O.C. Audiophile
New Head-Fier
The 800S is on my dream list. I've not even heard it or the original 800.
..........The 660S is not a forgiving headphone, that's for sure, which depending on the source may explain the "grainy" assesment. I don't hear graininess, I hear detail and dynamics that aren't present in the HD600 and 650 (2 headphones I also love). .....
My audiophilia doesn’t have me on a quest for the perfectly accurate/flat sounding pair of cans. Rather, I prefer the fun of discovery. Finding just the right headphone for a particular genre, album, track, or even just a section of a song is is a great way to enjoy one’s music collection over and over again. An EQ kind of ruins that for me and makes it difficult to regularly swap cans. But I'll admit I've spent better than a decade trying come up with the perfect EQ settings for my Porta Pros.There's simply many anomalies and contradictions in the audiophile world. The most confusing thing I see is how much emphasis is put on certain headphone's being bloated in one region or another, or being veiled in another. Learn how to use an EQ!!!!!
Apologies. I was referring to any grain present at the recording level (I wish he'd list example tracks). I thought he did do a column on his reference tracks, but I don't remember off the top of my head.Don't think Tyll would have grainy sounding equipment....but he does like smmmmmoooootthhh.....after the 700s he may have an ingrained physiological dislike anything resembling a HD700 driver....lol.... : (
......again the HD700s were definitely brighter but the 650s were maybe smoother but IMHO grainier..... with my ears and equipment.
Apologies.....
Thanks for posting the review, that guy is very matter of fact but I think Tyll’s drama is warranted in this case. For those of us that have been in this for a long time and have gone from the 580 to 600 to 650, there is a real emotional connection to this series. They were the first truly natural sounding dynamic headphones. Even with all the advancements in recent years they still stand with the best, so it is kind of a big deal. I can understand exactly what he was trying to express.
Very this.
These headphones just sound right. They're pretty much the only thing that makes me feel good about headphone hi-fi below the $1k mark today... and in general. Prices are going up, but hey, we still have the HD600/HD650, so it's all good.
Except that we don't have the HD600/HD650 apparently. Which is a huge blow to the whole god damn hobby. I guess it's also a market opportunity for someone else to step in and create something like the HD600/650, but IMO if somebody actually could have done that, they would have done it already. Pushing the prices ever higher and higher in some sort of apparent oligarchial bid to drive up the cost of the hobby only opens up the opportunity for someone to refuse to play that kind of game, undercut everybody, and deliver a superior value product. The fact that nobody seems to have copied the HD600/650 formula as well as Sennheiser to me just means that they can't.
I get why they introduced the HD660s. 300 ohm impedance headphones were the standard in the 80s when you used your headphone with a mixing console or an integrated receiver. Portable devices back then meant a boombox, not today's wimpy smartphones and tablets that couldn't drive a fly. So making sure that the Sennheiser sound is more accessible for everybody is a good move. But getting rid of an industry standard to make people buy a more expensive inferior version is anti-consumer.
Oh well, everything else in the world is falling apart, why not this hobby too. Burn, baby, burn!
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Except that we don't have the HD600/HD650 apparently. Which is a huge blow to the whole god damn hobby. I guess it's also a market opportunity for someone else to step in a........
Good to know....same boat....the 600/650s kept drawing me back in...love their tonal balance, fit..etc...and I really tried over the years ....but ....but...but....and off they went. Fingers crossed on the 660S.
I think you will quite enjoy the HD 660 S. Nothing beats personal listening and you seem to of had a similar experience with the HD 600/650, so you may very well enjoy the HD 660S as well. I’m a bit worried many may start jumping on a bandwagon and potentially overlooking these now.
Tyll Hertsens' headphone test tracks:Apologies. I was referring to any grain present at the recording level (I wish he'd list example tracks). I thought he did do a column on his reference tracks, but I don't remember off the top of my head.
Thanks Charles!Tyll Hertsens' headphone test tracks:
<<http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/comparing-world-class-headphones>>