Wow. I finally had a chance at scratching the surface of (ok, maybe mid-level) high fidelity audio!
My girlfriend was lovely enough to indulge my interest in the HD600 with an amazing graduation gift
Well, got my M.Sc. diploma, got back home and plugged them into my Magni 3...again: wow!
Yes, it's been a while since I had a chance at listening to open-back cans and was "limited" to listening to my HD25 II for quite a while, so my impressions are biased by coming from a closed-back, bass-heavy headphone, but still...what an amazing sound. The instrument separation is awesome, the soundstage is wide and the detail is mindblowing.
I listened to anything and everything in this first encounter with the new Senns, but really I thought I couldn't miss the occasion to go for a live album and experience something new. So I went with "Alchemy" by Dire Straits, i.e. one of my favourite lives from my favourite band ever...I'm repeating myself: wow.
"Once upon a time in the West" kicks in and I'm in the front seat: I hear the roaring crowd just behind me, then the magnificent guitar by Mark Knopfler shakes me, right in front. The thump of the drums is detailed and not lacking at all. The mid and high sections are just sublime: Mark's rather raucous voice is superbly reproduced and the guitars get the importance they deserve in a Dire Straits' track.
"Sultans of Swing" just blows me away for the incredible separation between the instruments and a level of detail that I have never experienced in years of adorement and awe to such a masterpiece. I could distinctively detect the keyboard accompaining the legendary final solo, just beside me at my right, with astonishing clarity and that, given I was transported by Knopfler's unrivalled guitar in the meanwhile, is really saying something.
While I was browsing through my FLAC library I also came across Orjan Nilsen's "Go Fast!" and I have to say I was not disappointed at all: the HD25 II is on paper the best headphone for the job (relatively high-BPM trance track), but the HD600 gave me detail I thought was not present at all in the track and was stong enough in the bass section to make me move!
Overall, I didn't find the HD600 "fatiguing" at all, but rather I was particularly amazed at how well it can reproduce cymbals: simply astonishing, crisp and detailed sound.
I know a lot of you hardcore head-fiers will read at this post thinking "LOL, look at the newbie marvelling for his new mid-tier cans" but hell, I'm enjoying it an aweful lot, even if it's not a hi-end setup. I get there are many other steps in the road to hi-fi, but to me this was a huge leap towards it!