Lots of talk about HD650, but what about us who enjoy bass?

Don't worry, I'm not willing to fork over more than $1500 on a pair of cans, I doubt I'll ever have one of the 'legends'.

 

I've found that like Hands suggests, the HD6X0 line has pretty hard hitting mid bass for me, while planars have a bit more absolute sub-bass extension. But to my ears, my HD600's bass seems to hit a bit harder than my 400i in many genres.

 

I'd like to give it a shot with something like the Project Ember II or Solstice and a 12BH17, or a Valhalla. But tube rolling can seem a bit intimidating especially when reading about how one might need to throw even more $$ into finding the "right" tube(s) and worrying about avoiding shady purveyors of NOS tubes that supposedly sound so much better than new stock. Reading through tube rolling impressions can be daunting, especially considering impressions can differ based on headphone & amp used.

Often it's more exciting to just go a for a new can, and for many of us it takes a while to go full circle and take the plunge to assemble a suitable HD6x0 rig to realize its full potential. But that is the journey part of this hobby. Got to play the field in order to figure out you had the best all along.

 

There is certainly truth in this. I got out of control rolling tubes for the lyr. Then when I sold the lyr and got the mjo2, I bought two sets of very good tubes and have not looked at tubes again. FYI I've got 74' Reflectos and Philips miniwatts gold pin.

 

That you need tubes to properly drive the HD 650 is ridiculous. Yeah tube rolling can get you massive bass slam and smooth out some of the wooliness but will screw up the mids and stuff like guitar tones. A Magni 2U is 95% perfect or so and sounds way better than a Vali/Speedball Crack to me. I actually prefer the O2 over those two due to the bass bloom screwing up guitar tone. Heavily distorted old school metal like Entombed, Dismember, and Mayhem are useful for checking this as the buzzsaw and beeswarm is part of the sound of the instrument. It's supposed to sound like that. Nobody else seems to care about this though so YMMV. I just find that head-fi /audiophile reviewers who say they listen to "metal" or something usually means they have some Metallica 320 kbps MP3s on their hard drive or play some digitally reamped Nuclear Blast pop crap which is the same as saying you listen to classical music but only play Hans Zimmer soundtracks at the gym to get you pumped.

Sometimes I wish I could achieve slightly more voltage but with even less treble than the transducer's inherent darkness without screwing up guitar tones though so I am in looking at other amps. The Meier Corda Rock's neutral-warmth looks appealing but the Liquid Carbon might be just too ooey and gooey.

 

It doesn't have to be tubes, ya know. Just something "good".

Say, try balanced output out of Geek Out v2 and prepare to be floored...

 

Don't know about extension, a confusing word.
Quantity wise planars have more quantity at sub bass to me, but that means next to nothing with limited dynamic range which the HD650 has tons of. So you'r not alone

 

This may be a preference type of thing, but I seem to prefer tubes to SS with the hd650. Actually with all of my HPs, but I don't own any planars right now. For me, Valhalla2 > Vali > Magni 2 (non uber). The Valhalla 2, to my ears, sounds easily more resolving than Magni 2, and at the same time somehow kind of liquid. It feels like I am deeper in the music compared to Magni 2. I listen to more classical music than other genres, but I do listen to a fair bit of metal (lossless rips), such as Ozzy, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, etc. but I haven't heard the bands you mentioned. But again, just my ears / $0.02.

 

tubes or GTFO

 

I only own vintage planars, personally

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/788776/fostex-x-massdrop-th-x00-review#post_12102898
Perhaps this is it?
TH-X00
Price: $399

 

Looks like it. Jude went an' spilled the beans cause he wanted to be the first! Take that, Purrin!

 

Those look pretty great! I'm still very happy with the Omni but I don't know if they are worth more than double the cost of the TH-X00. Can't wait to hear impressions!

 

Gotta be, right? Would love to see some measurements! (thanks in advance)

 

Yikes! A new woodie from Fostex! Not as handsome as its bigger brother but... $399, *deep breath

 

I heard whispers about this a while ago. It'll be interesting to hear. But isn't this like midgradeitis if I bought it?

 

It'd probably just be another flavour rather than a sidegrade. Like a compliment to your 560 I guess. And what's to lose?