[Mike F]

The difference between 660S and 650 is barely a 3db!

Quite, which is why I'm beginning to wonder if there is any inherent advantage to the HD660S at all! I have to admit that I had just assumed that the HD660S was working far better out of my iPhone than the HD650 would. Turns out not to be the case.......... I don't listen at high volumes, so there is spare gain even when I'm using the HD650's. Hmmm.....

 

[Mike F]

Hi Mike don't send it back, sign it and then sell it. The legendary Mike F. HD660S Special Edition.

Funny! And you're German??

 

[G0rt]

At home comparing the HD660S and HD650 at length with a wide variety of material. I’ve come to realise exactly why it took Sennheiser so long to come up with a replacement for the HD650 (which they’ve decided isn’t going to be a replacement after all).

Preaching to the choir, I would say that there is a quality of a well-presented live performance, call it 'musicality', that comes through the HD650 in spades. We feel rather than just hear it, can't measure it but know it's there nevertheless.

HD650 may not do everything right, but it does so little wrong that the music comes through. It doesn't overexcite that whiny, judgy, hypercritical, neurotic little voice in the back of our minds that's never, ever, satisfied with anything.

And that's amazing. HD600 and HD660S either add or subtract from that, up to taste, but not really deviating all that far.

Even the extraordinary HD800S can be a little over-the-top at times, interposing a subjective distance from the performance oddly reminiscent of just a few too many drinks.

A week or so ago, I tried some Misodiko pads on my HD800S, and thought they both rolled the highs and collapsed the soundstage, and I recall they reminded me at the time of HD650, with just a bit more of everything.

Most of the time, HD660S strikes me much the same way.

With my morning coffee, Frank Zappa, Make a Jazz Noise Here, Black Napkins on HD660S, and the brass never sounded so good...

 

[donlin]

Preaching to the choir, I would say that there is a quality of a well-presented live performance, call it 'musicality', that comes through the HD650 in spades. We feel rather than just hear it, can't measure it but know it's there nevertheless.

HD650 may not do everything right, but it does so little wrong that the music comes through. It doesn't overexcite that whiny, judgy, hypercritical, neurotic little voice in the back of our minds that's never, ever, satisfied with anything.

And that's amazing. HD600 and HD660S either add or subtract from that, up to taste, but not really deviating all that far.

Even the extraordinary HD800S can be a little over-the-top at times, interposing a subjective distance from the performance oddly reminiscent of just a few too many drinks.

A week or so ago, I tried some Misodiko pads on my HD800S, and thought they both rolled the highs and collapsed the soundstage, and I recall they reminded me at the time of HD650, with just a bit more of everything.

Most of the time, HD660S strikes me much the same way.

With my morning coffee, Frank Zappa, Make a Jazz Noise Here, Black Napkins on HD660S, and the brass never sounded so good...

Lots of good points in this post. As a long time HD800/800S owner and longer time 580/600/650/660S owner, I've never been able to fully convince myself that the HD800 is "better". Listening to the remixed Abbey Road, the 660S works better for me than the 800S. It's that famous, spacious HD800 sound that makes everything sound too distant.

 

[Ichos]

The key word is ''convinced''!
I was tired of trying to be convinced that i must love this gorgeous beauty
even if a secretly loved the girl next door....

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

It's that famous, spacious HD800 sound that makes everything sound too distant.

Or instead of distant, it can make it sound awesome and more like:

 

[G0rt]

Lots of good points in this post. As a long time HD800/800S owner and longer time 580/600/650/660S owner, I've never been able to fully convince myself that the HD800 is "better". Listening to the remixed Abbey Road, the 660S works better for me than the 800S. It's that famous, spacious HD800 sound that makes everything sound too distant.

Just so. For music which does not of itself contain or require vast space, in effect adding it amounts to a kind of presentational distortion, different than THD, IMD, group delay or other more conventional and measurable sorts.

OTOH, music which has or implies a real and large soundstage, orchestral for example, can sound unpleasantly compressed and intimate if not conveyed with suitable air.

My own favorite use for HD800S is new age and digital, e.g. Zazen, Shpongle, Solar Fields, Ott, Helpling, Serrie... Space for space.

 

[equalspeace]

Got the HD660S playing now at the office with my NW-A35, and I gotta say there's really not all that much difference I'm hearing between them and the HD6xx. Maybe slightly more soundstage width and better imaging, and the fact these are sounding pretty livable directly from this DAP. Hearing these also as pretty warm and smooth. As of now I'm having no issues whatsoever with sibilance/harshness. Yeah.. the thing that sticks out for me is I know there's no way I could get this type of performance out of my NW-A35 from the 6xx.

 

[Mike F]

Definitely much more similar than different, even from my iPhone. Differences seem more obvious on high end gear.

 

[nocturaline]

After over a week with my new HD660S, it's obvious to me that it belongs to the same family as the HD650. I love the HD650 dearly and have for 15 years, but with my Sony ZX300, the HD660S, thanks to its lower impedance, is extraordinary. In single ended, the Sony doesn't have enough power to drive the 650/6XX properly.

I must admit that I haven't yet listened to the 650/6XX and the ZX300 using the 4.4 balanced cable, and I will eventually–Maybe I'll find it as good as the 660S. I haven't even plugged the 660S into the Woo amp to check it out. I just enjoy it so much with the Sony DAP that I don't feel like trying different setups just yet. I just listen to the music without thinking about analyzing the sound. And it's way more comfortable than the Bravado in-ears

 

[equalspeace]

I have listened to the 6xx on the ZX300 and I can tell you with certainty that the ZX300 cannot handle the 300 ohm impedeance of the 6xx, neither could my dx150, or the WM1a when I had it. The only DAPs i can say could drive the 6xx well with fulness is the Hiby R5 and R6.

I listened to the 660s for a good amount of time today on the NW-A35 and it was driven quite well. It was a really nice marriage those two had today.

Regarding the 660s, I heard a finesse and liquidity in the mids that was based primarily on the headphone’s speed capabilities. This is another area I think (so far) the 660s beats the 6xx. More testing is needed however, and my guess is it will be fun.

After over a week with my new HD660S, it's obvious to me that it belongs to the same family as the HD650. I love the HD650 dearly and have for 15 years, but with my Sony ZX300, the HD660S, thanks to its lower impedance, is extraordinary. In single ended, the Sony doesn't have enough power to drive the 650/6XX properly.

I must admit that I haven't yet listened to the 650/6XX and the ZX300 using the 4.4 balanced cable, and I will eventually–Maybe I'll find it as good as the 660S. I haven't even plugged the 660S into the Woo amp to check it out. I just enjoy it so much with the Sony DAP that I don't feel like trying different setups just yet. I just listen to the music without thinking about analyzing the sound. And it's way more comfortable than the Bravado in-ears

 

[Mike F]

After over a week with my new HD660S, it's obvious to me that it belongs to the same family as the HD650. I love the HD650 dearly and have for 15 years, but with my Sony ZX300, the HD660S, thanks to its lower impedance, is extraordinary. In single ended, the Sony doesn't have enough power to drive the 650/6XX properly.

I must admit that I haven't yet listened to the 650/6XX and the ZX300 using the 4.4 balanced cable, and I will eventually–Maybe I'll find it as good as the 660S. I haven't even plugged the 660S into the Woo amp to check it out. I just enjoy it so much with the Sony DAP that I don't feel like trying different setups just yet. I just listen to the music without thinking about analyzing the sound. And it's way more comfortable than the Bravado in-ears

Do try the HD650 balanced as well - it makes a huge difference.

 

[Deftone]

Regarding the 660s, I heard a finesse and liquidity in the mids that was based primarily on the headphone’s speed capabilities. This is another area I think (so far) the 660s beats the 6xx. More testing is needed however, and my guess is it will be fun.

This is one of the reasons I love it so much, it looses a little fat in the mid bass from the 650 but keeps that lovely sweet and rich tone. That finese in the the new driver is addictive.

I haven't heard another headphone that has that kind of balance, almost as good as Jean Francois Gravelet.

 

[DNS1]

Have you guys listened to the HD 600, 650, 660S with a sine sweep when comparing these headphones against each other?
(Example sine sweep: https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_sinesweep20-20k.php)

I'm curious.

I'm going to buy either the new HD 600, 650 or 660S, but It's not available in my country yet, so I thought I ask you guys here before the purchase.
I work in my acoustically treated studio room with the Neumann KH310 A studio monitors as a composer and had the HD 600 here for 6 months (it was a loan from my friend, I also have an HD 558 here I own and I had a Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro before the Senns). When I was comparing the HD 600 to the KH 310 A, I came to the conclusion they sound really close to each other. The difference was the headphone has a little veil to it compared to the studio monitors, it really is the best word to describe it (no matter how much I hate that term). I could also say that the HD 600 has a more compact sound with less resolution, less width and a tiny bit warmer sound than the studio monitors, almost like it has a roll off in the high frequencies, but not quite like that, just a similar experience. When I was writing music with the headphone and listening the "results" back on the studio monitors I only had to rebalance some tracks in volume like 0.5-1dB, that's basically nothing. I wish the high freqs on the headphone would have a little less congested feel to it though, to have more resolution there, also a little more energy in the sub bass freqs and a little less shrillness, but only like 1dB or so. As you can see it isn't that bad after all, splitting hairs here.

Back to my question, when I was testing the HD 600 with a sine sweep, to my ears there was a peak somewhere around 7kHz, wasn't too bad but I wasn't happy about it either. Maybe the HD 650 or 660S have a more even frequency response in the high frequency domain? Basically I'm looking for the one that has the less peaks-valleys in it's frequency response, more even technically. I wish I could test all the three headphones in my studio in the same time, but I don't think this going to happen and that is why I ask here. Maybe you could help me out with this experience?

 

[wantan]

Sonarworks mentioned once the most polupar headphones they get shipped for individual calibration is the HD650, so one could assume this headphone to be very popular for studio work. The HD600 is a bit on the bright side for my taste, my personal "neutral" would be the HD650, the HD660S I find leaning slightly towards "dark" and I find it very entertaining for music listening. The HD650 is a bit darker and also a bit brighter compared to the HD660S, depending on the frequency spectrum you look at.

For studio work I'd probably go for a HD650 and send it to Sonarworks for a calibration setting.

Headphone amps and DACs make quite some difference with these headphones, especially the HD650, which is more still more picky then the HD660S. All three scale very well. You can get lots of resolution out of any of these. They also sound very simillar to each other, I own all three and could basically live with any one.