[donlin]

Honestly, I think there's been some 'bad' ones out there. My Senn Renewed sounded a lot like @equalspace described..."less precise, a little slower and there was a bit less midrange texture, less sparkle in the treble regions overall, and maybe slightly worse imaging."

I was very excited to be able to pick a Mfg Refurbed unit for a nice price...and very bummed to return them.

Will go with brand new when the prices drop

I would always stay away from any of the refurbished, renewed, or like new items. You never know what that means and will always have doubts that it's not as good as the real thing. Peace of mind is well worth the little bit of extra money over the long haul.

 

[equalspeace]

May have just been a bad pair. I’m telling you guys though, the differences between the two headphones was very noticeable. I like to think I have very good ears lol

@Mike F, I did swap pads and that didn’t help.

 

[donlin]

May have just been a bad pair. I’m telling you guys though, the differences between the two headphones was very noticeable. I like to think I have very good ears lol

@Mike F, I did swap pads and that didn’t help.

Variation between samples of the same headphone is something we don't like to think about but is bound to happen. It seems like it wouldn't take much variation in production tolerance to produce the slight differences that we obsess over.

 

[GearMe]

I would always stay away from any of the refurbished, renewed, or like new items. You never know what that means and will always have doubts that it's not as good as the real thing. Peace of mind is well worth the little bit of extra money over the long haul.

TBH...I've had great luck with these types of purchases and this was a rarity.

That said, I do stick to Manufacturer Refurbished/Renewed/Returns as opposed to Third Party Refurbished/Renewed/Returns. The logic being (rightly/wrongly) that a good manufacturer with a reputation for quality and customer service (Senn, Schiit, etc.) would be loathe to send a 'faulty' item back out to another customer with making sure it's up to spec.

As far as 'Like New', I'll occasionally try those from Amazon because of their return policy. FWIW, I've had very good luck there as well.

 

[Deftone]

The extra clarity over the 650 really brings out the illusion you're hearing vocals from the mic feed with this headphone.

 

[Mhog55]

Comparing both the low and high end between the 660s and 58X -
Do the 660s have a similar treble response, only difference being they're grain free... Or... Is it further extended with more sparkle and excitement? Can it border on becoming too hot at times? I don't want something much brighter than the 58X, but less grain and better resolution I'm good with.
How much sub bass will I be loosing with the 58X? Is the bass tighter and faster - better layered on the 660s? How about the mid bass? Anything else?
I hate the word polarizing, but between this thread and numerous online reviews, I simply can't decide if I want to make the switch. Especially considering the price difference. My main genre is hard rock, so essentially I just want the headphone that plays best with it.

 

[1TrickPony]

Comparing both the low and high end between the 660s and 58X -
Do the 660s have a similar treble response, only difference being they're grain free... Or... Is it further extended with more sparkle and excitement? Can it border on becoming too hot at times? I don't want something much brighter than the 58X, but less grain and better resolution I'm good with.
How much sub bass will I be loosing with the 58X? Is the bass tighter and faster - better layered on the 660s? How about the mid bass? Anything else?
I hate the word polarizing, but between this thread and numerous online reviews, I simply can't decide if I want to make the switch. Especially considering the price difference. My main genre is hard rock, so essentially I just want the headphone that plays best with it.

Get a focal elear. If hard rock is your thing. 660s is great for accuracy found in jazz acoustic instruments, but for the excitement, go the 450-500$ focal.

 

[Mike F]

The extra clarity over the 650 really brings out the illusion you're hearing vocals from the mic feed with this headphone.

Clarity can mean slightly different things. Do you hear the HD660S as brighter or darker in the treble than the HD650?

 

[Mhog55]

Get a focal elear. If hard rock is your thing. 660s is great for accuracy found in jazz acoustic instruments, but for the excitement, go the 450-500$ focal.

I appreciate the suggestion. I'll look into them.

 

[Deftone]

Clarity can mean slightly different things. Do you hear the HD660S as brighter or darker in the treble than the HD650?

It has better overall clarity in mids and treble, the "veil" was lifted with this driver but at the expensive of some smoothness as we know.

 

[Deftone]

Im really curious to know what a HD800 driver tuned like the 6 series would sound like. Obviously it's way too big for the 600 frame but I wonder what else could be achieved with the ring radiator driver even how it would work if shrunk to a smaller size.

 

[Ichos]

Only maybe with smaller size.
The 800 driver is to big and due to construction it can't stop vibrating when needed hence the ringing at certain frequencies.
So it's difficult to get 6 series sound with this driver.
Unfortunately bigger isn't always better.

 

[equalspeace]

I legit look forward to coming home to listen to the 660s. It’s that good.

 

[Mike F]

It has better overall clarity in mids and treble, the "veil" was lifted with this driver but at the expensive of some smoothness as we know.

All of which I agree with, except for the bit about ‘veil’ which is not something that I’ve ever found my later HD650’s to be (perhaps the first pre silver screen ones where?), but specifically, do you find the HD660S brighter or darker than the HD650 in the treble (in other words, does the HD660S have more or less treble presence compared to the other frequencies than the HD650)? The reason I ask is that I consistently find there to be less, which is what many of the FR graphs show (including the one from DIY-A-H) but I had always previously had the impression that the consensus of opinion was that the HD660S was a brighter sounding headphone with more treble presence.
I’m just trying to understand why it is that that is not what I’m hearing, nor is it what the graphs show, yet it seems to be the general impression. Of course the FR graph from SW did show more high frequency presence and they criticised it for being too bright for critical listening. That’s certainly not true of mine.

 

[Mike F]

I have in fact got hold of a second pair of HD660S and have another pair coming on Monday, just to check for consistency and to make sure that mine are as they should be. The second pair sound identical. Let’s see what the third pair sound like on Monday.!