[Austin Morrow]

HD650 + Damnation by Opeth = Eargasm.

 

[josephpino07]

muffled??? no detail on the sr325is???? you must have got a fake pair then dude....i have the hd650 and had the 325is last year. they're exactly the opposite of how you described them actually...

 

[fallingreason]

Quote:

My Sennheiser HD-650 headphones produce a beautiful tone especially with the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable. The stock cable is also very good, but it can't quite match the sonic performance of the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable. I am curious about the Cardas headphone replacement cable for the Sennheiser HD-650 headphones especially given the fact that I have Cardas Golden Reference Power and Interconnects. I think that there is some true synergy going on here with my home audio system. My Resolution Audio Opus 21, Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline HR-2, and Balanced Power Technology BP.Jr II Ultra along with Cardas Golden Reference plus the Sennheiser HD-650 with the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable sound sweet together. I have never heard my .FLAC files sound so outstanding. I am waiting for my Audioquest Cinnamon 1.5 meter USB cable to be delivered to my home later this week. That should improve my weakest link between my System76 Bonobo Professional laptop and my Resolution Audio Opus 21 music system. I think that I will keep the Sennheiser HD-650 headphones for a few years before I decide to upgrade to the latest top of the line Sennheiser headphone at that time. These cans sound so neutral, accurate, tonally balanced, cohesive, and natural that I have a clear picture of the music. There is a little bit of warmth and sweetness added to the sound due to my cables, but it is not overpowering. These are by far the best headphones that I have ever owned and I only owned a few top of the line headphones from several years ago. I don't own any current generation top of the line headphones yet. The resolution and detail retrieval are as good as the Monster Cable Turbine Pro Copper IEMs which is quite amazing to me considering that these are full sized over the ear headphones. These are truly reference grade headphones and they are quite special if you have the proper audio system to drive them which I fortunately do so.

 
About what % of the sound would you say the stock cable achieves of the Blue Dragon?
 
 

 

[chaosallied]

Quote:

 
The HE-500 doesn't scale up as well as the HD650. And, judging from the amp and DAC you are using, it's a worthy upgrade from the HD650, as the Matrix Quattro and the Mini-I don't do the HD650 the highest scalability possible.

i'll dream about the high-end amp/dac then, what i have now is what i can afford for now... so given the set-up i have now, would you reckon the HE-500 will be have the upper hand over to the HD650?
 

 

[PhoebeFairchild]

Quote:

 
About what % of the sound would you say the stock cable achieves of the Blue Dragon?
 
 

It's hard to put it into quantitative percentages, but I would say that the stock cable achieves about 70 percent of the Moon Audio Blue Dragon. Again, this is only a rough estimate and you would have to audition the Sennheiser HD-650 with the stock cable and the Moon Audio Blue Dragon for yourself to find out.

 

[Navyblue]

 
The HE-500 doesn't scale up as well as the HD650.

How long have you had both of these headphones? And I assume you did extensive back to back comparison? Care to share your findings? What did you use for your comparison?

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

How is that impractical for every one? It all depends on what you already have don't you think?
 
For me I have a Beta 22, which for many it is one of the best amp out there. So the HD650 scalability over HE-500 is a very real concern for me.
 
That said, I went for the HE-500. As when I auditioned them, along with LCD2, I did find the orthos to be superior by a margin. That said, I did not audition them with my home setup, and I always wonder how would HD650 sound with my home setup. In the end I went with what sounded good to my ears at the time.

I thought it impractical to say with a $3K amplifier like a WA5 or LF, the HD650 is about on par with the HE-500.  I don't see that being a realistic, practical, sensible option for anyone, so I missed the utility in that post, if there was any.  You can get an HE-500 close to full performance much more cost-effectively.  
 
I'm not surprised you found the HE-500 superior by a margin, it really is.  One may prefer the HD650 for other subjective reasons, for it's timbre, musical involvement, tonal balance, weight, but on technical ability, the HE-500 is ahead.  For the record, the only time I have been impressed with the HD650s slightly scaling is with the RWA Corvina balanced.  (But) I think it had more to do with it being balanced (and on flattering, smooth, lush tubes) than anything else.  Perhaps this phone responds better than most to balancing, but for scaling on more expensive amplifiers, nope, never happened for me whether one, or two, or three thousand dollars.  HD650s stay HD650s.

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

The HE-500 doesn't scale up as well as the HD650. 

Could just be because the HE-500 has less room for improvement.  

 

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

HD650s stay HD650s.

 
Just one more thought, the above is a not a "bad thing" by any means.
 
(Sorry if I offended anyone with this superfluous use of Head-fi server space, I just hate to see that "edited by" thing at the bottom of my posts.)
 
 

 

[hentai]

Quote:

My Sennheiser HD-650 headphones produce a beautiful tone especially with the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable. The stock cable is also very good, but it can't quite match the sonic performance of the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable. I am curious about the Cardas headphone replacement cable for the Sennheiser HD-650 headphones especially given the fact that I have Cardas Golden Reference Power and Interconnects. I think that there is some true synergy going on here with my home audio system. My Resolution Audio Opus 21, Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline HR-2, and Balanced Power Technology BP.Jr II Ultra along with Cardas Golden Reference plus the Sennheiser HD-650 with the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable sound sweet together. I have never heard my .FLAC files sound so outstanding. I am waiting for my Audioquest Cinnamon 1.5 meter USB cable to be delivered to my home later this week. That should improve my weakest link between my System76 Bonobo Professional laptop and my Resolution Audio Opus 21 music system. I think that I will keep the Sennheiser HD-650 headphones for a few years before I decide to upgrade to the latest top of the line Sennheiser headphone at that time. These cans sound so neutral, accurate, tonally balanced, cohesive, and natural that I have a clear picture of the music. There is a little bit of warmth and sweetness added to the sound due to my cables, but it is not overpowering. These are by far the best headphones that I have ever owned and I only owned a few top of the line headphones from several years ago. I don't own any current generation top of the line headphones yet. The resolution and detail retrieval are as good as the Monster Cable Turbine Pro Copper IEMs which is quite amazing to me considering that these are full sized over the ear headphones. These are truly reference grade headphones and they are quite special if you have the proper audio system to drive them which I fortunately do so.

Cardas interconnect with HD650 ?? Won't you find the top extension abit lacking?
 
 

 

[PhoebeFairchild]

When I had the Sennheiser HD-600 and the Cardas cable, I did not find that the treble was rolled off. However, that was years ago. I think that I will put out a wanted classified to buy a used Cardas headphone replacement cable for the Sennheiser HD-650 headphones soon.

 

[skeptic]

     Quote:

About what % of the sound would you say the stock cable achieves of the Blue Dragon?
 

You couldn't have picked a better handle to post under with this question.   
 
To keep things fair and balanced - here's the counter-point to the view stated by the cable evangelicals:
 
If improvements from 3rd party headphone cables could be quantified (and this assumes they make any difference at all), these differences would show up in software like diffmaker (free at: http://www.libinst.com/Audio%20DiffMaker.htm ).  We've batted this topic around in this thread for years now due to the number of folks shilling "must-have" aftermarket cables for the HD650's.  Not a one of them has ever posted a single measurement demonstrating resulting audible differences.  
 
The HD650's are great headphones, but they are not, by today's standards, reference grade when compared to the available TOTL options.  No amp, dac or cable, or combination thereof, is going to make a conventional dynamic driver perform like a stat or like the patented ring drivers in the HD800's.   
 

 

[Tilpo]

     Quote:

You couldn't have picked a better handle to post under with this question.   
 
To keep things fair and balanced - here's the counter-point to the view stated by the cable evangelicals:
 
If improvements from 3rd party headphone cables could be quantified (and this assumes they make any difference at all), these differences would show up in software like diffmaker (free at: http://www.libinst.com/Audio%20DiffMaker.htm ).  We've batted this topic around in this thread for years now due to the number of folks shilling "must-have" aftermarket cables for the HD650's.  Not a one of them has ever posted a single measurement demonstrating resulting audible differences.  
 
The HD650's are great headphones, but they are not, by today's standards, reference grade when compared to the available TOTL options.  No amp, dac or cable, or combination thereof, is going to make a conventional dynamic driver perform like a stat or like the patented ring drivers in the HD800's.   
 

x2

It's a very cute thought, but it's just not going to happen.

(nice, and fitting name btw)

 

[John Willett]

Quote:

Whats the difference between Grace m902 and m903? Hearable?

The 903 has vastly improved USB connection - right up to 24/192.  The 902 only went to 16/48 and was well inferior to the same signal sent optical (for example).
 
Everything in the 903 is improved over the 902 - that's why I upgraded - it's just nicer all over.
 
You can read a full independent review HERE.
 

 

[PhoebeFairchild]

I love my Sennheiser HD-650 headphones with the Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable! They sound so neutral, accurate, and natural compared to my previous headphones which were the Audio Technica ATH-W5000 "Raffinato" headphones. The bass is tighter, punchier, and it has lots of texture along with good slam on certain songs. The HD-650s play a wide variety of music to its strengths with few weaknesses. The sound stage is much wider and deeper compared to the Raffinatos due to the open design of the headphones. These are great headphones for listening to music because they are so revealing and detailed. I can hear everything with great clarity and I find that the HD-650s are more comfortable to wear on my head than the Raffinatos because they were a little bit loose and slippery. Coherent and well balanced, the HD-650s reproduce music with such precision that I find them to be near reference grade quality. I think that these are one of the best mid-fi headphones today. I am going to keep them for a few more years before I upgrade to the Sennheiser HD-800 with the Cardas Clear cable. In the meantime, I will save up my money for that future purchase. If Sennheiser releases a new top of the line headphone in the next few years, then I will definitely upgrade to it and the Cardas Clear headphone replacement cable. In the meantime, I love my HD-650s and I have no desire to get another pair of headphones.