[mysticstryk]

I have 2 cables and they sound the same. The stock one and the impact audio cable I got off etsy. Sound is identical lol.

I want to get one of those at some point, they look really nice and well made.

 

[k4rstar]

Proud new 650 owner. Got them from Amazon UK for 194GBP which absolutely kills any price for them new in Canada, and maybe US pricing too. Even had a friend who was in the UK pick them up and bring them back with him to avoid shipping & import fees 

 
Though they are quite similar overall to my long-gone 600s, I find I prefer the 650 immensely. Not sure why this is, as I typically lean towards brighter signatures, but so far I've enjoyed just about everything I've thrown at them.
 
Now to just power through that out-of-box vice grip they have on your head. 

 

 

[DavidA]

  Proud new 650 owner. Got them from Amazon UK for 194GBP which absolutely kills any price for them new in Canada, and maybe US pricing too. Even had a friend who was in the UK pick them up and bring them back with him to avoid shipping & import fees 

 
Though they are quite similar overall to my long-gone 600s, I find I prefer the 650 immensely. Not sure why this is, as I typically lean towards brighter signatures, but so far I've enjoyed just about everything I've thrown at them.
 
Now to just power through that out-of-box vice grip they have on your head. 

 

Bend the sliders like almost everyone else has done, really made a difference for me.

 

[xkonfuzed]

I don't think Beyers (especially the DT880's) are the treble monsters people make them out to be. I for one am sensitive to harsh treble, sometime overly so, and still immensely enjoy my DT880's.

Its interesting actually switching from my Beyers to the HD650's. The way I cycle through my headphones is that I use only one entirely for quite some time then switch to the other. Whenever I switch from the HD650's to the DT880's I get the impression that the Beyers sound thin, lacking impact, and overly bright. When I spend more time with it all these caveats disappear. IMO I feel like the 880's represent one of the best audio bargains available right now.

Same applies to the HD650, which coincidentally I just switched to from the DT880's. At first they sound overly thick, and too soft up top. Spend a little more time with it and you are immersed in the music. I prefer the HD650's by a noticeable margin (that is especially true when I balanced them) at least for actually listening and enjoying music, but I think both are spectacular headphones. And in any case I prefer both of them to AKG's K701.

 

[DavidA]

I don't think Beyers (especially the DT880's) are the treble monsters people make them out to be. I for one am sensitive to harsh treble, sometime overly so, and still immensely enjoy my DT880's.

Its interesting actually switching from my Beyers to the HD650's. The way I cycle through my headphones is that I use only one entirely for quite some time then switch to the other. Whenever I switch from the HD650's to the DT880's I get the impression that the Beyers sound thin, lacking impact, and overly bright. When I spend more time with it all these caveats disappear. IMO I feel like the 880's represent one of the best audio bargains available right now.
 

I cycle thru my headphones in a few hours, I usually use a RS2e, MDR-1A or EL8 on the computer that I am on line with, HE-400, SR-009, MDR-7506 and SennGrado in the bedroom, SRD-34, HD-400i and K533 on my lanai, most of my other headphones are used in the living room, HD-600/650, T1, HD-800 w/ BH Crack, HE-560, TH-600, LCD-2 w/ Lyr2 and HD-700, SRH-1840 and K7XX on Project Ember.
 
If I had to pick a bargain, SennGrado would be my choice, under $200 and very easy to tune to your taste.

 

[SunTanScanMan]

I don't think Beyers (especially the DT880's) are the treble monsters people make them out to be. I for one am sensitive to harsh treble, sometime overly so, and still immensely enjoy my DT880's.

Its interesting actually switching from my Beyers to the HD650's. The way I cycle through my headphones is that I use only one entirely for quite some time then switch to the other. Whenever I switch from the HD650's to the DT880's I get the impression that the Beyers sound thin, lacking impact, and overly bright. When I spend more time with it all these caveats disappear. IMO I feel like the 880's represent one of the best audio bargains available right now.

Same applies to the HD650, which coincidentally I just switched to from the DT880's. At first they sound overly thick, and too soft up top. Spend a little more time with it and you are immersed in the music. I prefer the HD650's by a noticeable margin (that is especially true when I balanced them) at least for actually listening and enjoying music, but I think both are spectacular headphones. And in any case I prefer both of them to AKG's K701.

Agree about the DT880.
 
------
 
I owned the T1 1st gen first, and while I enjoyed the detail and headstage that it provided, the treble, particularly when listening to strings in chamber music, ground me down until I sold it. I can imagine that it's an awesome headphone for owners with different tastes in music. It was excellent with symphonic works. Another issue was that its loose clamp and weight meant I was always readjusting it on my head. However without the treble intrusion I could have lived with it very happily.
 
Despite the similarities with FR graphs I've seen, I don't experience any of the above issues with the DT880. It leads me to think that it's something to do with the old beyer 'tesla' drivers. Being able to enjoy all music on it places the DT880 over the first gen T1 for me.
 
That's where the HD 650 gradually won me over. It sounds woolly and boring at first comparison with the T1, but once I adjusted to the sound, I could just focus and enjoy the music. A lot of details to enjoy which had previously been masked by excessive treble. Overall even sounding and unobtrusive making for a long term appreciation. I use the DT and HD most of the time, both excellent IMO.

 

[charles M]

I've had my hd650s for close to 12 years now and they're still going strong. Nothing I've listened to through the years serves me as well on all forms of music. Having said that, I'm looking to the prospect of needing a new pair soon. Can someone clarify for me the difference, (if any) between the "older" version hd650 and what Sennheiser is producing now? I'm confused in what I've been reading on different forums.

 

[Mani ATH 87]

  What aftermarket cables does anyone use for the HD650? 
I run balanced and want a cable that does not make them brighter or add any shout-factor but has controlled firm bass.
I actually have 2 HD650s and really like my old APureSound cable, but that is not available anymore.
 
The Cardas, Blue Dragon, and Silver Dragon have nice bass, but add some shout or brightness that seems to change the nice reserved sound I am used to with the stock cable (the CH650).
The stock cable (the CH650) is actually pretty good, but I can hear how nice the APureSound one is with deeper, more resolute bass, a more open sound, but still sweet upper mids and highs and maintaining the non-fatiguing nature of the headphone.
(If anyone has an old APureSound balanced cable at 8ft or more they would like to sell to me, please let me know.)
 
As a side note, The 650 has always sounded nicer to me and more resolute running balanced.
Thanks.

 
I like my Blue Dragon V3 cable from Moon Audio. Little bit pricey, but the build quality is second to none. I can't say that it has really had much impact on the sound quality, but it's definitely a nice sturdy cable and I have zero complaints.

 

[MadDane]

I've searched the thread and can't seem to find my answer. I'm soldering a balanced cable for my hd650's for my Onkyo DP-X1. Can someone clarify which pin polarity and how they are placed? There is no positive or negative printed on any of my 3 cords on the pins nor on the headphone!








Thanks!

 

[mikoss]

Sure.

Here is the wiring for a 4 pin XLR balanced connector with the stock cable:

Pin 1 is Left + which is the green wire and small pin on the 650 connector, left side.
Pin 2 is left - which is the copper wire from the left connector. It is the larger pin on the 650 connector, left side.
Pin 3 is right + which is the red wire and small pin on the 650 connector, right side.
Pin 4 is the right - which is the copper wire from the right connector. Big pin on the 650 connector, right side.

If you have the 650 stock cable, the L and R markings always face outwards.


Hey also, a quick aside. Supposing that you accidentally inverted polarity on both channels... You'd probably end up not noticing any difference at all. It's been debated quite thoroughly that most of our music isn't recorded with absolute phase in mind, and it's practically impossible to even know since most music stems from multiple microphones and tracks. It's extremely unlikely for the musicians/engineers to ensure all mics are properly wired, all equipment phases properly, and all tracks are mixed at the correct polarity. If all the stars were aligned and this did happen, our consumer products we use to play the music back might be inverting the phases as well. (You can easily experiment with phase inversion if you're playing digital music via plugins now as well... Don't expect to hear much of a difference unless you have some recordings done with only one microphone, or perhaps two).

Long story short, if you reverse polarity on both channels, everything will sound just fine. If one channel is reversed, it will sound terrible. (Almost like a channel imbalance, or like one channel has no bass, or no treble).

 

[MadDane]

Sure.

Here is the wiring for a 4 pin XLR balanced connector with the stock cable:

Pin 1 is Left + which is the green wire and small pin on the 650 connector, left side.
Pin 2 is left - which is the copper wire from the left connector. It is the larger pin on the 650 connector, left side.
Pin 3 is right + which is the red wire and small pin on the 650 connector, right side.
Pin 4 is the right - which is the copper wire from the right connector. Big pin on the 650 connector, right side.

If you have the 650 stock cable, the L and R markings always face outwards.


Hey also, a quick aside. Supposing that you accidentally inverted polarity on both channels... You'd probably end up not noticing any difference at all. It's been debated quite thoroughly that most of our music isn't recorded with absolute phase in mind, and it's practically impossible to even know since most music stems from multiple microphones and tracks. It's extremely unlikely for the musicians/engineers to ensure all mics are properly wired, all equipment phases properly, and all tracks are mixed at the correct polarity. If all the stars were aligned and this did happen, our consumer products we use to play the music back might be inverting the phases as well. (You can easily experiment with phase inversion if you're playing digital music via plugins now as well... Don't expect to hear much of a difference unless you have some recordings done with only one microphone, or perhaps two).

Long story short, if you reverse polarity on both channels, everything will sound just fine. If one channel is reversed, it will sound terrible. (Almost like a channel imbalance, or like one channel has no bass, or no treble).

Awsome, thanks so much!

 

[penmarker]

What I did was I disconnected the jack and stripped the wires. The negative terminal for both ear cups have the same insulation colour so that's one L one R, once you got that out of the way its just a matter of tracing which positive connector goes to which ear cup connector.

 

[DavidA]

  What I did was I disconnected the jack and stripped the wires. The negative terminal for both ear cups have the same insulation colour so that's one L one R, once you got that out of the way its just a matter of tracing which positive connector goes to which ear cup connector.

should still use a multi meter to get the correct ground for the left and right

 

[penmarker]

While we do have multimeters, some others don't.

 

[mikoss]

You don't need a multimeter. Rrrrrrrrrr is Rrrrrred; as per always. The copper negative wires go to the connectors, so all you need to do is follow them back, as penmarker said. (You can also follow the red wire back to the right side, if you're obsessive compulsive. Then you can follow the green wire back to the left side, since you also have OCD. Then repeat for the negatives, just to be doubly sure nobody is out to get you).

But it is important to understand there are small and big pins at the connectors. Don't want to force them in backwards.