I am really enjoying my 660's today with a new amp. I just got an LD MKIII. It has been working with my Beyer DT880 (600 Ohms) for the first few days.
With the 660's I had to drop the gain to the mid range. It sounds beautiful!
My chain is: Laptop to Bifrost 2 to Schiit Loki to LD MKIII using Voshkod tubes into my 660's.
I will definitely be using this set-up all day tomorrow. I have some HD6XX's coming in on Monday to match with this new amp.
I just re-configured the whole system today.
I (noob with a Magni/ 4490 Modi) am still going back and forth over the 660 / Sundara and tweaking EQ settings and then going back to Exclusive Mode with no EQ.
I alternate between Exclusive Mode (Amazon HD) and PEACE EQ, evidently you can't EQ Exclusive Mode, with headphones and I still have trouble deciding on one or the other. Even after a month or so of this back and forth, it's still hard for me to pick out a hands down winner.
I listen to the Sundara with EQ and swear up and down I love it best but then I listen to Springsteen's "My Hometown" on the 660 in Exclusive Mode (Amazon HD) and it's obvious the 660 wins out between the two - The way the acoustic strumming and backing vocals goosebumped me in Exclusive made me question all my prior decisions on the two headphones as well as my thoughts overall regarding EQ vs Exclusive Mode.
Maybe these are two different animals and I like them for different reasons. The 660 is the out of the box plug it in and listen winner but the Sundara is the headphone dork answer. The Sundara really responded to EQ for me and I've had a lot of fantastic listening experiences listening to music with it using EQ.
Anything that tends to *really* need EQ , perfect example: the 80's album by Larry Carlton "On Solid Ground", sounds wafer thin using the supposedly "bit perfect" Exclusive Mode, no matter the headphone you use. The Sundara + free EQ excels with material like this. I started with the oratory1990 presets but further toned down the crazy treble focused mix of this retro album and, using his presets as a guide, coaxed out those sweet ****in' basslines lying underneath, waiting to be revealed. I wouldn't even bother to listen to it without EQ and that's some of LC's best playing. His solos really soar above us all on this album. Just listen to his version of "Layla". He puts Clapton to shame! Without EQ, this album is hard to listen to but with Sundara and EQ, it elicits goosebumps.
My CXA81 / Wharfedale 4.2 loudspeaker setup proved to be a set it and forget it. Plug it up and it sounds sublime streaming whatever music or with TV / Netflix. This setup has never worried my big, ugly head. In contrast, this headphone thing has turned into an obsession for me!
I was looking on that site at frequency response of hd 650. I find interesting that 650 is more forward that 660s at 3Khz and 4Khz with the same peak at 5-6 Khz. That wouldn't make the 660s more relaxing than 650 contrary to what most people says 650 being more fatiguing because of the more forward upper mids ? Also 660s measure higher between 400hz and 1Khz so that means it as richer mids than 650? I am newbie I guess this is not correctly interpreted by me this way?
It has been pointed several times that despite the common believe the 650 is NOT a smooth headphone.
It is more forward from 2-6kHz and many people are very sensitive in this region.
I find the 660 more smooth and relaxed.
The 650 with a certain material maybe very irritating.
I'm using these adapters. Don't think you can run dual KT88 drivers with stock power tubes though. The sum Ih of all 4 tubes on the Euforia must be less than 7A, the KT88's are ~1.6A each and the stock 6N13S are ~2.5A each, so that will exceed the 7A limit.
It has been pointed several times that despite the common believe the 650 is NOT a smooth headphone.
It is more forward from 2-6kHz and many people are very sensitive in this region.
I find the 660 more smooth and relaxed.
The 650 with a certain material maybe very irritating.
Yeah...always had OTL tube amps for my Senns (800, 700, 650, 600) and Beyers to 'take the edge off'. After selling my OTL amp and my Senns, I was leery of this issue when I purchased the 6XX. No issues here though -- even w/solid state amps.
May be time for me to retire from all this as I see quite a bit about equalizing these days...equalizing this, equalizing that. Use to use it exclusively in the studio and even then sparingly but the last time I used one for audio playback, it was in the 70's and it looked like one of these, which was to be avoided at all cost if possible. lol
And still today I've only dedicated sources, direct to the head-amp or stereo so still no provisions for EQ unless I use one of the above and with no less than 24 potentiometers added to the signal chain, a big no no.
May be time for me to retire from all this as I see quite a bit about equalizing these days...equalizing this, equalizing that. Use to use it exclusively in the studio and even then sparingly but the last time I used one for audio playback, it was in the 70's and it looked like one of these, which was to be avoided at all cost if possible. lol
And still today I've only dedicated sources, direct to the head-amp or stereo so still no provisions for EQ unless I use one of the above and with no less than 24 potentiometers added to the signal chain, a big no no.
Understood, Rob and I will take it to heart. I appreciate your perspective very much. It's been fun to mess around with EQ though! Sincere thanks for the advice and will keep it in mind going forward.
Understood, Rob and I will take it to heart. I appreciate your perspective very much. It's been fun to mess around with EQ though! Sincere thanks for the advice and will keep it in mind going forward.
Sorry..you may have misunderstood, nothing wrong with tailoring ones set up with everything now in the digital domain as it shouldn't degrade to sound. But if ones set up is not computer based it sort of makes it all inaccessible and with my OCD I'm probably better "mentally" off without it. lol : )
I (noob with a Magni/ 4490 Modi) am still going back and forth over the 660 / Sundara and tweaking EQ settings and then going back to Exclusive Mode with no EQ.
I alternate between Exclusive Mode (Amazon HD) and PEACE EQ, evidently you can't EQ Exclusive Mode, with headphones and I still have trouble deciding on one or the other. Even after a month or so of this back and forth, it's still hard for me to pick out a hands down winner.
I listen to the Sundara with EQ and swear up and down I love it best but then I listen to Springsteen's "My Hometown" on the 660 in Exclusive Mode (Amazon HD) and it's obvious the 660 wins out between the two - The way the acoustic strumming and backing vocals goosebumped me in Exclusive made me question all my prior decisions on the two headphones as well as my thoughts overall regarding EQ vs Exclusive Mode.
Maybe these are two different animals and I like them for different reasons. The 660 is the out of the box plug it in and listen winner but the Sundara is the headphone dork answer. The Sundara really responded to EQ for me and I've had a lot of fantastic listening experiences listening to music with it using EQ.
Anything that tends to *really* need EQ , perfect example: the 80's album by Larry Carlton "On Solid Ground", sounds wafer thin using the supposedly "bit perfect" Exclusive Mode, no matter the headphone you use. The Sundara + free EQ excels with material like this. I started with the oratory1990 presets but further toned down the crazy treble focused mix of this retro album and, using his presets as a guide, coaxed out those sweet ****in' basslines lying underneath, waiting to be revealed. I wouldn't even bother to listen to it without EQ and that's some of LC's best playing. His solos really soar above us all on this album. Just listen to his version of "Layla". He puts Clapton to shame! Without EQ, this album is hard to listen to but with Sundara and EQ, it elicits goosebumps.
My CXA81 / Wharfedale 4.2 loudspeaker setup proved to be a set it and forget it. Plug it up and it sounds sublime streaming whatever music or with TV / Netflix. This setup has never worried my big, ugly head. In contrast, this headphone thing has turned into an obsession for me!
I've found the Sundaras respond better to eq than any other can I've tried. It's really astonishing how drastically you can change their sound. All my other cans will change small to moderately with adjustments in eq, but the Sundaras have the ability to sound like a totally different phone all together.
I've found the Sundaras respond better to eq than any other can I've tried. It's really astonishing how drastically you can change their sound. All my other cans will change small to moderately with adjustments in eq, but the Sundaras have the ability to sound like a totally different phone all together.
They really can adapt to different eras (Led Zep / 80's / Radiohead) or if a favorite artist makes a drastic change in their sound. Those are the times I'm really looking to use EQ. I was able to make a few small changes to the "oratory1990" settings to get what I liked out of a rather obscure 80's album and it sounded great. I wasn't so enthused about it prior to that so I sure did appreciate that.
The Sundara is a great companion to the 660. You could get by with the two and maybe just mess around with amps and tube rolling. They both can reveal good detail and cover a lot of bases.
Other than just pure curiosity about the 600/650, I'm starting to look at amps based on the performance of these entry level cans I've got so far. I do kind of have a boner for Focal or LCD2 headphones but I don't know about them yet.
Thanks for the reply. It confirms some of what I'm hearing! lol
Sorry..you may have misunderstood, nothing wrong with tailoring ones set up with everything now in the digital domain as it shouldn't degrade to sound. But if ones set up is not computer based it sort of makes it all inaccessible and with my OCD I'm probably better "mentally" off without it. lol : )
I probably did misunderstand, then. Aside from that, your posts have been very helpful as I've researched info on the 660S and on the hobby, in general. Even if I don't catch on (my fault) right away.
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