[Shane D]

Not so with the HD820 or the AKG K872s, both of which have larger perceived soundscapes IMHO than the S2.
I've tried both Focals and those do come across as closed back, reducing the sound stage and air.

Well I certainly have never tried those.

 

[kman1211]

Interesting... my HD820 are my go to these days...and I like my HD630 so a 620 300ohm closed back ......


The S2 driver is very good but it would obviously need to be tweaked, I believe the HD820 has the the 800S driver intact so who knows.
Over the last years I have really gotten to appreciate closed back over opened phones, obviously for different reasons, but there is something about blocking out the environment and defining the boundaries of the recorded space.

Oh I’m sure it will be tweaked just wondering if they’re basing the driver design from the HD 660S2 driver or something else. Never had the chance to hear the HD 820. I have heard the Z1R and K872 though. Both excellent closed backs imho. Would love if the new closed-back is high impedance.

They're very careful to basically say nothing. Probably in their contract.

Very nice staff though and seem passionate about the products.

I was only basically told it might be HD620

If it's a plastic cover like hd265 .. or hd250

That would be kind of a bummer.

The hd820 looks amazing but doesn't sound good as HD800S... The driver through glass look is a win.

Yeah I am very curious what it will be. Yeah they do seem passionate about their products. Just very curious about this product as I am considering another closed back sometime.

 

[Shane D]

Some closed backs sound restricted, if it’s restricted sounding it’s not a really good one imho or quite flawed. My DT 480 sounds less restricted than any of my open backs and some of the best headphones I’ve ever heard have been closed. In fact my DT 480 has a bigger perceived soundstage (both width and depth) than my wider sounding open backs.

My experience has been the opposite. I have gone through many closed backs, but none come close to the open, full, clear sound of my Grado GH2's, Focal Clear's, HiFiman HE6se V2's, etc.

I will keep looking, but I am losing hope. Not really a problem as it is very rare that I need to use closed backs.

 

[csch92]

i really miss a nice pair of closed backs. the 660s 2 is a fantastic open back. and if i want soundstage i use speakers.

 

[Rob80b]

The hd820 looks amazing but doesn't sound good as HD800S...

The HD820 pull everything back a tad, so are slightly more forgiving and if I can say warmer.
Funny, first time I heard them just after the release I wrote them off, called them wonky, but more recently comparing them side by side with the competition they became a must have and have grown on me more ever since.

 

[kman1211]

My experience has been the opposite. I have gone through many closed backs, but none come close to the open, full, clear sound of my Grado GH2's, Focal Clear's, HiFiman HE6se V2's, etc.

I will keep looking, but I am losing hope. Not really a problem as it is very rare that I need to use closed backs.

I personally think I got lucky getting something special early on, it has been modified but it would never of reached the heights it has if the driver wasn't fantastic. I'm honestly looking for an open back that has similar traits as it does without costing an arm and a leg.

 

[csch92]

i am curious, did anyone try mounting the pads from the 109 pro to the hd 660s2? that would make my s2 so much more comfortable. i don't wanna struggle again by putting the pads back on again

 

[Rob80b]

Speaking of closed backed, I just treated myself to a pair of Master Dynamic MW50, small fine sounding little Bluetooth nicely built headphone, sound signature is almost what I could imagine a closed back S2 might sound like.
Company was totally under my radar and how they get such performance out of a self powered headset with a built in DAC these days is beyond me, makes one question the multi K setups at home.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mas...eless-w-beryllium.879907/page-3#post-17782790

 

[Shane D]

I was looking hard at the HiFiman HE-R10D's before I bought the Meze 109's. They are still going for $409.00 (open box).
I liked the HE-R9, but they were lacking clarity.
The R10D's are also Bluetooth. I am still tempted. Also JM Audio is modding them, so there are options.

 

[nolife1123]

The HD820 pull everything back a tad, so are slightly more forgiving and if I can say warmer.
Funny, first time I heard them just after the release I wrote them off, called them wonky, but more recently comparing them side by side with the competition they became a must have and have grown on me more ever since.

I was passing by the sennheiser flagship store and figured I'd go and try the 820 and 800s, my setup is a 6XX and ifi zen dac v2/marantz hd dac1. They connected them to a headphone amp+dac stack they had on hand, musical fidelity and a network player as a source.
Both of the headphones sounded disappointingly bad with major flaws. I'm very sure the gear they connected them to ruined the sound, 820 sounded like the included apple earbuds from 2010, bass was completely loose and uncontrolled, highs were harsh and unlistenable, even separation was compromised to hell. I should probably go back and bring my own gear because my 6XX sound superior in every way aside from vocals and soundstage.

 

[chesebert]

I was passing by the sennheiser flagship store and figured I'd go and try the 820 and 800s, my setup is a 6XX and ifi zen dac v2/marantz hd dac1. They connected them to a headphone amp+dac stack they had on hand, musical fidelity and a network player as a source.
Both of the headphones sounded disappointingly bad with major flaws. I'm very sure the gear they connected them to ruined the sound, 820 sounded like the included apple earbuds from 2010, bass was completely loose and uncontrolled, highs were harsh and unlistenable, even separation was compromised to hell. I should probably go back and bring my own gear because my 6XX sound superior in every way aside from vocals and soundstage.

Don’t know about 820 but 800S is one of the most difficult cans to make them sound amazing without EQ. I think the Sennheiser AIO dac/amp can give you a glimpse of what 800S might sound like on a good rig.

 

[SHAMuuu]

i am curious, did anyone try mounting the pads from the 109 pro to the hd 660s2? that would make my s2 so much more comfortable. i don't wanna struggle again by putting the pads back on again

Not the 109 velour, but I was able to put the 99 pads on the Sennheiser ring to have pleather pads on my wooden cup sennheisers.

I was also able to fit Shure 1540 alcantara pads on the rings as well.

I really thought the 109 pads were nice and curious about them as well (fit and most importantly sound changes)

As nice as 109 pro is (fit, finish, and comfort) I felt the s2 as more refined overall and I did hear them side by side on same amp.109 were very sharp for my ears.

 

[Rob80b]

Don’t know about 820 but 800S is one of the most difficult cans to make them sound amazing without EQ.

Depends on how one was brought up, in our household you either ate what was on your plate or you didn't eat.
But they sound pretty good without EQ, maybe not amazing. But you need to add IMHO. : )

 

[csch92]

Not the 109 velour, but I was able to put the 99 pads on the Sennheiser ring to have pleather pads on my wooden cup sennheisers.

I was also able to fit Shure 1540 alcantara pads on the rings as well.

I really thought the 109 pads were nice and curious about them as well (fit and most importantly sound changes)

As nice as 109 pro is (fit, finish, and comfort) I felt the s2 as more refined overall and I did hear them side by side on same amp.109 were very sharp for my ears.

i can agree on that. i just miss the soundstage on the s2 but the s2 is the detail king, and you can sense that sennheiser is way more experienced with dynamic drivers than meze is.

also i tried to put the pads on but the s2 is oval and the meze round so it didn't work

 

[Mark200]

I'm in Bangkok.


Well, I'm in Thailand & toastiness aside, they are good, but not excellent headphones. The bass is there, but it's definitely lacking. I was a little disappointed.

I also have the Sennheiser 660S and after considering for a long time of adding a subwoofer, I finally tried it and the results are amazing. I am using the SVS 3000 Micro, which is quite small but powerful with two drivers (both active, not passive).

The SVS app that runs on iOS or Android makes it easy to control the sub remotely via Bluetooth, even though the sub is right next to my chair and up off the ground a bit on a small table. The SVS sub has extensive DSP processing so that one can tailor volume, crossover frequency, degree of crossover slope per octave (3 dB, 6 dB, 12 dB, etc), phase, polarity, and has a full parametric equalizer on top of that.

I could have connected the sub to the pre-outs on my Schiit Magnius headphone amp (which would control the volume of my sub along with the headphone volume), but I decided to connect it to the RCA outputs of the DAC, which means I have to control the sub volume from the SVS app, although I find it is not necessary to change the volume very often. My iFi Zen Signature 2 DAC has both RCA and balanced outputs, and the balanced output goes into the balanced input of the Schiit Magnius headphone amp. The main reason I did this was that I read that the SVS DSP processing introduces some time delay to the signal, so connecting the sub directly to the DAC might make it in better synch with the headphone connected tot the headphone amp (assuming that the headphone amp has some small amount of time delay also). But not sure that there is an audible difference if both the sub and headphone were connected to the headphone amp outputs (line level pre-out for the sub, and high level headphone out for headphone).

As I said above, the sound of the HD-660S and SVS 300 Micro sub is amazing when used together, and it resembles the sound I have heard with flat panel or electrostatic speaker systems with built-in (or external) subwoofers. There is no hint that the low bass sounds from the subwoofer are coming from anything other than the headphones, even though they obviously are coming from the external subwoofer. The main downside is that the SVS 3000 Micro costs $900 USD, although it is cheaper than the KEF KC62 micro sub ($1,500 USD), even though the KEF does not have remote control. I think a larger and cheaper sub-woofer like those on sale at Emotiva might also work if one can place it so that one can control the sub from the listening position.