[jazzerdave]

Quote:

Then cheap would mean the least expensive off all alternatives

 
The cheapest alternative is to buy another stock cable and either a pair of Switchcraft 3-pin XLRs or one Switchcraft 4-pin XLR and reterminate the cable yourself.  This would be by far the cheapest option.  There are enough DIY forums/sites out there to make sure you get the wiring layout and steps correct. 
 
If this doesn't appeal to you, Ted at Cable Pro has several tiers of cable I believe. 

 

[alv4426]

Just about to say the same thing, I did this myself and it is indeed easy. I bought an aftermarket cable (made by a headfier) later and honestly I don't really hear a difference but the build/feel/weight/etc everything else is much better. But then again I only paid like $4 for a Neutrik XLR on the original cable and lets just say the aftermarket cable was more than that 

. 
Quote:

 
The cheapest alternative is to buy another stock cable and either a pair of Switchcraft 3-pin XLRs or one Switchcraft 4-pin XLR and reterminate the cable yourself.  This would be by far the cheapest option.  There are enough DIY forums/sites out there to make sure you get the wiring layout and steps correct. 
 
 

 

[networkn]

I'd be curious to know at what levels AMP's reach diminishing returns territory as it relates to the 650's.
 
I would be curious to know how people perceived sound quality as a comparison. So For example.
 
If HD650's unamped were the baseline at 1
 
Unnamed amp known to be the best sound quality produce able was 10, where do amps like:
 
Xnonar STX, Asgard, Lyr, O2, C421 fit in. Is it a case of 1% difference for every $100 spent, or much more like the difference between $200 and $300 being a 25% sound quality improvement?
 
Sorry I wasn't sure how to phrase all of this, hopefully I have been relatively understandable.

 

[Norway]

Quote:

 
The cheapest alternative is to buy another stock cable and either a pair of Switchcraft 3-pin XLRs or one Switchcraft 4-pin XLR and reterminate the cable yourself.  This would be by far the cheapest option.  There are enough DIY forums/sites out there to make sure you get the wiring layout and steps correct. 
 
If this doesn't appeal to you, Ted at Cable Pro has several tiers of cable I believe. 

 
Quote:

Just about to say the same thing, I did this myself and it is indeed easy. I bought an aftermarket cable (made by a headfier) later and honestly I don't really hear a difference but the build/feel/weight/etc everything else is much better. But then again I only paid like $4 for a Neutrik XLR on the original cable and lets just say the aftermarket cable was more than that 

. 

 
Thanks. Good idea, I'll do that. I don't think cables will yield huge differences either, but the amp I'm using (Auralic Taurus) has more power output when using balanced mode, and to leverage that I need to plug HD 650 into the 4-pin XLR input.

 

[avengernoonzz]

Thanks Fuzzy and IEM.

You've been a big help for me.

Edit: woops

 

[longbowbbs]

I had a chance to listen to the HD650's this week on the awesome Cary SLI-80 Tube Integrated amp at my dealer in Appleton. Love this combo but at $4K for the amp, I will continue to enjoy my Decware CSP2+ at home!
 
I also caught some speakers...The KEF 207/2 Reference Speakers....$20,000 per pair!  We ran them through the Cary with my MBPro lossless AIFF files and Amarra via a Rega DAC.  35 years of HiFi and it was the best thing I have ever heard....Some days are really cool!
 
The KEF's are the outside pair, Martin Logan in the middle and DALI's inside.
 
 

 

[MattTCG]

^^ Good grief!! Nice...

 

[asmoday]

Thats just amazing longbowbbs, thanks for sharing the picture!

 

[Nirvana Woman]

Quote:

I'd be curious to know at what levels AMP's reach diminishing returns territory as it relates to the 650's.
 
I would be curious to know how people perceived sound quality as a comparison. So For example.
 
If HD650's unamped were the baseline at 1
 
Unnamed amp known to be the best sound quality produce able was 10, where do amps like:
 
Xnonar STX, Asgard, Lyr, O2, C421 fit in. Is it a case of 1% difference for every $100 spent, or much more like the difference between $200 and $300 being a 25% sound quality improvement?
 
Sorry I wasn't sure how to phrase all of this, hopefully I have been relatively understandable.

Dunno how to measure it.
 
But I can't go from properly amped to unamped. I just wouldn't listen to music that way anymore.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

I'd be curious to know at what levels AMP's reach diminishing returns territory as it relates to the 650's.
 
I would be curious to know how people perceived sound quality as a comparison. So For example.
 
If HD650's unamped were the baseline at 1
 
Unnamed amp known to be the best sound quality produce able was 10, where do amps like:
 
Xnonar STX, Asgard, Lyr, O2, C421 fit in. Is it a case of 1% difference for every $100 spent, or much more like the difference between $200 and $300 being a 25% sound quality improvement?
 
Sorry I wasn't sure how to phrase all of this, hopefully I have been relatively understandable.

 
There's no really good answer to that.  For a decade people have been buying amps and sources up to $10k+ to pair with HD650 and have found consistent improvements in moving up that ladder.  The beauty of HD650 is that it is good enough to reveal changes in the upstream all the way to the top.  But in terms of answering how much into diminishing returns its worth going, and what kind of improvements you get for the money, that's pretty hard to say.  The obsession with pinning everything to a percent is common, but in reality it's meaningless depending on what things your brain picks up as annoying, or improvement.  A "5%" difference may sound trivial, it may be pointless to one person, but to your brain it may make a tremendous increase in enjoyment.  The best advice is if you're not sure what you're looking for, try to audition something!
 
Personally, O2 and Lyr are light years away from each other. It's doubtfully an "objective percent" of increase.  It's simply more enjoyable for whatever reasons it is so. Maybe a WA22 would be that much more enjoyable? It could.  And I have a Mjolnir en route to do some comparisons, though I don't have a balanced cable yet for HD650.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm more of a, "If you have to spend so much more to eek out just a few micropercentages out of a headphone, you're trying too hard, and the money is better spent on a better headphone which will have a much higher percentage of improvement." type of guy.

 

[longbowbbs]

I would describe it as:
 
The better the amp, the better performance from the HD650's. So far, as amps have improved, the 650's have continued to scale up as well. 

 

[MattTCG]

Just wanted to share a few pics. New Q cable with earring adapters for hd 6xx and HFM hp's...
 

 

 
 
Oh, although the cable is a finished product the earrings adapters are not. They are somewhat of a prototype and don't have the same sheating that will come with the final product. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Sexy cable and headphone.

 

[longbowbbs]

I like the versatility...Handy....