[Kammerat Rebekka]

Welcome to the Sennheiser family, happy listening!!




Are you suuuuuuuuuuure? Like... 100% sure, you’d bet on it? I don’t recommend gambling

Yeah I’m pretty sure. In fact I’ll wager a bag of beets on it

Edith: not sure why your post went missing.
I find it highly unlikely that Sennheiser would spend additional money on a new driver for a Massdrop collab. The fact that both the 660s and 58X show the same wiggles and all around behaviour, when you look at a mere frequency response says a lot.
The distortion profile on both also mirrors one another..which in essence means that the two drivers stem from the same family ie the HD700

 

[CaptainFantastic]

I find it highly unlikely that Sennheiser would spend additional money on a new driver for a Massdrop collab. The fact that both the 660s and 58X show the same wiggles and all around behaviour, when you look at a mere frequency response says a lot.
The distortion profile on both also mirrors one another..which in essence means that the two drivers stem from the same family ie the HD700

But would it not be reasonable to assume that they are keeping their highest quality drivers for the HD-650 which they sell at a normal price and then send their lower quality (albeit the same) batches to Drop for the 6xx? They are the same driver, so maybe you don't have 25% high quality and 75% lower quality, but rather lower quality control thresholds on the 6xx batches. So based on this theory, you could get a 6xx that has the same quality of identical driver as a 650, or you could get a 6xx that would have been passed up for a true 650.

I was saying above that the higher quality / lower quality of same driver in production batches exists as we know from Gold editions in the past.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

^I think you are overlooking just how cheap drivers are..most especially when you are a huge company like Sennheiser. Most folks on here would probably throw a fit if they knew how little it costs to produce a headphone. The costly stuff is usually to do with the extra production steps...and the HD58X skips a few of those by slapping a piece of foam in the cups in stead of having to pretty them up..like the 600/650.

 

[Tripokaridos]

HAH! That is a happy face! And you were one of the lucky to randomly get the retro/anniversary version! The yellow pads are a neat homage, but also the old Sennheiser logo that looks like a tube/valve transistor.
(Single Ended or SE seems to be the most popular, at least on Head-Fi).

@CaptainFantastic it’s meant to be fun, randomly selected, and it’s truly a limited edition model (aesthetically). The packaging is different as well. Till the end of June and while supplies last:
http://www.sennheiser.com/on-ear-dj-headphone-hd25

Thank u yeah they look so retro and beautiful...
Ps. Sory for the ( if ) mistake ...

 

[Tripokaridos]

Yeah I’m pretty sure. In fact I’ll wager a bag of beets on it

Edith: not sure why your post went missing.
I find it highly unlikely that Sennheiser would spend additional money on a new driver for a Massdrop collab. The fact that both the 660s and 58X show the same wiggles and all around behaviour, when you look at a mere frequency response says a lot.
The distortion profile on both also mirrors one another..which in essence means that the two drivers stem from the same family ie the HD700

If thats true why they dont look the same ? There are many photos showing 660-700 driver vs 58x and they are sure not the same.
About measurements i can understant the similarities dont dissagree on that but in real life the driver from 660 has better imaging separation resolution and way faster more tight.
Anyways ... Its good for people that have only 58X feel like that. After all thats what i was thinking when 58x first arrived until 660 came listen them and hear the difference.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

I am not saying they’re the same drivers. I’m saying that they stem from the same family
The reason why they sound so different is because they are tuned differently. The 58X is a far warmer headphone...yet when you fx do the curtain mod, you’ll suddenly hear the same sort of clarity and detail as you get from it’s bigger brother.

 

[Typewriter]

And these are the graphs of HD 600 vsHD 650 vs HD660s .... So u can see what is better for you liking

Thanks a lot for the much information about my question!

It looks to me like cymbals occupy a broad band in the spectrum, and the 660S has overall less energy in that region because it has a dip from 2k to 5k, and it should be that the 660S make less listening fatigue with a e.g. 70s disco song. And even the little 11K peak in the 660S seems to be below one of the HD 600 peaks. So when some people, who like HD 600/650, don't like something about the HD 660S treble, it probably must be some "sole-peak"? A Beyerdynamic or HD 700/800 (never had these) characteristic?

Or maybe there is also this so-called "grain" issue for any HD 6??, which I'm unable to try to quantifiy. I know some HD 600 sounded cleaner and un-grainier than other HD 600, but I guess that must be very hard to understand with the measurements.

Anyway, looking at the graph there seems no way that there is additional energy which makes listening fatigue, unless I don't know enough about the perception.

And I know nothing about these physics and this was my first and probably last try to say what I really think when looking at these graphs. I realize that I have no idea and will probably decide (just ordering one) between one of these headphones because of other reasons, maybe past experiences or emotions.

 

[Tripokaridos]

What ever u choose be sure it will be amazing all 6 series are great. I bealive that most people after a week of listening will not remember the difference.
Its not like going from hd 6 to beyer 990

 

[1TrickPony]

When people talk about "grain", is that in the mids? highs? Is that a digital artifact?

Is it the opposite of smoothness? but different from texture?

 

[kman1211]

When people talk about "grain", is that in the mids? highs? Is that a digital artifact?

Is it the opposite of smoothness? but different from texture?

Mostly midrange and highs, can be localized or more across a wider part of the spectrum. Sadly different people have different definitions of grain which makes it hard to properly pin-point what people mean. To me it’s more of an artificial, gritty, and somewhat fatiguing texture in the sound. Can be many things. Just something isn’t quite right with a part of the sound. With a truly textured sound the texture is on the instruments or vocals itself, not a blurry texture effect.

 

[JerryHead]

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the HD660S with the Focal Clear open-backed headphones? The Clear's actually cost three times as much, so I could understand if they're in different classes.

 

[Ichos]

I own both
Clears are better at certain aspects like dynamics , bass extension and quality , transient speed , soundstage.
Tonally they are close enough.
I like them both but the Clears are subjectively better and three times more expensive.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

I own both
Clears are better at certain aspects like dynamics , bass extension and quality , transient speed , soundstage.
Tonally they are close enough.
I like them both but the Clears are subjectively better and three times more expensive.

Is it true, however, that the Clears, like all Focals, has something metallic in the sound? That's what I heard, not sure if true.

 

[Ichos]

I have read a lot of times about this metallic sound that is supposed to be driver material artifact but to tell you the truth I can't hear it.
Maybe because the Clears are very very revealing they are sensitive to such sounds that they are related to the rest of the chain.

Ah and I don't hear either the supposed bass distortion that happens at certain frequencies when you get loud enough.

 

[Tripokaridos]

I have read a lot of times about this metallic sound that is supposed to be driver material artifact but to tell you the truth I can't hear it.
Maybe because the Clears are very very revealing they are sensitive to such sounds that they are related to the rest of the chain.

Ah and I don't hear either the supposed bass distortion that happens at certain frequencies when you get loud enough.

I always wondered what other HEadphones except Focal Clear , Elex, and B&W p5 ,p7 use this kind of driver that are not mebrane. WHen i first disassembly p7 i thought it was a speaker driver and i thought omg thats why it sounds so muffled and slow , (but Focals i guess use something different ) .
It would be intresting to see silk dome on headphones