[Shoewreck]

What is slow, how can headphones be slow?

I regard to slowness as bass quality vs quantity disbalance. You know the bass is slow when there is a delay between kick and oomph. It's never been as bad to me on headphones, but on some badly amplified live performances the delay may be up to half a beat. Of course, we're not dealing with bandpass-enclosure-ish bass delays when listening to headphones, but some modest bass slowness may occur when you're pushing low end to more than enough impairing low end definition and coherence.

 

[Chemi]

In June I wrote I would like to buy the pairs of hd650 modde I...sold.
It's made!
I expect them...

With the Oppo ha1, xlr connexion, I had the surprise to prefer the listening of "water music and Fireworks" (Hændel, le concert spirituel, Hervé Niquet, sacd...very dynamic!) I prefered the hd650!
Befor I have had listened this with hd 800 , he-6, Jeclin Float, Lcd2f... it was good, very good...
But the HD 650 were given the dynamism and "liant" ("binder"? Or soft bond"?) I expected...

 

[phobos04]

Hi head-fiers,

Please do you think it will be worth to upgrade a stock Sennheiser balanced cable to a litz pure silver one? Which benefits should the litz bring soundwise?
I'm pairing my balanced HD650s with a schiit mjolnir 2 amp.

Thanks

 

[cswann1]

In my experience, high-end cables offer the very lowest return on investment with regard to improvements in sound. Moving from copper to silver will almost always "brighten" a sound signature. A little EQ adjustment will do the same for free.

Sounds like you have a nice rig...enjoy it and don't get sucked down the "gear rabbit hole".

 

[Lev10Prod]

Hi head-fiers,

Please do you think it will be worth to upgrade a stock Sennheiser balanced cable to a litz pure silver one? Which benefits should the litz bring soundwise?
I'm pairing my balanced HD650s with a schiit mjolnir 2 amp.

Thanks

I also have not seen any improvement from going to a better cable..outside of going balanced. Save your pennies and upgrade to some 800s or a pair of utopias. If you really love your 650s as I do then invest instead in a Sonarworks calibrarion! It probably costs less but you will definately hear a huge difference.

 

[phobos04]

Thanks guys.
I've just moved from the beyer dt880 600ohms to the 650s. Luckily the previous owner provided me with a balanced cable.
For the sake of clearness, its a standard Sennheiser cable, with the original jack replaced by a neutrik 4pin xlr plug.

I think I prefer the 650's "fuller" (but still not dark) sound over the "bright and thin" (and fatiguing on the long run) 880s, but I'm still beginning my comparisons.
I don't plan upgrading headphones again in the near future

 

[Tuneslover]

Hi head-fiers,

Please do you think it will be worth to upgrade a stock Sennheiser balanced cable to a litz pure silver one? Which benefits should the litz bring soundwise?
I'm pairing my balanced HD650s with a schiit mjolnir 2 amp.

Thanks

I purchased an after market cable for my 650's and didn't care for it. I preferred the sound of the stock cable so I sold the after market one. I have to think that the HD650's became so popular because of their stock sound. I would also like to think that Sennheiser knew what they were doing when they designed this headphone. I'm sure they put serious consideration into the selection of the parts and cable to get the sound of the HD650. But hey that's me.

 

[DavidA]

Hi head-fiers,

Please do you think it will be worth to upgrade a stock Sennheiser balanced cable to a litz pure silver one? Which benefits should the litz bring soundwise?
I'm pairing my balanced HD650s with a schiit mjolnir 2 amp.

Thanks

I would spend the money on tubes since I don't believe in headphone cables making much if any difference in sound, but this is just me, YMMV

 

[SRKRAM]

In my experience, high-end cables offer the very lowest return on investment with regard to improvements in sound. Moving from copper to silver will almost always "brighten" a sound signature. A little EQ adjustment will do the same for free.

Sounds like you have a nice rig...enjoy it and don't get sucked down the "gear rabbit hole".

I agree. Don't get sucked down that rabbit hole, and end up trying to imagine differences in sound. If you want to experiment with cables, one thing you can try is to just shorten your existing cable - I'm not saying that you'll notice any difference, but if, for example you shorten the stock cable from 3m to 1.5m and don't notice any difference in sound, I'm pretty sure you won't hear any difference with a fancy silver (or gold, or unobtanium) cable.

 

[HungryPanda]

The only other cable I bought was a balanced one but did not notice much difference from SE

 

[donlin]

If you're thinking of one of those cheap, Chinese silver cables on ebay/amazon, don't do it. They are poorly made and sound terrible compared to the stock cable.

 

[phobos04]

No, it is not a cheap silver cable at all, at least considering its price point

Thank you all for your contributions. From what I've read it seems the hd650s are not so sensitive to cable changes.
I think I'll keep listening them with the balanced cable they came with, at least for a while.
Later on I'll decide whether to upgrade or not.

Thank you all!

 

[FlyingWing]

Later on when you acquire a source with a balanced out, you can get yourself a truly balanced cable for the HD650, as it slightly increases dynamics and soundstage.
Apart from that, it's unlikely you will encounter much of a sonic improvement by cables, as HD650 is a slightly dark-ish phone, that's also very inefficient compared to other dynamics.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

None of the headphone i owned are sensitive to cable changed don't fall into that rabbit hole,unless your running 1000ft maybe.

 

[Youth]

As long as the cable isn't broken there's no need to throw money out the window although, for some people, that is the side effect of joining this hobby.