A few years ago I bought the HD 280 pro headphones and thought they were good. More recently I bought the HD 380 pro headphones and they are very nice headphones. So when I bought new Sennhieser HD 650 headphones I was expecting some very high quality sound reproduction from them. I bought them from Analogue Seduction in U.K. The package they arrived in was in very good condition, but under the brown paper and bubble-wrap the silver corrugated cardboardbox was beaten up and not at all new looking. The package made clunking noises when I shook it, I found when I opened the box that the adaptor for the cable was free floating in the box. The foam block was inserted between the ear-cups, not as it was packed from the factory.
The HD 650's inside the box are the black grill model, I am told this is the "OLD MODEL". As for sound quality, the HD 380's sound a lot better! The bass of the HD 650's is almost not there, and what is there is distorted. When I plug them into my Little Dot Tube Amp the sound is veiled, like the music and voices sound as though the recording was made with the microphone a number of meters from the musicians. To get the music sounding as it should, (like the band is right in front of me and not in the next room), I have to turn the volume up to more than double the comfortable level.I think the description of "veiled" and "dark" are descriptive of this product. When I plug the headphones into my Denon Amplifier I hear distortion that I do not hear with my other headphones.
I live in Australia and I have contacted Sennheiser Australia and they are going to check with Sennheiser U.K. to see if Analogue Seduction is an authorised dealer. If they are authorised then Sennnheiser Australia will deal with warranty issues. If Analogue Seduction is not an authorised dealer then I am on my own.
Sennheiser Australia has offered to sell me 2 new drivers for a cost of $173.00 but they will not be a matched pair as a new HD 650 should have.
I have searched the internet for a list of "authorised Sennheiser dealers" but all I find is the "error 404 page" It seems that Sennheiser do not publish any list of authorised dealers, so buying from an authorised dealer is more than difficult.
The packaging that the HD 650 is shipped in has no security measures, so any buyer could be buying a used pair or a tampered with pair of headphones. Sennheiser Australia thinks this situation is ok as authorised dealers are trustworthy, and customers should only buy from authorised dealers, even though a list of authorised dealers does not exist so customers do not know if any dealer is actually authorised.
I am now the owner of a pair of HD 650 headphones that I just can't enjoy listening to, and they cost me $425.00
If I buy the new drivers from Sennheiser (the only way to be sure that I am getting new drivers) the total cost of the headphones will be $598.00
So buyer beware, if you buy new headphones form a non authorised dealer you will have no support from Sennheiser and you might be sold old stock that might have been used and abused or even modified, and Sennheiser will offer no support other than to sell you parts to repair the headphones.
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