[Rob80b]

Listening to Kraftwerk’s “Minimum Maximum” album this afternoon shed a fair amount of light on the 650s soundstage performance, now while it’s reproduction was not bad switching over to the HD800S’s put me back in the stadium having seen this live performance twice, 2005 and 2013.
With the 650s I felt I was listening more to a “performer” while the 800S’s had me listening to the “performance”, big difference in my books, I prefer the latter.
Also the same disc in direct comparison on the LCD2.2s was very claustrophobic, almost as if all of Kraftwerk’s equipment, PA and all was jammed into a very small review space, interesting as the soundstage was linear as with the 800s, much narrower of course but not at all what the original live venue was like.

 
The 650s are a nice compromise between the 2 having a different perspective, the HD700’s when I had them were even better IMHO but redundant once I acquired the 800S’s.

 

[Youth]

Anyone heard HD650 with Master 9 or HE-9?

 

[Quinto]

  Anyone heard HD650 with Master 9 or HE-9?

no, but sounds exquisite on the Master 11

 

[GryphonGuy]

  Anyone heard HD650 with Master 9 or HE-9?

 
I have heard my own HD650's on a HE-9 whilst auditioning HifiMan HE-1000 (v1) and Senn HD800 (original). My comment was that I would like to buy my own HD650's meaning that the improvement I heard in airiness, purity in top end with authority AND clarity (musicality maybe?) in the bottom end was mind blowing. Beautiful decays of notes, where there are echos in recorded music they decay so nicely. Quiet inter-track pieces were pure black if I was to put a colour on silence. Horribly compressed modern music like Adele's 25 sounded amazingly acceptable through the HE-9 and HD650 combination. The source was a hand-held battery operated digital player similar to A&K but a cheaper competitor without an obvious brand name on the device.
 
To summarize, what was supposed to be an audition for TOTL headphones ended up being an audition of the HE-9 and it is worth every cent and very desirable. I am breaking in a Chord DAVE at the moment and as much as I would love to have the HE-9 I don't think it is necessary with the DAVE as the DAVE's headphone facility is amazing with the HD650's.

 

[Youth]

Thanks guys. Wonder how M9 compares to HE-9.

 

[DavidA]

  Thanks guys. Wonder how M9 compares to HE-9.

While I haven't heard the Master 9 or HE-9, a friend who has heard them and owns the Master-7 and Master-11 (which I've heard) says they are all close in sound signature and if you didn't know which was connected it would be hard to tell in blind testing.

 

[music4mhell]

  Listening to Kraftwerk’s “Minimum Maximum” album this afternoon shed a fair amount of light on the 650s soundstage performance, now while it’s reproduction was not bad switching over to the HD800S’s put me back in the stadium having seen this live performance twice, 2005 and 2013.
With the 650s I felt I was listening more to a “performer” while the 800S’s had me listening to the “performance”, big difference in my books, I prefer the latter.
Also the same disc in direct comparison on the LCD2.2s was very claustrophobic, almost as if all of Kraftwerk’s equipment, PA and all was jammed into a very small review space, interesting as the soundstage was linear as with the 800s, much narrower of course but not at all what the original live venue was like.

 
The 650s are a nice compromise between the 2 having a different perspective, the HD700’s when I had them were even better IMHO but redundant once I acquired the 800S’s.

Did they play Radioactivity on that day ?

 

[Rob80b]

  Did they play Radioactivity on that day ?

Don't they always?

To get that extra grunt though for the trip down memory lane I first converted the stock cable to a balanced (4pin XLR).


Actually fairly impressed on how these current 650s hold up, quite different from my ancient 580/600s...there's a lot more treble clarity, no veil at all. I also remember the original 650s back in 2003 to be fairly dark and base heavy, these are not at all as I remember.

 

[axcel]

Guys, my pair finally sounds very smooth. It needed some break in time.all good now

one thing I have noticed that the flute sounds too smooth with the 650s. They can't reproduce the sound of a flute fully. It sounds recessed. Is it because of the rolled off highs?

 

[castleofargh]

Guys, my pair finally sounds very smooth. It needed some break in time.all good now

one thing I have noticed that the flute sounds too smooth with the 650s. They can't reproduce the sound of a flute fully. It sounds recessed. Is it because of the rolled off highs?

try EQing up around 5-6khz to see if that's what you feel missing. you can also try to lower a wide area around 200hz to make the mids feel cleaner/brighter/whatever.
but TBH, smooth and slightly warm is the hd650's thing.

 

[Rob80b]

Guys, .......................

one thing I have noticed that the flute sounds too smooth with the 650s. .......................

Listening this afternoon that was the one description that kept on popping up "smooth", didn’t really bother me but then I wasn’t doing any critical listening and the “smoothness” is probably what makes them so popular.
Although these current HD650's do appear to have more bite than my previous hd580/600 they are still velvety with regards to some frequencies.  “Rolled off highs”…I'll take a closer listen and comparison with the HD800S but the 800s are definitely livelier with more air and spatial cues  and being a flute player myself I found the contentious HD700s had IMHO excellent portrayal of the flute.
But the 650s are polite, not overly so, but being a very balanced controlled (lush?) headphone …..no real surprises which could take a “bite of life” or loss of upper harmonics out of some recordings, flute and classical female are a good example…they still sound good though....better smooth than sorry....

 

[cthomas]

Hey guys, got my 650's yesterday. Spent about 6 hours all up listening to various music. Gotta say I'm surprised how similar they sound to the 800, I was expecting more of a veil but definitely very minimal. Bass is nice and they feel more full bodied than the 800. So far loving them especially at their current price!

Next step, Schiit Jot I'm thinking with a balanced cable but I'm not sure if I should hold out for a possible Jot with integrated multibit DAC. Currently using a Sony UDA-1 but I imagine something like the Jot would be significantly better.

Also, is there a general consensus on a good balanced cable for around $150 or should I go for the CH650 XLR cable?

 

[cthomas]

Guys, my pair finally sounds very smooth. It needed some break in time.all good now

one thing I have noticed that the flute sounds too smooth with the 650s. They can't reproduce the sound of a flute fully. It sounds recessed. Is it because of the rolled off highs?

Just got mine yesterday, how much burn in before you noticed a change?

 

[joeq70]

Hey guys, got my 650's yesterday. Spent about 6 hours all up listening to various music. Gotta say I'm surprised how similar they sound to the 800, I was expecting more of a veil but definitely very minimal. Bass is nice and they feel more full bodied than the 800. So far loving them especially at their current price!

Next step, Schiit Jot I'm thinking with a balanced cable but I'm not sure if I should hold out for a possible Jot with integrated multibit DAC. Currently using a Sony UDA-1 but I imagine something like the Jot would be significantly better.

Also, is there a general consensus on a good balanced cable for around $150 or should I go for the CH650 XLR cable?

There is no reason to spend that much on a cable. Try ordering a cable from ImpactAudioCables on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/244164727/custom-infinity-series-sennheiser?ref=shop_home_active_8

 

[Dr Zingo]

The thing that always gets me is that no matter what someone complains about with a headphone, the answer is "it needs to burn in." Literally no matter what the problem is. Bass too loose? Burn in will tighten it. Highs too sharp? Burn in will soften them. Bass too light? Burn in will open it up. Highs rolled off? Burn in will make them sparkle more. It'll expand the soundstage, it'll improve separation, everything. It'll brighten muddy headphones and warm up thin ones, burn in will cure what ails ya!

I'd be more tempted to believe in burn in if there was any consistent description of how it alters the sound, the answer just seems to be "whatever you don't like about it, magic burn in will make it better." I'd also be more tempted to believe in it if I EVER heard a story of someone who enjoyed a headphone out of the box, but once it "burned in" they didn't enjoy how they changed. It would HAVE to happen if the character of the sound truly does alter. 

The analogy of clothing "breaking in" would work except the reason clothes do that is they're losing their structural integrity and it's not a "settling" situation, they just gradually get more and more worn out until they fall apart. So if that's the case, there's no "burned in" status, the speaker will just slowly break down over its lifespan until it doesn't work at all anymore.

Wouldn't this be fairly easy to test? Buy two identical pairs of headphones, leave one in the box and the other playing music for a week or two. Give both to a burn-in believer and ask him/her to identify which is which? (That is, which one of the two is brand new and is consequently changing character and which one stays more consistent.)