Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

I recently got a new production H6XX, built in March 2019, once modded they sounded exactly like my modded 650 from who knows when with the same pads. Swap the pads if you want to be sure they're not the reason.
No one should even dare suggest burn-in, it's not a thing with HD650s.

 

I AB'ed an old HD650 and HD6XX and could not tell a difference in sound with new pads on each.

 

My old pair is from like 2009? All I know it sounds like ass compared to my newish used pair I got awhile ago. I'll try swapping pads later but I'm going to dynamat them.

But I know I ain't alone in what I'm hearing though. Newer HD650s sound a bit less overdamped and more lively like the HD600.

 

There are some exceptions, I had one pair with the older silver box ,super stiff drivers and roll off at the top.
Some batch of drivers are known to be different, not in a good way but all the newish ones I've heard, 5y+ were bang on identical.
From the JAR fellow:
I had a look, your drivers aren't stamped minisys, and I find that to be very odd. I had a pair around 2012 and it had minisys printed on it, so I'm not sure what's the deal here. Your driver is also stiffer than normal. The membrane material is stiffer.

 

Yep my old pair was from a silver box. There's speculation of three revisions since the HD650 first released. The last one was around 5 years ago and had updated packaging with black boxes. Folks who've bought pairs in the last 5 years have said its closer to the transient response of the HD600 but without its drawbacks. Maybe the recent "refreshed" look HD650 sounds better. Who knows...

Still curious if anyone can help answer my EQ question.

 

Thanks for the answers @Baten e @m17xr2b ! I have another doubt, the JAR 650 mod is worth the biggest investment in dollars than the HD650 KISS mod? I refer to general sound, soundstage and resolution. It seems that the JAR 650 costs $100+ freight and to run HD650 KISS costs less than $20, at least I found the JAR 650 more aesthetically beautiful, but what about sound, it's worth the difference?
And yet another question, would the Sennheiser HD600 also benefit from hd650 KISS and JAR 650 mods like the HD650? For increased resolution, better transients and soundstage? Thanks!

 

DON'T do the KISS mod on the HD600, it'll sound too bright. The purpose of KISS mod is to reduce the mid bass hump and the veil of the HD650, not the HD600.

Personally I'm a big fan of JAR mods but that I enjoyed the KISS mod as well. JAR mods sound more focused w/ improved macro-dynamics and detail. measurements + impressions here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-impressions-measurements-finalized-mod.6968/

I would recommend you check out the JAR600 as well: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/jar-hd600-impressions-and-measurements.8172/

 

I managed a whole two weeks without my modded HD650s as they're on loan and started to go in withdrawal.
Decided to unKISS my second rarely used pair, took the spider and foam from different drivers, basic glue and removal of dynamat:


KISS only works on a standard HD650, with my own mod on top it's loose and uncontrolled, mass loading the driver isn't my cup of tea in the end.

Aaaahhhhh, that's the stuff.

 

Hello guys. One of the grilles on my HD650 is damaged, does anyone know if these are also order-able at good price anywhere? I found this https://www.audiosanctuary.co.uk/sennheiser-replacement-grille-for-hd600-headphones-each..html but quite pricy here.

 

I, er, dented one of the grilles on my HD600s a few days after getting them cuz I'm a butterfingers that way and immediately popped the actual grille out of the plastic frame (turns out those are just glued in place) trying to un-dent em. I ended up sticking em back in place with off-brand superglue but knowing one of them isn't perfectly formed bothered me a lot so I looked up costs online and shot a message to a local audio store— that price listed on AudioSanctuary actually seems to fall within norms so you might as well bite the bullet if it bothers you that much, sorry to say.

 

Thanks! =)

 

Lol did the dent screw up the headstage? Dip in the midrange?

 

Actually the fact that the grille on one side was closer to the driver made for a bit more congested headstage. Yeah, the reduced internal cup volume actually makes for even tighter bass (which is a bit overkill on HD600— might work for HD650), though the earlier reflections seem to aid in "attack" at the expense of muddied sustain in transients; while I think there are incremental improvements you have to be very careful to dent the grilles in precisely the same way else reflections might go awry and bollix the stable center image you'd otherwise have. As it is now with the one grille set intact and the other dented, it sounds to me like things are very slightly skewed towards the one channel. No big deal though since my aircon running about 2m away off to my left actually makes it so that the headstage I get is always slightly panned right.


I hope this doesn't need to be said but this is all a shitty joke and I'm gonna stop polluting this thread now. The bit about my aircon skewing headstage is legit though. In all seriousness don't underestimate even moderately loud ambient sounds and how they might spoil presentation.

 

You had me at the first part, lol.

 

I've not seen anywhere cheaper than audiosanctuary (https://soundspares.com and www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/ are a good deal pricier; https://spares.sennheiser.co.uk/ is just a bit more expensive). Of these, I can only vouch for hifiheadphones as a good vendor, having purchased a replacement headband padding for my HD 800 from them.

Back off-topic briefly - @Lyander, which would be better for the blunt force trauma mod, a hammer or mallet?

 

For fountain pen nibs I'd use a smooth metal burnishing rod, something inflexible to transfer as much force as possible to the surface being worked on. Must pair with a hard nib block (don't own one) or a clean, level, flat or curved surface to maintain nib geometry. Occasionally I'll just get a wooden chopstick, carve a makeshift niche for the nib body to sit in and press down.

... When I tried un-denting the grilles on the HD600 though, I just used my fingers.

Thumb pads directly on top of the damaged area (because the thumb offers the most surface area and the squishy parts of fingers make it more difficult to actually destroy anything; the metal doesn't seem that tough, a hammer would be overkill unless you use a more delicate one for jeweller's work and maybe have a durable piece of fabric to prevent scuffing the inside) with other fingers supporting the grille on the opposite end while I tried restoring the original arc of the mesh.

I got pretty damn close on first pass but I could still feel a very mild depression in the relevant region when running my fingers over it so I popped the frame out again and went to town on it, which is when I yeeted the actual mesh out of place by accident.


Two things:
1. Yes I overthink how to best burnish metal objects because that's the kind of neurotic I am.
2. I recently began using "yeeted" unironically. f**k.

 

Hello I am back from my vavca and see this Jar method seems to be the best method here.
This looks to be a good "base" for me to use as comparison, as it has nice measurements, so I will use it to be comparing the measurements with my "Next Gen" 650.

Exactly what I would say to the sneek that recently changed my profile info. Very childish.

Or the sensitive fool who placed that immature description on my sceeenname from last year.

It really shows the site's immaturity when I post.

 

Ok, here we go:
Jar 650, 35db down:


Next Gen 650, 35db down:

...
Before and after FrequencyResponse:



Edit**
This was not finished signature.
I updated final signature in my Loaner thread.

 

I just did the left side, now I gotta do the right and can have both up (580&650) for loaners.
Edit:
Ok mod complete.
**Edit mod was updated with new material to boost extremes.
So this was old pic shown.


Woops, apologies, I updated my CSD to go more to the left, down to 200hz, so parameters more even with the other.