Senneheiser HD660S Impressions

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by Ray, Oct 25, 2017.

  1. ipm

    ipm Acquaintance

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    I Agree. I have both the HD650 and the HD600. I don't hear a veil on either headphone.

    I never really understood this to be honest. Perhaps people with better ears than mine can hear this.

    I may be wrong but this may be a perception that arises for people when changing from their preferred brighter headphones to the HD650/600.
    Is this the case? Does anyone know the reviewers preferences relative to headphones being bright or not?
     
  2. ipm

    ipm Acquaintance

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    Thanks. This answers my questions as well. Same question it seems.
     
  3. Jinxy245

    Jinxy245 Vegan Puss

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    I don't think it's so much "better ears" as a matter of perspective.

    That's why this site (thankfully) stresses posting sonic preferences, audio chain etc.

    One persons 'veiled' is another persons 'smooth'. I've never experienced my HD600 as veiled either (used mostly through a Chord Hugo)
     
  4. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    If they’re underpowered the 600/650 can sound veiled for sure. It’s a function of their scalability I think.
     
  5. Storytime

    Storytime Acquaintance

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    +1

    That was my exact experience. When I auditioned the 650 at length in an audio shop (about five years ago), it struck me as "veiled." Then a couple years later I heard it running balanced out of the Liquid Carbon, and it was quite eye-opening--the veil vanished. Now I'm running my KISS-modded 650 out of a ZDS and the veil is a distance memory--but I can summon a just a shadow of the veil with the wrong tubes. I'm also a bit of a treble-head, so maybe that contributes to my perception of a "veil," too.
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    If you want to extend the subbass with EQ, you will be better off with the HD600 which has 5db less distortion at 20Hz and 7db less at 40Hz compared to the HD660S. The HD600 should also cost much less.

    http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...hd650-hd660s-analysis.5308/page-2#post-172297
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2017
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I did not hear any significant difference in terms of impact or punch among the Senns. Hard to say. The stock HD650s have a bit more midbass and this can contribute impact and punch. The HD660S have sharper attack, and this too can affect subjective perception of impact and punch of bass instruments.

    Just a matter of terminology and different aspects contributing to veil. Consider the following:
    • The stock HD650 can be said to have a veil compared to the HD600 because of its higher distortion in the bass. There's a thickening up of overtones in the bass (this is exactly what is happening) providing both a warmer and more murky sound. This also rings true for the HD660S (has bass distortion profile same as the HD650) when compared to the HD600 with one crucial exception:
    • The HD660's bass frequency response is toned down, like the HD600's frequency response. The HD650 actually has more midbass than either HD660S and HD600. This extra bass can lend itself to a more cloudy or muffed sound.
    • The HD660S does seem clearer under certain circumstances (sparse arrangements, fairly low levels). Part of these blacker blacks seems to be the result of the upward compression of lower level signals and loss of lowest level information causing the blacks or "shadow detail" to be crushed. Reminds me of the Abyss headphones with their inky black blackgrounds, which does the same thing compared to other TOTL headphones, except in this case, the HD660S doesn't have the low bass distortion profile to go along with it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2017
  8. ipm

    ipm Acquaintance

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    and

    Nice. Thanks. I appreciate you taking time to reply to this sort of thing.

    I do hear the warmer part but I don't think I have been able to pick out the muffled part. This eludes me, or perhaps I hear it and I'm not identifying it as muffled so to speak.

    Does the muffled part become more apparent at certain frequencies? If so, which ones?
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    If the stock HD650 doesn't sound muffled, I wouldn't worry about it. I will say that the HD600 does sound less muffled / full / muddy than the stock HD650 because of both lower distortion and lower bass levels. We are talking about the mid to high bass. The difference among the Sennheisers HD6** headphones isn't extreme in this regard.
     
  10. ipm

    ipm Acquaintance

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    Thanks again.
     
  11. ipm

    ipm Acquaintance

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    Cool. I did not think of that.
     
  12. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Preliminary impressions (HD660S vs HD600) using my Focusrite 2i2.

    Yeah. These are YouTube impressions. Maybe later I'll try some other shit.

    Heart - Under The Sky (Live)



    Tone is extremely similar. If I was not told otherwise I would say this is an HD600. Bass on the HD660S seems to hit a little harder, but this could be due to the cans clamping a little harder since they are newer. Same mids and treble presentation. Obviously I like this signature. Can't tell much of a difference with this song.

    Laura Branigan - Hot Night.



    I think I need new pads. The HD660S seem to sit a little farther away on my ears. Pads are not as plushy as my old HD600s. The HD660S play a little louder. Bass with this song seems to be quite similar between the two cans IMO.

    Gipsy King - Bamboleo



    f**k it guys. Buy the cheapest one. These sound too damn similar to me. Maybe in a month or a year I'll find a significant difference.
     
  13. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Confirmed. The HD660S plays about 1.7 dB louder than my HD600.

    EDIT: And they measure almost the same. Will post results in the appropriate thread.

    Convenient measurement linky:

    http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...hd650-hd660s-analysis.5308/page-5#post-174030

    BTW, this particular HD660S seems to exhibit a little bit more distortion than my particular HD600.

    In terms of looks I wished the HD660S where piano black. They are not shinny. I want shinny. The enclosure seems to be almost the same (if not the same). Main difference is the head pad which resembles that one from the HD650s and the cup mesh.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2017
  14. Prydz

    Prydz Friend

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    Guess I gotta save up for MrSpeakers Aeon Open then...
    I have HD600 (but very old drivers) and HD650.
    Anyone tried modifying the HD600? I guess one should not remove the foam on the HD600, but maybe dampen it and remove spider cage? :D
     
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Removing one or more of the foam discs on the HD600 would elevate the bass and increase 5kHz. This procedure can actually be reversed if you are skilled with tweezers and don't rip the foam when putting it back.

    This would be a cheap way to get the HD660S energy and warmer tonal response using the HD600. However you still will not get the headstage width of the HD660S. Again differences are small.
     
  16. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Waffle or mental masturbation? Inquiring minds want to know.

    Edit: Underneath the awful crimes against language, the point is sound. I should stop being such a bitch, mebbe.
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2017
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    ^ This is what it's all about. @Hands, @ultrabike, @zerodeefex, @Bill-P and I all have different preferences. Some aspects of these preferences intersect, some do not. We can discuss at length about gear and tell each other to look for certain traits that might have escaped us without one of us feeling threatened. We don't tell each other to go listen to a neutral reference monitor or one-up each other by saying we've heard a Stradivari at Carnegie Hall or that our massive DXD/DSD/MQA collection is yet to come as the defining test. There are so many variables that can come into play. Upstream gear, amps, source, recordings, even misconfiguration of EQ or other settings. It's about sorting out variables, including personal preferences, and often in comparison relative to other gear to get a better picture.
     
  18. Koth Ganesh

    Koth Ganesh Friend

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    ........

    Jeepers, this is what I accidentally did about a year ago. After doing the HD 650 mods, I removed the foam from the 600 but luckily did not do the coin mod. Since then, I have been at a loss to understand why the 600 became a relatively bass monster, especially with the BH Crack+ Speedball. Now I know. Thanks Marv
     
  19. MrTurtle

    MrTurtle Facebook Friend

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    Concur with the 600 mod observations; I did the 650M mod to my 600 without the coin mod to get a warmer tilt. I like it as it helps to counteract the slight 3-4khz hotness a little. Interestingly, my 600 only had one foam disc per side. Silver baffle, bought early this year.

    Rigs are Vali 2+Modi 1 and Leck+ZX100 if that helps put things in perspective.
     
  20. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    Really? Why is this not more of a thing?? That is pretty much my only gripe with HD600.

    Screw HD666, I’m saving up for another HD600 to try this on...
     

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