[BruinAnteater]

Thanks Snoopy

 

[Ian111]

Great review.  Particularly your last post that focuses on giving the proper context and perspective on each of these headphones. 

 

[BruinAnteater]

Quote:

Great review.  Particularly your last post that focuses on giving the proper context and perspective on each of these headphones. 

Thanks Ian. The Momentum is a great headphone, whose price, looks and SQ make it a little tough to properly place. Its a complex, misundeerstood headphone!
 
One the one hand, they are not much cheaper than HD650s which I do consider as a whole to be on a different level than the Momentums, but to properly run the HD650s requires a certain investment on other equipment, plus they really cant be (reasonably) used out side of your home or isolated office. As portable cans they do make a much better argument, especially when you consider how easy they are to drive and the sound quality you get, even with "lesser" equipment. 

 

[G_T_J]

That's a really great read! I was sitting on the fence between those above. Still haven't decided yet but you enlightenened my way for sure!

 

[ScanSpeak HiFi]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I wanted to comment since I have both the HD650's and the Momentums. I've been into hi end home, car, and pro audio for over two decades now but it was actually the Momentums that drew me into the headphone game very recently. While killing some time, I heard them at a local Best Buy and was really impressed with their frequency response.
 
Anyhow, out of all my recently purchased headphones, HD650's, Momentums over ear 1.0, IE80's, and Audio Technica ATH-M50x's, I think I would prefer the Momentums if I could only pick one as a do everything headphone. I love the way they sound plugged straight into the cell phone with no eq, and being a closed back design, they work well on the go. No surprise, the HD650's have the potential to sound the best but it requires an amp with a good DAC and some eq but they're still open back which limits their use to quiet environments. If the HD650's didn't require an amp and eq, they would get my pick.
 
I've read a lot of negative reviews about the Momentums which leaves me absolutely stunned. I seriously wonder if there are a lot of fakes going around. The Momentums don't have that over hyped high end that many headphones have which make headphones sound like "headphones" and not the music as intended. Maybe this is what people have come to expect when putting on a pair of headphones? You could argue that the Momentums sound mellow but it's a great balance and it's very forgiving of many music genres as well as bad recordings. Other than my HD650's, as a reference, I have an extremely high end home audio system with Scanspeak Revelator drivers so I'm no stranger to good sound quality. Just my opinion but the Momentums get 5 stars from me.