[DavidA]

That's your opinion, I stated mine.

Did you hear them amped?

They were connected to a McIntosh amp at store.

 

[Fearless1]

They were connected to a McIntosh amp at store.

Different strokes for different folks then.

I was simply answering a question, they have gorgeous 650 like mids, nice bass and nice mellow yet a bit sparkly treble. The momentum 1 was horrible IMHO the 2 is better.

 

[kman1211]

Well I've been listening to my new HD 650 a bit. Feeling a little conflicted about it this time around. I like listening to it long stretches of time, but it has a warm fuzziness to it's sound I'm not sure I like or not. Debating whether it sounds better out of my Sony UDA-1 or Project Sunrise III, leaning towards the Sony currently.

 

[kman1211]

It is. In some ways it is actually better. It doesn't look as bad in person, but it is very ugly!

I concur it is better on someways, I found it had better clarity and imaging than the HD 650. I don't find it all that ugly and it is sturdily built. Comfort could be better though.

 

[DavidA]

Different strokes for different folks then.

I was simply answering a question, they have gorgeous 650 like mids, nice bass and nice mellow yet a bit sparkly treble. The momentum 1 was horrible IMHO the 2 is better.

Agree, different strokes for different folks

I think I we have very different opinions because I compared the HD-650/DT-150/Momentum running from my Fiio X3 while at the store, while the DT-150 does sound better of the McIntosh amp than the Momentum also from the McIntosh, driven by the X3 I like the Momentum better, the DT-150 like the HD-650 sound lifeless from the X3 which does not drive them properly.  If I'm at home the HD-650 / BH Crack combo is in a different class than the Momentum.  Another thing that might make a differnece is the genre of music, my X3 is mostly pop, kpop, jpop, easy listening, dance, EDM, and new age, stuff I like with the Momentum sound signature.  If listening at home to these same genres I would usually use eitther my TH-600, K7XX or DT-990.

 

[varzyl]

Hello!
 
Can I ask what do you think would be the best DAC (sound quality-wise only) for the HD650 under $250?
 
HRT MSIII, iFi Nano iDSD, Audioengine D1, ODAC, others?
 
I plan to get a Kameleon 2 Desktop as soon as it's available.
 
Thanks!

 

[Darien]

  Hello!
 
Can I ask what do you think would be the best DAC (sound quality-wise only) for the HD650 under $250?
 
HRT MSIII, iFi Nano iDSD, Audioengine D1, ODAC, others?
 
I plan to get a Kameleon 2 Desktop as soon as it's available.
 
Thanks!

o2/odac is all you need, best dac/amp on the planet for a great price. As Z said, if you buy a dac/amp for more than a certain price point it's either doing something different for the sake of being different, or it's doing something wrong. 

 

[varzyl]

  o2/odac is all you need, best dac/amp on the planet for a great price. As Z said, if you buy a dac/amp for more than a certain price point it's either doing something different for the sake of being different, or it's doing something wrong. 

 
I agree with Z (at least for DACs). That said, I'm in a bit of a weird spot: I've got a €200 Amazon.it coupon from a previous refund, and was looking to spend it on a DAC. Obviously ODAC is not available on there, so was wondering if it was any worth to spend a little more for those other options (iFi, D1, HRT).
Do you think the differences are minor, or psychoacoustical, or some weird implementation for the sake of sounding different?
(Z also seems to like SMSL Sanskrit 6th, but that's also unavailable on .it so far)

 

[raybone0566]

I agree with Z (at least for DACs). That said, I'm in a bit of a weird spot: I've got a €200 Amazon.it coupon from a previous refund, and was looking to spend it on a DAC. Obviously ODAC is not available on there, so was wondering if it was any worth to spend a little more for those other options (iFi, D1, HRT).
Do you think the differences are minor, or psychoacoustical, or some weird implementation for the sake of sounding different?
(Z also seems to like SMSL Sanskrit 6th, but that's also unavailable on .it so far) :confused_face(1):

Modi2 for 99$ from schiit audio. Great pairing for hd650

 

[disastermouse]

o2/odac is all you need, best dac/amp on the planet for a great price. As Z said, if you buy a dac/amp for more than a certain price point it's either doing something different for the sake of being different, or it's doing something wrong. 

Please don't try the O2 with HD650s. Unless you like clipping.

 

[varzyl]

Please don't try the O2 with HD650s. Unless you like clipping.

 
I'm not going to: I'll either use my HT receiver or one of the ones I said earlier (Audioengine D1, Ifi iDSD Nano, HRT SM iii+ HT receiver headphone amp stage) while I wait the completion of the Kameleon 2 Desktop version.
When the amp is available, I'll keep using the DAC stage only of one of those.
 
How would you guys rate\compare those, paired to the HD650?
 
(clearly the HRT has got the least features, like portability, amp stage, etc, so I would take that route only if it had the best possible sound quality\pairing)

 

[jimmers]

Please don't try the O2 with HD650s. Unless you like clipping.

Unless you can read how to use it properly.

 

[castleofargh]

 

o2/odac is all you need, best dac/amp on the planet for a great price. As Z said, if you buy a dac/amp for more than a certain price point it's either doing something different for the sake of being different, or it's doing something wrong. 

Please don't try the O2 with HD650s. Unless you like clipping.

seriously? are we really going to have that argument every month? do you find legitimate to lie online to everybody about a perfectly fine device simply because you hold an unfair grudge for something that was 100% your fault? is it what you really stand for on headfi?
I took the time to explain to you how the gain worked last time. you can't even hide behind genuine ignorance anymore. I explained to you that the 6.5X gain existed on the O2 basically to use as a portable amp with an ipod's LO. the ipod was popular in the audio community at the time, and because the O2 could work as a portable amp, nwavguy decided to offer that gain setting alternative for super weak portable sources such as the ipod. you took that setting for super weak portable line outs, and plugged a desktop DAC that had between 4 and 6 times the output voltage expected with that setting! and your reaction to clipping in this scenario is to blame the O2... 

sure, denial is one way to deal with our mistakes.
 
let's take a concrete example to illustrate that perfectly dishonest idea: a USB device is made to be fed 5V, why don't you go feed 20V to 30V to all your USB devices and then come back here and blame the devices for being crap if they didn't behave like it was 5V? because that's the point you pretend to make every time you blame the O2 for clipping on the HD650 and 6.5X gain.
if the O2 had exploded or ended up broken from your misuse, you would still have been the one at fault. but that's not even the case, you mess up with the gain setting like everybody does, because there is a button and we all want to push buttons. the sound clips, you go back to the lower gain, the music is fine again. end of story.
I don't even ask you to admit your mistake, I just ask that you stop that anti O2 propaganda when the device does nothing wrong and can very much drive a hd650 at pretty unsafe loudness without clipping.(the O2 will clip at around 7V, and 4V into a hd650 is 115db loud).

 

[hauntingtheholy]

Does it make sense that the Magni 2 Uber would only need the volume turned up slightly to power the 650's well?  Starting at 7 O'clcok (all the way down) and turning it up very slowly, you hear the right speaker turn on right away, quietly, and then the left speaker comes on well before you get to 8 o'clock.  By 9 o'clock, the headphones are about as loud as I'd ever want to listen.  All the way up would be 5 O'clock, and i imagine the headphones would be totally blown and ruined if I ever turned it much past 12 or 1.  Never tried as I don't want to risk it.  Does this sound weird to anyone, or normal?  

 

[jdpark]

  Does it make sense that the Magni 2 Uber would only need the volume turned up slightly to power the 650's well?  Starting at 7 O'clcok (all the way down) and turning it up very slowly, you hear the right speaker turn on right away, quietly, and then the left speaker comes on well before you get to 8 o'clock.  By 9 o'clock, the headphones are about as loud as I'd ever want to listen.  All the way up would be 5 O'clock, and i imagine the headphones would be totally blown and ruined if I ever turned it much past 12 or 1.  Never tried as I don't want to risk it.  Does this sound weird to anyone, or normal?  

First, make sure you're using the lowest gain setting. 
 
I have the original Magni, and find it drives the HD650 to very high volume at around 10 o'clock. Actually, the Magni provides quite a bit more power than is necessary for the HD650, which of course is fine. It's better to have some extra power rather than not enough, but the problem is that with most amplifiers, turning the volume knob below 0900 often results in channel imbalance. With the original Magni, I find the ideal zone is betwen 10-1200. 
 
If you have a bit-perfect volume control on your DAC or computer, then ideally you may want to lower the volume by about 6 or 12 DB, which will allow you some room there to turn the volume down without getting channel imbalance.