[madwolfa]

  I'm currently sitting with both the 650 and 600 and I can totally see how that would be an opinion. The difference between them to my ears is maybe 5% but it's a 5% that tips the scales depending on how your priorities are. 

 
I think I've just seen your review in /r/headphones

 

[rhythm is life]

My HD600s arrived today! Started listening with Hell Freezes Over through my FiiO E09k/E17 combo, and I have to say I really like how clear the sound is. Coming from the Shure 1540s, the vocals on the HD600 aren't as good, but everything else sounds fantastic. I do realise that Shure vocals are like liquid gold, so that was always going to be hard to beat, but overall the balanced and clear sound from the HD600 is something I feel I'm going to really enjoy.

Has there been much discussion on alternate pads? I'm not sure I could wear these for more than a few hours at a time, and I would really love something comfier.

The pads are stiff out of the box but soften up over time. Reducing the clamping force also helps. I wouldn't try to stretch the headband too much as it has been known to crack due to overstretching. Try ratcheting up the headband sliders so that the cups are slightly low on your ears. With my AKG K545 there's barely enough space for my ears to fit inside the pads so there's only one suitable headband position for me. The HD600 pads offer plenty of room vertically, so I can raise the sliders a couple of clicks higher than the position where my ears are dead center inside the pads. This is a good way to reduce clamping force without having to resort to headband stretching.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

The pads are stiff out of the box but soften up over time. Reducing the clamping force also helps. I wouldn't try to stretch the headband too much as it has been known to crack due to overstretching. Try ratcheting up the headband sliders so that the cups are slightly low on your ears. With my AKG K545 there's barely enough space for my ears to fit inside the pads so there's only one suitable headband position for me. The HD600 pads offer plenty of room vertically, so I can raise the sliders a couple of clicks higher than the position where my ears are dead center inside the pads. This is a good way to reduce clamping force without having to resort to headband stretching.

 

No the whole headband - set them at the widest position, place one thumb at near halfway mark of metal frame while the other hand grips the driver, then stretch out the metal frame in the opposite direction. After that place thumb closer to the driver and stretch at that point again.Do it bit by bit, holding it farther and longer later, until the frame is practically straight on both sides. Count 1-10 for example at every stretch so you can keep it closer to uniform.

 

By the time it's done the pressure should be very relaxed from top to bottom, with maybe a slightly stronger clamp at the top of the earpads. I wear mine almost like how an AKG K7xx feels on the head.

 

[Brooko]

   

No the whole headband - set them at the widest position, place one thumb at near halfway mark of metal frame while the other hand grips the driver, then stretch out the metal frame in the opposite direction. After that place thumb closer to the driver and stretch at that point again.Do it bit by bit, holding it farther and longer later, until the frame is practically straight on both sides. Count 1-10 for example at every stretch so you can keep it closer to uniform.

 

By the time it's done the pressure should be very relaxed from top to bottom, with maybe a slightly stronger clamp at the top of the earpads. I wear mine almost like how an AKG K7xx feels on the head.

 
Yep - just make sure you only put pressure on the metal part (the extender), anywhere else and it's likely to crack.
 
I bent my extenders to relieve the clamp, and they are now extremely comfortable.

 

[StanD]

   
Yep - just make sure you only put pressure on the metal part (the extender), anywhere else and it's likely to crack.
 
I bent my extenders to relieve the clamp, and they are now extremely comfortable.

+1 Same here, did that when I first got them. Glad I didn't bend the plastic part of the headband.

 

[blse59]

I guess everything that has been said about these headphones has been said. Eh? Eh?

 Amazing it's been out since... 1996.

 

[StanD]

  I guess everything that has been said about these headphones has been said. Eh? Eh?

 Amazing it's been out since... 1996.

You can't argue with success. 

 

[blse59]

  You can't argue with success. 

True... Also, I stand corrected. They were released in 1997 according to the article on innerfidelity.

 

[lextek]

I guess everything that has been said about these headphones has been said. Eh? Eh?  Amazing it's been out since... 1996.

Huh. That's probably when I bought my first pair. There was the 580 Jubilee, I think right before the 600.

 

[rovopio]

I've got a question for everybody here who have listen to both hd600 and hd650.
(i'm bolding some parts so it's easier for everybody to skim read ot...)
 
Short Version : What made you choose hd600?
I like Female vocals so, (midrange and lower treble), is the most important part for me. Instrument separation is far second. Bass is dead last. the less bass the better.
I (technically) can't audition where i live, so i couldn't make an informed decision between which one i'd like of the two and needing input from you guys.
 
--------------
Long Version : I have a condition called vestibular neurinitis. Basically, one of my inner ear physically hurts when listening to treble peaks for more than an hour. And i've got tinnitus too every now and then when i listen to my Grado sr80e. Other than that i also had shure 940, dt880, and ma-900.
 
All this time i've been listening to the sony ma-900. I found that i have almost zero pain with ma-900. Well i still have pain if i listen to it 6 hours x 3 days non-stop. But with regular use, 3 hours a day for example, i can manage just fine with the ma-900.
 
Initially my only consideration is the hd650 because it has rolled-off treble so i figured my ear wouldn't hurt. Though... to be honest, i don't really like bass quantity either. Less bass is good for me. It cost $640 where i live so, considering Adorama deals and Amazon, i feel pretty silly shelling that much money... Hifiman he-400i is priced exactly the same. So i've researched about those two for the past one week or so.
 
Also at the time i considering HD650 vs He-400i because HD600 is not available locally, i have to import it. I have a personal mental problem with the hd600 design as well (but that's not important for now).
 
Now I'm considering just the two, HD650 vs HD600 but i couldn't made up my mind and i need input from you guys..
1) Here's my setup and genres and situations.
---
- I found that the only thing that is truly important to me is how a headphone renders female vocals (so, midrange and lower treble).
- Other sectors are either secondary, or not important at all. Like bass and soundstage is not important at all.
- I listen to mostly Japanese artists where it's predominantly female vocals with pianos or string instruments, and a lot of salt shaker-thing and triangle thingy. I don't know what to call about the genre, Bossa i guess?  (Most of the songs doesn't have a lot of drums)
- For english-speaking artists, i listen mostly just to this band called Slow Club, which is acc. to wiki, is Indie Folk genre.
- I listen to stuff like Frightened Rabbit and Mumford & Sons as well but, i really don't care how good these male artists sounds. So this is indie pop i guess...
- Most of my music are 16 bit CD. So it's either 320kbps or FLAC.
- I have a Magni 2 Uber.
- My headphone history are grado sr60 - grado sr80e - shure 940 - ma-900 - beyer dt880... So i came from moderately bright headphones. And i also like forward mids with bright treble instinctively...
- Looking into HD650 because it's treble is rolled-off so i figured, since it's even more rolled-off than my ma-900, it would bode well with my inner ear condition...
 
2) The result of my audition
I tried hd650 vs Alpha Dogs plugged into Woo Audio Fireflies for 2 hours at one place... Didn't have any intention to get the Alpha Dogs, but since it's there, i might as well try it (the fact that Alpha Dogs cost the same with how it's priced in the US at $600 doesn't hurt either). Technically it's not exactly 2 hours since the owner is oddly interested to talk to me about stuffs... I'd say i'm getting a 40-45 minutes pure listening time i guess.
 
On that other place, i tried he-400i for 15 minutes, I write them off because even my ma-900 can convey female vocals better than he-400i. Tried the HD600 for 5 minutes where the clerk keep distracting me by talking all the time about how it's useless to audition them and that it's discontinued. Hardly ideal.
 
Also, for those who are wondering when I said above that technically i can't audition. I can't. I bypassed that by getting some random IEMs from the both of them that cost me around $18 from each. So i can't go there and re-audition to both place again because well, there's nothing else as cheap as the random items i just bought. It'd be silly to re-buy the same 2 items just so i could audition again. haha...
 
The result : after 2 hours, i can't decide whether i like hd650 or alpha dogs better based on female vocals alone (and instrument separation a far second..).
That's not a good result for me personally, because i didn't ever seriously considering Alpha Dogs. Not even now, because it's closed back. Closed back = no good for my ear.
My HD600 audition is very not ideal, but my short impression of them is that... (it has better vocals than my ma-900. Clearer vocals than the hd650. And if i could listen to them for 30 minutes or so proper audition, there is a chance that i will like them more than the hd650.)
 
1) Any female vocal lovers here that have listen / audition at length / own both and decide that HD600 comes on top?
2) How much brighter would you say hd600 is compared to hd650? I'm a little worry about whether my ear can handle hd600 or not.
How is their treble peaks or high frequency range sound to you guys ear?
3) I have no intention or budget to upgrade from magni 2 uber.
i've learned from Schiit thread that magni 2 uber can technically drive the hd650 just fine. I have a little concern on how the hd650 will sound synergy-wise with my magni 2 uber...
Some say HD650 scalability is very noticeable, other says it's more a micro details, hobby-specific thing that average people won't notice.
If anybody have any input on the synergy of hd650 - magni / magni 2 however, i'd appreciate that too...
 
 
-----
For those who are not on the HD650 thread, the story with hd600 design goes like this : I had a bad food poisoning from a granite-like design M&Ms from Saudi Arabia when i was little, and every time i see granite it made me nauseous. Saudi Arabia M&Ms ruined my life in a way. i have two mental thing. The color purple and granites. Granites on floor doesn't really bother me, thanks to lifetime adjustment. I'm fine with it in buildings and such. But owning a granite thing... im not so sure. Just thinking about it  already made me a little nauseated.
-----
 
haha~... anyway thanks in advance for those who read this post. i really appreciate you've reading this far...
 

 

[Brooko]

@rovopio  - here - http://www.head-fi.org/t/740942/comparison-review-part-deux-a-tale-of-two-sennheisers-hd600-vs-hd650
 
Side by side A/B. Pretty recent.

 

[StanD]

@rovopio Whatever the clerk said about the HD600 are discontinued, he's dreaming. They are still listed on Sennhieser's website and they are not labeled as discontinued.
http://en-de.sennheiser.com/best-audio-headphones-high-end-stereo-hifi-hd-600
http://en-us.sennheiser.com/best-audio-headphones-high-end-stereo-hifi-hd-600

 

[BobJS]

  You can't argue with success. 

 
Have you SEEN head-fi.org ?

 

[rovopio]

  @rovopio  - here - http://www.head-fi.org/t/740942/comparison-review-part-deux-a-tale-of-two-sennheisers-hd600-vs-hd650
 
Side by side A/B. Pretty recent.

 
Hi!
how have you been?
 
I read your reviews. Initially i decided just on the hd650 and nothing else last week was based on reading reviews here, and a big factor of that is your 600-650 thread.
When i found out that hd650 cost the same with he-400i, well might as well compare with that too. Not to mention the hd600 is not available locally.
 
About the comparison, it should be noted that distributors here buy in bulk and the demo unit (and the item i will get to receive) might not be the latest manufacturing edition. for example my 2014 shure940 purchase is manufactured in march 2011. That means it's been sitting on the warehouse of the local distributor since shure940 was first released. In contrast to say, my dt880 recent manufacturing date, that was bought abroad.
 
It's just so happened that the store who import he-400i have a worn-out hd600 so i tried that too for a short while it wasn't planned. My initial plan going to the 2 stores was just to listen to hd650 and see how it sounds. I didn't get to A/B of course since the HD600 and 650 is on a different place.
 
Here is what i get...  (i brought my ma-900 with me to use as a reference for female vocals..) ::
The HD650 (on the 2 hours store): I have 2 reference section. One is a 15 seconds electric guitars and piano intro, and another 15 seconds is female vocals with piano in the background.
From the first time i played that 30 seconds reference section, i can tell right away that hd650 sounds different with my ma-900 and the Alpha Dogs. On hd650, the electric guitar overwhelms the piano sound, while on the Alpha Dogs the piano sound toe-to-toe with the electric guitar.
The female vocals is matter of preference, on the hd650 is noticeably smoother while the ma-900 and Alpha Dogs are clearer, and the between the ma900 and AD can't be differentiated without focusing on it. The electric guitar-piano section however, the difference is clearly very noticeable even with casual listening.
 
The HD600 (on the 5 minutes 400i store): From the first minute i listen to them focusing on female vocals i think "this is a good upgrade to my ma-900". Pulled out my ma-900 to be sure... ma-900 female vocals is more forward, as the headphone has a midrange emphasis, while the HD600 is more balanced and clear. hd600 have good clarity, but it's also smooth. The electric guitar-piano intro sounds pretty similar on hd600 and ma-900, as in the one doesn't overwhelmed the other, and with casual listening, it sounds the same.
 
The reason why i ask here is because i also acknowledge that memory is fleeting and inaccurate, and without proper A/B-ing... my impression might not be accurate. Not to mention 5 minutes of being interrupted while listening was nowhere near enough to make a proper judgement on the hd600, in comparison to the hd650...
 
If i were to differentiate between specifically between the two without talking about 400i, ma-900, and Alpha Dogs, it would be...
hd650 = extra bass quantity and lower mids emphasis, smoother and softer female vocals
hd600 = low end is not boosted, more balanced sound, clearer female vocals
 
more note on the hd650 = Not as dark as readings suggest. No detail is actually lost in comparison to Alpha Dogs. It has smoother sound, so it's actually more listenable on higher volumes compared to bright headphones.
 
But brooko, i can't say my findings is as you said on your report, "as with all of the comparisons so far, the differences are small, and it’s only by rapid A/B comparisons I’m able to pick up the differences".
Even with "casual listening" the hd650 has noticeably more electric guitar presence that overwhelms the piano.
Unlike Woo Audio Fireflies and Fiio X1 that sounds the same to me with "casual listening". (oohhhh!!)
Anyway note that i'm not sure whether the hd600 uses stock cable or not, and which driver version the hd650 demo unit is, but hd650 has the stock cable.
 
sidenote: By casual listening, I have this method that's called "listening with my sister's ear". Which basically is just a plain non-critical listening and shutting off the brain from picking up anything and just listen to the music, which everybody can do.
However I can do it better than most of people here because 1) my family is not big on music, 2) nobody plays music instruments, 3) I don't either 4) Up until 8 or so months ago i did not know the difference between midrange and treble. Let alone frequency range, or what sound terms in writings correlate with what kinds of sound in practice.
 
Now with that listening style, when i tried the hd650 and Alpha Dogs on both direct to X1 and WA fireflies, it's not that different at all to my sister, while the hd650 is noticeably different on the electric guitar-piano section in comparison to ma-900 and the AD.
 
By the way, the AD is never in my consideration (even though it cost the same, cheaper even), because i'm looking for headphones that are open and not bright.
I really don't think that hd650 have extreme rolled-off treble after i audition, but the good thing is that i think my ear can handle the hd650 treble, as it is a touch darker than my ma-900
 
Which is also another question for people here... how bright is the hd600 in comparison to hd650?
 

  @rovopio Whatever the clerk said about the HD600 are discontinued, he's dreaming. They are still listed on Sennhieser's website and they are not labeled as discontinued.
http://en-de.sennheiser.com/best-audio-headphones-high-end-stereo-hifi-hd-600
http://en-us.sennheiser.com/best-audio-headphones-high-end-stereo-hifi-hd-600

 
i know StanD, i know it's just a B-schiit.
i really don't want to buy the same random IEM for $18 just to be able to try the hd600 for another 5 minutes though. And they're the only store in a 100 miles radius that has hd600 demo.
 
how bright is the hd600 in comparison to hd650?
I know from "search thread" feature that some time ago you auditioned 600 650 700 at length a couple times and decide on the 600.
I've read so many posts in a very short term without pacing myself that my memory is blurry who said what.
 
On that post did you state why you prefer the hd600? and if you didn't, can i ask why?
is it similar reason with my vocals clarity impression and electric-guitar piano difference impression?
 
my hd600 listening session is unreliable to be based as a comparison to hd650. i can tell for sure that i prefer electric-piano guitars separation on my ma-900 or AD compared to the hd650 though.

 

[Delirious Lab]

  [...
-----
For those who are not on the HD650 thread, the story with hd600 design goes like this : I had a bad food poisoning from a granite-like design M&Ms from Saudi Arabia when i was little, and every time i see granite it made me nauseous. Saudi Arabia M&Ms ruined my life in a way. i have two mental thing. The color purple and granites. Granites on floor doesn't really bother me, thanks to lifetime adjustment. I'm fine with it in buildings and such. But owning a granite thing... im not so sure. Just thinking about it  already made me a little nauseated.
-----
 
 

1) You can't see that granite finish when it's on your head.
 
2) If you can't stand the finish, paint it to something else.