HD600

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by SpaceLaser, Oct 8, 2015.

  1. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Depends on your tastes. I prefer a Crack + Speedball + a few other mods and some good tubes. Valhalla 2 was a little too lean and not dynamic enough for me, plus a bit grainy in the upper mids. But it was neutral, fast, detailed, and had a good sense of space to it. Still very good for the price. Lyr 2 might be OK too, but I only heard the pairing briefly at RMAF.
     
  2. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    then it is time to send them to the lab and really begin to understand their true potential ;)

    Or better yet, I can send you mine and you can compare them at leisure.

    ..dB
     
  3. Zed Bopp

    Zed Bopp Friend

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    I just did a video review on the HD600's - do you guys agree?
     
  4. fishski13

    fishski13 Friend

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    i'lll be in touch.
     
  5. Rasselbande

    Rasselbande New

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    Are there any changes on the HD600 in the recent years, apart from the new earpads? I know the HD650 got new driver screens and a new packaging but I can't find any information on the HD600.
    Thanks!
     
  6. techboy

    techboy New

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    HD 600 costs INR 26800 shipped from Amazon.co.uk. This includes shipping and customs.
     
  7. a44100Hz

    a44100Hz Friend

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    Listening to my buddy's (unmodded) HD600 on my setup. I'm not imagining that it's somewhat grainy, no? At least compared to my other headphones like 400i there's something grainy sounding about it even with tubes. But I like how it's very easy on the ears. What is it about its characteristics that make it particularly non-fatiguing at any volume?
     
  8. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    I felt the 400i was far grainier than the HD600. If by grainy one means less clear and resolving mids and highs.

    Never felt the HD600 was grainy actually.
     
  9. a44100Hz

    a44100Hz Friend

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    Interesting. That's not exactly what I mean, it sounded like the recording itself had a loss of fidelity that resulted in a grainy digital sound. But this was consistent across the very different recordings I compared. Like the sound was scratchy.
     
  10. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Well, IMO the HD600 may be more revealing in some areas than the 400i. It could be that it's less forgiving. On the other hand, I found my HD600 quite good with crappy music as well, which is something I cannot say about every other can.
     
  11. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    I've found that the HD600/650/580 will sound "grainy" if driven by a source that has poor control and poor voltage swing... (or in other words, just poor technicality all around).

    Put them on something with better control and grip, and they'll actually sound very smooth, and significantly smoother than the poor source. One example of a "poor source" that I can think of is the O2 on battery (mostly because battery will drop their voltage gradually as they lose charge).

    The same can be said of planar magnetic headphones, I guess. They will sound grainy on something that can't deliver the power necessary to drive them, but otherwise they will sound fairly smooth. But in all, most orthos should still be easier to drive than HD600/650/580, which are much higher impedance.
     
  12. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

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    The HD600 and HD650 both sound this way to me despite excellent CSD and distortion behavior in the midrange. FWIW, my modded HD700 does not have this issue while measuring similarly in this regard. Perhaps it's related to tiny variances in the frequency response in the upper midrange -- which are measurable via my rig on the HD650 as well as the HE-6, though the HE-6 has it concentrated in the treble. Both of these headphones sound scratchy in their respective areas to my ears. I have not measured the HD600 yet, though.

    YMMV, blah
     
  13. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    For what it's worth... the HD700 is also much easier to drive than the HD600/650/580.

    The HD6xx series headphones have nominal impedance of 300 ohm plus a swing up to around 500 ohm at certain lower frequencies.

    The HD700 has its nominal impedance around 150-200 ohm, and even though it also swings up in impedance, the peak is only around 350 ohm. If I know my math well, I'd say the HD600/650/580 is up to TWICE as hard to drive as the HD700.

    I think you guys really underestimate just how hard it is to "properly drive" the HD600/650/580, and that's why you're hearing it the way it is. Also just to say, the HD800 technically is also up there in terms of driving difficulty. It's actually worse than the HD600/650/580, despite being slightly more sensitive.
     
  14. a44100Hz

    a44100Hz Friend

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    If the Bifrost Multibit and Lyr 2 don't make the cut then I'm afraid I'll never hear the HD600 in the way you're describing :(

    But I'll have a 650 next week to compare with and see if I still notice that effect.
     
  15. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Eh... 650 is worse because it's as hard to drive as 600/580 but also less sensitive. I think between 650 and 800, the 650 is actually even harder to deal with than 800.

    As for the Lyr 2, I think it's a part of the problem, yeah. In general, I think most amps that sound good with low impedance headphones will typically not sound good with high impedance headphones, and vice versa. High impedance headphones are designed with such high impedance because they expect the source device (amplifier) to have a certain characteristic (output impedance, maybe?) that makes them not suitable for low impedance headphones to begin with.
     
  16. Halaudio

    Halaudio New

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    It's been a little more than a year now that i started research on modding this headphone. Ending results are way better than I expected. My mod basically consists in putting a ring of tissue-like material over the mesh, covering the borders of the driver, removal of rear foam and putting some cotton pressed so that air flows trough but the direct path is obstructed (primary resonance is reduced without impacting sub bass) and then damping with a mix of cotton, foam and tape the part of plastic between the transducer and the plug. Pads were modded by covering the inner non-velour part with a smooth skin-like material sewn and double-taped on it. The effects were surprising to say the least. The 3-4 khz excess was removed and treble has no more grain but is smooth, airy and articulated. Bass became more extended, a little cleaner. But the real surprise is that the soundstage improved so much I that struggle to believe it's the same headphone. I mean, stock HD600 is excellent but now it is something else. I would really love to measure them but I have no means to do so. I don't include pics only because I would have to tear the headphones apart and then put everything back in place, but if someone is interested i may provide them.
     
  17. Darsus

    Darsus Insatiable bowels - Member

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    Since there is no HD580 thread

    I just put them on my head and OH MY GOD... everything I can to say
     
  18. Jun

    Jun Friend

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    Not really the 600 is better. Unless maybe you mod the 650. Coming from a 600 the 650 was disappointing to me. HD600 had clear/better mids and treble, though the bass felt too smooth and not very impacting. The HD650 has that tight bass and mids while they tried to hide the weird veiled treble by making it darker. Over all everything is over dampened feels like some of the soul was sucked out you don't get the sweet reverb like in the 600.

    With those disappointments it caused me to want to mod my 650 lucky I found a great HD650 modding thread here at sbaf. I was thinking maybe dynamat might make the HD600 perfect I gotta try it on my 600 when I receive my dynamat.
     
  19. Ash1412

    Ash1412 Friend

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    What do you mean by "weird veiled treble"?
     
  20. Jun

    Jun Friend

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    Well the treble it isn't weird just different I take my word back. As treble response deeply affects the soundstage and it seemed off to me so I described it as weird. Treble seemed a bit different because of the dampening and it's sound staging is different than HD600. The stock 650 had harder to focus vocals because the vocals seemed veiled and placed farther away than the 600. The modded 650 (hole infront of driver, no foam behind driver and no spider cage) fixed that issue for me though.

    Edit: it Is probably that 3k-4k treble bump the HD600 has vs 650 which is in the presence region which affects staging.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2016

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