The legendary headphone for vocal timbre, lots of info and reviews in previous deal posts, still holds its own if you want to try mid-fi and aren't concerned with super tight imaging.
Don't get sucked into buying extra pads, they are not the stock (HD 650) pads, and not worth your money. Enjoy!
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You can buy various size nugget cushions to assist with this if required. The audio quality difference is vast.
Don't most sources drive this with sufficient volume without clipping? Why are amps recommended so much? Would love to see an ABX test to see if the apparent increase in quality is placebo or not.
300 Ohm impedance - compare that with what your phone or whatever can deal with.
There are ABX tests out there. As well as tests with different pads, or whatever. These are based on probably the most popular audiophile headphone in existence- the 650 was created around 30 years ago. There is nothing unknown about them by now.
600 was released 26 years ago, 650 20 years ago.
Amps are recommended for three reasons:
impedance is typically not linear on dynamic driver headphones, so amps that have excellent control over their power output (notably voltage for this instance) will show distinct differences in the mid-bass and upper treble on this headphone.
the quality of the driver is such that it continues to scale with this level of control, almost all the way to the summit of what's possible
this headphone was designed with tube amps in mind as it has favourable harmonic distortion characteristics compared to the original HD 600, resulting in an organic sound with better soundstage and imaging than most affordable and capable solid state amps would provide
Impedance is not be all end all, driver sensitivity plays a major roll too. These are 300Ohm however are also quite sensitive. If you’re looking for an amp, you can’t look past the Qudelix 5K, it’s a DAC/amp/DSP combo, and with some basic EQ really transforms the 6XX night and day. You’ll get a much more noticeable and enjoyable listening experience with EQ compared to what any standalone amp can provide
Sensitivity does absolutely have a role, but we're specifically discussing the 6XX/650 here.
So am I. They are high sensitivity @ 103dB/mW, so even though they are 300Ohm, they aren’t that difficult to drive
@antik: Difficult to control in specific areas, and able to have their potential taken further than most.
https://youtu.be/1ZNLEVnb9Dc This is the closest I can find on youtube at least
It is 300 ohms, I will max out my phone getting these to a listenable level, but overall they're really not as hard to drive as people say.
Regardless I find my Fiio K3S sufficient for powering them balanced.
I really want to walk into a MiniDisc or some store next time I'm in Sydney to see if they will let me test
the difference between amps - but if I'm being honest I probably won't be able to tell a difference
Would rate these very highly. Auditioned a lot of high end headphones and went for these without trying them. Added the leather ear pads and balanced headphone cable/jack as well.
Have them running through my Schiit Bifrost2 and Jotunheim.
Sounds amazeballs.
Can anyone confirm if the cable is 3m long?
It is not, specs clearly identify it as a 6ft/1.8m cable.
Good headphones but the headband is poorly designed compared to the HD 598/598, which covers the entire tip of the head. With the 650 the weight is concentrated on the 2 front forward corners, becoming uncomfortable after ~ 40 minutes. Tilting them back 30 degrees significantly increases the time until they become uncomfortable.