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I feel much of the "veil" talk is caused by the over-brightness of most other phones. Any headphone listener hearing acoustic (unamplified) instruments for the first time will be initially surprised at how "dull" they sound. "Where's the extreme treble?--where's the sparkle?" It isn't there in real life, especially from a reasonable distance. The fact is, most headphones are much brighter than real life and speakers. I've owned all the usual suspects--AT AD700/900, Denon D2000, Beyer DT880, Grado SR80 etc--and all have been much brighter than what I hear in the concert hall and any speakers I've ever owned. The 650, however, is not, and so many find it "veiled".
Good comment, but I think you are simplifying things a little too much. I say this because when reading the comment of hearing acoustic instruments, the question that came to my head is at what distance?. For example in a classical music live event, there are significant differences depending on the distance that you are of the stage, and so there is no headphone that captures perfectly the experience at all distances. For example I've always sit at the front rows since I was a child, and the 650 are darker than that experience and it was the opposite, I felt the 650 are dull at capturing life in that sense, and the HD800 are as close to perfect as I've listened, now if you go back in the audience then what you say is true. So as pretty much with anything in life, its very hard to say that there are black and whites when in fact there are lots of shades of gray.