[InebriatedGnome]

Better an open box than a pair of cans that smell like burnt rubber

Although I've found the HD650s shed smells easily over time. I got mine from a heavy smoker years ago, and a few careful washes and months of waiting later the smell was gone.

 

[pietcux]

Better an open box than a pair of cans that smell like burnt rubber

Although I've found the HD650s shed smells easily over time. I got mine from a heavy smoker years ago, and a few careful washes and months of waiting later the smell was gone.

I once baught the HD700 from a pipe smoker. On request he committed that he had them hung close to where his collection of pipes was on display. That was a heavy stinker. I washed the pads headband cushion and the driver cover in the washing machine and rinsed the frame several times. Then after it was ok, I could resell them later to a college without any complaint.

 

[LazyListener]

Hi,

Sorry for the weird question, according to your experience about these two scenarios:

A) iphone>Tidal>hd650 (WITHOUT any amp)

B) iphone>Tidal>another lower impedance/high sensivity over-ear (Momentum, Fidelio, etc)

The A solution is far worse than the B or the HD650 will sound simply not at their best but will compete with the second (more appropriate) solution?

In other words, do you will buy another more easy drive over-ear or the difference is so minimal that you would stick 650 even WITHOUT an amp?

IMO, HD 650 straight out of an iphone is a waste of potential. It's like putting cheap, touring tires on an expensive sports car. I found the the combination listenable, but HD 650 sounded much better even out of cheap Fiio E10K or Magni 2 amps. HD 650 really does need a decent amp to get the best sound. If only using an iphone, I'd suggest HD 598, or some other low impedance, high sensitivity can.

 

[Letmebefrank]

I got a new recliner last weekend so last night I tried listening to my HD650s straight out of my gs7 edge while kicked back, not to be dramatic but it sounded horrible. The phone made the treble sound really crunchy and everything was kind of mushed together with no separation or details. It was like looking through a poo-smeared window. A pair of px100-ii with hd414 pads sounded better from my phone. Either the lack of power or the D/S dac in the phone is to blame, or both. Either way, I quickly sat down in my office to listen on my main setup, Foobar2000 > Eitr > Mimby > Jot > HD650s balanced.... Wow ok that's the sound I'm used to. So much better. I feel bad for the HD6XX buyers who will be using a smartphone to drive them. Even a centrance dacport slim or a Fulla 2 will wake them up.

 

[cswann1]

If a headphone rig were a gaming computer...the headphones would be your display(s). Let's say a HD65O is a 40" quad hd with a 1ms GTG response time.
If you connect that display to a $500 emachines PC using the onboard graphics chip..you can play games, but your experience will be horrible compared to a real gaming PC.
This is sort of my opinion of driving high impedance FS headphones from a phone.
I know it's not the best analogy ever, but there is a perfectly viable way to really enjoy music straight from your phone. Buy something that is made for that..like a good pair of IEM's.

 

[HungryPanda]

I knew when massdrop started selling them they were toast

 

[Emulle]

While I don't deny what you guys are saying, we cannot deny the fact that there is phones out there with quite acceptable sound output.
Me, my brother and my SO have compared sound between the LG V20/G6 with DAC(phones), Pioneer VSX-932, Technics SA-EX310 coupled with a Technics SL-200K LP player & the O2+ODAC with his HD650s.

The only major difference is with the Technics reciever & Technics LP player with an excellent copy of Mahavishnu Orchestra - Visions of the Emerald Beyond compared to a FLAC version playing through foobar.

Other than that we found no real difference between the other devices.


Emil

 

[raybone0566]

I didn't care for the 660's at all. They aren't as cohesive as the 650's and microdetail rendered on the 650 was smeared over on the 660's.

 

[InebriatedGnome]

Sad. I'll be holding onto mine, then.

While I don't deny what you guys are saying, we cannot deny the fact that there is phones out there with quite acceptable sound output.
Me, my brother and my SO have compared sound between the LG V20/G6 with DAC(phones), Pioneer VSX-932, Technics SA-EX310 coupled with a Technics SL-200K LP player & the O2+ODAC with his HD650s.

The only major difference is with the Technics reciever & Technics LP player with an excellent copy of Mahavishnu Orchestra - Visions of the Emerald Beyond compared to a FLAC version playing through foobar.

Other than that we found no real difference between the other devices.


Emil

Keep in mind that the V20 has a much better DAC and amplification circuit than most phones. Try it on an iPhone or Galaxy and you will hear the difference.

 

[Letmebefrank]

I should have prefaced my last post by saying I went into it with a small amount of fear. I couldn't remember the last time I tried my 650s on a phone and I was worried that I wouldn't hear much of a difference after spending $825+ to drive the HD650. Boy was I wrong. I was actually surprised by how bad it sounded compared to my office setup.

I actually brought my HD650s with me to work today and tried them with my coworkers V30 as I heard that was a decent phone for headphone use. We both agreed it sounds miles ahead of my gs7 edge with the 650s. We both agreed again that the Fulla 2 on my desk sounds even better. We played the same flac files with both setups, rocket player pro on his V30 and Foobar2000 on my pc/fulla2. The beginning of Rush - The Spirit of Radio, the cymbal crashes over top of highly distorted guitar in the beginning is very harsh and crunchy on my gs7 edge, a bit less crunchy and much smoother on the V30, and pretty smooth on the fulla 2.

 

[DavidA]

The differences that one will notice is based on the individual's hearing, experiences and other factors: I let my GF and her friends listen to my HD650 on a BH Crack, Fiio X3ii, Ember, iPhone 6S and Galaxy S5. Between the S5 and 6S none of the girls noticed any differences mostly due to the fact that neither phone could get the HD650 to listening levels at max volume. Changing over to the BH Crack, X3ii and Ember only one person could tell the difference between the 3 different amps, me. My GF and her 3 friends all think the HD650 sounds the same on the 3 different amps but as soon as I gave them hints on what to listen for they started to notice the difference but even then they all say its so slight that the majority would never notice the difference in the real world. The good thing is they noticed the differences in various headphones and with some headphones like the HD800, HE560 and EL-8 they notice the differences on different amps which makes sense since these headphones sound signature are more influenced with the choice of amp.

Moral of the story, what is a "huge, large, very noticeable" difference to most Head-Fi members with some headphones might / would be considered inaudible to most of the general population unless its volume level differences, then pretty much all will notice it.

 

[pietcux]

I didn't care for the 660's at all. They aren't as cohesive as the 650's and microdetail rendered on the 650 was smeared over on the 660's.

From which source did you drive the HD660S if I may ask?

 

[Letmebefrank]

The differences that one will notice is based on the individual's hearing, experiences and other factors: I let my GF and her friends listen to my HD650 on a BH Crack, Fiio X3ii, Ember, iPhone 6S and Galaxy S5. Between the S5 and 6S none of the girls noticed any differences mostly due to the fact that neither phone could get the HD650 to listening levels at max volume. Changing over to the BH Crack, X3ii and Ember only one person could tell the difference between the 3 different amps, me. My GF and her 3 friends all think the HD650 sounds the same on the 3 different amps but as soon as I gave them hints on what to listen for they started to notice the difference but even then they all say its so slight that the majority would never notice the difference in the real world. The good thing is they noticed the differences in various headphones and with some headphones like the HD800, HE560 and EL-8 they notice the differences on different amps which makes sense since these headphones sound signature are more influenced with the choice of amp.

Moral of the story, what is a "huge, large, very noticeable" difference to most Head-Fi members with some headphones might / would be considered inaudible to most of the general population unless its volume level differences, then pretty much all will notice it.

My wife is kinda like that, except she doesn't really notice good sound quality until it's suddenly bad. When we first started living together she asked why we needed all the big speakers in the living room, so after a few weeks of watching TV with my biamped Klipsch towers I switched it back to the TV speakers one night before we watched the walking dead. She was like wow this is so bad I can barely hear what they are saying over the other sounds. She didn't complain about the speakers anymore and the last time we moved she helped me temporarily set up the surround the day we moved in because she didn't want to watch TV even one night without it.

 

[DavidA]

My wife is kinda like that, except she doesn't really notice good sound quality until it's suddenly bad. When we first started living together she asked why we needed all the big speakers in the living room, so after a few weeks of watching TV with my biamped Klipsch towers I switched it back to the TV speakers one night before we watched the walking dead. She was like wow this is so bad I can barely hear what they are saying over the other sounds. She didn't complain about the speakers anymore and the last time we moved she helped me temporarily set up the surround the day we moved in because she didn't want to watch TV even one night without it.

That is pretty sneaky, LOL, but a great way to get someone to notice

 

[gefski]

I got a new recliner last weekend so last night I tried listening to my HD650s straight out of my gs7 edge while kicked back, not to be dramatic but it sounded horrible. The phone made the treble sound really crunchy and everything was kind of mushed together with no separation or details. It was like looking through a poo-smeared window. A pair of px100-ii with hd414 pads sounded better from my phone. Either the lack of power or the D/S dac in the phone is to blame, or both. Either way, I quickly sat down in my office to listen on my main setup, Foobar2000 > Eitr > Mimby > Jot > HD650s balanced.... Wow ok that's the sound I'm used to. So much better. I feel bad for the HD6XX buyers who will be using a smartphone to drive them. Even a centrance dacport slim or a Fulla 2 will wake them up.

You're brutal, comparing a Mimby/Jot to a phone!