[HipHopScribe]

How do you compare hd 6xx to hd 598s. How much better you say 6xx are?

The 6XX's are superior in most ways. The 598s do have a wider soundstage (inferior imaging though), better comfort and a bit more treble presence (not better quality)

 

[joseph69]

How do you compare hd 6xx to hd 598s. How much better you say 6xx are?

Never heard the 598, and I also sold both, the 6xx & 800S a while ago.

 

[Lolito]

I got a bit tired of the stock velour pads. I´m very happy with the headphones, works great with khadas tone board + jds atom. But the stock pads seems a bit below of what they should feel. I bet they are engineered very well soundwise, but the lack of memory foam compared to a sony 1000, and this type of velour feels like a carpet. A carpet touching your ears... not very nice really. Ordered some memory foam sheepskin pads, everyone says sound will change to worse, but hopefully I don't notice it much but I enjoy more the better feel and comfort... we'll see...



just 30$ in amazon, will post impressions when I get them.

Got them, it's fake leather, and not memory foam. Amazon refunded.

 

[Xbmyc]

So, I just got the HD6XX. After owning the HD600 and the ie800 and loving them both I was initially avoiding the HD650 due to how people complain about the veil on the internet. But the HD6XX really really surprised me. Yes I can feel the veil, and the lower end is stronger than the HD600, but this is not the veil that you might think. Hard for me to describe this, but the best I can come up with is that this veil is sort of a slight flavour added to the music without affecting how transparent and how clear the music sounds. In fact, I actually find my music more enjoyable and more transparent with this veil. The lower ends have more thump, the higher ends have more sparkles (at least feeling that way) , and vocals sound fuller compared to the HD600. The best description I think that fits the HD650 is that this is basically the full size version of the ie800 with very similar feels but without the sharp spikes you might get in certain music.

tldr: So happy I got the HD6XX, its more enjoyable for me compared to my HD600 and ie800.

 

[Odin412]

In fact, I actually find my music more enjoyable and more transparent with this veil.

I completely agree - the key to the HD 650 is how enjoyable it is to listen to. I don't like the term 'veil' because it sound like something gets taken away by the HD 650. I think the opposite is often true - some headphones have an artificially boosted treble in order to sound more detailed or 'airy'.

 

[AudioPowerHead]

I completely agree - the key to the HD 650 is how enjoyable it is to listen to. I don't like the term 'veil' because it sound like something gets taken away by the HD 650. I think the opposite is often true - some headphones have an artificially boosted treble in order to sound more detailed or 'airy'.

+1

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I come back to this thread to sing the praises of the HD650 maybe once a year, whenever I make a significant gear upgrade. It has been said many times before, but it simply amazes me how this headphone continues to scale with upstream changes, to a greater degree than many other headphones I have owned. Listening right now on a DIY amp I completed a few days ago, big project, never heard the HD650 like this. There is no "veil" (although I'm not much of a believer), just clairty, the soundstage is enormous, the detail is stunning, the bass is deep and tight, I'm sitting here shaking my head dumbfounded at how good it sounds...

Long live the HD650! Many headphones have come and gone, the HD650 stays, permanently.

 

[Jones Bob]

I come back to this thread to sing the praises of the HD650 maybe once a year, whenever I make a significant gear upgrade. It has been said many times before, but it simply amazes me how this headphone continues to scale with upstream changes, to a greater degree than many other headphones I have owned. Listening right now on a DIY amp I completed a few days ago, big project, never heard the HD650 like this. There is no "veil" (although I'm not much of a believer), just clairty, the soundstage is enormous, the detail is stunning, the bass is deep and tight, I'm sitting here shaking my head dumbfounded at how good it sounds...

Long live the HD650! Many headphones have come and gone, the HD650 stays, permanently.

Any details on your amp?

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Any details on your amp?

Sure! It is a single-ended triode amp featuring some oddball tubes that I like very much, spent the past 3-4 months learning amplifier design, I did an exhaustive build log here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/l0rdgwyns-diy-audio.921105/

Early parts of the thread are pretty technically dense, more recent pages are focused on construction.

 

[Jones Bob]

A great write up! Lots of juicy details on the evolution of your design. Finished amp looks well built. Bet it sounds really sweet. Good job, Sir!

 

[paulybatz]

I like this better than Zeos’ yellow color 600, might give it a try.

Anyone paint them??

 

[Brad57]

I come back to this thread to sing the praises of the HD650 maybe once a year, whenever I make a significant gear upgrade. It has been said many times before, but it simply amazes me how this headphone continues to scale with upstream changes, to a greater degree than many other headphones I have owned. Listening right now on a DIY amp I completed a few days ago, big project, never heard the HD650 like this. There is no "veil" (although I'm not much of a believer), just clairty, the soundstage is enormous, the detail is stunning, the bass is deep and tight, I'm sitting here shaking my head dumbfounded at how good it sounds...

Long live the HD650! Many headphones have come and gone, the HD650 stays, permanently.

I think 650 performs well only with amps that have high output impedance. Mine with the topping nx4 which as 0.9ohm impedenyce dosent sound all that great with 6xx.

Isn't there some theory about maximum power transmission when maximum power is transmitted only when source and device impedence is the same . Does it apply here.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I think 650 performs well only with amps that have high output impedance. Mine with the topping nx4 which as 0.9ohm impedenyce dosent sound all that great with 6xx.

Isn't there some theory about maximum power transmission when maximum power is transmitted only when source and device impedence is the same . Does it apply here.

My personal experience has been that output impedance does not predict good sound with the HD650 or other high impedance headphones. For example, I have owned the Bottlehead Crack and Crackatwoa in the past, which sounded very good with the HD650. Both of those amps have around 120ohm output impedance. However, the SET amplifier I have built has a 3ohm output impedance and it sounds much better than the Bottlehead amps. Obviously I am partial to tubes, but I have found they pair well with the HD650. I think amplifier design and topology plays a part and amplifier measurements are not predictive of good sound, otherwise I wouldn't be listening to tubes just my opinion, YMMV, yadda yadda yadda.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

On the measurements stuff, here is an interesting article from Nelson Pass from 1998 discussing single-ended class A solid state designs and the role of measurements on good sound, it is an interesting read.

https://www.passlabs.com/press/single-ended-class

Here is another good one from Bob Katz on the role second harmonic distortion plays in the subjective experience of audio.

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/katzs-corner-episode-25-adventures-distortion

 

[castleofargh]

I think 650 performs well only with amps that have high output impedance. Mine with the topping nx4 which as 0.9ohm impedenyce dosent sound all that great with 6xx.

Isn't there some theory about maximum power transmission when maximum power is transmitted only when source and device impedence is the same . Does it apply here.

Headphones and amps aren't designed that way anymore. Instead modern pairing when it's not a complete mess, tends to follow 'impedance bridging'. The amp will ideally have an impedance close to zero, and the load(headphone) will be a lot higher. That way we get strong electrical damping and the voltage at the headphone isn't affected too much by the headphone itself, which is what we usually want.

I'm with @L0rdGwyn on not forcing the correlation between sound and amp's impedance too much. If you're specifically after a little bass bump near 100Hz(wherever your own HD650's impedance peaks), then sure enough you can get that with an amplifier's output having one or two hundred ohm. But for anything else, a different amplifier is a different amplifier. It wouldn't be rational to reduce all the differences down to 2 impedance outputs. I usually whine that people do it for power, but the problem is the same. Even more here where you wouldn't expect 100ohm or more from a SS amp. So we end up with apples and oranges.

With that said, it's not impossible that you would prefer a slightly lower electrical damping(all else considered equal even though it wouldn't happen). We usually consider that such a thing doesn't have a sound on headphones beside the possible small change in frequency response. But that's only because headphone amplifiers usually stick to being rather low impedance and headphones have pretty good mechanical damping. So the scenarios we can encounter on speakers with a relatively high impedance amp, are typically not relevant on headphones like this one.
But if the amp's output was something like 300ohm or more, then all bets are off. I wouldn't be too surprised if that had it's very own sound(added to the characteristics of the amp itself and the evident mid bass boost we'd get from the hd650's impedance curve).