[JacobLee89]

  ^^  Congrats and glad to hear that you've been enjoying them. My experience is that you'll hear some improvement as well after they get past 100 hours or so..ymmv. But for sure, these hp's response very well and scale up with better gear. The uberfrost is a very nice upgrade and it's where I ended up.
 
And for the amp, I spend A LOT of time with the Asgard2 and the hd650. It's a good combo. The A2 offer nice clean resolving power that compliments the 650 well. But...if you want to truly have a religious experience you'll have to try the 650 with the Crack amp. It's a match made in heaven. IMO
 
I denied the 650 for years because of the reviews about being veiled and slow. Wrong. Then I denied the crack for years also because I'm not that much of a diy guy when it comes to building amps. My advice, if you don't want to build it then ask someone to build it for you. There are a great community of very handy people who would offer to do it for nearly a song. 
 
I've been serious about quality audio for 20 years. The ONLY setup that I've heard that floored me more than the crack/650 was the Stax sr/007 mkii and the Blue Hawaii. That's it period. 

 
After thinking about the Black -> white screen update on the HD650's, I'm wondering what colour the screens are on your HD650's drivers. I'm just wondering if the different screen material would also affect how these phones would work with the crack. It may be a better idea for me to find a post 2007 HD650 and test it.
 
As a reminder this update was also done to HD580, HD600, and HD650:
 

*Edit* Since these are the only HD650's I have I can't be sure whether they are indeed the "old" drivers, but the photo below is of mine taken apart with the driver screen shown as black.
 

 
This isn't to say that I don't enjoy my HD650's. Far from it by a long shot! I'm just being a curious being.

 

[MattTCG]

Mine are newer silver screens.

 

[Jeff Moore]

My long-term plan is a pair of high-end orthos (Audeze LCD3), and a Ray Samuels Dark Star.  But for now, the budget is much smaller.  I have already purchased an ALO Audio Island.  My budget for cans is $500 max.  I'm considering the HD-650.  What are your thoughts on the Island's ability to drive the HD-650?  Or, if you have another recommendation for my $500?  I'm a headphone virgin.  My musical taste run the gamut, from Metallica to Mozart to Miles Davis to Alison Krauss, and everything in between.  Thanks, Matt.

 

[pdrm360]

 

 
How are the telefunken tubes for the Lyr?

 

[MattTCG]

   
How are the telefunken tubes for the Lyr?

 
I'd give them a thumbs up for sure. I'd previously used the Orange Globes. Compared to the OG's the telefunkens are a little more resolving with nice textured bass which seems to go well with the 650. They're a keeper. 

 

[Fearless1]

   
How are the telefunken tubes for the Lyr?

Smooth and natural,  very good with vocal oriented music.

 

[JacobLee89]

  My long-term plan is a pair of high-end orthos (Audeze LCD3), and a Ray Samuels Dark Star.  But for now, the budget is much smaller.  I have already purchased an ALO Audio Island.  My budget for cans is $500 max.  I'm considering the HD-650.  What are your thoughts on the Island's ability to drive the HD-650?  Or, if you have another recommendation for my $500?  I'm a headphone virgin.  My musical taste run the gamut, from Metallica to Mozart to Miles Davis to Alison Krauss, and everything in between.  Thanks, Matt.

 
The ALO Audio Island claims to give out 168mW @ 300 Ohms, should be plenty for the HD650's. As for how well the HD650s do, I am just planning to build a system around the headphones as they are just comfortable to listen to. Sometimes too much detail can cause more headaches than pleasure.

 

[ssrock64]

Can anybody chime in on experience with the HD650's presentation box foam transferring an unpleasant odor to the earpads? I'm not sure whether this is just because my pair was basically in storage for nine months before I bought them, or whether the foam in the box simply smells disgusting.

 

[JacobLee89]

  Can anybody chime in on experience with the HD650's presentation box foam transferring an unpleasant odor to the earpads? I'm not sure whether this is just because my pair was basically in storage for nine months before I bought them, or whether the foam in the box simply smells disgusting.

Foam acts like a sponge to a lot of things, so whatever sort of odour that goes pass the packaging has a chance of retaining the unpleasantness. You could hand wash the ear pads to get rid of the smell, but I am sure it'll disappear over time.

 

[ssrock64]

  Foam acts like a sponge to a lot of things, so whatever sort of odour that goes pass the packaging has a chance of retaining the unpleasantness. You could hand wash the ear pads to get rid of the smell, but I am sure it'll disappear over time.

Yeah, I just need to stop storing the headphones in that presentation box for awhile. I bought them secondhand, so I wasn't sure if that odor was integral to the foam itself or if it came from the environment the foam was in at one point.

 

[Jeff Moore]

   
The ALO Audio Island claims to give out 168mW @ 300 Ohms, should be plenty for the HD650's. As for how well the HD650s do, I am just planning to build a system around the headphones as they are just comfortable to listen to. Sometimes too much detail can cause more headaches than pleasure.

Thanks for the input, Jacob. Much appreciated.

 

[TsukiNick]

Got a 3.5mm cable for these and they really don't sound too bad coming straight out of my Galaxy S4, maybe slightly bass light but still nice sounding.

 

[James-uk]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html

Interesting read for those looking for dacs/amps.

 

[skeptic]

  My long-term plan is a pair of high-end orthos (Audeze LCD3), and a Ray Samuels Dark Star.  But for now, the budget is much smaller.  I have already purchased an ALO Audio Island.  My budget for cans is $500 max.  I'm considering the HD-650.  What are your thoughts on the Island's ability to drive the HD-650?  Or, if you have another recommendation for my $500?  I'm a headphone virgin.  My musical taste run the gamut, from Metallica to Mozart to Miles Davis to Alison Krauss, and everything in between.  Thanks, Matt.

 
Hi Jeff - the hd650's are very nice all-arounders as long as you're not looking for the last word in treble sparkle.  If you can conclude anything from the >1,000 pages of this thread (and the even longer predecessor hd650 thread), it is that a whole lot of us really enjoy these phones and continue enjoying them regularly even after investing in costlier flagships.
 
One word of caution in response to your post - I would research very carefully before choosing to invest your funds in a rsa dark star.  You can purchase the boards and build a very similar amp for a few hundred dollars (see http://www.head-fi.org/t/654371/eddie-current-diy-amplifier-monolith ), and many of the electrical engineers on these boards seem to agree that the dark star design just isn't that great to begin with (one, for example, describing it as: "Thousands of dollars for a gainclone in a fancy box with dodgy anodizing").  There are a lot of great flagship amps out there.  My sense, for whatever its worth, is that this just isn't one of them.  

 

[buffysummers]

Hello everyone,
 
I am a newbie, both in this forum as in the world of audio, at least considering the terminology and experience.
 
I recently discovered my love for the Sennheiser HD 600 and 650. I do hear a difference between them, especially regarding the treble, as the 600 is a little harsher (or more detailed? i am not sure). But some songs acutally sound pretty much the same to me on both headphones, so it is not a huge difference to me.
That also makes it extremely hard to decide which of these two I'm gonna keep. I like both a lot, the 650 seems to be a little more relaxing, which can be good at times, but maybe bad too when you like it fresh.
 
For now I am using the fiio e17 as dac+amp, cause I first wanted to find a nice headphone and adjust the setup accordingly afterwards. I plan to build the Bottlehead Crack, but it will take some time, I am a total beginner in that area. So I will have to make my decision with the e17.
 
Which of these two would you say scales better with a better amp, especially with the Crack?