Sennheiser HD650

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by Jeangenie, Sep 27, 2015.

  1. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Are you saying the Damplifier Pro made the treble peaky?
     
  2. TRex

    TRex Almost "Made"

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    No, the peaky treble is the characteristic of Jotun.
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The rear spider and Dynamat mod on the driver is good for Jotunheim. Might want to leave front foam alone / avoid coin mod.
     
  4. Jh4db536

    Jh4db536 Friend

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    i probably wouldn't have done this a year ago when the HD650 was my only headphone. Meme mods for fun :)

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  5. gurubhai

    gurubhai Friend

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    HD650 revisited

    I am no stranger to HD650, almost a decade back when I used to own the HD580, I tried the older version of HD650 and preferred the HD580. Over time I have tried the HD650 (including the silver driver version) a few times as my setups have changed and I have always liked it but never quite been seduced by it.
    The recent reports of SBAF mods being a game changer rekindled my interest and I wanted to try them again.As always the community came through and @Koth Ganesh generously loaned me his modded HD650. The headphone has the rear foam
    removal, front coin mod and dynamat damping applied.

    My impressions over the last week :

    • This immediately impresses as an engaging headphone. I don't take this aspect lightly, very few headphones make the cut for me in this regard.Stock HD800 and LCD-2 for example didn't make the cut.
    • The midrange is really its strong suit as there are no almost no perceivable peaks or dips throughout. I remember even the old HD650 being recessed in the upper-mids but these are pretty much flat.
    • I also love the mids to treble transition here. Almost every other headphone tends to have problem here but the HD650 is quite masterful in this area.
    • Its a bit closed sounding. I felt that immediately even compared to my vented, closed Yammies. But the good thing is that you tend to get used to this pretty quickly.
    • The bass has a mid-bass hump and it rolls off in sub-bass but it doesn't really bleed too much except may be for male vocals which sounded a bit too thick and forward.
    • The treble is a bit grainy but there is no sharpness/peakiness that you associate with most headphones and despite the treble shelf, fair amount of air does come through. I 'd assume that's because there is no masking by large treble peaks here.
    • The macrodynamics are excellent and it can slam really hard when called for, some of it is probably due to exaggerated mid-bass and maybe some to my current monster tube amp which drivers it effortlessly with solid state control, but most of this is probably due to a well tuned dynamic driver and I am really enjoying this palpable impact of HD650.The micro dynamics again are very good and it is able to showcase a tube amp's ablities quite well. I don't think that any current headphone in its price range (and some much costlier) tend to do as well here.
    • My main complaint is an overall thickness of tone/timbre. It sounds a bit heavy and loose across the spectrum. The transients aren't fast enough, the 'tiks' tend to sound like 'tak' and it sounds a bit congested in complex passages.
    • It kinda smooths over some information, maybe because of the looseness mentioned above so certainly not as resolving as some of the best headphones I have tried but still a very inoffensive listen at most times.
    • And lastly, as a planar head, I could identify the inherent 'dynamic grain' even in areas where frequency wise its really smooth and it was smoothing over information.

    Overall, I once again really liked them but it would take some more work before these could replace my current 'playnars'.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2016
  6. Koth Ganesh

    Koth Ganesh Friend

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    Ravi, this only means I did a half-decent job of the mods ;)
     
  7. gurubhai

    gurubhai Friend

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    I might have tweaked it a little bit, lets see if you like the changes!:eek:
     
  8. Dino

    Dino Friend

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    We had a member break their headband while adjusting the head clamp on their HD650, recently. That got me thinking, here and on other sites I have read about people doing that and/or read people giving tips/warnings on avoiding breaking the headband. But I have never read anyone suggest completely taking the metal earcup arm off of the headband before bending it. That seems like a good idea to me.

    This video shows how to take the metal ear cup arm off of the headband - 1:34 to 2:15.

    I didn't have a card stiff enough to do this, so I improvised. I ended up using the knife end of a corkscrew (it was rounded) and it worked out okay for me. One could probably find something around the house that works. Also, this fellow pries the "Made in Ireland" tabs from the bottom. For some reason, I had trouble with that and pried them off from the top. Also, there is no reason to put the "Made in Ireland" tabs back on until the bending the metal bands process is done to a satisfactory headclamp pressure.

    I hope this is helpful to the HD6X0/HD580 owners that haven't thought of this and want to give it a try.

    Edit:
    I am getting "Watch this video on YouTube. Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner."
    Here is the URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b53VDWA10k

    Edit 2:
    I just came across another video that might be better for taking the "Made in Ireland" tabs off.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbsP3QDJFLk
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2016
  9. TRex

    TRex Almost "Made"

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    [​IMG]

    \/
    Before it happened, I did few attempts to lessen the pressure without any incident. I guess I had hidden anger that day from the election. *shrug* The crack extends to sides.
     
  10. Dino

    Dino Friend

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    Thanks for the illustration @TRex .

    It is kind of like a bad car wreck. I want to look away, but...
     
  11. Kamikazi

    Kamikazi Friend

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    Also heard the HD650 for the first time last evening driven off the balanced output of an Buffalo II dac with an IVY-III stage. Very engaging headphone and love the mids and treble presentation, I was expecting them to sound darker from all that I've read up about them. They don't sound particularly open and there is a definite boost in the mid bass that I didn't particularly care for, it could easily be perceived as a bit of muddiness. Bass (slam and drive) was otherwise pretty good. Definitely a very good headphone, but I'm not sure I'd pick it above the HD600 which to me feels like its tuned a bit more neutral, but it feels like the HD650 sounds like it's being hold back a little so I'm sure there is some untapped scaling potential there. Still prefer the Hifiman HE-500s due to its more engaging and musical presentation.
     
  12. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

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    Did you hear modded 650s?
     
  13. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    For those looking to reduce the clamp on their senns, extend the cups all the way down and bend ONLY the metal part with equal force on both sides. Do not bend the plastic headband.
     
  14. Koth Ganesh

    Koth Ganesh Friend

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    Man, I love whatever tweak(s) you did.. Seems to be that any veil has been lifted with the treble coming alive in a great way. The low end extends even lower than before I sent these to you. It seems a little faster too.
     
  15. m17xr2b

    m17xr2b Friend

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    I have been using the HD650(spider and coin) with my project ember as a very rare bedside setup. Never though much of it as it was always in the shadow of the HEK/HD800/Abyss. Today with the arrival of the Lynx card I though to see what they can do. Boy was I ever surprised, I don't remember even the HEK sounding this good except for the subbass. Might be the Lynx card but as it is I would pick up the HD650 over the HEK and HD800 which have now been sold so I can't do a proper A/B. I very much enjoy the dark thick sound but at the same time with excellent mids and sparkling never fatiguing treble. I am delighted on how much these improve with a proper setup. Even the soundstage improved to a point I no longer find it congested but as it should be for an intimate presentation.
    Keep in mind I am rating them almost as good as the Abyss for vocal, instrumental music(90% overall,maybe a bit less? I find people tend to overestimate gear) where there is no need for an earth shattering low end such as EDM/rock/pop etc. and I even prefer them to the Abyss on some songs. I find that headphone comparisons are very track dependent and this is case and point where I sometimes prefer a 200£ headphone(got an amazon deal last year) to a 3500£ one such as the Abyss.
    The catch?
    Lynx E22->Yggdrasil->Stratus with KR/EML and other nos tubes isn't cheap and a little ridiculous considering the cost of the headphones.

    I will see if I can make them part of my main system and the only obstacle is the clamping force. Might be I have a big head but I don't like to use them more than an hour. The Abyss I have used for over 10 hours without comfort issues.
     
  16. Dino

    Dino Friend

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    Try this:
    Or this.
     
  17. gurubhai

    gurubhai Friend

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    I optimized the driver damping at the back. IME foams are never enough for damping esp. in bass region, too much of foam while trying to tame bass can lead to compressed microdynamics and overdamped treble which is probably why the removal of foam is a popular mod.
    Instead I used a material which IME focuses more on absorbing on midbass and has less of an effect on treble which placed the driver in a more optimal state of damping. The effects were indeed as you described - removal of mid bass hump, improved bass and treble extension. Also, the better damped driver is faster and handlescomplex passages with greater ease.
    All this techno babble ofc comes down to me simply using a quarter size low density felt disk where the rear foam was originally.
    You can see the felt at the center through the grilles.
     
  18. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Link to material you used?
     
  19. gurubhai

    gurubhai Friend

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    I got the material from head-fier Nick n . He calls it Arctic cotton or something like that.
     
  20. Koth Ganesh

    Koth Ganesh Friend

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