GUTB gonna GUTB

I also found the HD600's to provide less atavistic pleasure than any other headphone or earphone I've ever tried, but I eventually got to the bottom of it. Most of my listening is done around 65db and below where a neutral can is going to sound a bit lacking in both high and low end energy because of our ears' loudness curve. At this level the 600's are overly polite and undramatic, making the most energetic rock sound like a recital rather than a fistfight. The trick is to turn up to 70db and beyond where these 'phones start to take flight, combining their obvious detail with energy and dynamism - this is a most exciting sound.

As for those of us who prefer to continue listening at relatively low levels, some tube amps are recommended to help the HD600, but a less flat 'phone is likely to be a better long term option for this.

 

Dude, you need gain. Extra current for extra volume depends. Medium or high gain, adjust volume and that driver wakes up. Headphones with about 80 Ohms or more need more gain. Extra gain is not just an AKG myth, it benefits more headphones.

 

Well I am currently using a mediocre amp (O2) but using bitstreaming through Modi Multibit the level is so high that even on the amp's low gain mode there is only a small sliver of turn between the end of channel imbalance and volumes beyond 65db. I don't see what more gain is going to do except make moderate volumes unattainable.

EDIT: I have experienced something similar with tube amps for guitar though. Some amps give complete control over how much gain/volume is generated in the preamp and power sections. Sometimes pushing the power section without putting much gain in the preamp results in a boring, unemotional sound. Pushing the little preamp tube(s) harder and backing off on the bigger tubes can bring the sound to life. I'm not sure headphone amps work that way though, since they only have the one volume control and no attenuation for when the good settings are just too loud.

 

Actually @GUTB may have inadvertently raised the question of whether HD600 is a good benchmark for what $300 should get you. We frequently hear it said that they're good value for money (and I share this opinion), but in the context of gear being called overpriced or "giant killers", I wonder if we shouldn't peg the HD600 as a good yardstick for headphones?

Having said that, GUTB's imprecise phrasing conflates and confuses categories. Value-for-money is not evaluating from "a technical performance standpoint"--that is an area in which price does not factor.

 

I'm not sure why my comments on headphones in a thread about the headphones in the headphones forum got moved to Off-Topic? But okay.

In regards to price and technicalities, as I've pointed out many times, they are linked. I'm sorry. Hi-fi sound has a hi-fi cost associated with it, same with mid-fi, etc.

 

In regards to good spelling and intelligence, they are linked. You have upper mid-fi spelling...but my assertion fails beyond that. There's a point in there somewhere...

 

From whence ye came,
ye shall remain
Never to be seen again

Begone, foul troll!

 

Google his handle some time. First few links are quite poetic when considering his actions and impact here.

 

Isn't this the guy that regards the TH900 as hifi?

 

Sure, one can say HD600 sounds boring. But that's just because it lacks hype in the lows, highs and soundstage. It has great mids and does everything else at least pretty well. And that is lots in a headphone, even if it doesn't sound like it.

Calling a neutral pair boring is like calling Fostex's TH-series colored. That's missing the point.

 

I actually sympathize with @GUTB here, or at least see his perspective. Since I've moved to the HD800 (and eventually Utopia), the HD6xx just doesn't satisfy me because it lacks the utmost clarity and precision that I need.

=X

 

Most wow factor headphones show weaknesses over time. The wow thing helps hide them initially. (From my limited experience only)
If HD650 is anything to go by, HD600 too should shine with better quality gear. Even with lehmann BCL caliber HD650 sounded pathetic. Fed via my own gear and I had to eat my own early impressions.
For someone used to modern planar smoothness, compression, clean hard hitting bass it's difficult to appreciate hd6x0.
Anyone remotely aware of how midrange sounds , should be at ease with the senns.
& yes technically there is nothing that the 650 does better than the 800. Tone/Timbre preference is another thing.

 

I'm reluctant to admit that for a while I also used to think the HD600 was dull. In my defence, I was on a bit of a Grado treble cannon kick for a couple of years during which my HD600s didn't get any head time. I ended up selling the Grados (damn those bowls hurt my ears...I mean, physically hurt them). I "settled" for the HD600 for a while after that and of course, once my brain adjusted, I realised what a bloody cloth eared idiot I'd been.

So, I can see that just dipping into the HD600 from some other cans could give the impression they're dull. But honestly, spend any time with them and I can't see how anyone could reasonably come to that conclusion...which is why, 8 years later, I still have mine whilst loads of others have come & gone.

 

Thing is, you can adjust to almost anything. Use them long enough, and even those awful free Apple earbuds will start to sound normal. I did that for a while, to see what happened (other than getting horrible looks from other commuters due to the leaking). They did sound remarkably normal- and switching back to better headphones was almost vertiginous at first.

Let's hear it for nice clear, precise "boring" headphones, the yardstick by which all else shall be described!

 

The problem isn't that GUTB dislikes the HD600. It's his annoying tendency to state his opinion as immutable fact (including the phrase "it's just a fact", usually preceded or followed by "I'm sorry" as if he hates having to tell us this uncomfortable truth and it just breaks his little heart to disappoint us mere mortals). Then later he says he heard the 600 on a home theater receiver.