[CanadianMaestro]

I don't need to know original intent to enjoy music. Interpretation is infinite and it's what makes musicophilia so much fun.

 

[castleofargh]

  We're all clueless as to the original intent. If we weren't forums like this simply wouldn't exist. All that this place is is a place to display opinions & nothing more. No-one's opinion is any moe valid than anyone else's. I like that.

 as long as it's about opinion and not claims about reality, then I agree 100% ^_^

 

[SomeGuyDude]

   as long as it's about opinion and not claims about reality, then I agree 100% ^_^

 
Mmhm. What matters is if you like the sound that comes out of it. Everything else is 100% irrelevant. Meaningless. If you like your sound to be absolutely nothing like the original recording, catered to your tastes? You are still 100% correct in that you like it.
 
*** how an album comes out might sound wildly different depending on who did the mixing and mastering. Just because it sounds like the original recording doesn't mean YOU have to like what Rick Rubin or Kurt Ballou (I'm a metalhead) think an album should sound like. 
 
IMO if at any point you find yourself valuing anything above enjoying the music, then you're the one doing it wrong. If your friend says his Beats sound better than your Sennheisers, guess what? They do to him. He's right. You say your Sennheisers sound better. You're right. It means JACK SQUAT which of them does the more "accurate" rendition of anything, because ALL THAT MATTERS is how enjoyable the sound output is. PERIOD.
 
That's the nice thing about living in 2015. There's a bazillion different combinations of headphones, amps, DACs, and everything is available to everyone. No one's choice of headphone makes them superior, or means their ears are "better". Listening to music isn't a contest. You don't "win" by having the most refined taste. I've got Shure's se846 in my ears right now, a flagship IEM, and they're pumping hip hop through Apple Music into my ears as I sit on a couch with my dog. You don't get bonus points if you're using your headphones in your Music Den to listen to vinyls of classical music through your expensive tube amplifiers. 
 
Everything we're doing is supposed to be for one purpose: to get the music you like into your ears in the way it sounds best to your tastes. End of transaction. All other blather is meaningless and serves more to pump up egos than anything else. 

 

[Solrighal]

What kind of dog do you have? I have 5 right now. Three are my own but the other two are temporary guests.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  What kind of dog do you have? I have 5 right now. Three are my own but the other two are temporary guests.

 
I have an English bulldog, my roommates have a pair of rescue mutts. There is.. fur... EVERYWHERE in this house. XD

 

[DavidA]

  What kind of dog do you have? I have 5 right now. Three are my own but the other two are temporary guests.

 

   
I have an English bulldog, my roommates have a pair of rescue mutts. There is.. fur... EVERYWHERE in this house. XD

Didn't we have dogs and cats on this thread a few months ago?  Kinda remember someone's pet munching some headphone cables

 

[mrip541]

There's some talk in here about whether the 650 needs an amp.
 
The 650 needs an amp because its impedance is 300 ohms. Most mass market headphones are going to be in the 20-30 range. Because it has decent sensitivity (not the same as impedance) you can get sound out of it using a phone or laptop or whatever, and it may sound good to you, but it will not sound nearly as good as it can or as the creators intended. 
 
Borrowing from an outside source... Think of the high impedance as a garden hose nozzle with a really small hole, and think of an amp's voltage as the pressure pushing water through that hole. You need an amp with a lot of voltage to push enough water volume (current) through that small nozzle. As headphone impedance increases so does the drop in voltage at load. Not enough voltage leads to more demanding signals not being reproduced or reproduced poorly. A phone or laptop won't have the juice. Do yourself a favor and buy an amp designed to work well with high impedance headphones, and remember that the headphone simply playing loud doesn't mean it's being amped properly, because science.

 

[castleofargh]

 

   as long as it's about opinion and not claims about reality, then I agree 100% ^_^

 
Mmhm. What matters is if you like the sound that comes out of it. Everything else is 100% irrelevant. Meaningless. If you like your sound to be absolutely nothing like the original recording, catered to your tastes? You are still 100% correct in that you like it.
 
*** how an album comes out might sound wildly different depending on who did the mixing and mastering. Just because it sounds like the original recording doesn't mean YOU have to like what Rick Rubin or Kurt Ballou (I'm a metalhead) think an album should sound like. 
 
IMO if at any point you find yourself valuing anything above enjoying the music, then you're the one doing it wrong. If your friend says his Beats sound better than your Sennheisers, guess what? They do to him. He's right. You say your Sennheisers sound better. You're right. It means JACK SQUAT which of them does the more "accurate" rendition of anything, because ALL THAT MATTERS is how enjoyable the sound output is. PERIOD.
 
That's the nice thing about living in 2015. There's a bazillion different combinations of headphones, amps, DACs, and everything is available to everyone. No one's choice of headphone makes them superior, or means their ears are "better". Listening to music isn't a contest. You don't "win" by having the most refined taste. I've got Shure's se846 in my ears right now, a flagship IEM, and they're pumping hip hop through Apple Music into my ears as I sit on a couch with my dog. You don't get bonus points if you're using your headphones in your Music Den to listen to vinyls of classical music through your expensive tube amplifiers. 
 
Everything we're doing is supposed to be for one purpose: to get the music you like into your ears in the way it sounds best to your tastes. End of transaction. All other blather is meaningless and serves more to pump up egos than anything else. 

and thus my post.
 
what you're saying seem to be that everybody is free to make a claim because it might be true in his head. well that's nice and all, but that's a very good way to ruin any form of communication. claims lose all significance if everybody can make a different one and yet they're all true. how do you describe a device in that system? how can any comment be helpful to others? do we decide randomly? do we trust the guy we're friend with even if his claim is of moronic level, because, well, he's a friend and I trust my guts more than facts?
won't get us far into learning anything of interest.
 I always thought that awful was "awe full" and should be used to talk about impressive stuff bringing amazement to people. but everybody else is using it to say something like "horrible".
so because in my head I'm right, it's ok if I start saying that I'm the one who's right, and using it in everyday talk? my next review's title "the hd650, a really awful headphone!". that would work well.

hey I truly believe it! let my subjectivity be expressed!
  that's what we get from trying to go all subjective, a vast array of stuff losing credibility and significance. I'm not against subjectivity per se, we all have at least a part in it else we wouldn't listen to music. but going full mode Plato's allegory of the cave and ignoring the real world, that's really not a great plan for a community.
there has to be a line not to cross, and I draw it with opinions, tastes and feelings on one side. then facts, claims, and truth on the other side. I expect reality to be a little bit more involved in the second part.
 
 
Quote:

  There's some talk in here about whether the 650 needs an amp.
 
The 650 needs an amp because its impedance is 300 ohms. Most mass market headphones are going to be in the 20-30 range. Because it has decent sensitivity (not the same as impedance) you can get sound out of it using a phone or laptop or whatever, and it may sound good to you, but it will not sound nearly as good as it can or as the creators intended. 
 
Borrowing from [[[NOT A LINK AT ALL]]]]... Think of the high impedance as a garden hose nozzle with a really small hole, and think of an amp's voltage as the pressure pushing water through that hole. You need an amp with a lot of voltage to push enough water volume (current) through that small nozzle. As headphone impedance increases so does the drop in voltage at load. Not enough voltage leads to more demanding signals not being reproduced or reproduced poorly. A phone or laptop won't have the juice. Do yourself a favor and buy an amp designed to work well with high impedance headphones, and remember that the headphone simply playing loud doesn't mean it's being amped properly, because science.

remove the link else you'll end up with your entire message deleted by the moderation exercising the brilliant "we don't like nwavguy so you can't post useful links" rule.

 

[Koukol]

 

 
I disagree.
I'm interested what they use to accurately reproduce what they recorded AND what their peers recorded.
And if they don't think the set-up is accurate...explain why and why they chose the equipment.

 
The equipment they use to a certain extent is irrelevant. It's the end result that matters. I've tried making my own music (I can't) and that was hard enough but the mastering is incredibly difficult. Obviously I'm on a home setup but it's even more complicated in a proper studio. There's so many variables and, what if, the producer likes Beats?

I don't understand this reply.
What I'm saying is I, for one, would be interested in what equipment producers use to recreate their music at home much like what someone like Scorsese would use video wise to give him an accurate rendition of HIS Art.

 

[JacobLee89]

 
I don't understand this reply.
What I'm saying is I, for one, would be interested in what equipment producers use to recreate their music at home much like what someone like Scorsese would use video wise to give him an accurate rendition of HIS Art.

 
Probably not headphones if they want to squeeze out as much acoustic range as possible. Speaker Monitors will be the go-to.
Of course they could use STAX...
 
But my knowledge ends there, and people will need to slot in with their own bits of brain power.
 
However in this thread our interests should revolve around the the HD650's: the flaggiest of flagships, and also the veiliest of veiled villians; depending on Point Of View. Not the best place to talk about neutrality, or accurate representation.

 

[DDDamian]

IIRC the whole line of discussion started with amp pairings that sound great with the 650 but got panned for being something other than neutral or accurate lol.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  IIRC the whole line of discussion started with amp pairings that sound great with the 650 but got panned for being something other than neutral or accurate lol.

 
Pretty much. It kinda went like this:
 
"Well I like Amp ___."
 
"But that's not accurate!!!"
 
"Okay, but... I like that one."
 
"No!! It has to be ACCURATE!!"
 
Then it devolved into headphone accuracy, with much the same dynamic.

 

[DDDamian]

   
Pretty much. It kinda went like this:
 
"Well I like Amp ___."
 
"But that's not accurate!!!"
 
"Okay, but... I like that one."
 
"No!! It has to be ACCURATE!!"
 
Then it devolved into headphone accuracy, with much the same dynamic.

Lol - yep. Maybe we need a sub-thread under the main 650 impressions thread. But it would be far bigger, and perhaps more interesting 

 
 
Edit: O/T: I'm listening to the (accurate) HD-800 through a (coloured) BH S.E.X to a Yello album which was mastered in a (I'm a pop-synth engineer who's gonna get rich!) very neutral way in a decent studio on some (flat) monitors. Sounds frickin' great!

 

[Koukol]

 

 
I don't understand this reply.
What I'm saying is I, for one, would be interested in what equipment producers use to recreate their music at home much like what someone like Scorsese would use video wise to give him an accurate rendition of HIS Art.

 
Probably not headphones if they want to squeeze out as much acoustic range as possible. Speaker Monitors will be the go-to.
Of course they could use STAX...
 
But my knowledge ends there, and people will need to slot in with their own bits of brain power.
 
However in this thread our interests should revolve around the the HD650's: the flaggiest of flagships, and also the veiliest of veiled villians; depending on Point Of View. Not the best place to talk about neutrality, or accurate representation.

Fair enough...I just saw an opportunely to post a thought I've had for a while.
 
Keeping on topic...I've had the 650's for about 6 months now and I'm not sure they're the cans for me.
While they do sound great and lush without the dreaded mid push I hate.... the cans seem a little too bass heavy for some recordings
I find heavy a heavy bass in Rock music (my main listening choice) to be almost as annoying as a bright HP
 
I was fine using an Art EQ between the cans but now I'm using them in balanced mode with my DAP.
I'm now wondering if I should have bought the 600's

 

[DDDamian]

 
Fair enough...I just saw an opportunely to post a thought I've had for a while.
 
Keeping on topic...I've had the 650's for about 6 months now and I'm not sure they're the cans for me.
While they do sound great and lush without the dreaded mid push I hate.... the cans seem a little too bass heavy for some recordings
I find heavy a heavy bass in Rock music (my main listening choice) to be almost as annoying as a bright HP
 
I was fine using an Art EQ between the cans but now I'm using them in balanced mode with my DAP.
I'm now wondering if I should have bought the 600's

Sounds like Grados may be suit your preferences and genre....not many fans of those here, but if your looking for a brighter rock sound...