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Sennheiser HD 650 Question

E

Enthusiast Extreme

Limp Gawd
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Jul 1, 2011
Messages
334
Hey guys, I have a good discount at a place I work on Sennheiser HD 650. I can buy a pair under 330 dollars NEW. I listen to techno, trance, jazz, and classical music... Are these good headphones for me? Thanks ahead of time :D
 
They are on the warm end of the spectrum, I like my pair but I haven't used them in years. The best website for information on headphones though is head-fi
 
They can be.

The 650s scale very well with an amplifier, but without proper amplification they will sound very dark, with very veiled treble - which would be less than ideal with trance, etc.. As such, the 650s are not one of those headphones which are merely improved by an amplifier, they essentially require it, or they will sound like a waste of money.

Your sound card does not look to have a dedicated headphone amplifier, unless I missed it in its spec sheet. You should therefore add another $100 at minimum to the cost if you do not have another amplifier.

As with any pair of headphones, I would try to audition the 650s first if possible. Do you get a discount on the 600s as well at work? The 600s are not necessarily inferior to the 650s; they are simply different. Many report that the 600s are more balanced in their sound signature, however, and it may be easier to pull treble from them than the 650s, in my opinion.

The 600s do not have as much bass as the 650s though.
 
650's need a legit amplifier (not one built into PC speaker systems) so if you are not intending to purchase one, I'd go with something else.
 
Valaire is correct. If you use them out of your Klipsch speakers, they will almost certainly not sound worthy of their price tag.

650s sound awesome when everything is to their liking, but they can be downright disappointing and even crappy if you don't build a setup around them.

The FiiO E9 seems to pair well with them according to others I have talked to, and is decently cheap at around $100. You would still need a DAC to pair with the E9, or you can use your HT Omega, which would do the job nicely - if a bit awkwardly as you use it for speakers as well. (You could also buy the E7 to pair with the E9 and use that as the DAC.)

The Xonar Essence ST/X pairs with them nicely, as well. The Creative Ti HD probably will not since it does not have a dedicated headphone amplifier. (I have an Auzentech X-Fi Forte and it drives them well, likely similarly to the Essence.)

Edit: I guess the bottom line that we are trying to get across is that you would be far better off purchasing one of the sub-$200 Senns over the 650s unless you plan to purchase a dedicated amp for them.
 
With headphone amplifiers we are talking about devices like this:

http://www.headamp.com/home_amps/gs1/index.htm

A fully built dedicated amplifiers meant to drive headphones properly. Above linked GS1 is a known good one, but quite costly. I am not familiar with cheap headphone amplifiers, let alone ones that might do HD650 even bit of justice. It is an audiophile headphone recommended for good amplifiers and good DAC's.

About your music, HD650 are known to be great Jazz and Classical headphones, but techno and trance... My ears say that music needs a headphone with bite in the upper midrange and lots of grunt at the sub-bass where HD650 is quite smooth sounding headphone. But you may disagree.
 
I already gave two sub-$200 DAC/amplifier combo recommendations in my first post, haha.

I would not worry about not having a GS-1.

Will the GS-1 bring out more in the 650s than an E9/E7 combo? Yes, it will, but less expensive headphone amplifiers are still capable of making them sound good, e.g., worth their cost in comparison to other headphones at a similar price point.

That said, the GS-1 is a very powerful discrete amplifier with a pitch black noise floor and almost no coloration, but it is also nearly $1,000. Oddly enough, the GS-1 is the amplifier that I currently pair with my 650s.
 
Try the HD600s if you can get a deal on those too. I tried both and liked the HD600s more than the 650s even with a decent amp.
 
TESLA said:
I already gave two sub-$200 DAC/amplifier combo recommendations in my first post, haha.

I would not worry about not having a GS-1.

Will the GS-1 bring out more in the 650s than an E9/E7 combo? Yes, it will, but less expensive headphone amplifiers are still capable of making them sound good, e.g., worth their cost in comparison to other headphones at a similar price point.

That said, the GS-1 is a very powerful discrete amplifier with a pitch black noise floor and almost no coloration, but it is also nearly $1,000. Oddly enough, the GS-1 is the amplifier that I currently pair with my 650s.
Click to expand...

Ok I will buy the E9 for them... What do I need a DAC for if I have an amp? Sorry I arm a noon.
 
Computers deal in the digital domain. Amplifiers are analog.

The DAC takes a digital output from the computer and converts it to an analog line level signal. It's a source, essentially, and since an amplifier is only as good as its source, you should invest in both rather than relying on the built-in DAC of your on-board sound. Doing otherwise would be a waste of money.
 
MP3 is just a codec, it's digital. Generally, software decompresses the MP3 into something akin to S/PDIF, a protocol, and the S/PDIF signal is then fed to a DAC chip.

In the case of your phone, unless your phone supports digital output via S/PDIF, the DAC is internal to the phone and the line output on your phone is used to feed the amp. This is less than ideal, but it is difficult to get an ideal portable setup.

A DAC is always required somewhere along the chain, but even though your PC has an internal DAC via the integrated sound, a dedicated DAC with its own power supply is going to make a big difference, especially when being fed to drive 650s.
 
Honestly the best place to read up is head-fi.org or computeraudiophile. I only have two points to make.

1.) The better the headphones, the better the equipment that's needed to take it to it's full potential. i.e. dac/amplifier/source material.

2.) There are diminishing returns to the amount you spend.

The easiest/best sennheirser sounding phones to drive straight from your phone/ipod/computer are the 595's/598's.

Being that I own both the 595's and 650's, the 650's are definitely better sounding but I'm also driving them with PS Audio GCHA headphone amplifier/dac and feeding it via USB with uncompressed flac files from foobar.

If you're not willing to invest in other equipment to properly drive the phones than I'd say stick with the 598's. If you're willing to make the leap, demo the 600's/650's and see which ones you like more, hopefully you'll have access to a decent headphone amp and good source material. Easiest thing to do is bring your own music in the format your use to listening to, listen to a bunch of cans and decide for yourself what sounds best.

Just my 2 cents.

--Chris
 
I think the HD650s are worth it as long as you're willing to buy an amp/dac, even if you just get a cheap one now with the plan of upgrading down the track. I haven't personally tried it, but I reckon even a Xonar U1 + HD650 wouldn't be a bad choice if you're on a budget. The HD650s are the sort of headphones you'll want to keep for years even as you upgrade your hardware, so to me I'd rather just buy them upfront than buying a cheaper set of headphones and end up buying the HD650s down the track anyway :p But I'm one of those people who bought a mid-ranged set of headphones and less than a year later got the HD650s and never touched my old headphones again.

Personally I run my HD650 through a Xonar ST, but that's not a terribly cheap option. Sounds great though ;)
 
TESLA said:
The 600s do not have as much bass as the 650s though.
Click to expand...

That's definitely the case :O


HD650

hd650.png


HD600
hd600.png
 
It is, even your graph says so, haha.

In all seriousness, if you have a chance to try them both, the 600 sounds more balanced than the 650.
 
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