Sennheiser HD660S Speculation

I hope that review sample is on the way to Tyll's front door.

 

> Thanks to its lower impedance, it delivers reference-class sound also when connected to hi-res mobile players, thus offering much greater versatility.

I hope this doesn't affect the scaling capabilities that the 650 has.

 

You meant to say Marv and Josh Mo's doors.

Anyone worried about hd660 at 150 ohms sounding different on otls and other traditional hd650 friendly amps?

 

Why not both? The more reviews the better, but I really do appreciate the approach Tyll is taking with his measurement methodology and further experimenting with various compensation curves.

 

Yeah, somewhat. The ace in the hole for the hd6x0 has always been it's ability to scale with better amps. I'm wondering if the lowered impedance will effect that ability.

 

Unless I’m reading this wrong, this is going to come with a 6.5mm SE cable, a 3.5mm SE adapter, a 4.4mm TRRS balanced cable and a 5-pin balanced adapter. I hate all these different balanced connectors.

 

It'd be awesome if superlux sued them for trademark infringement.

 

It seems very important for Sennheiser to be able to use their best headphones on mobile devices. This is also why their ‘audiophile’ closed headphones are designed the way they are. Likely why Focal made the Elear/Clear/Utopia lower impedance as well.

At 150 ohms this rules out the Bottlehead Crack unless you use a 5998 tube. The Schiit Valhalla should be fine though.

Is the 4.4mm 5-pin the pentaconn jack?

 

@Marvey

Next step you can detach them from your head and place them on a table close to you. You'd better keep the helmet on though.

On a more serious note: Marv knows this but you can get more bass from a HD650 by installing deeper pads on it. I installed the Brainwavz pads for a while and it essentially made the HD650 a basshead headphone. Little bit much but fun for a while. You can also get the bass a little tighter by doing the dampening mod. Should be interesting to compare a modded HD650 to the HD660S.

Sennheisers latest mid to high-end offerings have been a mixed bag. HD700.. HD800S... hmm. But they're still one of my favorite headphone companies and I'll definitely give the HD660S a spin at some point.

 

Hmm.. cannot see clearly but it looks like the Arctic cotton material that @gurubhai installed in my HD650. That material improved the treble extension, actually improved extension on both sides.

 

Converting their specs, sensitivity comes out to 96dB/mW

 

You know, I wouldn’t necessarily mind a 650 successor that topped out with mid tier gear. Most people in this hobby aren’t going to have true TOTL amps and the 650s are notoriously hard to drive well. If I can get 85% of what the 660 can do using a Magni 3, and 100% of what it can do with a Jotunheim, and it otherwise sounds like the 650 tonally, that would probably be all the headphone I need given how much of my listening is 2 channel these days.

The 650 will still exist for those who want to scale up, and there is such comprehensive info about modding that you can do almost anything you want to them and know what you’re going to get. And there will probably be a lot popping up on the used market when the 660 goes on sale, especially the Massdrop variants.

 

Don't forget the matching DAC/amp water wings.

The perfect HF mobile setup.