General Headphone Advice

Haven't heard that stuff yet

 

I'm never parting with my HD600. I may dabble with other headphones over time, but I will always keep my 600 and a system to run it properly.

 

Famously recessed vocals? Are we talking about the same HD600?

 

You have to understand that our friend has special vocal killing ears that make vocals shine on the TH900 and makes them recessed on the HD600.

It's a serious condition of heavy audiofailia.

 

I prefer not to engage in repetitive, authoritarian bombast, so I will say: I emphatically disagree with this assessment, and I find it confusing that you would come to this conclusion.

 

The mission:

<$100 closed headphones good for travel and available for purchase in Sweden. "Bass is good."

Any recommendations?

 

@GUTB you are mistaking "for the price" as part of what makes the HD 600 good, when in fact the headphone is good (sound-wise, comfort-wise, build-wise), and its price makes it even better value against other headphones.
You're also mistaken on describing the HD 600 as part of Big Sound 2015 as being a "low-end baseline" and "mid-fi palat-cleanse" (and not just because you misspelled "palate"). Tyll stated that the HD 600 was "way closer [to the TOTL cans used in Big Sound] than the dollar difference would indicate". Also, you're exaggerating the disparity by introducing the term "low-end" to what has long been established as, at worst, a mid-fi headphone.

 

I think most people realize that the HD600 does not compete with ToTL headphones. Sure, with a sufficiently loose standard of judgement, you could argue that the HD600 is within the ballpark of $1,000 - $5,000 ToTL headphones; you could do that with any decent headphone, in my experience. I have the Superlux HD668B that costs $40, and, setting aside euphonics (which it lacks), I could make the argument that it's within 80% of the performance of the TH-900. I am able to make that wild claim by simply reducing the subjective importance of resolution, dynamic performance and extension. I could even claim the HD668B is 90% of the HD600. If I added the "for the money" clause, the argument would be a slam-dunk and all I had to do was reduce the subjective desirability of what hi-fi headphones bring to the table.

I'll note that the HD600 was not being judged in Big Sound -- for the obvious reason that Big Sound was dealing with ToTL / SoTA products, and the HD600 is mid-fi. Tyll also mentions somewhere (HE-1000 review?) that the differences between headphones past $1,000 are closer / more difficult to judge. I point out that hi-fi starts at $1,000, and I get 500 downvotes and called a troll -- but Tyll basically states something similar (ie, the differences between a HD600 and high-end headphones is large), and that's fine. Finally, I note that the judges at Big Sound seemed to generally prefer the HE-1000 for it's euphonics, even though technically it was beaten by others which goes to show how important euphonics is and why being boring is a mark of death for any headphone.

 

That is because you are a troll that loves to troll. Because of this, you are often referred to as a troll.

Don't change though dude, you're right and the rest of us are wrong. We are almost at the point of being convinced,

 

The community here does not agree with these 2 sentiments. They prove that you don't get it, and that you want to twist words to suit your point of view.
(Nice try bringing in the Superlux as a point of comparison--except that is not at all the headphone being discussed.)

 

If I can buy a HD800 or HE-6 for under $1k is it no longer Hi-Fi?

Oooh! What if I charge $$$$ for a headphone, does it start to sound like the other $$$$ headphones all the sudden? Does price determine the sound?

Or maybe everything over $1k is overpriced?

I've bought, owned, loaned and borrowed loads of flagships headphones. Give me the HD600/HD650 over all of them. Maybe I can spend the extra $2500 on a vinyl rig. so I get 10x the value out of my money. And it'd sound better than most TOTL headphone out of most TOTL rigs.

 

Hey, once this whole "GUTB testing field" thing gets sorted, can we shut this thread down /migrate it (and the string of recent others like it), and encourage everyone to use the all purpose advice thread again?

If we're aren't doing that anymore that's fine too, but it's hard to keep track of all the places with generally worthy questions about gear.

 

Is there a word for synesthesia except where spending more money is experienced as better sound?

 

Has anyone compared a modded HD600 vs modded HD650?

I was thinking about modding my HD600 also but I don't want to lower it's resell value by modding it. It would be nice if someone heard a modded HD600 and HD650 to give their opinions. I might just sell the HD600.

 

Look at it this way. The HD600/HD650 were TOTL headphones for a long time. There's a reason they're still around, a reason they're still very popular. Very few headphones have been around as long as the HD600/HD650. Since they've been released, headphones have come out that have more [insert your technicality of choice here], and the pricing has trended sharply upward. But don't mistake pricing for quality. There's a whole thread here about how dull the Audeze LCD-4's are, and those are many times the price of the HD6xx. The fact is, as has been discussed in this very thread, there is no perfect headphone. There's no headphone that has TOTL resolution, no distortion, effortlessly natural tonality, complete comfort on the head, a perfect seal every time, etc. There is always going to be something you're compromising on. Many people here have pointed out that positive aspects of the HD6xx, the tonality, micro-detail, etc. We've also acknowledged that they don't have the largest soundstage or the highest resolution or perfect bass. But that doesn't make them bad headphones. And if you look at any more expensive headphone, you're going to find there's some complaints about them too.

What you're doing is making perfect the enemy of good. The HD6xx line is VERY GOOD, and the fact that they are relatively inexpensive compared to flagship headphones is just a bonus. There's no need to include a "good for the price" caveat, it's more like "it's good AND you'll save money by getting one instead of a $4k headphone". But now go look at the Super Dupont Resonator Mod thread for the HD800. @sorrodje has very kindly offered to produce this mod for the community, and is getting bowled over with responses for people who want to put these things in their TOTL HD800 headphones. Why is that? Because the HD800 has a problematic FR, it's famous for it. It beats the HD6xx in resolution and soundstage, absolutely no question. But it doesn't have the tonality of the HD6xx, and people are always tinkering with the HD800 to fix that issue.

Let's again mention the Audeze LCD-4. I'm sure on some technical level it does something better than the HD600, but for the life of me I couldn't hear it when I tried those cans at Canjam multiple times. I could take a shit in an Audeze box and someone will probably pay $4k for it, but that doesn't mean it actually sounds good.

Do yourself a favor. Start ignoring prices. Just use your ears to evaluate gear. Based on your comments around here so far, I don't think you do that very often. Your assessments of various headphones have frequently run counter to what everyone else has heard. Why is that? Are you blessed with golden ears and we're all fools who can't tell left from right? Or are you so busy counting dollar signs that you're forgetting to listen to the gear you're talking about?

 

I'd be curious about this as well, not so much because I'm concerned about resale value or even the HD650 itself, but largely because I dunno if the HD600 responds just as well to mods (and to the same mods). The scientific/paranoid side of me will keep me from modding it anyway until I meet someone else locally with them (or find a loaner) that I can use for reliable post-mod comparisons.

 

hello,

listening to the stock HD650 loaners and reading this thread.

it's Monk, and he is drilling into my pleasure centers.

these cans ARE that good.

(jRiver playing Apple LossLess, Windows WASAPI, Bifrost Multibit, Lyr 2 with electro-harmonix Gold Lion 6922, shit ... the hardware does not matter, the music does.)