[migasson]

Nothing wrong at all with this DAC/amp for the 600's - sounds great
 

 

[dbaker1981]

This is my set up for the 600's. I also have a AudioTechnica Vinyl player hooked up. Hence the Sys.

 

[dbaker1981]

^ I wouldn't call the MT220 very portable, they are sort of large. Another headphone that you might want to look into is the Oppo PM-3, which I haven't heard myself yet, but others have said that it's sort of similar to the HD600. I'm not sure if the PM-3 is circumaural though, but it definitely looks portable, and it folds flat.

The MT220 is fairly easy to drive, sounds great straight out of my laptop PC.

I have the OPPO pm-3. They do have a similar sound signature. And while they are portable and 32 ohm I would still recommend an amp cause it really brings out the full potential of the planars.

 

[Koukol]

Does anyone know of any replacement ear pads that are pleather?
Due to sweating I'd like them to be easier to clean and maintain in the summer.
I looked on E-Bay and Amazon with no luck.

 

[qrtas]

Hi, have anyone had the chance to compare side by side the hd650/600 to the new Focal Elear?

 

[ld100]

What are the good reasonably priced replacement cables for 600 which are shorter? Stock cable is way too long for my need... Anything on Aliexpress that is worth getting? 

 

[kpfeifle]

What are the good reasonably priced replacement cables for 600 which are shorter? Stock cable is way too long for my need... Anything on Aliexpress that is worth getting? 

I needed longer cables and went with Impact Cables on Etsy. He's a great guy to deal with, and will make them any size you want. Also, lots of great color sleeves to pick from!

 

[polecrab]

I braided my stock cable, but I've also ordered a replacement cable for my wife's HD518 from this Chinese seller on eBay, low20101020, and it was very high quality for a low price. He also does HD600 cables.

 

[Koukol]

I highly recommend Surf Cables.

 

[Hisoundfi]

I highly recommend this one:
 

 

 

[tradyblix]

I think this headphone may have the best mids out of any headphone I've heard that is in a reasonable price range
 
There are technically better headphones but I really love how laid back it is. 

 

[KeithG]

I've had my Sennheisers HD 600 cans for more than fifteen years, they were my first and for a long time my only pair of audiophile headphones. Over the years I have run them direct from my main amplifier, a series of Musical Fidelity X-Cans of various versions, from stock to modified and back again; more recently they have had a dedicated Little Dot MkIII with NOS, grooved Voshkod valves. Each step along the amplification road has been an improvement, sometimes subtle, occasionally quite significant. In the early days, listening to the 600s had me thinking, "why can't my speakers sound like this?" There was incredible detail and I found myself immersed into recordings, dissecting favourite tracks and discovering new sounds on discs I thought I knew really well - for me they seemed unbeatable

And that's how things were for a quite some time, until a few years ago, I was given a surprise pair of Grado 325 cans by my wife for Christmas. At first the Grado's sounded all wrong, too bright and too forward in the mids, indeed I struggled to see what people saw or heard in them. However, after some burning in of both cans and ears they began to take over, they were much more fun, in fact switching back to the Senns had me wondering why was everything so dark and bass heavy, why vocals were now taking a back seat in the mix and where all that texture had gone. Those first Grados led me to track down a pair Grado X Bushmills that do all that famous treble and midrange detail but with real tuneful bass. The headphone bug had bitten and now I have a growing collection of Grados, and a pair of Audeze LCD2, all powered by a Schiit Lyr2 with vintage Amperex Bugle Boys.

All this has left the HD 600 sitting on the shelf, only getting the occasional outing and sounding so very different, perhaps even too different to my favourite cans, the beautifully well rounded Bushmills. However, rather than let them languish there, unloved and under used, I thought I might experiment with a new cable. I have searched around on eBay and etsy for some time and finally took the plunge with what looked like a bargain from UK eBay seller Mavismodz6, who by coincidence also happens to be a Keith. He his £30 upgrade cable, which he makes himself, thus:

"Cable upgrade for sennheiser headphones using the 2 pin type connection, eg HD600,650 etc (Not suitable for the HD25, please see my other listings for compatible cable's) 2 metres long pure OFC cable has 4 core cable's which have been twisted into pairs, 2 cable's per channel, this stops interference from effecting the audio signal and the black Teflon based sleeving further isolates the signal whilst cutting down the cable's microphonics considerably, The 2 twisted pairs are then reverse twisted into one cable and sleeved in a green paracord to protect and provide strength, also stopping it from tangling, The reverse twist eliminates cross talk between the left and right channels keeping the audio clean and clear. The cable is terminated with a 6.35mm trs jack which is filled with sound dampening resin after soldering, this not only aids with further minimising the microphonics, but it also makes the jack connection super strong, the custom Cardas style hpsc connectors are also filled after soldering making for a very strong, well built cable."

A quick word of caution - if like me, you rush straight to change over cables and are a little long sighted, you might miss that the pins on the cables are sided by being made in two different sizes. If you have to force the connection then you have got it the wrong way round. You might also need new glasses.

So what did they do? Well, they did something, in fact they did something quite surprising. I was hoping to hear something but wasn't expecting suck a marked difference. The Senns and the Grados are chalk and cheese, the Senns dark and immersive, the Grados bright and fun. With the volume set at position 2 on the Little Dot the cable gives the the Senns some extra sparkle and life. Switching cables back and forth on The Delines' "Colfax", track 9, "He told Her The City Was Killing Him" there is greater texture and increased detail, Amy Boone has more breath and seems even more real and the cans now separate wood from cymbal better than before - if you've heard it, you will know what I mean - my go to tracks to hear this is Radiohead's 'The National Anthem' and Grandaddy's 'He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot" - I am hearing real cymbals being struck with wooden sticks. On The Lemonheads cover of 'Dandelion Seeds' the easily confused guitars are now more clearly separated and each individual instrument more readily followed. It's not simply a matter of a brighter presentation, there is more detail - this isn't just change, its a definite improvement. Never mind chalk and cheese or oranges and apples, comparing my Senns and the Grados is now more akin to comparing fine cheeses (Sorry but I never got a taste for wine), the Senns are much more fun now.

And there's more - on over bright CDs, like the otherwise sublime "Inside The Human Body" from Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, the Grados are just a little 'too much' but with its new cable, the Sennheiser's now have enough extra sparkle to do justice and extract the fun out tracks like "Take Off Your Sunglasses" without sounding glaringly bright. That's a nice trick and suits my headphoning, allowing me to tailor my cans to suit the music and my mood.

I'm impressed, if entry level cables can provide such a change, what might be in store further up the price ladder? The Sennheisers have been saved from the back of the shelf and will now get an outing more often. At these prices I intend trying others, especially as they come in such small packages and are much more easily sneaked past my lovely wife than either a new pair of cans or an amplifier might be. Yes, cables do make a difference and at these prices it seems silly not to at least give them a try. I'm hooked and saving for the next step up.