I'm glad he pointed out the unfortunate unboxing experience of the HD660S2's.
There's the entry level boxes that are thrown away like the HD560S.
Then you have the HD600/HD650/HD6XX/HD660S unboxing experience and you
know you just entered into the higher end market of headphones.
I'm glad that he mentioned that the HD660S2 box was insulting to it predecessors, because it really is.
They could have done what all other tech companies have been doing and introduced more intricate paper/cardboard packaging for the 660S2 if their reason for not having a nice box is for being eco-friendly.
Even though I don't use the box for my headphones and prefer to use a rack, when I open my HD660S box there's still the fresh, lingering scent of a new piece of electronics that brings back all the nostalgia.
As for my HD600 unboxing experience, I bought them from a smoker. I replaced all fabrics and gave the HD600 a light brushing to get rid of the smoker grime. But anyways, even though my unboxing experience with the HD600's were quite miserable, it's still nonetheless nostalgic.
I still have my Audio Technica ATH-A900X box and despite having a cheesy plastic window and thin cardboard housing, I still remember the audio technicas feeling like a premium experience.
Going back to the HD660S2's, they need to be competitive. You can see it in this thread, people were relatively satisfied for the original pricing of $637 canadian, americans wer obviously jumping for joy. Sure it was still relatively pricey but it was still within the realm of reasonable. Then there would be people like me that would see the possibility of it dropping down to $450 used, and if I liked it I would sell my HD660S for $250 and eat the $200. Does the $799 canadian imply that they're better than the HD660S/DT1990/Sundara mid-fi trio that are often found on youtube?
When I bought the Sundaras it was probably my worst purchase to date because I didn't follow my tried and true research methods, which was browsing reviews on Head-Fi and reading Tyll Hertsen's impressions. Tyll had all the measurement gear and he would point out all his findings into words:
Here's a 1khz bump and this is what it did to sound.
Here's a peak at 7khz and you can hear it in X instrument as metallic.
Here's a etc etc.
His method of presenting graphs with explanation is what really helped me when buying headphones. He may have stated his subjective opinion of disliking certain headphones but he always pointed out why and even though it was something he disliked, it was something I could have liked. Then I would go on Head-Fi and see if any other had a similar opinion to make sure his reviews were consistent to measurements and characteristics of a headphone.
Instead I did the following: I browsed Reddit and watched youtube reviewers.
A lot of youtube reviewers said the Sundaras were in their opinion the best out of the modern day trio: DT1990 vs HD660S vs Sundara.
However when I had the two headphones hand-in-hand. There was very little mention from youtubers that the HD660S has more microdetails in mids and treble than the Sundara. Or that the Sundara has the tallest soundstage versus the HD660S. Or that the Sundaras imaging felt quite lacking versus the HD660S but make up for it due to their height and wide soundstage. And nobody except for Crinacle ever mentioned about the treble except for it being "a little spicy". At least he pointed it out. That treble threw off vocal tonality for S pronunciations and it was absolutely horrendous. Not even the Koss KSC-75 does that, but hey the Sundaras are balanced so I guess that beats the other two headphones for that right.
So I come back on here and find my exact same findings from people that enjoy the hobby. lol. To me reviews on Head-Fi have been a consistent source for me when it comes to buying a headphone I'm unsure of. Some reviewers here will not hesitate to exclaim what they dislike, and they can go for paragraphs what they love about a headphone. One thing that I wish from reviewers on Head-Fi is to never fall into bias for more karma; woops, wrong forum
Sorry, went on a rant there.
On a side note I'm working on an EQ preset that makes the HD660S sound like the HD660S2, I'll let you guys know when I'm done with it. Had a busy weekend.
Congrats and enjoy!
