[Sonic Defender]

The only reason that I haven't already picked up the 660S2 is that the last two years have seen my use of headphones reduced drastically as I have been able to listen with speakers significantly more than in other years. I love the very special and intimate presentation of headphones, but I do tend to prefer to not have my hearing ability for the environment around me completely cutoff. Sigh, I really want to try this headphone.

 

[OkPsychology]

Just got word that my S2s (refurbished from amazon) have shipped. I'll soon be able to compare the original with the S2 and the NDH30. Loads of other people have offered up their opinions on this trio of headphones, and how they compare/contrast, but I'll be happy to add my opinions to the conversation

 

[xeizo]

Just revisited some music on NDH-30 which I played on the S2, NDH-30 do have a lot more authority in the bass, it's almost like a sub-woofer always on. A very high quality one. Interesting.

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

The only reason that I haven't already picked up the 660S2 is that the last two years have seen my use of headphones reduced drastically as I have been able to listen with speakers significantly more than in other years. I love the very special and intimate presentation of headphones, but I do tend to prefer to not have my hearing ability for the environment around me completely cutoff. Sigh, I really want to try this headphone.

Me too! I was using my 660S last night, really enjoying the sound of Porcupine Tree's 2017 remastered In Absentia, and reading reviews and looking at comparisons between them and the 660S2 I feel sure I'll end up with them eventually as the descriptions of their audio quality and the sub bass extension are certainly appealing. I am a little concerned that I'll miss the 660S upper frequency profile as they seem to have changed that... I'm one of the people that likes Beyer treble (but not Grado treble), and the 6602S seems a bit darker than the 660S from what I've seen. Then I think "yeah but you don't listen to a frequency sweep with your eyes on a graph - it's about how it handles audio reproduction for the duration of whole songs." Because I am clearly trying to talk myself into it, hah.

 

[DivineCurrent]

So, 660s owners, would you say the 660s2 has the technicalities of the 660s, but the tonal characteristics of the 6XX/650? To me, that would be the perfect headphone.

I just got a pair of 6XX after owning the 660s and I must say, I'm REALLY enjoying how they sound. So natural and smooth. They don't sound dark to me somehow. They just sound "right". While the 660s can run literal circles around this headphone, I'm really enjoying the 6XX's intimacy and extra low end and a bit more treble sparkle without feeling peaky.

I would also say, the 6XX bass isn't as fluffy as people make it out to be. I still find the bass very detailed, fast and engaging.

I still love my 660s, but I also love the 6XX... guess I'll just rotate between them on occasion. That will make the pads last longer

For me, no the 660S2 sounds exactly like an improved 660S and not like a 6XX/650, or 600. Mostly just an improvement in the bass, but there may be a bit more resolution going on too. I did just get them a few days ago, so I need more time to write out full impressions (I also have the 600, 650, OG 660S, and 58X).

 

[Rob80b]

Honeymoon period is over and I'm still continuing to enjoy the S2. Listening to some dual piano works with Katia & Marielle Labèque, the pianos are front left and back right and even on crescendos all the notes stayed in their respective perspective which cannot be said for some phones. Excellent weight and scale with proper tonal rendition with no obvious peaks or troughs, addictive listening. : )

 

[menuki]

It's really been a while since I was last active here, and just using my Sennheiser 58x made me forget about buying new headphones entirely, as I was just satisfied with their sound after countless headphones I've tried prior in all price ranges over the years.

Now a couple of days ago I wanted to purchase another 58x just to have a set of spare parts and since hey, that thing was on sale for like 170$ or less, but accidentally stumbled upon the 660S2 - Since I'm just too curious I needed to try them as I really liked the sound of the 660S1 although the bass was just not there enough for me, but compared to the 58x the 660S1 just had this certain clarity I kinda missed after returning them. For the performance, the 58x are insane I think, and I prefer them to the either 600/650 simply due to the bass response honestly and oh boy now these came into my life and increase the bass enough to be just right!

The only downside really is their price which is literally 3x the 58x. Thankfully you can get spare parts like earpads/cables virtually everywhere for the next decade(s) and I can just sell whatever other headphones I have still, as these are just simply perfect to me. I was even eyeballing the Neumann NDH 30 or Meze 109 Pro, but it's hard to imagine either are better in terms of sound (just different perhaps), and call me paranoid but their design has "not been proven to not break" in some parts eventually like we can see with the 600/650 series. Alongside though the S2 are just so light (100g less than either the NDH or 109 Pro) and did I mention spare parts?

Why change a formula that works right? I was bothered by the fact that they reused the 600 / 650 design again, but that means you still get the surpreme comfort, lightweight design and of course most importantly all the spare parts in the future which I can't stress enough... I'd never want to throw away a great headphone just because some external part broke beyond repair.

Got a bit longer than I wanted but, man the 660S2 are freaking great! Having tons of fun reading through the whole other 188 pages here while listening to my library, even hearing out new details in many tracks, alas the driver updates are unexpectably efficient in my opinion and honor the 600 / 650. That packaging though for the price is absurd, even with inflation and everything taken into account. Love ya Sennheiser.

EDIT: Not sure if I mentioned it above, but you can probably still get spare parts for these for the next decade(s)! E-waste is not fun!

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

I love that the reused the classic Sennheiser 580/600/650 form factor, it's great IMO. Durable, comfortable enough for long listening especially once you've spent a month or so and they've stretched and softened slightly, proven. I guess it doesn't offer any natural advantages to soundstage, but I have never been bothered by it - positional audio is still there, it's just not as extra wide as some competitors (but they're also good to have on hand!)

 

[menuki]

I love that the reused the classic Sennheiser 580/600/650 form factor, it's great IMO. Durable, comfortable enough for long listening especially once you've spent a month or so and they've stretched and softened slightly, proven. I guess it doesn't offer any natural advantages to soundstage, but I have never been bothered by it - positional audio is still there, it's just not as extra wide as some competitors (but they're also good to have on hand!)

Not sure if you've tried them yourself but seeing @Rob80b recently post a picture of the HD 700 again made me have flashbacks of how comfortable they were, simply disappearing after a minute or so on the head. Absolutely unmatched I feel even by the 660, perhaps the 800 comes very close to that feeling though, despite being larger/heavier.

I still feel it made sense to go back to that tried and true design, don't even get me started on how expensive replacement earpads were for the 700, and overall it feels like the 600 series is more robust. Weird to think that the HD 700 was just 100$ more than the 660s2 though, and I still remember that very fancy packaging of those. (It's whatever, in reality it's just more stuff which gets thrown away eventually, even if I keep the package for most products.)

My point though: With that kind of comfort and at that price, if they would've not released the HD 700 up until now with the sound signature of the 660S2 instead (a 660S2 in HD700 clothing) I really damn wonder if they would've been a huge success instead actually. The 700's were lacking lots of bass IMO and were simply too bright and sharp no matter the output source, I really disliked their sound and EQ'd them from the get go which kinda hurt, but the 660S2 instead just sound so very different out of the box, no need to tweak a single thing - Makes it even more absurd to read some people skipping the 660S2 because "it's the same drivers as the HD700".

Hope this didn't turn out too rambley! It feels good to have a new pair to get excited about all over again like that, especially coming out of nowhere.

 

[artvandelay9]

When the presence of an unrelated discussion becomes irksome enough that people who don't even usually post but rather lurk the thread are taking the time to let us know that it's become too bad for them to keep reading it because it isn't even really discussing the topic of the thread anymore, that's a problem. I

Basically me, haha.

If anything, this thread is a solid reminder why I've lost interest in the "community" aspect of this hobby. The amount of arguing by folks that have no experience with the product being discussed is absolutely insane. Imagine joining a guitar forum and having strong opinions about Les Paul's, but you only play drums.

it’s a good idea, but probably a bit late for that now. Unless the mods have the time and the energy to separate all of the posts about each headphone in both threads and combine them into one? I doubt that will happen though.

Judging by the fact that we're on page 188 and still doing this, I'd say it's not a bit late. Go ahead and start it up.

 

[Mike F]

Imagine joining a guitar forum and having strong opinions about Les Paul's, but you only play drums.

Or owning several previous Les Pauls but not the latest one which was designed by someone else, but instead owning a new model that was actually designed by Les Paul but produced under a different name…….?

Just saying’…….

 

[artvandelay9]

Or owning several previous Les Pauls but not the latest one which was designed by someone else, but instead owning a new model that was actually designed by Les Paul but produced under a different name…….?

Just saying’…….

Ok, using this type of example: no, a Fender Telecaster thread is not a place to discuss a G&L ASAT at length when a separate thread for that take on the Tele formula exists.

 

[Mike F]

Ok, using this type of example: no, a Fender Telecaster thread is not a place to discuss a G&L ASAT at length when a separate thread for that take on the Tele formula exists.

Surely, if you are a guitarist(?) then you should know that the only correct solution to the problem is to own at least one of every example?

 

[jonathan c]

.

 

[equalspeace]

Well, I'm in. Found a like new pair second hand. They should arrive Wednesday.