Sennheiser HD650

I'm looking for a second amp for the HD650. If one would have a choice between Mainline or V281 what would be best? There is no way I can listen to any so I have to buy blind.

 

Wow, those are two very different choices. As far as Bottlehead goes, I've owned most all of them. Crack is great if you like a warmer, lush sound. Tubes can flavor the Crack to your liking but they can be expensive. Still a great bargain and very enjoyable amp with the 650. The SEX 3.0 with upgrade is an appreciable upgrade over the Crack and it will also drive planars which the Crack can not. I thought the SEX 3.0 with the cs4 upgrade was impressive with a wide variety of headphones except iems.

The Mainline never wowed me like the Crack or SEX amps. It's a good amp for sure, but very neutral and didn't have the best dynamics IMHO. It's very tweakable and freakin' huge on a desk. The Crackatwoa is the one that I'd like to hear, one day soon.

Depending on your preferences I'd be looking at a tube amp for the 650's. If I'm being completely honest, and I do try to be, I'd be looking to get the Mass drop Cavalli tube hybrid for a stupid price of $250. There are enough members here who have heard it and raved about it's pairing with the 650 that I feel it is THE bargain amp for the 650. Spending more doesn't always get you more.

There will be MD CTH amps for sale on HF shortly after they ship...just watch and see.

 

Thanks for the input. I was in a hurry and didn't gave enough detail.
I want a second amp because I don't want to power the Stratus or when I have just 30min available and the Stratus takes about one hour to warm up.
I am looking for the same signature as the Stratus even with less technicalities so the Mainline looked like it fit the bill. In addition the Mainline cannot roll tubes so I don't have to obsess on them.
I'm using the Pavane as a DAC so I'm worried things like the CTH would be the weak link in the chain.

@Ice-man, was there anything wrong with the Mainline except for dynamics? I noticed the same on the BeePre but was quickly fixed with Jupiter caps. I did own the Crack a few years ago and I do remember the bass didn't have good control even with upgraded caps and tubes.

 

I thought the Mainline was good but just not engaging enough to be called "special" or to keep long term. I've not owned the Stratus so it's tough for me to make suggestions for you. I've never owned a tube amp that takes more than 30 to "warm up." Most of the tube amps that I've owned were fully functional in 10 minutes.

It sounds like you're wanting a solid state amp based on your situation. That way you'll not have to worry about tubes or warm up, but you still want a "tube-like" signature. In that case I'd suggest looking at possibly a dynahi or dynalo. But again, I don't know the exact signature you're after so maybe someone here who owns the stratus can chime in.

 

Thanks for the details on the Mainline. It's enough for me to justify the purchase. I find technicalities are a lot harder to fix if the amp doesn't have them to begin with. Engagement is a different story since in my experience is easier to tweak.

 

Lot's of people love the ML. It just didn't engage ME personally. We all have our individuals preferences though. I would say that the Mainline excels at:

*neutrality

*fine detail

*layering

*tone (on the fence with this one)

*staging

But does not excel at:

*dynamics

*bass slam

*engagement, richness, musicality (hard to define that one)

 

What you guys think of Bottlehead S.E.X 2.1? A used one came up for sale, its tempting. Its
got C4S and Mundorf upgrade. It also have speaker taps

 

Just joined the HD 650 club again! Why? After using the Clears for a few weeks I've found that while they have that very enjoyable Focal "grabs your attention and holds it" forwardness, they are a headphone that really benefits from having a more relaxed "easy listening" can to complement them. The heavy weight doesn't help either. If you´re really tired and just want some background music or want to chill while listening, the Clears aren't all that. As a main headphone I prefer the more neutral HD 600, but to complement the Clears the HD 650 are just fantastic. Also got a bit scared if Sennheiser really goes through with discontinuing them (would be crazy). If they ever start feeling too "boring" I'll give the mods a shot.

Some funny stats from Verkkokauppa.com (basically Finland´s Amazon):

- Number of units arrived in stock this year: HD 600 x21, HD 650 x39, HD 660 S x12
- Returns rate: HD 600 over 10%, HD 650 5.1%, HD 660 S 9,52%
- Warranty repair rate: HD 600 4,88%, HD 650 0%, HD 660 S 0%
- Last 5 units sold, date of last sold through day: HD 600 16 days ago, HD 650 4 days ago, HD 660 S 24 days ago

Update: Got a deal for an LCD 2 Classic I just could not refuse... HD 650 got returned for a full refund to make the switch much cheaper. Just too hard to justify keeping two support cans and curiosity got the best of me. Still stand by my point though that the HD 650 are a fantastic complement to all of the Focal cans (and still the best value for money in the high end headphone industry). Going to be interesting to see if the LCD-2C are as good as those in this role.

 

This is really interesting, as I heard the Clears at Marv's recently and will probably try and buy a pair in the near future, but was wondering whether they would make my HD650s redundant. Your points regarding "easy listening" and comfort make sense. Good arguments when the CFO asks why I need two full-size over-ear open phones.

I also really enjoyed the LCD-2C at the meet as well. But I think the smoothness of the HD650s mids would be a better complement to the Clear's "grabs your attention and holds it" forwardness. Though the 2C's bass extension, tightness and impact compared to the HD650 would be an argument in its favour. Interested to hear what you think after living with the 2C for a while.

 

Has anyone else experienced a crackly fluttering sort of sound at around 20-60hz? Is my left driver failing or is it likely that there is something interfering with the driver?

 

Does I think occur frequently on different songs or at the same time on the same song? Could be the recording.

 

It occurs in any recording that has very prominent sub bass or a lot of dynamic range where the bass drum is hit very hard. At first, I thought it was the recording but after using this http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencychecklow.php it's definitely the left driver. It's there throughout the whole sweep.

 

I've had something similar happen when I had the HD650s around. The driver assembly was a bit loose in the housing and that tiny spring that contacts the cable prongs was somehow deformed. Snapping the assembly into place and using a 1mm flathead to sorta squish the spring into shape helped.

If that doesn't work then perhaps it really is the driver giving out?

 

Thank you for the info. I'll give this a try.

 

There were stray hairs on both drivers and in the baffles. Luckily the springs were in normal condition. Those things are ridiculously small. Removing the stray hairs alleviated most of the fluttering in the left and all of it in the right. The simplicity of disassembling and reassembling is so nice. Thank you for the help and advice.

 

If you're an owner of the HD650 and feel like it's lost some dynamic impact, has become a little too dark sounding, has audible distortion in the lower frequencies, or has some channel imbalance I encourage you to completely disassemble the ear cups (including the drivers), completely clean them, and then reseat the drivers.

I wish I had a measurement rig because I feel completely confident this fixed the channel imbalance in my pair using the driver matching test here https://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php

If you've never disassembled your pair before, it is brilliantly simple and quick to take apart. Here is a video of the process to help you.

 

Best not to make a habit of doing this, though, and save it for cases when their performance seems to be substantially degraded.

I've one other hobby I invest a lot of time and cash in: fountain pens. If there's one golden rule I've learned in my years of tinkering with them, it's that things are best left unmolested unless you've reason to do otherwise. Though a sturdy set of cans, the HD6-series is basically plastic, and with enough knackering you risk developing microfractures in the phones' body.

 

Nah, first ever bad thing that can happen is you'll snap the voice coil, which are two thin wires running from the spring to the diaphragm there.

And allow me to get a bit... profane here: it is a f'ing BEEATCH having to solder that shit. I have killed countless HD580/600/650 drivers due to it.

I'm not kidding. It's very very easy to snap it. The voice coil weighs like nothing, is very hard to see under any lighting condition, and it's very very very very hard to solder afterwards.

And by very hard, I mean like... I have soldered surface mount components with my bare hands using tweezers and stuffs, and that's still 1000% easier than this.

Even if by some miracle, you get it working, it'll snap again eventually, and the worst thing is that it'll actually slightly change the impedance of the driver so you'll have slight channel imbalance (within 0.5dB tho).

So if you absolutely have to disassemble the drivers, do be EXTRA CAREFUL! Otherwise you'll end up having to buy another headphone.

I'm not kidding. Again, it is a f'ing BITCH having to solder the drivers!

^ sorry, had to get real there otherwise folks don't get how serious this can be. Once you snap that voice coil, 99.99% you'll have to buy brand new drivers.

 

Are there any variations to the procedure I should be careful to follow when disassembling an HD650K?

 

I think I might have used the wrong terminology when describing disassembly. Just to be clear, When I said disassemble, clean, and reseat the drivers I'm referring to the whole piece Tyll is holding in the thumbnail of the video. Not the actual driver with the red ring in the circular enclosure. I didn't go that far nor am I comfortable doing so.

Do remove any stray hairs that are stuck in the actual driver though. Just hold it up to or in front of a light and any hairs will stand out right away. Removal of the actual driver is not necessary.

@sheldaze Honestly, the whole process. While handling the driver especially. This is your headphone after all so, be extremely careful.