[olor1n]

Perhaps the Mogami garden hose coloured the sound much more than the DHC cable. It was warmer to my ears than stock as well, but the lower end seemed more prominent. Bass was tight though and did not bleed into the midrange.
 
It may also be testament to how good the stock cable is if I cannot perceive a significant difference between it and the "neutral" and supposedly "better" DHC Molecule. I'm not discounting the possibility that differences may be more apparent through more revealing components, but I do find it unfortunate that people seem to think a cable upgrade is a must for the HD650.

 

[jtaylor991]

Maybe I'll try a cable upgrade someday, but by that time I'll probably have different cans. I want to explore other sound signatures other than 650s and Beyer DT770 Pro, which both seem to be the warm type.
 
I might get some Grado SR-80s for the hell of it sometime, just to try the Grado house sound, and the Denon D7000s called my name when I read the featured review on the front page.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Perhaps the Mogami garden hose coloured the sound much more than the DHC cable. It was warmer to my ears than stock as well, but the lower end seemed more prominent. Bass was tight though and did not bleed into the midrange.
 
It may also be testament to how good the stock cable is if I cannot perceive a significant difference between it and the "neutral" and supposedly "better" DHC Molecule. I'm not discounting the possibility that differences may be more apparent through more revealing components, but I do find it unfortunate that people seem to think a cable upgrade is a must for the HD650.

Have you tried the DHC with the HD-600? I think I only love the HD-600 with the DH wire. Otherwise it bores me to death. This gave me the idea that the DHC might not be as neutral as I thought. Or it could be just that the HD-600 cable is very bad and worse than the HD-650 cable. I actually don't like the HD-650 cable on the HD-600 at all, so I imagine it's designed to sound best with the headphone it came with.
 
Right now my impression of the DHC is that it improves the sub-bass on the HD-600 and boosts the mids slightly. No way to verify this. I noticed the DHC wire is painfully fatiguing on the HD-598. Tried that for a week and it was a disaster. I also hated it on the Q701.
 
Hopefully when I score another HD-650 the DHC wire will help. Maybe I won't be able to hear a difference over stock. Hope I do. I always found there's a few things I liked better about the HD-650 compared to the HD-600. Mainly it's slightly less grainy and vocals were a little bit better.
 
I've found recently the HD-600 improved a lot with my new DAC, so maybe the HD-650 will offer an even greater improvement. Hopefully the HRT MSII is a good match for the HD-650.
 
It's funny that I bought amps just for the K702 and HD-650, but now I don't even own those...
 
 
 

 

[olor1n]

No, I've not heard the HD600.
 
I hope you find good synergy with the HRT. The changes I've made to my system makes me suspect upstream components are more important for the HD650 than amplification.

 

[chaosallied]

i had both HD650 and HD600 at the same time at one time before, i agree with @tdockweiler with:
 
Quote:

I always found there's a few things I liked better about the HD-650 compared to the HD-600. Mainly it's slightly less grainy and vocals were a little bit better.

 
one guy from Jaben also said to me that the HD650 is more forward while the HD600 was more laidback...
i have built a system around my HD650 and my system i think can power the HE-500 as well, hope to have both at one point too then sell whichever hangs on the HH10 the most..

 
 

 

[PhoebeFairchild]

I don't hear a veil with my HD-650. Everything comes through with clarity and natural tone. I am wondering if some of the people that report hearing a veil on their HD-650s have the proper source and headphone amplifier that are rated to drive these 300 Ohm headphones. I knew that they require a powerful source and headphone amplifier to drive them before I got them.

 

[fallingreason]

My HD650's do not sound veiled to me.  My IE8's on the other hand, often do.

 

[ac500]

Quote:

I don't hear a veil with my HD-650. Everything comes through with clarity and natural tone. I am wondering if some of the people that report hearing a veil on their HD-650s have the proper source and headphone amplifier that are rated to drive these 300 Ohm headphones. I knew that they require a powerful source and headphone amplifier to drive them before I got them.

Is there any situation where an amp does not "properly drive" the HD650 particularly in terms of lacking detail and having a veil, yet manages to make the HD800 sound absolutely stunningly detailed (not as good as better amps obviously but stil breathtakingly better than the HD650)?

 

[Tilpo]

Is there any situation where an amp does not "properly drive" the HD650 particularly in terms of lacking detail and having a veil, yet manages to make the HD800 sound absolutely stunningly detailed (not as good as better amps obviously but stil breathtakingly better than the HD650)?

Most likely not. Their impedance (even at varying frequencies) is more or less the same, and there is only 1dB difference in their sensitivities.
I don't feel there is much gain in discussing the subjective qualities of amplification regarding this question, since both headphones should technically speaking be 'properly driven' at almost the same values of power/voltage

 

[honeymonster]

I also had HD650's for over 10 years before upgrading to Sennheiser HD800 headphones. Whilst the difference is not night and day, the HD800's have more detail and greater control in comparison - and much more cool and comfortable to wear for long periods

.

 

[upstateguy]

Quote:

<snip>
 
Right now my impression of the DHC is that it improves the sub-bass on the HD-600 and boosts the mids slightly. No way to verify this. I noticed the DHC wire is painfully fatiguing on the HD-598. Tried that for a week and it was a disaster. I also hated it on the Q701.
 
<snip>  
 
 

How is it possible for a piece of wire to boost the mids?
 

 

[Tilpo]

How is it possible for a piece of wire to boost the mids?
 

Either magic or placebo.

Or was it rhetoric?

 

[ac500]

Boosted bass and mids is equivalent to saying reduced treble. I have no clue why you'd want that with a Sennheiser HD6x0, even assuming a wire is capable of such a thing in the first place.
 
I still stand by my reasonable assessment that many things in audiophilia represent placebo that enables listeners to enjoy music more, due to placebo, or less bluntly, a psychological enhancement of human appreciation .

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

How is it possible for a piece of wire to boost the mids?
 

Your guess is as good as mine. Didn't say it did and I couldn't verify it, but that's what my ears hear. Perhaps it's just showing me what was already there and what was lacking on a stock cable. Higher quality copper maybe?
From all I've read, it's virtually impossible for a cable to add anything. Of course people say this about amps too. I really do wish all amps and copper wire sounded the same. It'd sure save me a lot of trouble!
 
Based on all wires i've tried, the higher capacitance copper wires seem warmer and the lower capacitance ones seem brighter. Perhaps the Double Helix wire is similar to the Belden 1192A that's low capacitance.
I hated both the Belden and DH on my HD-598. Both Canare and Mogami are warm sounding and are of the Starquad variety with better shielding. The Canare seems to negatively effect the treble on some headphones.
 
I think for the HD-650 and for my own preferences, the reasons above are probably why I would like the DHC and Belden 1192A for the Sennheisers.
 
Of course..you could say all this wouldn't matter for a short headphone cable, but I don't know if anyone has proved this.
 
As crazy as I sound, I almost believe in cable synergy for headphones

It's quite easy to make a headphone sound bad with a specific cable. Had this happen quite a few times. Nothing too bad.
 
Strangely enough I can barely tell the difference between interconnects and speaker cable.
 
For my next fun experiment I want to recable an HD-650 and HD-600 with Cat6E and some Monoprice speaker cable. No, i'm not kidding.
 

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Boosted bass and mids is equivalent to saying reduced treble. I have no clue why you'd want that with a Sennheiser HD6x0, even assuming a wire is capable of such a thing in the first place.
 
I still stand by my reasonable assessment that many things in audiophilia represent placebo that enables listeners to enjoy music more, due to placebo, or less bluntly, a psychological enhancement of human appreciation .

I think it's definitely a balancing act. Even when it comes to modding. Can't have everything I guess. It makes me cringe when I hear of a headphone or amp giving them tons more bass, more forward mids and extra treble.
Based on all my testing it seems like if you push some frequency forward, you're often taking out something else, but sometimes it's hard to spot.
 
I think one reason the (possible) slightly boosted bass on the DHC doesn't effect the treble is that it's because it's mostly sub-bass. Maybe it's doing something to the mid-bass, but it didn't seem to add in any extra mid-bass, which would annoy me.
 
My idea on the DHC and similar cables is it's just more revealing of what's already there that the stock cable isn't showing me. I mean it is possible that higher quality copper could effect sound right? When I say something sounds more forward, it's not really THAT much forward sounding, just slightly.
 
No wire can really transform a headphones signature into something it's not..usually. Specific wire did make me like the HD-600 though, but that's rare.
 
Here's another thing I can't figure out. I can use stock cable on my HD-600 and have the volume set at a specific level. When I switch to the DH wire it's as if someone had boosted my volume. It's not an issue of more forward frequencies. Found this a bit weird. Guess I need to read up on sound science. I remember someone explaining why this was, but I forget.