[DavidA]

When talking about how bright they are or how the bass is.... I found out that the sound is a bit brighter with single ended cable/output. With balanced cable/output the sound is fuller, more bass and slightly softer treble. I personally prefer the sound with balanced cable.

It due to your amp being a bit warmer with the balanced output than the SE output and has nothing to do with the headphone. With some amps that have both balanced and SE output the balanced output is what the amp was designed and what will sound best with any headphone connected to it while other amps sound the same from both the SE and balanced output due to the designer wanting both to sound good.

 

[pietcux]

It's not the highs, the highs are actually pretty tame on 660, it's the mid range that is in your face. At least compared to something like DT1990.

I own the DT1990. Sure the mids on the HD660S are less recessed than on the DT but this is only a small difference. And both are not in my face, they are on my ears.

 

[Lay.]

It due to your amp being a bit warmer with the balanced output than the SE output and has nothing to do with the headphone. With some amps that have both balanced and SE output the balanced output is what the amp was designed and what will sound best with any headphone connected to it while other amps sound the same from both the SE and balanced output due to the designer wanting both to sound good.

It might be just that. Is it just more common that the amp is warmer with balanced output? Seems like people noticed the difference with variety of amps. For example https://www.headfonia.com/review-sennheiser-hd660-s/2/

 

[DavidA]

It might be just that. Is it just more common that the amp is warmer with balanced output? Seems like people noticed the difference with variety of amps. For example https://www.headfonia.com/review-sennheiser-hd660-s/2/

I'm not sure if all amps are "warmer" with the balanced output but for almost all amps under $1000 I think most of the design effort is put in to the balanced output while amps in the higher "price is no objective" range seem to be designed where the balanced and SE output are pretty similar from the amps that I've heard so far.

The HD660S is one of the few headphones that I actually like with just a smart phone or low power DAP but on the flip side it didn't seem to scale as much but I think this is a good thing since its good with a wider range of gear, unlike my HD800, T1gen1 and HD650

 

[siwolfman]

Anyone looking to sell their pentacon cable from the HD 660?

 

[pietcux]

Anyone looking to sell their pentacon cable from the HD 660?

Nice dogs! The cable will be availble from Sennheiser sooner or later. I makes my HD650 play much better from my WM1A so I would like to have a second one rather then selling the one that I have.

 

[L8MDL]

Reasonable facsimiles are available at Amazon.com for around 30 bucks.

 

[chimney189]

I gave a listen to the 660S with the Burson Soloist and, boy, was the difference immediate! It looks like the tubes I used with the Bottlehead Crack was the main reason everything was so forward!

I thought I was going to trade or sell the 660S, but I feel it's a perfect compliment to my HD 6XX.

 

[DavidA]

I gave a listen to the 660S with the Burson Soloist and, boy, was the difference immediate! It looks like the tubes I used with the Bottlehead Crack was the main reason everything was so forward!

I thought I was going to trade or sell the 660S, but I feel it's a perfect compliment to my HD 6XX.

Agree with your impressions of the BH Crack and HD660S, its not a good pairing to me and my friends who have tried this and we also noticed that a few other OTL amp also didn't pair well with the HD660S, its like the HD800S where I like how it pairs with SS amps but the HD800 is better paired with OTL amps IMO.

 

[VenturaRoyal]

I own the DT1990. Sure the mids on the HD660S are less recessed than on the DT but this is only a small difference. And both are not in my face, they are on my ears.

1990 doesn't sound close to recessed at all imo its just not "forward". Much more in tune with the other frequncies compared to 660S

 

[VenturaRoyal]

Agree with your impressions of the BH Crack and HD660S, its not a good pairing to me and my friends who have tried this and we also noticed that a few other OTL amp also didn't pair well with the HD660S, its like the HD800S where I like how it pairs with SS amps but the HD800 is better paired with OTL amps IMO.

the 150 ohms kinda kills the BH crack pairing :/

 

[DavidA]

the 150 ohms kinda kills the BH crack pairing :/

It does for the HD660S but not for the HD700 and its one reason we tried the BH Crack, Elise, and WA6. FWIW the HD58X at 150 ohms is also not a good pairing with the BH Crack IMO.

 

[phthora]

It does for the HD660S but not for the HD700 and its one reason we tried the BH Crack, Elise, and WA6. FWIW the HD58X at 150 ohms is also not a good pairing with the BH Crack IMO.

What's your tube amp of choice for the 660s? I've been leaning towards a WA6SE to pair with some feature DD headphones and some current planars. Any experience with that one?

 

[DavidA]

What's your tube amp of choice for the 660s? I've been leaning towards a WA6SE to pair with some feature DD headphones and some current planars. Any experience with that one?

The only tube amps that I tried that I though were pretty good with the HD660S were Ember (output impedance set to low) and the CTH, both hybrids. With any Woo amp its all about the tubes used from my limited tube rolling with them and some of the better tubes can get quite pricy and if you are interested I think there was one in the FS thread that came with some really good tubes.

 

[harmony1992]

i think the 660s‘s stage and image is too small the mid is not bad