Ok, let start off by saying, my Audiophile journey started some time after I got my first car and installed an Alpine CD player at a time when CD's were the new format and no one had CD's. Fortunately for me, I didn't have hardly any anything either way!
This was probably about 1988. Not my first car, but my first decent car stereo. Some time after that, one of my older brothers had left a pair of Bose 902's at our parents house, and my youngest brother ended up using them...and then started the journey toward actual Audiophile. He's got Mark Levinson stuff and Dunlavy speakers now.
I ended up building several DIY speakers and I have a B&K pre/pro and a real nice Parasound amp now.
I'm not going to belabor these too much, except to say, I have kids now and I'm older, and I find myself really wanted to listen to my music especially when everyone is asleep when I can enjoy it and turn up the volume!
I did my research, I even bought a Monolith LS to power the headphones.
Before I really say what I think of the HD650's let me give this context! Recently I built speakers for my main entertainment setup. Which consists of a gaming PC, with a 43" UHD monitor. I decided I was going to add a cheap receiver and build speakers rather than use PC speakers, since I'd had a setup of those for over a decade.
I've built a few of Troels Graveson's DIY plans, so I decided on a very cheap 5 1/2" bookshelf plan that was very inexpensive but incorporated the equally inexpensive but exceptional sounding Vifa XT tweeters. While I was at it, I bought a subwoofer plate amplifier and built an 8" powered subwoofer!
Now, to the headphones. Obviously I've owned many headphones in my time. I have a pair of the Logitech 935 cordless gaming headphones. But since I have the background I have, while the 935's are great for gaming, well for me the sound was always "okay they are headphones, and they have their advantages, and audiophile is never going to be one of them."
This has been my attitude about headphones for a very long time. "They are headphones, and they will never be audiophile."
One thing I have never been is narrow-minded, so for quite awhile and because I have kids now, I started thinking about giving headphones a try! And I 100% wanted to give them a completely fair and unbiased chance. After all, it was for my benefit.
My brother had some really nice Sennheiser headphones, and I had some nice IEM myself not that long ago. I am a Sennheiser fan for sure.
So having said all that...I got a pair of HD650's bought a headphone amp and with rapt anticipation eagerly awaited my newest audiophile addition.
I hooked them up, played all sorts of music from several sources....and I kept thinking..."ok, these do not sound that good" especially when I added volume. I tried hooking the amp directly to a DAC from my PC, headphones directly to the Denon, (which I could not tell a differance between the Denon and the LS, if anything the Denon sounded better to me.)
Then I did this....I compared what I was listening to the cheapest speakers I have in my three systems. My speakers with drivers, a combined $120, plus xover and cabinet, and it's so bad by comparison, frankly I'm floored! I was listening to the HD 650's and switch to my bookshelfs, and it was like putting a soothing poultice on a gaping wound. Now don't get me wrong I did enjoy them, I listened to them for about a week. Then I decided to return them. I listened to one of my favorite concert blurays, "Talking heads, Stop making sense." and Eagles, Farewell tour I, and then I said, nope, these are going back.
I filled out the return, and they we're only going to refund $425 of the $500 I spent.
So I got them out of the box hooked them back up...and then went back in the box, and they went back today! I just could not justify the money spent.
Here's why...the last night, I really gave them a go then I took them off, I noticed my ears were hurting a little, I switched to the speakers, and that was it...I cannot listen to them loudly... my bookshelfs at low level BLEW the 650's AWAY anyway, let alone volume with my small sub, so I could NOT justify the $500 spent.
In summary, headphones cannot come close to a well-built small speaker setup for a fraction of the cost. Personally I think it's the physics. A good full range speaker uses physics for one, crossover for another, and the cabinets, to make truly natural music reproductions!
One of the biggest things to me that I noticed was the highs. To my ears they just did NOT sound good...now again, this was a back to back comparison to my speakers! Maybe I'm spoiled because I built them, and built the crossovers, but I just copied plans and I followed the plans and didn't cut corners.
In any case, it was 100% worth the whole experience. I've been wanting to try this for several years, and I appreciate everything people here have contributed. You guys have done several things for me. Gave me all the information to try this out, decide if this was the right for me, and make me confident that I'm making the right decision.
I'm keeping the headphone amp. I'll try out some cheaper headphones around the $200 range, and maybe some cordless...I have some in the bedroom I really like, and for the price it just a good buy! But as far as headphones go...I'm not spending more than $200 ever again. I just can't see a return for the investment that would ever justify the money spent.
In summary, I want to be clear. I am not saying the 650's sounded bad. They sounded very good. Just not $500 worth of great, and not even close to my bookshelf speakers. That was the deal breaker for me. When I took the headphones off, unplugged them restarted what I had just listened to, well to be fair, it wasn't fair! It wasn't even close! It's hard to describe other to say, it is like a balm. I wanted so BAD to LIKE these 650's, but when I unplugged them I was like "good GOD!"
Music is like medicine, and the vehicle for the medicine is the differance of whether it went into the muscle vs the veins. This, to me was the differance of headphones vs speakers! Putting the balm next to the wound or on the wound!
This was probably about 1988. Not my first car, but my first decent car stereo. Some time after that, one of my older brothers had left a pair of Bose 902's at our parents house, and my youngest brother ended up using them...and then started the journey toward actual Audiophile. He's got Mark Levinson stuff and Dunlavy speakers now.
I ended up building several DIY speakers and I have a B&K pre/pro and a real nice Parasound amp now.
I'm not going to belabor these too much, except to say, I have kids now and I'm older, and I find myself really wanted to listen to my music especially when everyone is asleep when I can enjoy it and turn up the volume!
I did my research, I even bought a Monolith LS to power the headphones.
Before I really say what I think of the HD650's let me give this context! Recently I built speakers for my main entertainment setup. Which consists of a gaming PC, with a 43" UHD monitor. I decided I was going to add a cheap receiver and build speakers rather than use PC speakers, since I'd had a setup of those for over a decade.
I've built a few of Troels Graveson's DIY plans, so I decided on a very cheap 5 1/2" bookshelf plan that was very inexpensive but incorporated the equally inexpensive but exceptional sounding Vifa XT tweeters. While I was at it, I bought a subwoofer plate amplifier and built an 8" powered subwoofer!
Now, to the headphones. Obviously I've owned many headphones in my time. I have a pair of the Logitech 935 cordless gaming headphones. But since I have the background I have, while the 935's are great for gaming, well for me the sound was always "okay they are headphones, and they have their advantages, and audiophile is never going to be one of them."
This has been my attitude about headphones for a very long time. "They are headphones, and they will never be audiophile."
One thing I have never been is narrow-minded, so for quite awhile and because I have kids now, I started thinking about giving headphones a try! And I 100% wanted to give them a completely fair and unbiased chance. After all, it was for my benefit.
My brother had some really nice Sennheiser headphones, and I had some nice IEM myself not that long ago. I am a Sennheiser fan for sure.
So having said all that...I got a pair of HD650's bought a headphone amp and with rapt anticipation eagerly awaited my newest audiophile addition.
I hooked them up, played all sorts of music from several sources....and I kept thinking..."ok, these do not sound that good" especially when I added volume. I tried hooking the amp directly to a DAC from my PC, headphones directly to the Denon, (which I could not tell a differance between the Denon and the LS, if anything the Denon sounded better to me.)
Then I did this....I compared what I was listening to the cheapest speakers I have in my three systems. My speakers with drivers, a combined $120, plus xover and cabinet, and it's so bad by comparison, frankly I'm floored! I was listening to the HD 650's and switch to my bookshelfs, and it was like putting a soothing poultice on a gaping wound. Now don't get me wrong I did enjoy them, I listened to them for about a week. Then I decided to return them. I listened to one of my favorite concert blurays, "Talking heads, Stop making sense." and Eagles, Farewell tour I, and then I said, nope, these are going back.
I filled out the return, and they we're only going to refund $425 of the $500 I spent.
So I got them out of the box hooked them back up...and then went back in the box, and they went back today! I just could not justify the money spent.
Here's why...the last night, I really gave them a go then I took them off, I noticed my ears were hurting a little, I switched to the speakers, and that was it...I cannot listen to them loudly... my bookshelfs at low level BLEW the 650's AWAY anyway, let alone volume with my small sub, so I could NOT justify the $500 spent.
In summary, headphones cannot come close to a well-built small speaker setup for a fraction of the cost. Personally I think it's the physics. A good full range speaker uses physics for one, crossover for another, and the cabinets, to make truly natural music reproductions!
One of the biggest things to me that I noticed was the highs. To my ears they just did NOT sound good...now again, this was a back to back comparison to my speakers! Maybe I'm spoiled because I built them, and built the crossovers, but I just copied plans and I followed the plans and didn't cut corners.
In any case, it was 100% worth the whole experience. I've been wanting to try this for several years, and I appreciate everything people here have contributed. You guys have done several things for me. Gave me all the information to try this out, decide if this was the right for me, and make me confident that I'm making the right decision.
I'm keeping the headphone amp. I'll try out some cheaper headphones around the $200 range, and maybe some cordless...I have some in the bedroom I really like, and for the price it just a good buy! But as far as headphones go...I'm not spending more than $200 ever again. I just can't see a return for the investment that would ever justify the money spent.
In summary, I want to be clear. I am not saying the 650's sounded bad. They sounded very good. Just not $500 worth of great, and not even close to my bookshelf speakers. That was the deal breaker for me. When I took the headphones off, unplugged them restarted what I had just listened to, well to be fair, it wasn't fair! It wasn't even close! It's hard to describe other to say, it is like a balm. I wanted so BAD to LIKE these 650's, but when I unplugged them I was like "good GOD!"
Music is like medicine, and the vehicle for the medicine is the differance of whether it went into the muscle vs the veins. This, to me was the differance of headphones vs speakers! Putting the balm next to the wound or on the wound!