[upstateguy]

  while mostly good info I disagree with this statement no offense intended but there is always a cost/gain balance if this were true why wouldn't they just make the 650's like the 800's.  because it wouldn't be cost effective.  when I upgraded cables to my 650's it made a pretty big difference now I believe that this difference can be greatly affected by what is upstream.  I went from the stock cable on the single ended output of an amp with balanced output to a balanced cable on the balanced out and the difference was noticeable 

 
No offense either, but cable wire is cheap when it is purchased in bulk and made in an automated process rather than making the exact same thing by hand....
 
No offense on this one either, but you can't make the 650s into 800s no matter what you do.
 
Balanced is arguable and its discussion is not appropriate in this thread.
 
My only suggestion is to investigate 'cables' and 'balanced' on our own Sound Science Forum or even better yet, check it out on the hydrogenaudio forum.
 
Cheers

 

[Ankaret]

After about 100+ hours of break in on my new pair of 650's, Im enjoying Jacaszcek's "Glimmer" on these fantastic headphones. Loving it. iPod 5th generation --> Little Dot Mk I+ --> HD650. Would love to hear these with a more powerful tube amp like the MKIII.
 
What kind of amps are you guys using with your 650s? The bottlehead crack I know is also a very popular one for these, no? How might that compare to MK3?

 

[ridethespiral]

The PreSonus HP4 is used to provide multiple monitor headphone amplification in a recording studio. It can't be all bad.

I find it works really well. I'm trying to sell a bunch of my unused musical equipment to fund the crack addiction.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[ssrock64]

Speaking of pro audio amps, has anybody had good results pairing the HD650 with fairly cheap pieces of equipment like the HP4? I have an AMC 1100 that's starting to have some electrical gremlins, and I'd love to have something with a similar form factor.

 

[kramer5150]

  After about 100+ hours of break in on my new pair of 650's, Im enjoying Jacaszcek's "Glimmer" on these fantastic headphones. Loving it. iPod 5th generation --> Little Dot Mk I+ --> HD650. Would love to hear these with a more powerful tube amp like the MKIII.
 
What kind of amps are you guys using with your 650s? The bottlehead crack I know is also a very popular one for these, no? How might that compare to MK3?

Darkvoice 337
Earmax with 60 Watt power transformer
Larocco PPA
Guzzler G-moy, (18V-OPA2107)
 
Various sources.  One of my favorite things to do (in an admittedly low-fi kind of way) is sample artists and genres on www radio.   iPhone straight into the amp and then onto the HD650.

 

[jorge8]

... Earmax with 60 Watt power transformer
...

Hi Kramer
What power supply is that?
Thx
 
Btw, I'm using HD580 Jubilee with HD650 capsules with Earmax (and Fiio E12 Montblanc and E12 DIY)

 

[awsanderson]

   
No offense either, but cable wire is cheap when it is purchased in bulk and made in an automated process rather than making the exact same thing by hand....
 
No offense on this one either, but you can't make the 650s into 800s no matter what you do.
 
Balanced is arguable and its discussion is not appropriate in this thread.
 
My only suggestion is to investigate 'cables' and 'balanced' on our own Sound Science Forum or even better yet, check it out on the hydrogenaudio forum.
 
Cheers

I'll be the first to admit that changing what the cable is made of (as far as cables go) is probably a placebo and makes little to no difference in what you actually hear
 
that you can't make the 650's into the 800's was kind of my point, just because Sennhheiser is capable of making the 650's sound better doesn't mean they would,  almost all products are designing and built to meet a certain price point.
 
I merely pointed out that I noticed a difference when I changed the cable on my 650's I noticed a difference with the caveat that my amp is designed to run balanced and that that could have been a large part of the difference.  If that doesn't belong on the HD650 appreciation thread I don't know what does

 

[kramer5150]

  Hi Kramer
What power supply is that?
Thx
 
Btw, I'm using HD580 Jubilee with HD650 capsules with Earmax (and Fiio E12 Montblanc and E12 DIY)

Its one of those types used in home security systems, home-garden sprinklers / lighting too I think use these things.  Its grounded 110AC in, and 24V AC out.  Its about as simple as it gets.  Primary in and secondary output at 24V.   Now that I think about it, I think it may be closer to 50w.  Its output is spec'd at 24V ~2A.  Similar to this one here... but with an AC input ground prong:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CCTV-Plug-In-Transformer-120-VAC-input-24-VAC-output-50-VA-Power-Supply-/331155260462?pt=US_Surveillance_Cables_Adapters_Connectors&hash=item4d1a64442e
 
One thing I was concerned about was voltage fluctuation(s) with the ~110AC mains from the house.  So before hooking it all up, I took voltage measurements with appliances and lights running throughout the house and it remained pretty consistent at about 23-24V.
 
The OEM Earmax wall wart supply is about 19V with a ceiling of around .8A (IIRC)... it needs more than that, and it has noticeably more headroom and plays louder with more power.  The tubes are slightly warmer to the touch too I think... but its not by much.  So in theory I suspect I will be getting shorter tube life.  The OEM power caps in my amp are 25V, so 24Vin is pretty much the ceiling going in.  Fortunately 24AC is a standard for all kinds of high volume industries... Home Depot and Lowes sell transformers too, if you wanted to go B&M retail.
 
Its still a low power circuit though, I mean it still won't magically drive Grados really loud without clipping.  (just to level-set your expectation).

 

[jorge8]

Thank you

 

[atraf]

Hi everyone, I am planning on getting the hd650 when visiting Berlin in a few weeks, so I am excited of becoming a member of the hd650 club  
I have a few question concerning Dac/Amp combo for a budget of 400$ max for both.
From what I have read little dot mkIII, schiitt valhalla/vali are good amps for the HD650
the thing is they don't leave me much money for a proper dac, so I thought about getting maybe something cheap like the sabre u2 for a while and in the future upgrade it to a bifrost or something else.. 
But here comes my question, when I listened to the HD650 I used a 2000$ dac/amp called naim dac-v1 it was freaking amazing and this is why I decided I got to have this headphones, the lower bass was just shaking the hd650 on my ears it was an amazing exprience, I usually listen to electronic music and the bass is important to me..
which one of the combo will be best for me, maybe I need a SS amp for that because the Naim is a SS?
Another thing I also have an IEM ( vsonic gr07BE 42ohm) so it would be nice if the amp could fit them as well. 
Or maybe I should get an o2/odac or a magni/moodi combo and call it a day, would that be suffice? 
 
sorry for my confusion I have a lot of question since i am just getting in the hifi world ..
 
Thank you  
 
 
BTW any Headfirs from Berlin here ? looking for a good shop 

 

[Zojokkeli]

The Vali/Modi combo sounds really good with 650's. Asgard 2 should be more flexible with IEMs though, and has similar sound signature as Vali.

 

[upstateguy]

Originally Posted by awsanderson /img/forum/go_quote.gif
<snip>
 
....just because Sennhheiser is capable of making the 650's sound better doesn't mean they would,  almost all products are designing and built to meet a certain price point.
 
<snip>

 
I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

 
But keep in mind, that in order to "improve" the sound, Sennheiser did a similar thing when they upgraded the 600s to 650s without batting an eye, so my position is that if something as simple as a different cable could make the 650s sound better, Sennheiser would do it. 
 
The caveat is that there is an audible difference between the 600s and the 650s that is measurable.  Nothing like that exists for cable swaps. 

 

[olegausany]

Originally Posted by awsanderson /img/forum/go_quote.gif
<snip>
 
....just because Sennhheiser is capable of making the 650's sound better doesn't mean they would,  almost all products are designing and built to meet a certain price point.
 
<snip>

 
I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

 
But keep in mind, that in order to "improve" the sound, Sennheiser did a similar thing when they upgraded the 600s to 650s without batting an eye, so my position is that if something as simple as a different cable could make the 650s sound better, Sennheiser would do it. 
 
The caveat is that there is an audible difference between the 600s and the 650s that is measurable.  Nothing like that exists for cable swaps. 

Who cares about measurements, trust your ears

 

[upstateguy]

Who cares about measurements, trust your ears

 
Clever!
 
Do you mind if I quote you in my sig?

 

[olegausany]

Not a problem