[cheapskateaudio]

Appreciation:
 
The 650's are an enigma, their best quality is their worst quality. Properly amped they're very clean, crisp, and clear without being fatiguing, but they're still liquid and relatively dark, qualities some dislike. They don't excel at any one thing really, in fact, the only thing they really excel at is making me love them. Even my GF is jealous, "pay attention to me" she yells, "hold on, this song is almost over", I say. She understands though, I let her listen to them once in awhile, she had to admit sheepishly that they sounded "amazingly good". Do other headphones sound better? If I could I would improve these headphones for certain songs, but every time I've tried to find better I come back to them, there's just something special about the music when it comes from these headphones.

 

[Uchiya]

Well, if you can afford a retail HD650 setup, than u can definitely afford a used High-end setup.  Scour the head-fi and audiogon markets.  Like a hawk!

 

[brooce]

Quote:

What is concerning to me is that you found the 650s to sound bright...... so here's a question for you: can you EQ your 650s to sound the way you'd like?
 

I never use EQ to be honest. I want to plug in and enjoy.
So I haven't even tried.
 
I'm still in love with the old 565 Ovation and I hope I get closer to that with the HD 600.
If that doesn't satisfy, that will be going on sale too and I'll try out some Japanese vendors.
 
The HD 650 was bright compared to what I'm used to. Not bright in and of itself.
I don't know how to put it, but it wasn't quite doing it for me. Sounded a bit closed-in.
Even though that will make some here laugh
 
I guess some would say I'm more attracted to laid-back phones, even though I don't consider them laid-back.
The mention of old HD 650 and new HD 650 is already worrying me from a consistency standpoint
 

 

[Dogmatrix]

 
Quote:

 
Agreed.  I just think it is possibly wiser for anyone saving dollars for an amp and source upgrade, say for example - a 500 dollar amp upgrade and a 500 dollar source upgrade, is wiser to put that money into savings for a better headphone.
 
 

 
For me the whole upgrade thing is very organic and fluid with each new purchase opening up new possibilities to be explored. Better headphones - better amp - closed headphones - hybrid amp - better headphones - valve amp - balanced source - better amp - better headphones, that kind of thing, a proper journey.
Probably wiser to save and go directly to the ideal end point {whatever that is} buying the best headphones I could afford followed by a matching amp, BORING .
 
 

 
 

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

Good post. The display analogy is a good one. No amount of upgrading can bring the HD650's technical capabilities to the level of something like the LCD-2. Does that make the HD650 any less engaging? IMHO, no.
 
Anyone wanting to pour thousands into elevating the HD650 above its capabilities should rightfully be advised to consider upgrading to the next tier of headphones. I don't think anyone has that intent here though. This is the HD650 Appreciation Thread after all, and I'd wager the majority of posters here are mostly content with what they hear. Some have identified areas of improvement though that may make the experience more complete. When there's a clear bottleneck in a chain, I don't think it's a disservice to advice a sensible upgrade as long as its understood that refinement will be the outcome, rather than a transformation. The market is saturated with quality, affordable components. Not everyone can justify a $1000+ expense, and it'd be obnoxious to respond to every question with a suggestion to just upgrade to the LCD-2/3, HE-500/6, HD800, Stax etc.

 
This is basically why I sold the HD650s when I did after I attended that first Head-fi meet last Nov.  They just didn't scale as well as the hype would have you believe.  Far more prudent was to use any extra money one was willing to invest in upgrading in the next tier of headphones.  And those who think the LCD-2/3, HE-500 is the next tier, well no, even the $500 5LE can resolve more (& do other technicalities better) than the HD650 can hope to.  So that's one positive for beginning head-fiers.

 

[brokenthumb]

In my listening area my drums are set up right behind the chair I sit in.  The other night I was listening to "Kind of Blue" and when I turned my chair sideways I was startled because for a second I thought someone had came in the room and started playing on my drums.  I listened to the entire last song with my right ear turned toward the drums and it sounds just like someone is playing them in the room with me.  Awesome!  My ride is a Zildjian K Custom and it sounds almost the same as the one on the album.
Anyway the HD650 gets the sound of cymbals and the snare on that album eerily close to the real thing, enough to make my heart skip a bit for a second lol.

 

[Wapiti]

Fun!
 
Here I expected that you had left the snares on and they were singing along.

 

[jtaylor991]

I am listening to Kind of Blue on my stereo now! Just thought it was cool that we both were listening to that
 
Quote:

In my listening area my drums are set up right behind the chair I sit in.  The other night I was listening to "Kind of Blue" and when I turned my chair sideways I was startled because for a second I thought someone had came in the room and started playing on my drums.  I listened to the entire last song with my right ear turned toward the drums and it sounds just like someone is playing them in the room with me.  Awesome!  My ride is a Zildjian K Custom and it sounds almost the same as the one on the album.
Anyway the HD650 gets the sound of cymbals and the snare on that album eerily close to the real thing, enough to make my heart skip a bit for a second lol.

 

 

[cheapskateaudio]

 
Quote:

Quote:
 
This is basically why I sold the HD650s when I did after I attended that first Head-fi meet last Nov.  They just didn't scale as well as the hype would have you believe.  Far more prudent was to use any extra money one was willing to invest in upgrading in the next tier of headphones.  And those who think the LCD-2/3, HE-500 is the next tier, well no, even the $500 5LE can resolve more (& do other technicalities better) than the HD650 can hope to.  So that's one positive for beginning head-fiers.

RE; Hype, maybe you just did it wrong???

 

[Satellite_6]

Hype + HD 650's makes me laugh. 

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

RE; Hype, maybe you just did it wrong???

 
Quote:

Hype + HD 650's makes me laugh. 

The hype surrounding the HD650 scaling well specifically.  Not general headphone hype (though I'm not sure why anyone would take the time out of their short lives to hype headphones -- maybe you could explain that to me since you seem to know about how it's done right?  -- on second thought, I'm not very interested).  The majority of posters on this forum laud the HD650 for it's ability to scale well.  Maybe some newbie will read my post and have cause to doubt the (mis)information.

 

[SemiAudiophile]

I don't think anyone is saying that the HD650 will transform into another headphone like an LCD-2 for example if you upgrade your system. Let's not jump to conclusions. If you like the sound signature of the HD650, it is a worthwhile investment to upgrade your system as it does improve in some areas. But it will not be a transformation. 

 

[Austin Morrow]

Quote:

 

RE; Hype, maybe you just did it wrong???

I personally don't believe the hype. The HD650 does sound better on high end gear that I personally tried out, and while it did sound very good, it did not transform the headphone into something else as everyone else says.

 

[ac500]

Just an interesting observation here. I have HD650's and my second pair are Shure SRH-940s, known as some of the best detailed headphones with great highs etc. For those who haven't heard SRH940s, some have described it as similar to AKG701s but better in about every way (bass, mids, highs).
 
What I noticed is for very fast, energetic, detailed songs, the SRH940 sounded better naturally. So, I EQ'ed up the treble for my HD650 to resemble the sound signature. In doing so, I brought up the frequencies that are usually way laid back in my HD650, but what I found is this: They're not very good. My EQ is upsampling so hopefully it's not an EQ issue, but in any case I just can't get my HD650 to produce the crisp highs and upper mids that my SRH940 does. Again, I can emphasize them with EQ so they're audible, but they're not quality, and they're "slow"/"muddy".
 
This is particularly noticeable in video games, for example in Battlefield 3 when reloading you can hear the high pitched scraping of metal when you insert a magazine into your gun, crisp and clear as real life. With HD650's you literally cannot hear it at all because it's so laid back. EQing does bring the sound out to be audible, but what 'worries' me is that it's not as quality. It's a bit muddy, if that word can even be applied to highs. Maybe "slow" would be a better description.
 
IMO high quality sound = fast / not muddy / not slow. So it's a little disappointing that the more I learn, I realize the HD650s really do lack quality treble. I still like them of course and they're still more musical for a lot of things (and have a great response for the lower end of the frequencies), I just wish I could magically combine the strong points of my SRH940s and HD650s into one headphone

 

[jtaylor991]

I get what you mean by muddy. I think fuzzy is a good way to describe it. Blocky? Idk
The highs get muffled and fuzzy and muddy on songs with good highs.
 
Quote:

Just an interesting observation here. I have HD650's and my second pair are Shure SRH-940s, known as some of the best detailed headphones with great highs etc. For those who haven't heard SRH940s, some have described it as similar to AKG701s but better in about every way (bass, mids, highs).
 
What I noticed is for very fast, energetic, detailed songs, the SRH940 sounded better naturally. So, I EQ'ed up the treble for my HD650 to resemble the sound signature. In doing so, I brought up the frequencies that are usually way laid back in my HD650, but what I found is this: They're not very good. My EQ is upsampling so hopefully it's not an EQ issue, but in any case I just can't get my HD650 to produce the crisp highs and upper mids that my SRH940 does. Again, I can emphasize them with EQ so they're audible, but they're not quality, and they're "slow"/"muddy".
 
This is particularly noticeable in video games, for example in Battlefield 3 when reloading you can hear the high pitched scraping of metal when you insert a magazine into your gun, crisp and clear as real life. With HD650's you literally cannot hear it at all because it's so laid back. EQing does bring the sound out to be audible, but what 'worries' me is that it's not as quality. It's a bit muddy, if that word can even be applied to highs. Maybe "slow" would be a better description.
 
IMO high quality sound = fast / not muddy / not slow. So it's a little disappointing that the more I learn, I realize the HD650s really do lack quality treble. I still like them of course and they're still more musical for a lot of things (and have a great response for the lower end of the frequencies), I just wish I could magically combine the strong points of my SRH940s and HD650s into one headphone