[sureshot1234]

Cant decide between the Sennheiser HD600 and Philips Fidelio X2 headphone. will be using them for movies music and games on my pc will be running off of my Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card for all uses 
 
appreciate all thoughts and feedback especially if you have used both i would love to know how they compared for you amped or even unamped  

 

[BobMonkhouse]

To my ears, both have similar signatures. I like the mids and the soundstage of the X2 better. HD 600 has more refined highs. If you don't plan buying a relatively expensive DAC/amp (tube amp in particular), buy an X2.

 

[sureshot1234]

To my ears, both have similar signatures. I like the mids and the soundstage of the X2 better. HD 600 has more refined highs. If you don't plan buying a relatively expensive DAC/amp (tube amp in particular), buy an X2.

awesome thanks for your input sounds like a good idea.  anyone else have any thoughts or agree?

 

[Pokemonn]

To my ear , HD600s are better over X2. X2 treble are little bit grainy and artifical for me.
I recommend to read Amazon.com reviews of X2. that may help you. 

 

[sureshot1234]

To my ear , HD600s are better over X2. X2 treble are little bit grainy and artifical for me.
I recommend to read Amazon.com reviews of X2. that may help you. 

I have read reviews for both headphones on any site I could including Amazon still couldn't decide so asked here

 

[Pokemonn]

Head-fier rated those headphones.. http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/over-ear
 
HD600 rank #2
X1 rank #21
X2 rank #47
 
I think head-fier's review are very very very reliable.

 

[Darkseth]

Order both and try. One person will tell you hd 600 are better, other one that x2 are better.
Sound is a personal thing~
 
But whats objective: The X2 are FAR better built than the HD 600.
 
But pls: You can read amazon reviews, but dont make your choice there!!!
Every "idiot" can write a recension on amazon. And at least on our german ones, most of them have no knowledge about a product, and still giving 4-5 stars.
Like, 20€ no-name power supplys with 4-5 stars, despite beeing cheap trash.
overpriced and worse quality gaming headsets with 5 stars, just because people, who never tried anything else, are "happy" with it.
You need some kind of knowledge about audio and headphones, to see who really knows what he's talking about.
 
Small tip: Ignore every single recension, that is NOT comparing a headphone with at least 1 or 2 other ones. Without comparison, a review is not possible, and not good.
 
 
Edit: Oh and please.... PLEASE for the sake of god or whatever you want. Ignore that "rank bullcrap".
 
Its no wonder, that a HD 650, thats out for several years, has a higher ranking and "more" reviews, than a X2, thats maybe a year old.
There are alot of people, that see the X2 as the better HD 650 (tigher bass, more details, better build quality.).
Ranking headphones is just absolutely NOT possible at all, not even close. There are SO many different parameters, that fall into personal preference, that it is just amateur-like to rank them, and say "this one is better than the other", especcially if they are different kinds.
A neutral headphone is NOT comparable to a basshead one. They are doing completely different things. Also with closed and open cans. They serve completely different purposes.

 

[inseconds99]

  Order both and try. One person will tell you hd 600 are better, other one that x2 are better.
Sound is a personal thing~
 
But whats objective: The X2 are FAR better built than the HD 600.
 
But pls: You can read amazon reviews, but dont make your choice there!!!
Every "idiot" can write a recension on amazon. And at least on our german ones, most of them have no knowledge about a product, and still giving 4-5 stars.
Like, 20€ no-name power supplys with 4-5 stars, despite beeing cheap trash.
overpriced and worse quality gaming headsets with 5 stars, just because people, who never tried anything else, are "happy" with it.
You need some kind of knowledge about audio and headphones, to see who really knows what he's talking about.
 
Small tip: Ignore every single recension, that is NOT comparing a headphone with at least 1 or 2 other ones. Without comparison, a review is not possible, and not good.
 
 
Edit: Oh and please.... PLEASE for the sake of god or whatever you want. Ignore that "rank bullcrap".
 
Its no wonder, that a HD 650, thats out for several years, has a higher ranking and "more" reviews, than a X2, thats maybe a year old.
There are alot of people, that see the X2 as the better HD 650 (tigher bass, more details, better build quality.).
Ranking headphones is just absolutely NOT possible at all, not even close. There are SO many different parameters, that fall into personal preference, that it is just amateur-like to rank them, and say "this one is better than the other", especcially if they are different kinds.
A neutral headphone is NOT comparable to a basshead one. They are doing completely different things. Also with closed and open cans. They serve completely different purposes.

+1

 

[Pokemonn]

...all i can say is there is no perfect headphone for all people...
all up to your preferences...and I don't like X2 at all.

 

[BobMonkhouse]

The only objective fact is that X2 is easy driven by almost any source. The 600 need good proper amplification. Recently, I had the chance to listen to both 600 and 650, and compared them to my X2 in the same setup with several amps and DAPs. The 650 is quite unique and is in my wish list. You love it or hate it. The 600 would be a sidegrade to me; it sounds too similar than different to X. They're both very good cans and deserve their attention equally. If I have the choice, I'd sell all my gear, will keep my Denon AH-MM400, and will buy 650 and an LCD-2.

 

[Me x3]

  Cant decide between the Sennheiser HD600 and Philips Fidelio X2 headphone. will be using them for movies music and games on my pc will be running off of my Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card for all uses 
 
appreciate all thoughts and feedback especially if you have used both i would love to know how they compared for you amped or even unamped  

 
The 300 Ohm Sennheiser HD600 is a better match to the STX since it has a slightly high output impedance (around 10 Ohm).
 
The Fidelio X2 while a very good headphone as well, it's only 35 Ohm, so you get a poor damping factor using STX.
 
This means that the STX can exert more control to the HD600 drivers for a tighter, more precise sound.

 

[Darkseth]

   
The 300 Ohm Sennheiser HD600 is a better match to the STX since it has a slightly high output impedance (around 10 Ohm).
 
The Fidelio X2 while a very good headphone as well, it's only 35 Ohm, so you get a poor damping factor using STX.
 
This means that the STX can exert more control to the HD600 drivers for a tighter, more precise sound.

But thats more 90% theory...
 
I am pretty sure, a 1200€+ planar magnetic headphone with low impedance will sound way more precise than a 300 Ohm HD 600/650.
You can pretty much completely ignore the Impedance of a headphone, as it alone gives you Zero information about anything. You will have to try, and view the headphone as a whole.
For example, my smartphones drives my 250 Ohm T90 so loud, that i can't endure above 13/15 volume on my smartphone. (with NO external amp or anything)
 
So, just blindly saying no to X2, and yes to HD 600 just because of a Number on the specsheet, is pretty wrong. It CAN work, but it could also be just the opposite.
 
But anyway, we can just name you good headphones, that might fit. Its still YOUR turn to test them yourself

 

[sureshot1234]

  Order both and try. One person will tell you hd 600 are better, other one that x2 are better.
Sound is a personal thing~
 
But whats objective: The X2 are FAR better built than the HD 600.
 
But pls: You can read amazon reviews, but dont make your choice there!!!
Every "idiot" can write a recension on amazon. And at least on our german ones, most of them have no knowledge about a product, and still giving 4-5 stars.
Like, 20€ no-name power supplys with 4-5 stars, despite beeing cheap trash.
overpriced and worse quality gaming headsets with 5 stars, just because people, who never tried anything else, are "happy" with it.
You need some kind of knowledge about audio and headphones, to see who really knows what he's talking about.
 
Small tip: Ignore every single recension, that is NOT comparing a headphone with at least 1 or 2 other ones. Without comparison, a review is not possible, and not good.
 
 
Edit: Oh and please.... PLEASE for the sake of god or whatever you want. Ignore that "rank bullcrap".
 
Its no wonder, that a HD 650, thats out for several years, has a higher ranking and "more" reviews, than a X2, thats maybe a year old.
There are alot of people, that see the X2 as the better HD 650 (tigher bass, more details, better build quality.).
Ranking headphones is just absolutely NOT possible at all, not even close. There are SO many different parameters, that fall into personal preference, that it is just amateur-like to rank them, and say "this one is better than the other", especcially if they are different kinds.
A neutral headphone is NOT comparable to a basshead one. They are doing completely different things. Also with closed and open cans. They serve completely different purposes.

 
dont have the money to buy both even if i return one. as for the amazon reviews i ignore ones that are short and dont compare to any other headphones. thanks for the input 

 

[sureshot1234]

   
The 300 Ohm Sennheiser HD600 is a better match to the STX since it has a slightly high output impedance (around 10 Ohm).
 
The Fidelio X2 while a very good headphone as well, it's only 35 Ohm, so you get a poor damping factor using STX.
 
This means that the STX can exert more control to the HD600 drivers for a tighter, more precise sound.

the output of the stx has the output settings for different headphones could you please explain the 10ohm part?

 

[Me x3]

  But thats more 90% theory...
 
Me x3: Things like headphones, phones, DACs, amps, soundcards, TVs, exist thanks to scientific and engineering theories.
 
I am pretty sure, a 1200€+ planar magnetic headphone with low impedance will sound way more precise than a 300 Ohm HD 600/650.
You can pretty much completely ignore the Impedance of a headphone, as it alone gives you Zero information about anything. You will have to try, and view the headphone as a whole.
 
Me x3: Look, it's not as simple as you think.

Driving a low impedance planar magnetic headphone with an amp with 10 ohm output impedance is also less than ideal, but a planar has flat impedance across the spectrum so the frequency response is not altered when driven with an amp that has a slightly high output impedance.
 
Here you can see the Audeze LCD-2 Rev 2 (flat) impedance plot
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudezeLCD2Rev2.pdf
 
On the other hand, the impedance of the dynamic headphones discussed here has a bump in the mid bass so when plugged into an amp that provide poor damping factor the mid bass is boosted and loses some control.
 
Here you can see the Fidelio X2 impedance plot
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/PhilipsFidelioX2.pdf
 
For example, my smartphones drives my 250 Ohm T90 so loud, that i can't endure above 13/15 volume on my smartphone. (with NO external amp or anything)
 
Me x3: Nothing wrong about that, the Beyerdynamic T90 is a very easy load, similar to the HD600.
They need around  0,22 Vrms to sound at 90 dB, and since they are high impedance headphones they drain very little current from the amp.
 
So, just blindly saying no to X2, and yes to HD 600 just because of a Number on the specsheet, is pretty wrong. It CAN work, but it could also be just the opposite.
 
Me x3: Impedance plot is not a number. The simple physics facts behind how the output impedance can alter the frequency response of a headphone support my comment which is far from a blind suggestion.
 
This is a pretty interesting and simple article that you may find useful (3 pages):
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/meridian-explorer-case-study-effects-output-impedance
 
But anyway, we can just name you good headphones, that might fit. Its still YOUR turn to test them yourself