Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, Sep 27, 2015.

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  1. spoony

    spoony Spooky

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    Jesus, that's gnarly. It's probably 90% overdone but I bet it sounds good.
     
  2. James Whiting

    James Whiting Facebook Friend

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    Spoony yeah its way overkill but that was my intention. Get everything out of it I could. A lot of the mods are relatively subtle but you can hear them. A lot of little things definetly make more pronounced difference. I spent
    about 5 months playing with these, reading the thread and trying all kinds of things. The shun mook pucks may be the most bizzare thing...really creating the Frankenheiser "head"bolt effect. But shun mook pucks are strange beasties that can make differences. In this case it adds a very subtle midrange bloom and a hint of sweetness...Mostly on acoustic stuff and female vocals. Hey but I like it.

    Pushed them as far as I can think of!...now I'm saving for Auteurs or maybe Senn HD 820's! Waiting to hear more about the
    820's!

    in the meantime tweaking my equpment and wire. Have some Zenwave Silver Gold OCC custom headphone cables on the way. Will burn them in on Frankies and then reterminate to suit which ever phones I settle on later.!

    Happy Listening!
     
  3. lerrens

    lerrens Facebook Friend

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    I know it's a bit late to the party but... my god the HD650 are the goldilocks of headphones...
    I'm well acquainted with HD600 and have been assuming HD650 to just sound like that but warmer, more bass et al but I've never imagined tonal balance would make so much of a difference. The sound is so much livelier and non-fatiguing than the HD600. Listening on Jot SE+Gungnir Multibit, treble is extreeeemely sweet and smooth but never smeared. HD650 doesn't seem veiled at all to me on my setup, I would call LCD-2C a bit veiled (maybe because of the bass heft) but not the HD650.

    It has a sturdy built quality and is light on head. Everything sounds nice and enjoyable with them and they just disappear after a few minutes. They might not have some super special characteristics of higher-end headphones but you simply can't find anything annoying about them. This might be the only headphones that I have which doesn't annoy me in any way, other than the AirPods.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Mdkaler

    Mdkaler Friend

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    @lerrens Try the 650 with Jot balanced if possible. And the website looks neat by the way!
     
  5. James Whiting

    James Whiting Facebook Friend

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    Scaling away!

    Zenwave Silver Gold cable is much better than the OCC copper litz. Frankenheiser is effectively reborn again!

    Wow!

    And just setuoa mapleshade isolation setup. OMG. Even bigger differences between the cables.

    Hard to believe how much improvement!

    Happy listening
     
  6. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Bought the Damplifier Pro sample (international shipping was a bitch), I followed the Kiss mod instruction but with Damplifier Pro instead, including coin mod, spider cage removal and with the foam piece between two sticks of Damplifier on the driver. Spent some hours on it but it's so worth it!

    Seemingly less distortion, tighter bass/sub-bass. It's not dramatic but it makes for subtly sexier HD650 sound. Thanks everyone ;) You guys have this down to a science!
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2018
  7. James Whiting

    James Whiting Facebook Friend

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    How good can the Sennies be? Beyond belief. I have dumped a ton into my system in an attempt to essentially end game it in prep for the Auteurs. Been waiting bout 6 weeks . It's been uptoned, Mapleshaded and silver gold cabled Just got a new proto USB cable from Mad Scientist Audio. Bob's a hoot. Black Magic. Oh yeah it is. Much better! And just updated to Fidelizer 8.1. Minimalist mode is the Bomb. Scaling away again! Man do the 650's just get even better. Im keeping em, even after I get my Auteur Blackwoods!
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2018
  8. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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  9. Robert777

    Robert777 Acquaintance

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    I have them on my HD580s. I purchased the headphones used and wanted to replace the ancient headband cushion an earpads. I went for the Yaxi pads as I was curious about them and I could get them cheaper than replacement original earpads.

    I only listened with original earpads for a few moments before switching the pads so I cannot comment about sound changes which I know is what you are really after.

    I like the large opening; lots of space for my ears. The thin outer edge of the pads does distribute the clamp a little poorer than I imagine original pads would. I get discomfort along my jaw line after an hour or so.
     
  10. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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    Thanks for sharing. Sound impression is most important. So far, nothing beats the stock pads even though i dont find it comfortable.
     
  11. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Since my HD650 was bought used I replaced the stock earpads (they were relatively worn but still in OK shape).

    Feeling a little experimental I ordered HE60 earpads from audiosanctuary. Getting the ring from the stock pads into the HE60 was a bit annoying before I realized I was doing it all wrong (lol). So, listening impressions, definitely not an improvement. Bass is way too much, it's like I'm listening to some hideous Sennheiser x Beats collaboration. The bass definitely bleeds into the beautiful mids. Comfort is pretty great though with the HE60 earpads. Too bad they f**k up the sound signature like crazy.

    It's been said over and over and over, but yes. Stock Sennheiser pads are the ones to buy.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2018
  12. westermac

    westermac Friend

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    Welp, it's official - the HD6XX has spoiled the HD600 upper-mids for me. You win, camp HD650; hope you're happy.

    HD600 still has better bass though (unmodded).
     
  13. RiddleyWalker

    RiddleyWalker Friend

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    TRIGGER WARNING
    ——————————————

    So I’ve had this dinky little 4’ Cardas HD650 cable sitting around for a while. Came along with a pair of HD580s I acquired some time ago. Way too short for my gear configuration and previously it didn’t really sound much (if at all) different from stock cable so it’s been sitting in a drawer for some time.

    Since then I’ve upgraded my chain and the other night I was bored so I decided to f**k around with cables and stuff. Tried the Cardas cable again and I’ll be damned if it didn’t sound slightly better than stock. Main difference is it tones down the midbass bump a litttle bit and might sound a little less congested and shouty?

    It’s not even convenient for me to use, with it being so short, but here I am with my chair pulled up next to my amp like a dork because I truly believe it sounds (slightly) better than stock.

    Has my brain finally broke? What is this witchcraft? Has anybody had such an experience with aftermarket HD650 cables?
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2018
  14. Nazo

    Nazo New

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    Ok, so I'm coming into this super late. I was quite intrigued to find out that the HD650 had mods as I was just sort of assuming it was the sort of headphone that wouldn't really benefit. Still, before I went this high I had the HD555 and I did the mods for it (first of course was the well known removal of the foam material from the inside of the grill, but I went further and basically removed the entire grill, replacing it with just speaker cloth to protect the driver) and the results were amazing, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I went ahead and removed the foam from the back and while I don't have any Dynamat available, I did have some stick-on damping material (some sort of dense rubber or plastic) so I thought I'd try it for now. I don't think I want to do the quarter mod because I already have some problems with too much treble sensitivity and I probably don't want to add any more.

    Unfortunately, lately I'm for some reason not really able to listen to music properly (I don't know if it's just mood or even physical in some way.) So I can't really do good comparing. Still, I feel like it is a positive difference that I'm probably ok with. I'm not sure if there might not be a bit more listening fatigue. Eventually I'll take the cage off the back of the driver (since it has no real effect on the sound anyway and is just in the way) and apply proper damping material to the casing and back of the driver (and if I decide I'd rather have the foam on the back I'll glue it in place anyway -- no big deal.)

    One thing I actually want to ask about is: what about micro-mesh materials? See, I didn't want to completely leave the back of the driver 100% open. After all, it is ultimately exposed since the grill is wide open for any small particles like dust. I had a thought: what about micro-mesh material? A while back I ripped apart an old, broken 3DS to see if I could utilize parts of it and the speakers have a very interesting material in front of them. It's definitely a mesh, but the actual holes are very tiny. Still, as far as I can tell it's fairly transparent to sound. For now what I did was actually put that material over the holes for the drivers with really really tiny dabs of glue to hold it down for now, but the glue was only applied to the four corners, not the whole length, meaning if there is a lot of pressure it could still presumably press it in and out if it came down to it but it should still hold overall flat enough to keep dust and the like out. Anyway, I'm also wondering how this might perform on the front -- namely how transparent it is. Perhaps mostly just in conjunction with the quarter mod rather than a full replacement. (BTW, I noticed while messing with it that there are actually holes in the plastic around the outer part of the casing. I'm wondering if the biggest reason replacing the entire pad has such a strong effect on the sound might be due to those holes.) This stuff must surely exist outside of just Nintendo 3DS systems, but I'd never bothered to look for it before as I never imagined using it for anything like this. However, it should protect a driver pretty well I would imagine. Whether it affects the sound as much as other methods or not I can only speculate. I would leave that up to people with much better methods and ears than myself. I just wanted to throw that idea out there for people to do what they will with.
     
  15. Garns

    Garns Friend

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  16. Nazo

    Nazo New

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    That is indeed looser. I'm not sure that would really stop dust. Honestly I won't be changing the front anyway and merely thought I'd put that one out there for those who do. I do wonder how it would affect the rear. Presumably it must have no significant damping on its own, unlike the foam that was there before since it has almost no mass at all except I guess as far as air pressure might affect it. Unfortunately I just can't do a good before and after on this right now. My guess is the effects on the sound would be at least similar to that, but hopefully with better protection. However, I could be totally wrong.
     
  17. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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  18. Nazo

    Nazo New

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    That looks like something that could be done ourselves with just a bit of elbow grease to me.
     
  19. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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  20. Jinxy245

    Jinxy245 Vegan Puss

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    Actually yes, I have ears on them now.

    Jupiter is someone I'm friendly with, I sold him some stuff a while back, and we kept conversing sporadically.

    When I heard about his project, I was very intrigued, and he was looking for some people to give impressions. He tuned them himself and did a really good job IMO. Cleaned and tightened the bass and extended the treble W/O f'ing the tonality.

    I'm going to write up a review for Head-Fi, and he's sending it around on an unofficial tour (@EagleWings is next I believe). He's hoping to get this going as a full fledged business eventually.

    I was going to ask in a profile post for advice for him once I finished my review, see if anyone would be willing to measure them etc. But since you're asking, I'll answer whatever I can or get answers from him.
     

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