Sennheiser HD660S Speculation

Jude's preliminary measurements:

 

I'm not sure the average HD 650 owner is looking for even more presence in the mids but the boosts at the extremes are welcome, at least to me. My wife is going to kill me.

 

LOL, HD650 Harman target edition.

Btw: A FR similar to that can be achieved with mods for the HD650. Then again the driver will still be different.
At least it looks like this time around Axel Grell didn't get his way in voicing the headphones.

Other possible names:
HD650 Stax edition
HD650 Focal Clear edition
HD650 Utopia/Elear edition

 

I wouldn't have much faith in the post or the measurements. Listening impressions are from that Hugo? Blech.... The real deal will be from gear with more scale, that's how the HD650 shines...

edit - I know, I know, I'm preaching to the choir...

 

That HD700 R&D investments' finally paying off..

Hopefully it can reach it's full performance without having to spend so much on the amp, and still sound as good as if not better than the HD650. It's nice to think something has more potential, but I'd rather have all that potential upfront.

 

I thought those were supposed to have sub bass extension.

 

If they have lower distortion down low they might sound like they have more. Also should be easier to eq some in.

 

Found these HD700 dissection photos on CS, for those who wish to continue speculating.

http://www.changstar.com/www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2627.40.html

 

Well. They're not entirely wrong.

 

Maybe it just has better slam. If I EQ the bass way down on a TH900 it still sounds better extended and more impactful than a HD800 with a bass boost.

 

Sorry the image doesn't show for me. Do you have a link?

If anything, sennheiser showed us that more distortion, rather than less, gives the feeling of bass extension without actually providing said extension with the driver itself. See the hd800S D2 trick.

@BenjaminBore we cross-posted. Indeed it could be more slam, which differs from extension anyway. That remains to be seen.

 

Yeah but i think it was @Marvey who said that due to distortion 30hz sounded like 60hz on the 650.

Maybe it was ringing or standing waves, i know stuff like this happens in rooms all the time. And i doubt physics will be different just because it's a very tiny room that goes on your ears.

 

That's because of D2 distortion and the freq response. HD650 has a very high D2 distortion (~-40dB @ 30Hz), which means the signal has quite a lot of 60Hz if the signal is 30Hz, which is exacerbated by 60Hz freq response being much 'louder' by 10dB, so there's significant 60Hz content when playing back 30Hz stuff, and you're going to hear 60Hz more than 30Hz.

Possibly you 'hear' more bass with more D2 (since more of the Hz is in the more easily audible spectrum), but you get less linear/quality bass instead.

 

Thanks for explaining

 

Ahh, Google Images doesn't seem to want to play nice it seems. It was just a close up of the minute, possibly-due-to-lack-of-uniformity-in-measurement-procedure sub-bass increase in the HF graph. Would really be more interested in distortion measurements, but will just wait until Tyll and Marv get their hands on these.

 

Who can forget the Chord marketing images for their portable DACs? They seem to have pulled most of them, but here's some residue:

 

Well, the post from Judeus is promising. I appreciate that this is not just a slight retune of the 650, like the 800 S was to the 800. The 660 WILL sound and offer something different. And potentially similar but better.

I'll take the graphs with a grain of salt. Although I think that they look fine. The only thing that irritates me is that they cut the impedance in half. This is not a lifestyle headphone. I don't have any desire to power it from my smart phone. It's in the "high end" category after all. But, time will tell. I'm not sure that the additional balanced cables are so wise. Many desktop amps might be overpowering this headphone over a single ended connection at 150 ohm much less running it balanced. Plus it drives up the price ala 800 S cables.

Regardless, I'll buy the 660 on day one for the promise of what it might be.

 

Why does Jude get these in the mail before @Tyll Hertsens has a chance to email Senn to ask for a pair?

 

The FR graph doesn't inspire me much, though I suppose it's best to remember that there's a limited amount you can tell from such things, especially FR alone. It will be interesting to get some trusted ears on these.

A tiny amount more low down implies a bit less distortion in the bass, at least (I think- harmonics being above the fundamental and all). It's interesting that it doesn't seem to drop off a cliff at the top end, I wonder how that will sound, assuming that it's not just a bad measurement.

For all his pricey gear, I am not sure I really trust Jude at all, either to know what he's doing, or to have the honesty not to deliberately fudge things for commercial gain. @Marvey or @Tyll Hertsens will at least call a spade a spade, should it come to it.

As to why HF gets them first:


..obvs.

 

When you understand why, you will then understand the problem...