[Midgetguy]

I have just returned to wearing my HD600s after wearing my newer HD700s for a while. I find the 600s sound richer and are more comfortable than the 700s, even though the latter are probably more detailed. Easier to wear for extended times. I’m going to give the good old 600s a bit more wear!

Interesting. I found the HD700 to be more comfortable than the HD600. Though that was for a demo period of time (like 10-15 mins), so it's very possible I could find the HD600s to be more comfortable given more time with the HD700. The construction on it did always seem like it was heavier than it needed to be and that might factor in over longer sessions.

 

[Shluupag]

Aah... Fresh new HD600s arrived. Also had Topping NX1 laying around. Previously I've had some cheap iems and earbuds, Koss porta pros and years ago HD555 and such.

HD600 sound almost orgasmic compared to most
everything I've had.

Would not even consider HD660s, any Audeze or anyhting else as costly. 600 are already pretty costly.

 

[BobG55]

Aah... Fresh new HD600s arrived. Also had Topping NX1 laying around. Previously I've had some cheap iems and earbuds, Koss porta pros and years ago HD555 and such.

HD600 sound almost orgasmic compared to most
everything I've had.

Would not even consider HD660s, any Audeze or anyhting else as costly. 600 are already pretty costly.

Congratulations, you've just bought one of the best headphones on the market regardless of price. The HD600 is in it's 22nd year & is still arguably the best headphone for "mid-range" sound again regardless of price. You'll enjoy them for sure. I've been enjoying mine for 16 years.

 

[god-bluff]

Agreed; all the headphone you will ever need.

 

[Pahani]

Aah... Fresh new HD600s arrived. Also had Topping NX1 laying around. Previously I've had some cheap iems and earbuds, Koss porta pros and years ago HD555 and such.

HD600 sound almost orgasmic compared to most
everything I've had.

Would not even consider HD660s, any Audeze or anyhting else as costly. 600 are already pretty costly.

Congrats! HD600 is a very fine headphone, my pair will never leave my collection

 

[L8MDL]

Congrats! HD600 is a very fine headphone, my pair will never leave my collection

Mine never will either but they're gathering dust since I got my 660s'.

 

[Shluupag]

I was considering some closed backs so I could block outside noise at work... but considering I hate the inside of head, isolated sound of some iems, which was fixed with VE Monks (earbuds). They sounded obviously much more spacious.

I wondered whether jumping to full-size HD600 would be worth like 26 times the price of VE monks... Few days of listening, I'm listening much more music and different genres. I don't require perfect representation of soundstage, but the openness and some depth is crucial to enjoyment. The amp must be helping quite a bit. Really enjoy listening to these cans, opened almost like a new dimension.

Comfort is very reminiscent of HD555, which I forgot I was wearing after a while and honestly felt like a comforting cap. Can't really remember how they sounded in order to compare with HD600.

 

[Midgetguy]

I was considering some closed backs so I could block outside noise at work... but considering I hate the inside of head, isolated sound of some iems, which was fixed with VE Monks (earbuds). They sounded obviously much more spacious.

I wondered whether jumping to full-size HD600 would be worth like 26 times the price of VE monks... Few days of listening, I'm listening much more music and different genres. I don't require perfect representation of soundstage, but the openness and some depth is crucial to enjoyment. The amp must be helping quite a bit. Really enjoy listening to these cans, opened almost like a new dimension.

Comfort is very reminiscent of HD555, which I forgot I was wearing after a while and honestly felt like a comforting cap. Can't really remember how they sounded in order to compare with HD600.

I think I'm just not doing a good job of reading today.....you don't have the HD600s yet, right? Because if you don't, then I'd recommend to get a hold of a set to demo before buying if possible, just to see if they meet your standard of desired openness.. I don't count the HD600 as an incredibly open set of headphones; they aren't closed-in either, but they're middling in that quality metric. Nothing to wow in that respect, but they don't make me wish for a more open headphone either. The overall musical enjoyment and their ability to recreate the beauty of the recorded music is what's made them such an enduring set of headphones.

 

[Dobrescu George]

My review on Sennheiser HD660S is live now!

Added a lot of comparisons that might be interesting to those considering HD660S, including comparisons with HD600, HD650, and Beyerdynamic Amiron.

Review coming shortly on Head-fi as well

https://audiophile-heaven.blogspot.com/2018/06/sennheiser-hd660s-changing-the-status-quo.html

 

[muffins]

So it's taken me several years for me to get around to adding a pair of HD600's to my collection, and WOW and am I mad it took me so long! Every headphone I have purchased gave me some kind of positive reaction, but these are the only ones that within actual moments of me putting them on my head made me say "Woah, these are almost perfect... Like REALLY good", no extended listening required. I'll avoid giving my full impressions because it might take up an several pages But just a few major points I'll hit:

1) It seems like to me that nearly every headphone has some genre of music that ends up being a weakness in it's ability to recreate faithfully that genre the way it aught to sound. But with a penchant for what I would call the closest thing to real neutrality that I've heard, the HD600 continues to make every single genre of music I listen through them sound just like it should. Even things I assumed would be it's weakness, like various electronic music, sound as I know they should. This headphone sounds great with nearly anything, and THAT is truly an amazing feat.
2) Continuing more on that thought of a neutral sound signature (or perhaps more neutral/natural) I find the 600's to have a wonderful sense of weight, dynamic punch, separation, detail retrieval, and balance that I think any headphone could learn a lesson from. Drums sound incredible, not just in their bassy thud, but in their timbre and attack. Strings don't shine as much as they sing. And vocal sound intimate and inviting, though not in an overly organic way that might be distracting. Everything just sounds *right*. I was expecting these to a tad bass shy from what I had heard, but that seems to be a misnomer. These kick something fierce, with power and control I'm kind of astonished with. All in all, a wonderful sounding headphone very deserving of it's long lifespan and reputation for excellence.
3) And this is a bit more of a personal thing than the previous points, but I cannot stress that for me, these are hands down the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn. My head is a bit small admittedly, but even headphones that people seem to praise for their comfort (I'm looking at you K7XX) were unbearably uncomfortable for any real length of time for me. Perhaps it's not PERFECT, but it's darn near close to it. Why do people insist that thick memory foam should go in earpads these days? Any kind of memory foam doesn't compress enough against my head for it to make any difference, and the caliper pressure required to do so would probably drive me even more crazy. These thinner extremely giving pads depress and conform with no protesting. The headband is thick and plush, providing at least an inch of a similar kind of foam for cushion as the ears. In a market where headbands are often thin and have very minimal padding, this is a Godsend. Not to mention they are super lightweight! combined with a very even distribution of weight across all parts of the headphone, I can *actually* wear these for hours without a problem. I cannot say that about any other headphone I own - even my ciem's. Kudos Sennheiser.

Honestly, I'm shocked these don't get as much praise or love as their bigger brother the HD650 gets. They deserve it! To be fair I don't own a pair of HD650's yet, but they are most certainly next on the docket. Either way, these won't be leaving me for any reason. You did it Sennheiser, you made a believer out of me

 

[Argyris]

<a lot of excellent impressions>

Welcome to the club. You've discovered exactly what many of us here have, and your first experience with the HD 600 mirrors my own in many ways. It took me a few hours to get used to the sound, but once I had, it just fit like a glove. I remember listening for over ten hours straight, from that first evening on through the next morning, and as a result I didn't get much sleep. I even took it on a walk around the neighborhood that morning because I wanted to see if the linden trees in the subdivision at the end of my road were flowering yet (they were not), but I also didn't want to stop listening. I remember being torn between immensely enjoying everything that was currently playing and being anxious for each song to end so I could try something else.

Over the course of the next few days, I threw everything I could think of at the HD 600, including stuff I'd up to then avoided listening to for years because of how disappointing (and in many cases fatiguing) it sounded through my other headphones. Everything sounded glorious, and, though it's so hard to put a finger on something so subjective, it sounded correct. It wasn't too airy, boomy, bloated, nasal, wonky, shouty, piercing, or any other negative—cymbals sounded like cymbals rather than shimmery, harsh noise; vocals and instruments were a little upfront but otherwise had the correct timbre, the supposedly rolled off treble sounded just right in level, and the supposedly boosted and wooly mid bass has yet to appear. After a while I stopped listening for faults and just basked in the seeming perfection. Ultimately the headphone disappeared and let me hear only the music. I'd been looking for something like that for over six years.

Two years later, nothing has changed. Reading your impressions almost makes me wish I could go back and experience my own first impressions all over again. It was such a liberating experience, freeing me from the various tonal failings of the rest of my stable and simultaneously opening my entire music collection up to me once again. I hadn't realized just how much of my music I'd been avoiding because it lit up some flaw in my other headphones (usually sibilance-related). I only wish the HD 600 were more portable—it works okay in relatively quiet surroundings, but it's cumbersome and requires external amplification as the notoriously weak headphone output of my Nexus 5X can barely elicit a whisper from the HD 600.

 

[metsat]

I have just clicked the buy button for my HD600. Hopefully I will receive it in a couple of days. I'm gonna try it out straight out of my Mac mini (Late 2012) headphone port and see how it performs. Otherwise I will be purchasing an amp to drive these babies.

 

[ScOgLiO]

I have just clicked the buy button for my HD600. Hopefully I will receive it in a couple of days. I'm gonna try it out straight out of my Mac mini (Late 2012) headphone port and see how it performs. Otherwise I will be purchasing an amp to drive these babies.

Probably worth it to get a good amp down the line, but I'm sure you won't be disappointed either way!
They truly are great headphones

 

[Midgetguy]

I have just clicked the buy button for my HD600. Hopefully I will receive it in a couple of days. I'm gonna try it out straight out of my Mac mini (Late 2012) headphone port and see how it performs. Otherwise I will be purchasing an amp to drive these babies.

It'll still sound good, provided the onboard audio chip is decent, which I think by 2012, Apple's computer lineup got decent enough ones (I have a 2012 MacBook Air). But I could be wrong too; my desktop computer's motherboard has onboard audio that's utter crap and can't make anything sound decent . Remember, if you end up deciding to buy an amp, it doesn't have to break the bank!

 

[DogMeat]

I'm very much a fan of the JDS Labs "The Element", in combo with the HD600's.
It's kind of perfect. Elegant in appearance and musicality.
And not too costly.

For a tube amp experience, you could start with a Woo WA6.
Also quite nice for the HD600's.

You will love your 600's, especially with proper amping.