[Rob80b]

Still curious about the 30's............

Ok..hopefully put the Neumann invasion to rest... lol...as I discovered my local Long & McQuade now has a headphone station I had a chance to audition the NDH30....verdict (but not definitive) is that they are very good headphones..better than the HD660S, should be at double the price and with modified Sennheiser drivers but hard to say, depends on preferences but IMHO Alex Gruel has been doing his homework, overall a smooth presentation with very good staging..base is very full but not bloated, mid range and highs appear correct. Again this is with their listening station, not sure of the amplification and playing off my iPhone... but I was impressed. They had other phones on hand... BeyerdynamicDT 900 Pro, Sony and few others but no Sennheiser, all which all sounded fine but the Neumann just appeared to have more of everything. Soundatage just appeared larger and fuller and the base stood out the most, sounding more full range. May need to return with my HD800S and K872.

Real sound stage and accuracy is available only for very expensive mid-field studio monitors in an acoustically prepared room and now also in NDH 30
Everything else, especially when it comes to headphones, is an approximate conditional sound presentation of the scene and other characteristics that have nothing to do with the exact sound
..........

From my short listen, 20-30 min I couldn't honestly say the sound-staging is a night and day difference over other good headphones, good, but they still sound like headphones.

 

[indigogo]

You tease me
Copy my post from gearspace.
The answer to your question is in on the sixth indent. It turned out to be much more difficult - indeed - a high-quality DA and amplifiers are very important in order to unlock the full potential of the NDH 30:

I can't know if it's good or bad, maybe for someone it doesn't matter at all, but for me today's tests have become a revelation.
I was not too lazy and went to my friend's studio, who has all the devices that interested me at once:
RME Babyface Pro FS
RME ADI-2 Pro FS
Apogee Symphony Desktop

I took Sound Devices MixPre-10 II with me for the sound test
As I wrote in the previous post, I was interested in comparing the quality of the DAC and headphone amplifier and output to studio monitors. Because it's important for my new big project.
I understand that no one compared, so I had to do it myself.

I spent 6 hours in tests with my friend from the studio and another 6 for mixing and shittests and we came to sensational conclusions - the best, accurate, with high resolution and detail, etc., in all possible parameters gave - MixPre II. I knew that it gave a high quality sound, but I was surprised that it beat such respected devices as RME and Apogee...
For example, compared to the MixPre II, the sound of the recording and from the Headphones on the RME Babyface Pro FS was with lower resolution, dynamics and detail - heard over the entire frequency range. And after mixing and shittests - the most normal sound was after MixPre
With the MixPre II, the sound quality was noticeably better both when listening through Headphones and recorded sound through microphones.
And please tell me - how should I believe in jitter and SteadyClock FS now???
Yes, I did not compare latency and speed when mixing. I am sure that it is excellent on all interfaces - but without accurate and high-quality reference sound, this does not matter much to me personally.


According to preliminary data, there are several reasons for this sound superiority:
1 This is a high quality 32 bit DAC
2 Kashmir preamps
3 Innovative electronic internal design
4 High quality and powerful headphone amplifier
Probably the trick is an incredibly accurate and correct combination of all high-end components. Maybe something else, I'm not a technician. but I'm sure that the key feature is a high-precision 32 bit DAC

I'm writing this hard because I have to work on new projects with Total Mix. And how can I trust the sound from RME now?
Sound Devices advertises that they have high fidelity and reference sound for monitors and Headphones
and RME too. So who actually has the exact and reference sound?

I also figured out why I love the Neumann NDH 30 so much - it's because I used more of it on the MixPre where they sound so accurate, 3D scene, dynamics and detail. If we compare their sound between Babyface Pro FS and MixPre, then the first option gives the worst resolution and flat sound, which is boring for me. MixPre & NDH 30 - gives a deep, dynamic, detailed and wide three-dimensional scene. The same goes for output sound to studio monitors.

And I also realized that it is impossible to trust advertising and reviews - you can only trust your hearing and compare opinions between colleagues you trust.

 

[indigogo]

Ok..hopefully put the Neumann invasion to rest... lol...as I discovered my local Long & McQuade now has a headphone station I had a chance to audition the NDH30....verdict (but not definitive) is that they are very good headphones..better than the HD660S, should be at double the price and with modified Sennheiser drivers but hard to say, depends on preferences but IMHO Alex Gruel has been doing his homework, overall a smooth presentation with very good staging..base is very full but not bloated, mid range and highs appear correct. Again this is with their listening station, not sure of the amplification and playing off my iPhone... but I was impressed. They had other phones on hand... BeyerdynamicDT 900 Pro, Sony and few others but no Sennheiser, all which all sounded fine but the Neumann just appeared to have more of everything. Soundatage just appeared larger and fuller and the base stood out the most, sounding more full range. May need to return with my HD800S and K872.


From my short listen, 20-30 min I couldn't honestly say the sound-staging is a night and difference over other good headphones, good, but they still sound like headphones.

Find an opportunity to listen NDH 30 through MixPre II - you will not regret and understand everything that I have been writing about all this time here

 

[SHAMuuu]

Ok..hopefully put the Neumann invasion to rest... lol...as I discovered my local Long & McQuade now has a headphone station I had a chance to audition the NDH30....verdict (but not definitive) is that they are very good headphones..better than the HD660S, should be at double the price and with modified Sennheiser drivers but hard to say, depends on preferences but IMHO Alex Gruel has been doing his homework, overall a smooth presentation with very good staging..base is very full but not bloated, mid range and highs appear correct. Again this is with their listening station, not sure of the amplification and playing off my iPhone... but I was impressed. They had other phones on hand... BeyerdynamicDT 900 Pro, Sony and few others but no Sennheiser, all which all sounded fine but the Neumann just appeared to have more of everything. Soundatage just appeared larger and fuller and the base stood out the most, sounding more full range. May need to return with my HD800S and K872.


From my short listen, 20-30 min I couldn't honestly say the sound-staging is a night and difference over other good headphones, good, but they still sound like headphones.

That;s the spirit Rob!

 

[Rob80b]

You tease me
Copy my post from gearspace.
The answer to your question is in on the sixth indent. It turned out to be much more difficult - indeed - a high-quality DA and amplifiers are very important in order to unlock the full potential of the NDH 30:
...............

And I also realized that it is impossible to trust advertising and reviews - you can only trust your hearing and compare opinions between colleagues you trust.

Again, so I've discovered the NDH 30 are not bad, thank you.. but still I'm not too sure why you are going on so much about the Neumann in the HD660S thread????
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/neumann-ndh-30.963439/

 

[indigogo]

Again, so I've discovered the NDH 30 are not bad, thank you.. but still I'm not too sure why you are going on so much about the Neumann in the HD660S thread????
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/neumann-ndh-30.963439/

You're right, it's time to sell the HD660

 

[Rob80b]

There's an opportunity right now to pick up a Senn-refurbed HD660s for $250, and it's quite tempting. But as a 6XX owner, I do have to wonder how different the headphones could be. I do adore the super-smooth, mellow, warm sound of the 6XX.......

Thoughts on the two?

You may already have your preference..... The HD660S for me was a much needed update to the HD600/650 which I've owned no less than 4 times, lol, and each time I sold them for the same reason, probably for their " super-smooth, mellow, warm sound"..... It comes down to preferences, all day listening or concert going for an hour or so, in my case "concert going" and music tastes.. and so when listening to music I want to be fully engaged in the performance, to have my senses fully alert and involved as much as possible. Relatively speaking the HD660S do this much better for me, than what I call the "long in tooth" HD600/650, I just feel the newer 660S was a much needed update while retaining a lot of what attracted me originally to its older siblings in the first place, the HD600/650 are still regarded as great headphones but YMMV.

 

[Rob80b]

You're right, it's time to sell the HD660

If you only can have one headphone, from what I've heard from my short listen, yes the NDH30 probably would be the better choice. Amen. : )

 

[kman1211]

You may already have your preference..... The HD660S for me was a much needed update to the HD600/650 which I've owned no less than 4 times, lol, and each time I sold them for the same reason, probably for their " super-smooth, mellow, warm sound"..... It comes down to preferences and music tastes and in my case, when listening to music I want to be fully engaged in the performance, to have my senses fully alert and involved as much as possible. Relatively speaking the HD600S do this much better for me, than what I call the "long in tooth" HD600/650, I just feel the newer 660S was a much needed update while retaining a lot of what attracted me originally to its older siblings in the first place, the HD600/650 are still regarded asgreat headphones but YMMV.

I owned and sold the HD 600/650 numerous times myself. They’re too boring for my tastes and I never liked how they portrayed upper mids. The HD 660 S was a much needed upgrade as well because they actually engage me in the music while also retaining that smooth mid-focused character.

If you only can have one headphone, from what I've heard from my short listen, yes the NDH30 probably would be the better choice. Amen. : )

I personally could never do one headphone, I like to keep 3-4 different sound signatures around regardless of how much I love my main headphone. I actually already found my endgame headphone and that’s the T1.3 but headphones such as the HD 660 S is a nice change of pace and allows me to experience music differently.

 

[indigogo]

You may already have your preference..... The HD660S for me was a much needed update to the HD600/650 which I've owned no less than 4 times, lol, and each time I sold them for the same reason, probably for their " super-smooth, mellow, warm sound"..... It comes down to preferences, all day listening or concert going for an hour or so, in my case "concert going" and music tastes.. and so when listening to music I want to be fully engaged in the performance, to have my senses fully alert and involved as much as possible. Relatively speaking the HD660S do this much better for me, than what I call the "long in tooth" HD600/650, I just feel the newer 660S was a much needed update while retaining a lot of what attracted me originally to its older siblings in the first place, the HD600/650 are still regarded as great headphones but YMMV.

I heard you - it's time to get rid of them for good! This time be more determined!

 

[Rob80b]

........
I personally could never do one headphone, I like to keep 3-4 different sound signatures around regardless of how much I love my main headphone. .......

Funny how that works, tried that a few times..and hanging out in Head-fi doesn't help. lol

 

[Rob80b]

For anyone still on the fence here in Canada...
https://ca.sennheiser-hearing.com/colle ... efurbished

US has also been added..
https://www.sennheiser-hearing.com/en-US/p/hd-660-s-refurbished/

 

[xSDMx]

For anyone still on the fence here in Canada...
https://ca.sennheiser-hearing.com/colle ... efurbished

US has also been added..
https://www.sennheiser-hearing.com/en-US/p/hd-660-s-refurbished/

I've tried every HD6xx series headphone except the 660s. Couldn't resist for $250. I've read that Sennheiser refurbished is very good quality.

 

[sonicm]

For anyone still on the fence here in Canada...
https://ca.sennheiser-hearing.com/colle ... efurbished

US has also been added..
https://www.sennheiser-hearing.com/en-US/p/hd-660-s-refurbished/

Thanks! This is way too good a deal to pass up. officially have my first pair of Sennheisers on the way now

 

[Slim1970]

I added a couple of mods to my HD660S's. The first was replacing the stock pads with a set of Dekoni fenestrated sheepskin pads. The second change was replacing the stock cable with a custom gold-plated copper plus palladium silver cable. Now the sound is much more to my liking. The bass is tighter with better definition. The midrange graininess is gone and treble is a lot smoother. I can hear better details, snappier transients, improved soundstaging with better depth, and imaging got a boost as well. Overall, the frequency response is cleaner and clearer allowing the music to come through with a greater sense of PRAT.