Senneheiser HD660S Impressions

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by Ray, Oct 25, 2017.

  1. barelyincollege

    barelyincollege Nice Pit Bull

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    Use the status box for shipment updates and leave this thread for impressions, please.
     
  2. luximal

    luximal Made things right

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  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Pictures or it didn't happen...
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    First of all, the HD660S are brand new. They might need some break in, although in my experience, the Sennheiser stuff has always sounded the same from day one. These are early impressions though.

    Scaling / Resolution

    By far the biggest disappointment, the HD660S does not scale as well as its 600 ohm siblings. Both the HD600 (with extremely well worn out pads) and the HD650 (KISS modded), despite their slightly different takes on tonal balance, excude a noticeably stronger engagement factor than the HD660S. The HD660S seems to crush macrodynamics and microdynamics toward the middle volume ranges. The HD660S has less granularity in volume levels as well as less dynamism. The HD660S is also noticeably inferior in terms of microdetail or what I like to call plankton. We are talking about low level information that is just barely audible. But without this plankton, we get a sense of something that is missing. It's actually annoying when we know, we sense that its there on the HD650 and HD600, but not there on the HD660S. The feeling is like forgetting the exact vocabulary word that one is looking for.

    On the other hand, the HD660S does seem to render moderate to moderate low level information better when using more modest sources such as the Vali 2 / Modi Multibit stack (not pictured, but I'm sure I don't need to prove this one in pictures). But this is not the same thing as "plankton".


    Bass

    The bass sucks just as much as the HD650KISS. I don't WTF other early impressions are talking about. In fact, I would say that it sucks more. Maybe the compared to the stock HD650, the bass is better, because the HD650 has a bit too much midbass. (Note the KISS mods reduce the HD650 bass levels to HD600 bass levels). In fact, I'd say the bass sucks just slightly more than the HD650 / K's bass. There's a wierd quality that sounds like more third order. I'll bet $20 on this when I do measurements later tonight. The HD600's bass is better than both HD660S and HD650K, at least the one that I have in my possession.

    HD600 > HD650K => HD660S

    Clarity / Articulation

    From the more modest Vali 2 / Modi Multibit stack:

    Clarity: HD660S = HD600 > HD650K
    Transient speed: HD600 > HD660S > HD650K
    Tautness / control: HD660S > HD650K > HD600

    As we scale up to better gear (source and amp):

    The differences above become insubstantial.

    It's not like the differences are huge anyway - they are slight. However, I found the HD660S to be less cohesive and more disjointed between the highs and the lows. I've already said that the HD660's bass blows just as much as if not slighty more than the HD650's. The faster transients and better separation of the mids and especially highs of the HD660S don't blend in with the bass as well. The HD650K, while a tad slower in transients, is more uniform in its presentation from lows to highs. The HD600 is a tad faster, maybe more spastic, but it does have the best bass performance, and similarly also has good cohesive quality throughout the audio band.
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2017
  4. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    And that's what the Senn rep at RMAF more or less said, nothing shocking. People looking for a HD650 successor are going to be waiting a long time me thinks.

    @Marv how efficient are they? Easier to driver than HD650/HD600?
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    So far my thoughts are that if one wanted a better HD650, that is an HD650K, but didn't want to perform unreversible mods, they would be better off with an HD660S, provided they didn't mind to pay a premium. Folks who don't mind slightly less bassy and/or a brighter presentation should just skip the HD660S and go straight for the HD600.

    The HD600 and HD650 will perform better with half-way decent gear. I'd say that one would be better off with HD600 or HD650 with Bottlehead Crack. I don't think the HD600S will even scale with a Crack.
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2017
  6. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    As was discussed in the speculation thread, probably has something to with the thinner wire and greater number of turns around the VC. Not too different from how the 250 and 600 ohms Beyers sound / scale better than the 80 ohm ones.
     
  9. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    It may be that simple then. TFW Jude talks about resolution and bass tautness/extension from a f'ing Hugo 2 which is about as colored as a Modi Multibit and even more weaksauce/lacking in balls than a Vali 2. This explains a lot.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  11. kman1211

    kman1211 New

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    I got the news the HD 660S was a disappointment from two people tonight, from you and a friend who spend the weekend with them. She basically just told me to forego the HD 660S and just get the HD 600 as I originally planned to. Saves me $200 so I'm not complaining but was hoping the HD 660S would at least scale as well as the HD 600/650.
     
  12. 93EXCivic

    93EXCivic New

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    Thanks for the comparison Marv.

    Reading the initial reviews I was wondering if I would like it compared to my HD600 and I had a gut feeling I would prefer the HD600. I think this kind of confirmed what I thought. Of course hype-fi is pretty much declaring them the best thing ever.

    Still I want to listen to the HD660S but I now don't really feel in any rush to try them out.
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2017
  13. Solrighal

    Solrighal Facebook Friend

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    It doesn't have any 600 Ohm siblings.
     
  14. BenjaminBore

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    Last edited: Oct 31, 2017
  15. Arun Kumar

    Arun Kumar Friend

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    As long as they don't stop producing the 650s and continue improving the 660s it's all good.
     
  16. powermatic

    powermatic Friend

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  17. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    A certain number of typos are to be expected, especially when @Marvey gets worked up about something.

    I want to hear these for myself, but the steam behind the excitement to do so has now dissipated.
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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  19. Rthomas

    Rthomas Friend

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    This is so disappointing. 14 years they had!!

    I've refused delivery of mine. :(
     
  20. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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    It's disappointing, but one of these days when the used market price plummets, it could be a worthwhile investment.

    Espeically for someone like myself that isn't willing to do the 650 mods.
     

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