Sennheiser HD 650 Open Ear Headphones $339 FS B&H Photo

Amazon has the 650 for $339 also now. The 600 is showing as $313 for me.

Neither is a bad price, but they have been cheaper. I've seen the HD650 hit the $310-$320 range, so not a huge difference. The HD600 is not quite as much of a deal. I've seen those hit $260-$275.



Both are great cans though!
 
good deal, i love my 650's. some people prefer the 600's (described as more analytical) but i've never listened to them myself.
 
Not so hot of a deal. Adorama had the HD650s on sale around the $300 mark multiple times at the beginning of this year. Focuscamera also had these for $299 at the beginning of this month which BHPhoto was happy enough to price match.

In fact Focus Camera has the HD650 right now for $332, a whole $7 cheaper than BH.
 
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
 
jwlurch14 said:
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
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Far more noticeable with a good source. With a crappy source, not so much.
 
jwlurch14 said:
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
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Diminishing returns.They're not three times better than your "cheap" cans, but they are better.
 
jwlurch14 said:
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
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As others have said, you will notice a substantial difference in sound quality, but you couldn't quanitfy it as "three times better". Also, I wouldn't even consider buying these unless you're willing to drop more on a headphone amp & dac. Your computer's sound card wouldn't cut it.
 
jwlurch14 said:
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
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Yes the more you spend the better they get (except for some that are overpriced)
 
jwlurch14 said:
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
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Yes, if you listen to high quality lossless music with a good dac and amp.
 
Almighty ODST said:
As others have said, you will notice a substantial difference in sound quality, but you couldn't quanitfy it as "three times better". Also, I wouldn't even consider buying these unless you're willing to drop more on a headphone amp & dac. Your computer's sound card wouldn't cut it.
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you could use a sound card for the DAC, mine works great.
 
dmonkey said:
Diminishing returns.They're not three times better than your "cheap" cans, but they are better.
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I couldn't disagree more. They are far greater than "three times better" than cheap cans if properly amplified. The problem is that most people aren't in to headphones, and the hobby, enough to warrant the purchase of a true headphone amplifier and/or speaker amplifier to drive them properly. The HD600/650 driven by a balanced amplifier, and from a source with balanced outputs, can rival some of the greatest headphones ever produced.

If all one plans to do is plug them in to a soundcard or Ipod then your comment makes sense. Unfortunately that person will never know what they are truly capable of.
 
greens said:
I couldn't disagree more. They are far greater than "three times better" than cheap cans if properly amplified. The problem is that most people aren't in to headphones, and the hobby, enough to warrant the purchase of a true headphone amplifier and/or speaker amplifier to drive them properly. The HD600/650 driven by a balanced amplifier, and from a source with balanced outputs, can rival some of the greatest headphones ever produced.

If all one plans to do is plug them in to a soundcard or Ipod then your comment makes sense. Unfortunately that person will never know what they are truly capable of.
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It depends on at which point you set your minimum threshold of quality. Past that point the improvements in quality are logarithmic, it's almost a scientific fact. Cans can't get better and better ad infinitum. I've tried the HD800 once and I was blown away, but maybe my ears aren't good enough that I would find it necessary to purchase a pair of those over my $250 headphones.
 
greens said:
I couldn't disagree more. They are far greater than "three times better" than cheap cans if properly amplified. The problem is that most people aren't in to headphones, and the hobby, enough to warrant the purchase of a true headphone amplifier and/or speaker amplifier to drive them properly. The HD600/650 driven by a balanced amplifier, and from a source with balanced outputs, can rival some of the greatest headphones ever produced.
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While I agree that to drive these cans properly a true headphone amplifier and/or speaker amplifier is required, it does NOT need to be driven from a balanced amplifier, and from a source with balanced outputs.

A high quality amplifier with unbalanced I/O jacks connected to a high quality source with single-ended line level outputs will do an excellent job driving high impedance headphones.

Unless you have a long run of cable between the source and amp balanced connections are not necessary. Additionally many so-called "balanced" amps, preamps and sources are not true differential topology designs. They take a single-ended line level source and split it to XLR right at the connection terminal. True differential topology designs are usually very expensive and again, are not needed to get the most out of headphones such as these.
 
Something like O2 amp and Odac will be more than enough to power the hd650
 
123Lanoix said:
Something like O2 amp and Odac will be more than enough to power the hd650
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And the analytical nature of o2/odac will mix well with the warm signature of the 650. Winning.

I myself went the other direction and plug them into a tube amp; accentuate the warmth.
 
jwlurch14 said:
Are these expensive headphones really worth it over a $70-$100 pair of turtle beach headphones? I will admit that I have never tested a pair above the $100 mark but am very curious.
Click to expand...

If you buy these headphones, I believe a headphone amp is probably in order. That said, there are some good deals on on headphone amps on stacksocial (though I'd recommend looking at comments and perhaps reading headfi.org before buying any of it.

That said, I've never owned $300.00 headphones, but they don't seem insanely expensive to me. Now Stax...those are insane (but perhaps they're worth it).
 
I personally feel that the 598's are the best out there for the money...They offer a much improved listening experience for under ~$175 (I paid $130 from Amazon and they were $99 on BF)..

They should sound good with a mobile source (I used my Note 3 streaming Spotify on the Highest level when playing poker) and even better with an amped source. For now the amp'd headphone output on my SB Z is doing a great job.

Just my $.02..
 
ccityinstaller said:
I personally feel that the 598's are the best out there for the money...They offer a much improved listening experience for under ~$175 (I paid $130 from Amazon and they were $99 on BF)..

They should sound good with a mobile source (I used my Note 3 streaming Spotify on the Highest level when playing poker) and even better with an amped source. For now the amp'd headphone output on my SB Z is doing a great job.

Just my $.02..
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Haven't seen them that cheap. The best for the money? Probably depends on what you match with them, like anything else in audio.

I'm actually in the market for a set of wireless cans. Tried the Pendulumic Stance S1+ and found them to be fragile (control knob broke) with poor noise isolation. Also tried the
MEElectronic Air-Fi Matrix2 AF62 and was unimpressed with the noise isolation can call quality.

That leaves the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless ($500), not cheap. And Sony's new MDR-1ABT.

http://headphones.reviewed.com/features/listening-to-the-new-sony-mdr-1abt-headphones

Ruled out the Zik 2.0 since they require that gawd awful software to work. Face palm on that one!

Seems like the Senns could work but will wait and see what the Talking Heads have to say about the Sony's first.

Anyway, a whole bunch of wired cans were reviewed on Head-Fi:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/634201/battle-of-the-flagships-58-headphones-compared-update-audeze-lcd-2-revision-2-6-4-13
 
Porter_ said:
you could use a sound card for the DAC, mine works great.
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DACs in quality soundcards (especially budget studio cards like Esi Juli@) can be very good but inside of your computer case is electrically noisy place. I would take the digital signal out of there before conversion to analog which is affected by noise. Hence the recommendations for external DACs.
 
MaZa said:
DACs in quality soundcards (especially budget studio cards like Esi Juli@) can be very good but inside of your computer case is electrically noisy place. I would take the digital signal out of there before conversion to analog which is affected by noise. Hence the recommendations for external DACs.
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This is also on a case by case basis; you may be able to just plug your motherboards line-out directly into an amp and get wonderful sound out of a good pair of headphones (HD650s aren't the most sensitive in this regard).

Yes; an external DAC will likely sound better than internal sound card; but less you notice interference; the price vs benefit of upgrading dac is much lower than headphones (and amp when considering hd600/hd650); you will likely be much better off getting a more powerful amp if no line noise on motherboard. If motherboard has optical out? Use that direct to an amp and you can potentially be happy forever.
 
Ugh, my damn headphone cables are going out again, don't know why I have such an issue with the OEM cables, need to get me a 3rd party solution and hope they last longer.
 
Megalith said:
Someone find me a short cable for the HD 650.
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Cheap/Temporary: Twist tie.
Cheap/Semi-permanent: Zip tie.
Cheap/Permanent: Cut stock cable + Neutrik 3.5mm or 1/4" jack.

Wallet abuse: Any prebuilt custom cable.

5icko said:
Haven't seen them that cheap. The best for the money? Probably depends on what you match with them, like anything else in audio.[/URL]
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The HD598's have been as low as $99 new, though I've only seen them that low once.


With respect to amp'ing, I use the monoprice #11567 headphone amp to power some HD650's and it sounds great.
The best? No. But a solid 8/10 and imho the best bang for your buck DAC+Amp combo on the market.
Also serves as the DAC/pre-amp for my powered monitors. It even works as an emergency spot light! I think they must have gotten a deal on overstocked blue LEDs for police cruiser light bars or something similar, it's extraordinarily bright.
 
5icko said:
Haven't seen them that cheap. The best for the money? Probably depends on what you match with them, like anything else in audio.

I'm actually in the market for a set of wireless cans. Tried the Pendulumic Stance S1+ and found them to be fragile (control knob broke) with poor noise isolation. Also tried the
MEElectronic Air-Fi Matrix2 AF62 and was unimpressed with the noise isolation can call quality.

That leaves the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless ($500), not cheap. And Sony's new MDR-1ABT.

http://headphones.reviewed.com/features/listening-to-the-new-sony-mdr-1abt-headphones

Ruled out the Zik 2.0 since they require that gawd awful software to work. Face palm on that one!

Seems like the Senns could work but will wait and see what the Talking Heads have to say about the Sony's first.

Anyway, a whole bunch of wired cans were reviewed on Head-Fi:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/634201/bat...ompared-update-audeze-lcd-2-revision-2-6-4-13
Click to expand...


If Zik2 are like Zik; you need the software to configure it; then it stays like that on any source. The app doesn't even open on my phone when they connect; only if I want to do in-device EQ, or disable noise canceling or some such. It mostly pairs with my laptop; using same settings.
 
aubsxc said:
Yes, if you listen to high quality lossless music with a good dac and amp.
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I would say that 'lossless' is not needed. Unless you're clean room A:Bing you (generally, everyone and every track is different) won't notice the difference between a lossless format and high good compressed format streamed over the web. You *will* notice marked difference between properly amped 650s and the turtle beach on the bus though; as the difference there is much much larger than lossless flac vs 320kbps mp3.
 
Worminater said:
If Zik2 are like Zik; you need the software to configure it; then it stays like that on any source. The app doesn't even open on my phone when they connect; only if I want to do in-device EQ, or disable noise canceling or some such. It mostly pairs with my laptop; using same settings.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Forbes reports the NC can't be toggled without the app? Silly if true. The sound cancellation is rated very high by innerfidelity.com, do you agree with that?

Many users also report discomfort issues with them, so that also gives me pause. And the battery life is reported to be six hours, which is abysmal.
 
The Sennheiser HD 650 Open Ear Headphones are now $290 at Amazon. I purchased them two weeks back and just submitted my request for partial refund for the difference. Great price for one of the best headphones under $1000.
 
phas3d said:
The Sennheiser HD 650 Open Ear Headphones are now $290 at Amazon. I purchased them two weeks back and just submitted my request for partial refund for the difference. Great price for one of the best headphones under $1000.
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Damn man, your killing me! That is an incredibly good price. I really don't need more headphones... but that is intensely tempting.
 
Ordered myself a pair of HD 650's last night on Amazon and they're set to be delivered today, which caught my extremely off guard as it was saying they won't be delivered until next Wednesday... Oh well. We'll see.
 
I use my 650's more than any other cans in my sig. They just sound great and they are super comfortable. Can't recommend them enough!
 
I must say these HD 650s are perhaps the best headphones I have ever owned. I was previously using the Beyerdynamic DT 770 80Ohm pros, which are by no means bad headphones, but the sound and clarity and preciseness of the HD 650s beat them hands down. I've never heard such an open sound stage before, it's insane.
 
Would love a pair of these, but can't live without the isolation of closed-back cans.
AKG K550 for me :)
 
5icko said:
Interesting. Forbes reports the NC can't be toggled without the app? Silly if true. The sound cancellation is rated very high by innerfidelity.com, do you agree with that?

Many users also report discomfort issues with them, so that also gives me pause. And the battery life is reported to be six hours, which is abysmal.
Click to expand...

Note: This is based on the Zik v1; not the new 2.

noise canceling - works well; slightly behind the QC2; but sound quality is better. You can only toggle settings/EQ via IOS/Android app; though settings carry across devices. I toggle NC/Eq on my phone; and use that signature while listening on my laptop.

Comfort - They are on; not over ear; so have that negative to contend with. The pads themselves are supple leather though; and the heavy-ish weight is surprisingly good. I do listen to them for 4-5 hours straight with no comfort issues while wearing glasses. Honestly; comfort is what surprised me the most.

Battery life - 6 hours is probably about right. I bought a second battery and I leave it on a universal charger behind me at work; I swap the two whenever it dies (once or twice a week. I tend to plug them in when I go to a meeting, and don't listen to them constantly).

If I considered them for travel; I'd be sure to bring a second battery else be OK with a USB cable dangling from your head while listening (I'm not; they're wireless for a reason)
 
Figured to just bump this since it was already mentioned, Amazon currently has the HD600 for $279.00 and the HD650 for $326.81.....good time to jump in for the last headphones you'll ever need not named HD800 or with the words "planar magnetic" or "electrostatic" in their description :p
 
HD600's were $239 and $245 within the past couple weeks, if it were me I would be looking for them to drop under $250 again before I bought.
 
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