[crinacle]

Alright, I managed to get a nice, long audition from my friend's 200 hour-clocked HTF600s. I must say, for $30 (SGD$60 for my case) it is a VERY good deal. Mids have a lot of musicality, soundstage is very nicely projected and bass... a joy to listen to.
 
But, um... 
 
 

Spoiler: Hardcore%20HTF600%20fanboys%20may%20not%20want%20to%20see%20this.

 
As with all "budget killers", one thing I noticed to be severely lacking is treble projection. Very prevalent in the Superlux line of headphones as well as a shortcoming in Dunu's ever-popular Trident IEM, the problem seems to be also present within the HTF600. From what I can remember, there was a noticeable roll-off and was lacking in sharpness.
 
Now, I'll compare it with the M50 and the HFI-580, the headphones that the Panny was the supposed "cheaper alternative" to. Again, like the Superlux and the Trident, the HTF600 are definitely a bout of awesomeness at a budget, doing many things that most cans at a similar or higher price are unable to do. However, when compared to to the $100 to $150 giants, some of its flaws are revealed.
 
As stated, there's the treble, which frankly is actually better the Superlux's grainy funkiness but is still a pretty big weakness. Compared to the M50's treble, the Pannys lose out in detail, but the M50s have this annoying imbalance within the high frequencies which make it somewhat harsh and weird to listen to, so it pretty much equals out against the Panny's. Mids are like the M50's; slightly recessed for not overly so, retain the M50's great layering properties but as stated, lack in detail. Don't get me wrong here, detail retrieval is still very, very good, just not up to the standards of the M50 or the Superluxes. As for bass, surprisingly it actually EQUALS the M50 in terms of quality, but in quantity the Pannys does have more. I would say about the AKG518's level?
 
Against the HFI-580, sadly it isn't as close a competitor. The Ultrasone's bass are superior in response and detail, with the Pannys again little a tad bit extra quantity. As for mids, the Pannys are definitely more forward but again lack in detail as compared to the Pannys, but definitely have more musicality to them due to the HFI-580's "robotic" approach to vocals and wind instruments. I don't think I have to speak for the treble.
 
Sure, the HTF600 is a great alternative to these $150 options, but are they a "better" alternative? In my book, not exactly. But a good fight. A close fight.
 

 
In short, a great find in a world filled with undiscovered gems, but like Superlux and Dunu, are just shy of being true "giant killers". These will go into my list of great budget cans, alongside the DJ100, Superlux and the Portapro.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I may have to try the velour pads even if I'm very happy with the sound I'm getting with these pleather pads, the sweating just becomes an issue especially when doing my late hour online gaming sessions as my skin is rather bad and it seems to worsen my acne around the cheek as the skin gets unclean, besides the pads smells pretty bad too. I didn't have this problem with XB500. I wouldn't like to get less bass quantity / impact though but maybe if I cover the holes on the underside of the pads with tape that should really start behaving like the pleather pads as I'm fairly sure I've read elsewhere that holes in the pads like on the Beyers are what boosts the highs. I could for example also try leaving the most inner row uncovered and see what happens. The ovals look quite small in the picture, is the innercircle actually smaller on the Beyer pads compared to stock pleather pads or is it just the pictures that makes them look like that? Do your ears fit nicely inside?
 
It would cost me 26.90 EUR to buy these pads (12 eur shipping :s), I paid around 35 EUR for the headphone so it would be quite expensive from that perspective.

 

[NamelessPFG]

I listened to some of my usual music last night while in bed, and suddenly noticed two more weird things:
 
-Did the bass stop intruding into the mids on vocal tracks all of a sudden? This may be a side effect of having lost much of their punchy impact, but it just makes the vocals not seem like they're in the background so much anymore, even if SineGen still highlights that blanket over the mids.
 
-Where'd that skull-clamping pressure go? I'm still using the same pleather pads, it's still the same headphone, but for some weird reason, I don't feel as much pressure around my ears like I used to...whatever the case may be, I'm certainly not complaining!

 

[daylight]

Do these headphones sound good straight from portable player or mobile phone unamped? Do 56 ohm and 32ohm headphones have noticable difference?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Do these headphones sound good straight from portable player or mobile phone unamped? Do 56 ohm and 32ohm headphones have noticable difference?

 
Just a slight difference, I'd still say it performs good enough without amping but it requires a tiny bit higher volume than my other 32 ohm and 40 ohm headphones. But as far as how it sounds, yea it sounds great even without amping but then again I would never imagine going back to being ZOless.

 

[Kerry56]

The velour pads are out of stock at Amazon, and Beyerdynamic doesn't list the EDT 200 amongst the pads it sells directly from their N. American website.  Anyone know of an alternate source?

 

[david1978jp]

Kudos to Dsnuts for finding a good sound headphone for cheap. A big thanks and smile from my heart.
But
The value is not here any more. For $30 (it was), it sounds nice in a special way -- Panasonic did not push over the limit of the drivers, so it never sound harsh, or too bloated.  (I agree with Dsnuts's review, in a lesser degree.)
For $50 ~ 60 (price is higher now), the mid is particularly troublesome: lacks details, slightly bouncing-leaky-basketball-ish and shall I say tin-can sound (somewhat)?
For $80, (by adding another $20 for  Beyerdynamic Velour Pad), you have many choices now.
Imagine this way
I'd like to have a nicer sounding Apple earbuds in a full size headphone; or, I want that feeling of the famous Sennheiser HD650 sound signature without the expensive price tag, and I am willing to settle for lesser sound quality.
The build quality is on par with Philips, which are usually rather good.
I got mine for $30, I am keeping mine, no complaints at all.
Edit,
I have Beyerdynamic Velour Pad; it sounds good enough without it.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

At least in europe the pads are EDT 250 not 200, so some other sites etc may list them as EDT 250 too, I've only seen them listed as 200 on amazon.com.

 

[Marximus]

I think DT 250 pads are the same, as well.

 

[captouch]

Just curious - why do you say the value isn't there anymore?  Some places are still selling for $30.
 
Quote:

Kudos to Dsnuts for finding a good sound headphone for cheap. A big thanks and smile from my heart.
But
The value is not here any more. For $30, it sounds nice in a special way -- Panasonic did not push over the limit of the drivers, so it never sound harsh, or too bloated.  (I agree with Dsnuts's review, in a lesser degree.)
For $50 ~ 60, the mid is particularly troublesome: lacks details, slightly bouncing-leaky-basketball-ish and shall I say tin-can sound (somewhat)?
For $80, (by adding another $20 for  Beyerdynamic Velour Pad), you have many choices now.
Imagine this way
I'd like to have a nicer sounding Apple earbuds in a full size headphone; or, I want that feeling of the famous Sennheiser HD650 sound signature without the expensive price tag, and I am willing to settle for lesser sound quality.
The build quality is on par with Philips, which are usually rather good.
I got mine for $30, I am keeping mine, no complaints at all.

 

 

[derycksan]

Thanks for your honest opinions, I found the same weaknesses as you (Ultrasone owner here), I still enjoy them though.
 
Quote:

Alright, I managed to get a nice, long audition from my friend's 200 hour-clocked HTF600s. I must say, for $30 (SGD$60 for my case) it is a VERY good deal. Mids have a lot of musicality, soundstage is very nicely projected and bass... a joy to listen to.
 
But, um... 
 
 

Spoiler: Hardcore%20HTF600%20fanboys%20may%20not%20want%20to%20see%20this.

 
As with all "budget killers", one thing I noticed to be severely lacking is treble projection. Very prevalent in the Superlux line of headphones as well as a shortcoming in Dunu's ever-popular Trident IEM, the problem seems to be also present within the HTF600. From what I can remember, there was a noticeable roll-off and was lacking in sharpness.
 
Now, I'll compare it with the M50 and the HFI-580, the headphones that the Panny was the supposed "cheaper alternative" to. Again, like the Superlux and the Trident, the HTF600 are definitely a bout of awesomeness at a budget, doing many things that most cans at a similar or higher price are unable to do. However, when compared to to the $100 to $150 giants, some of its flaws are revealed.
 
As stated, there's the treble, which frankly is actually better the Superlux's grainy funkiness but is still a pretty big weakness. Compared to the M50's treble, the Pannys lose out in detail, but the M50s have this annoying imbalance within the high frequencies which make it somewhat harsh and weird to listen to, so it pretty much equals out against the Panny's. Mids are like the M50's; slightly recessed for not overly so, retain the M50's great layering properties but as stated, lack in detail. Don't get me wrong here, detail retrieval is still very, very good, just not up to the standards of the M50 or the Superluxes. As for bass, surprisingly it actually EQUALS the M50 in terms of quality, but in quantity the Pannys does have more. I would say about the AKG518's level?
 
Against the HFI-580, sadly it isn't as close a competitor. The Ultrasone's bass are superior in response and detail, with the Pannys again little a tad bit extra quantity. As for mids, the Pannys are definitely more forward but again lack in detail as compared to the Pannys, but definitely have more musicality to them due to the HFI-580's "robotic" approach to vocals and wind instruments. I don't think I have to speak for the treble.
 
Sure, the HTF600 is a great alternative to these $150 options, but are they a "better" alternative? In my book, not exactly. But a good fight. A close fight.
 

 
In short, a great find in a world filled with undiscovered gems, but like Superlux and Dunu, are just shy of being true "giant killers". These will go into my list of great budget cans, alongside the DJ100, Superlux and the Portapro.

 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I'm the opposite and want the highs to sound like this, I sold Beyer DT770 Pro/80 partly cuz of this, while having great detail it was too much for me, I prefer a warmer sound when mids are slightly more forward than highs. So for me these HTF600 are very much worth $150 stock and $200+ with mod/tweaks/EQing. In comparision I had only paid $100 if satisfaction would determine the price for DT770 Pro/80 for example or Denon D1100 I had only paid 60~$70 for that sound which is far less than they cost.
 
So don't forget about the personal preferences in sound, price has never been a good indication of the satisfaction you're about to get. You need to find your preferred sound and then look up the best candidate for you to get the best satisfaction. As far as HTF600 goes it's very very close to my optimal preference in sound so therefore I value it so high. Unfortunately it's very uncommon to find expensier headphones with similar frequency response balance curves that would do everything better why I'm kinda stuck with these low cost headphones. XB500 also had this similar kind of frequency response curve but it was too exaggerated, HTF600 is more balanced with very forward mids despite being so bassy which is what I love with these.

 

[david1978jp]

Quote:

Just curious - why do you say the value isn't there anymore?  Some places are still selling for $30.
 


 

If you can find it for $30, go for it.  I goolged it for a few days, the price were $40 ~ $60.
Edit,
I have Beyerdynamic Velour Pad; it sounds good enough without it.

 
 

 

[SanjiWatsuki]

Quote:

If you can find it for $30, go for it.  I goolged it for a few days, the price were $40 ~ $60.

 
 

It's a bit like that when Amazon runs out of stock. When that happens, though, they can still normally be found for about $35 shipped. 

 

[gelocks]

Quote:

Alright, I managed to get a nice, long audition from my friend's 200 hour-clocked HTF600s. I must say, for $30 (SGD$60 for my case) it is a VERY good deal. Mids have a lot of musicality, soundstage is very nicely projected and bass... a joy to listen to.
 
But, um... 
 
 

Spoiler: Hardcore%20HTF600%20fanboys%20may%20not%20want%20to%20see%20this.

 
As with all "budget killers", one thing I noticed to be severely lacking is treble projection. Very prevalent in the Superlux line of headphones as well as a shortcoming in Dunu's ever-popular Trident IEM, the problem seems to be also present within the HTF600. From what I can remember, there was a noticeable roll-off and was lacking in sharpness.
 
Now, I'll compare it with the M50 and the HFI-580, the headphones that the Panny was the supposed "cheaper alternative" to. Again, like the Superlux and the Trident, the HTF600 are definitely a bout of awesomeness at a budget, doing many things that most cans at a similar or higher price are unable to do. However, when compared to to the $100 to $150 giants, some of its flaws are revealed.
 
As stated, there's the treble, which frankly is actually better the Superlux's grainy funkiness but is still a pretty big weakness. Compared to the M50's treble, the Pannys lose out in detail, but the M50s have this annoying imbalance within the high frequencies which make it somewhat harsh and weird to listen to, so it pretty much equals out against the Panny's. Mids are like the M50's; slightly recessed for not overly so, retain the M50's great layering properties but as stated, lack in detail. Don't get me wrong here, detail retrieval is still very, very good, just not up to the standards of the M50 or the Superluxes. As for bass, surprisingly it actually EQUALS the M50 in terms of quality, but in quantity the Pannys does have more. I would say about the AKG518's level?
 
Against the HFI-580, sadly it isn't as close a competitor. The Ultrasone's bass are superior in response and detail, with the Pannys again little a tad bit extra quantity. As for mids, the Pannys are definitely more forward but again lack in detail as compared to the Pannys, but definitely have more musicality to them due to the HFI-580's "robotic" approach to vocals and wind instruments. I don't think I have to speak for the treble.
 
Sure, the HTF600 is a great alternative to these $150 options, but are they a "better" alternative? In my book, not exactly. But a good fight. A close fight.
 

 
In short, a great find in a world filled with undiscovered gems, but like Superlux and Dunu, are just shy of being true "giant killers". These will go into my list of great budget cans, alongside the DJ100, Superlux and the Portapro.

I definitely agree on the lack of detail but that's why I use this as a companion headphone!
(for more detailed uppers/mids --> Shure 940s)
 
But I definitely prefer them over the M50s even though I know they are less detailed
and for $30, it's a steal!
 
On another note, I don't know what the guy in amazon posted negatively.
I dare him to find another $30 set that sounds this great!