]

I'm kinda disappointed there's only been one review of the HD6 so far. I do quite a bit of traveling so I was looking for a pair of closed back reference headphones to work on my productions.  I had been hoping the HD6 would fit the bill but I decided to pay a bit extra and pick up a pair of Focal Spirit Professionals.  Couldn't convince myself to be that guinea pig for everyone.. lol. 

 

[hekeli]

You're too impatient, delivery man already has mine. 

 But I doubt you can go wrong with the Pros..

 

[mellowyellow]

  You're too impatient, delivery man already has mine. 

 But I doubt you can go wrong with the Pros..

Haha... yea I am.  Although I might end up purchasing or testing a pair at some point just to compare the two. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Can some1 persuade a cheap person to finally place a purchase of HD8 DJ? It costs like 1/100 of my savings but yet I feel like "don't know, is it worth trying it?" Expensiest headphone I bought costed 179 EUR lol. I know there would be people buying STAX setups with my savings and yet I have trouble purchasing a $300 can. I don't like buying blindly though I have to admit but it's too hard to wait for Tyll or some1 reviewing/measuring it. ^^

EDIT: In case of returns, will etailers really honor returns even if there's broken seals? Seems unavoidable to not break the seal on these boxes if opening it up. I always wondered what they did with those returned ones then if they can't instantly put it back for sale.

 

[PsiCore]

I don't how the others, but I would really love to hear your impressions, RPGWiZaRD. It seems we like somewhat similar sound reproduction ^-- (boosted bass, balanced mids/highs).
Yesterday I've got received the DT770 80Ohm and L1 - they're exactly how you described the sound (L1 boosted bass and very dark \, DT770 not very refined bass, kinda one noted). The Q40 should be there next week.

 

[hekeli]

  EDIT: In case of returns, will etailers really honor returns even if there's broken seals? Seems unavoidable to not break the seal on these boxes if opening it up. I always wondered what they did with those returned ones then if they can't instantly put it back for sale.

 
Which retailers? For remote sales, German retailers by default must honor by law atleast the 14 day return period just like in Finland. Usually there are no "seals" on headphones, but it doesn't matter. Only exceptions are software etc special stuff which I'm sure we all know. Also there have been official decisions that headphones are NOT "hygiene" products and are returnable even when tested.
 
I've returned dozens of items to Thomann, Amazon etc. No one ever questioned anything. Of course we know they sell the returned ones for discount.
 
Good for you for actually saving unlike many. 

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

   
Which retailers? For remote sales, German retailers by default must honor by law atleast the 14 day return period just like in Finland. Usually there are no "seals" on headphones, but it doesn't matter. Only exceptions are software etc special stuff which I'm sure we all know. Also there have been official decisions that headphones are NOT "hygiene" products and are returnable even when tested.
 
I've returned dozens of items to Thomann, Amazon etc. No one ever questioned anything. Of course we know they sell the returned ones for discount.
 
Good for you for actually saving unlike many. 

 

Well I was thinking thomann.de, it's 299€ with free shipping (MSRP is 349 EUR), of course some sites may offer slightly cheaper in a month or so but I don't expect much lower if at all at launch.

 

[hekeli]

HD6&7 unpacking. Aww they are smaller than I thought and very cute. <3 Everything including packaging seems quality - and yes there were 3 sealing tapes..
 
I'll let them warm up and burn-in a bit from their freezing journey, some graphs in the evening..

 

[hekeli]

Btw these sound very muffled out of the box (especially HD6). If they do improve, I will certainly be a believer in burn-in...
 
(I was going to say pitifully muffled, but let's not try to exaggerate..)

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

  Btw these sound very muffled out of the box (especially HD6). If they do improve, I will certainly be a believer in burn-in...
 
(I was going to say pitifully muffled, but let's not try to exaggerate..)

I have a feeling HD8 will even be more suitable for studio use too. HD7 great for extreme bassheads but maybe HD8 is the only very good sounding product of the series. A bit bumped bass but still good overall quality, that's what I hope for anyway.

 

[hekeli]

Using my calibrated Smyth Realiser -mics in ear, zero compensation. Measured with perfect fit on my head, so includes small HRTF/pinna-effect, but bass etc will be true to life. Driven by Benchmark DAC2.
 
These are stock pleather pads. I've also measured the velour ones, there aren't really differences outside error margings, so not included here. Small graph is unsmoothed. For anyone interested, I'm providing whole full REW measurement mdats (link).
 

 
 
THD etc are excellent, at around 90dB, less than ~0.2% everywhere. Even 20hz at ~0.5%. No ringing etc seen.
 

 
 
For reference, comparison with HD800 and Aurvana Live. So uh yeah we are looking at -10dB comparatively >3kHz. Which of course is not a bad thing for your hearing, when banging EDM at high volumes.. (edit: added HD600 comparo)
 

 
 
 
 
Isolation looks super effective. Tried also HD7 with velour pads, isolates maybe slightly less by few dB.
 

 
 
Also some 30hz and 300hz square waves like Tyll does:
 

Sennheiser HD6	30hz	300hz
Sennheiser HD7	30hz	300hz
Sennheiser HD8	30hz	300hz
Creative Aurvana Live!	30hz	300hz
Sennheiser HD800	30hz	300hz

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Wow, thanks a lot for these measurements, too bad you didn't have the HD8!

Looks like the highrange is in average maybe ~5dB lower than ideal or so for the HD6/7, the slightly veiled highs compared to the midrange + bass will probably make these pretty warm/dark sounding. Hopefully that's where the difference is in HD8 which I expect, that the FR curve looks similar but have more highs presence.

But holy crap that 30Hz squarewave, the HD7 looks like it "pounds" like beasts, I'm sure you will agree that the bass "punches"/pounds with lots of force even if it's "only" 10dB, this bass shows it has such character to it which I actually like but yea the highs should be a bit more present compared to what I want, the HD800 in comparison is too much but ~5dB higher than HD7 would be perfect roughly for me, would have loved to see how HD8 is.

 

[Jukka]

Sweet, can't wait to get mine. I'm REALLY happy about the good isolation and now we have some graphs to tell us that. Thanks for those measurements hekeli!

 

[mellowyellow]

  One hour of warming is good enough for me. Pretty sure they won't change their character anymore, and if they do, I can compare later..

 
Hekeli, I'm really curious as to your own first impressions of the HD6 Mix. I just purchased a pair of the Spirit Pros, but I'm also considering getting a pair of the HD6 Mix for comparison. 

 

[Malevolent]

 

 

 
Thanks for the measurements, hekeli! The HD7 looks right up my alley. It's been some time since I've been excited about a headphone, but now I'm seriously stoked to try the HD7s.