I have a pair of Sennheiser's 650 and I don't like them.

[plugto]

I have been trying to get the room correction companies to use a dummy head instead of a calibrated mic to do room correction and not one of them has given me an explanation as to why it wouldn't be more accurate.

 

[keitht]

I've owned a lot of cans over the years. I had 650s for about 10 years. They
Can sound good with the right gear, but in the end I went with q701s and stax.
The 650s just didn't quite sound right. The q701 with a tube amp and a couple
Of tweaks is both comfy and great sounding. Stax eats all of them, but are
Awful to wear after an hour or two. I also have grado ps500s as well.
So I had lots of cans to choose from. I still need a pair of hd58xs to
Try out.

 

[plugto]

But what about Binaural? have you listened to any signals of Binaural? I agree with the hardware explanation. I have never heard Stax but I know and have heard Magnepans and the electrostatics are super fast. The headphones without the room reflections and decay variations and room gain must be absolutely incredible.

 

[JoeESP9]

Unfortunately there aren't enough binaural recordings. For me, they are the only recordings that don't produce the through the head from one ear to another sound that all other recordings produce with headphones. Only binaural recordings produce an actual soundstage with headphones. Listening to a binaural recording via a Smyth Realizer resulted in the best sound I've ever heard from headphones.

Although Magnepans are very fast they are not electrostatic. They are planar magnetic. Just as with speakers there are electrostatic and planar magnetic headphones. Planar magnetic phones start at ~$200 and the price escalates from there. The pricier ones are in the four digit category. ESL phones tend to start at slightly higher prices with TOTL models in the five digit area.

ESL phones need an energizer/amplifier. Planar phones are directly driven by a regular headphone jack.

FWIW: I own Magneplanar and ESL speakers. I also have regular and planar magnetic headphones. A while ago I gave a pair of Stax SR-44 ESL (electret) phones to a buddy who had complaining neighbors. I have mild regrets about that gift.

Mike French is a regular poster on AK and a serious recordist. He has some binaural recordings for listening/download. You might want to send him (mfrench) a PM

 

[Tom Brennan]

@JoeESP9

Never mind the phones Joe, just thanks for saying you gave them a buddy rather than saying you “gifted” them to him.

 

[JoeESP9]

@JoeESP9

Never mind the phones Joe, just thanks for saying you gave them a buddy rather than saying you “gifted” them to him.

Thanks. Gifted has never been a verb.

gift·ed
Dictionary result for gifted
/ˈɡiftəd/
adjective
adjective: gifted

1. having exceptional talent or natural ability.
2. "a gifted amateur musician"
   synonyms: talented, skillful, skilled, accomplished, expert, consummate, master(ly), first-rate, polished, adroit, dexterous, able, competent, capable, apt, deft, adept, proficient;
   intelligent, clever, bright, brilliant, quick, sharp, perceptive;
   precocious, advanced for one's age, old beyond one's years, forward, ahead of one's peers, mature;
   informalcrack, top-notch, top-drawer, top-hole, ace, wizard, genius
   "she was already a gifted artist"
   antonyms: inept, stupid

 

[plugto]

Had to throw this in for you guys. Not sure if it means anything but never hurts to have an abundance of information.
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/a-tale-of-two-sennheisers-the-hd820-and-the-hd800s-r766/

 

[Catfish1]

x

 

[genone]

I didn't like them either. They sounded fine but clamped my head like a vice. Listening to others that said bend the arms did nothing. My old 595s don't sound as good but were huge and comfy. Today's quality control is horrible.

 

[kmulkey]

I have a pair of Sennheiser's 650 and I don't like them. I bought them for myself on Christmas about 5 years ago and they just don't thrill me. They were a disappointment on Christmas day and haven't improved. The high end just isn't there. I'm using a Rotel preamp RC-1070 to power them. Its it the amplifier, the phones, or my 62 year old ears?

I love my 650's...I've owned the 600's recently and back in the day, the 430's and 424's. Great headphones.

 

[Ripshift]

I just ordered a set of Massdrop hd6xx after reading about them here. I can't wait to try these with my SA-9100
I was reading somewhere that an old re-capped amp will bring them to life.
I can't wait to find out!

 

[Ripshift]

I received the HD6XX yesterday. They sound great to me but the these are only the 3rd pair of headphones I've ever had.
Happy to say they work great with my cell here's a clip on what I've read about that....

The HTC 10 uses a stand-alone DAC as well as headphone amp and isn't using the Snapdragon 820 DAC. This is pretty important, and why the HTC 10 sounds as good as it does.

I find that they sound natural and I can listen for hours. I'm cranking up Joe Satriani right now and loving it!

 

[Cosmos]

I find the HD650 a little bass heavy.. some call it warm.. Personally, I like the Sennheiser HD600 and HD800, AKG K701 and Audeze LCD2 much better..

 

[twiiii]

How much money do you want to spend? I love my Stax headphones. I use my Sennheisers as casual listening headphones at home and on long trips in the RV or in the SUV.

 

[Mellotronix]

Personally for jazz/rock I would recommend Beyerdynamic, they are proper over ears comfy with deep cups, big soundstage. Premium version has lighter clamp (DT880) or deeper cups (DT990) than Pro version. Sound signature is slightly V-shaped, accentuated deep bass and highs (DT990/DT770), DT880 are flattest, most natural sounding with slightly recessed mids, modern solid state headphone amp based on op-amps won't squeeze much bass out of DT880 even 250ohm.

DT880 600ohm for a valve headphone amplifier,
DT880/DT770 250ohm for a vintage 1970s SS receiver,
DT990/DT770 250ohm for solid state headphone amplifier

I'm a huge fan of Byerdynamic 880's and 990's. You're exactly right about the 600 ohm versions. I wear the 880's for hours on end in my studio. You can even track with them if you're not right on top of the mic.

But two years ago I purchased the then brand new DT 1990's (open back, 250 ohm) and holy Mütter von Gott. Sehr schoen. I check all of my mixes with them and they let me know everything that's happening, from the low bass way up to the limits of my hearing. I find them less spacious than the 880's, but in a good way. The soundstage is coherent. Sometimes the 880's make some of the instruments sound like they are hangin' out in space by themselves, especially those old recordings where you have instruments hard panned with no stereo ambient effects blending them together (Terrapin Station, Who's Next, Traffic, etc.).

Not a huge Sennheiser fan. I know, the audiophiles love them because they don't hype the high end like Grados and some Byers. But I think that people who think Byers are toppy have just not listened to them. They are repeating what they've read on the web. There just aren't that many Byers floating around compared with the number of people who claim they've tried them.

Love the DT1990's. The two sets of pads are nice, but I prefer the B's. I listen to prog rock and jazz, and the bass player is more often than not the best musician in the band.

 

[sssboa]

I'm a huge fan of Byerdynamic 880's and 990's. You're exactly right about the 600 ohm versions. I wear the 880's for hours on end in my studio. You can even track with them if you're not right on top of the mic.

But two years ago I purchased the then brand new DT 1990's (open back, 250 ohm) and holy Mütter von Gott. Sehr schoen. I check all of my mixes with them and they let me know everything that's happening, from the low bass way up to the limits of my hearing. I find them less spacious than the 880's, but in a good way. The soundstage is coherent. Sometimes the 880's make some of the instruments sound like they are hangin' out in space by themselves, especially those old recordings where you have instruments hard panned with no stereo ambient effects blending them together (Terrapin Station, Who's Next, Traffic, etc.).

Not a huge Sennheiser fan. I know, the audiophiles love them because they don't hype the high end like Grados and some Byers. But I think that people who think Byers are toppy have just not listened to them. They are repeating what they've read on the web. There just aren't that many Byers floating around compared with the number of people who claim they've tried them.

Love the DT1990's. The two sets of pads are nice, but I prefer the B's. I listen to prog rock and jazz, and the bass player is more often than not the best musician in the band.

Yeah, believe dt1990 are great. Do they make them in 600 ohm or max 250 ohm?

I don't use headphones any more, only to test amps I restore. Despite this I bought Beyerdynamic DT-100 and pads from DT-150 for them which give them soundstage. They have plenty of bass while people claim they're thinnest sounding phones ever. Seems they amp them from those opamp based amps.
Also bought AKG K712, great specious headphones.
Vintage Sansui SS-10 nice addition for £20.
DT-1990 are a bit too expensive even second hand for me to buy and listen 2 times a year.

 

[Mellotronix]

Yeah, believe dt1990 are great. Do they make them in 600 ohm or max 250 ohm?

I don't use headphones any more, only to test amps I restore. Despite this I bought Beyerdynamic DT-100 and pads from DT-150 for them which give them soundstage. They have plenty of bass while people claim they're thinnest sounding phones ever. Seems they amp them from those opamp based amps.
Also bought AKG K712, great specious headphones.
Vintage Sansui SS-10 nice addition for £20.
DT-1990 are a bit too expensive even second hand for me to buy and listen 2 times a year.

I prefer to listen to a good 2.1 system, myself. I like two way stand mounted speakers better than big floor standers as a rule--especially with a good subwoofer designed for music like a REL.

I listen to headphones every night in bed for about an hour and of course when I'm mixing or mastering, I'm constantly going back and fort between my two sets of monitors and several pairs of headphones. The DT 880s are excellent for getting frequencies balanced. Grados are nice for positioning instruments. The DT 1990's may come in 600 ohm, but I think you'd have to special order them or make a trip to Heilbronn. They make everything sound great, so I limit their use to checking for obvious mistakes in mastering--phase issues, distortion where it shouldn't be, channel balance, overall eq, etc. $600 seems steep for the DT1880's and 1990's, but they do have Tesla drivers which sound great, even at lower volume levels because of the high levels of energy that they produce.

 

[Tom Brennan]

But I think that people who think Byers are toppy have just not listened to them. They are repeating what they've read on the web.
.

Well, if you think that you’re wrong. I had 770s and sent them back to Amazon. They were zippy and had a harsh glare. I listened carefully and considered and reconsidered before returning them.

 

[Cage]

I really like my 650s. I don't know whats not to like about