[HamilcarBarca]

Quote:

When people on head-fi say 'tough to drive' they just mean 'tough to make sound good with amp'

 
They mean, "doesn't make bad amps sound good." There's nothing about the HD 650 which makes them particularly hard to drive. It's certainly not perfect, with its 300-Ohm impedance, but there's nothing unique or unusually demanding about the voltage, current, or power requirements.
 
They can work well with low-end hardware. That is, if the output impedance isn't too high. The Behringer UCA-222 DAC (US$29) didn't sound particularly good with them, or particularly bad, but I didn't buy the HD 650's for headphones which sound "not particularly bad." The FiiO E5, when it doesn't run out of juice, worked remarkably well.

 

[longbowbbs]

Quote:

When people on head-fi say 'tough to drive' they just mean 'tough to make sound good with amp'

For good or ill, they will give you the quality of the other connected components. If the amp/dac are average or poor quality, then you will not like the HD650's.

 

[-Shadow-]

I got the Lry/Bifrost combo yesterday and so far they have sparked some new life into HD650 for me. I was exploring other headphones, but I think for now my urge has been cured for a little while anyway. 

 

[longbowbbs]

Another example of good gear = Happy HD650's!

 

[twizzleraddict]

Listening to them now w/some HDTracks FLAC music (Bill Evans Trio's Waltz for Debby) and astounded by the intimacy of the recording and hearing all the background noises inside the club they played at, as if I was right there. 
 
Very soothing and beautiful album, with all the emotion of the musicians coming through in this performance on the HD650s. I tried this with the D5000s and there was noticeably less of the above.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Listening to them now w/some HDTracks FLAC music (Bill Evans Trio's Waltz for Debby) and astounded by the intimacy of the recording and hearing all the background noises inside the club they played at, as if I was right there. 
 
Very soothing and beautiful album, with all the emotion of the musicians coming through in this performance on the HD650s. I tried this with the D5000s and there was noticeably less of the above.

 
D5ks do well as semi-closed headphones, but in the end they are still semi-closed.

 

[preproman]

Very good test music for the HD650s or any headphone for that matter.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/476089/head-fi-and-hdtracks-david-chesky-collaborate-to-assemble-a-headphone-system-test-album

 

[MattTCG]

I've been going through some of the material on this site. While interesting, why would you pay 2x as much for a flac download of some of these albums when you can get an actual cd. Or even a used cd for much less??

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

I've been going through some of the material on this site. While interesting, why would you pay 2x as much for a flac download of some of these albums when you can get an actual cd. Or even a used cd for much less??

Gosh, you just don't get it. The more you pay for something the better it becomes. DUH!

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

Gosh, you just don't get it. The more you pay for something the better it becomes. DUH!

 
Oh...now I've got it!!
 
TY

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

 
Oh...now I've got it!!
 
TY

Did you pay for some FLAC, then?

 

[MattTCG]

Uhm...no. I like to buy actual cd's. 

 I know...I'm just weird like that. 

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

Uhm...no. I like to buy actual cd's. 

 I know...I'm just weird like that. 

See and you're just missing out on that superior investment of downloaded FLACs. 

 

 

[MattTCG]

I plan to live vicariously through you. 

 

[HamilcarBarca]

Quote:

Gosh, you just don't get it. The more you pay for something the better it becomes. DUH!

 
And they use larger, gold-plated bits when digitizing.