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Listening to my HD650's, a sobering experience...

My fellow audiophiles, I'm a bit depressed. Please let me take a moment & jump up on my soap box and vent a little..

A couple months a go I picked up a pair of the excellent Sennheiser HD650's, to replace my venerable HD600's.

While I primarily listen to my "big rig", during the evening hours I am relegated to listening to the cans to keep the peace around the house.

So, I'm listening to a couple discs recently re-processed and re-transformed by the Reality Check CD-R process (more to come, see www.positivefeedback.com, Clark Johnson's report for details -- EVERYONE should check into this, but I digress...) when it dawns on me how much more detailed, relaxed, natural, musical, REAL -- well you pick your adjective, EVERYTHING sounds through the headphones.

It just really makes me realize that even as good as I think my big, honkin' EXPENSIVE main system is, there's STILL a helluva lot of information that's in those little pits that I'm just not hearing.

Just HOW friggin' high up on the scale do you have to go to get this "HD650" type of reproduction in your listening room anyway???

Is it even POSSIBLE????

Since I'm using my CD player as the same source for both the 'phones and the main speakers, I guess I can rule it out as the culprit. Must be in the speakers, amp, room acoustics, or a combination of all.

Not like my system is a "lightweight" by any means, and I'm generally happy listening to it, but...

I know, I know, SELL MY HD650's, right?!

My main system; MArtin Logan Prodigys, Halo JC-1 amps, Audio Aero Capitole 24/192, Analysis Plus cables, PS Audio P300, SoundString cables, Acoustic Zen AC cords, dedicated AC lines, dedicated soundroom, and one slightly depressed and frustrated audio-dude.

Headphone System: A. Aero Capitole, Wheatfield OTL tube headphone amp, Sennheiser HD650 (with STOCK cord, how good are they gonna sound when I get that Silver Moon replacement cord???).

Oh well, thanks for lending an ear (or eye, in this case) and Happy Holidays everyone. I've been pretty good this year, so maybe Santa will leave a set of Lamm's in my stocking and a pair of DALI Magelines under the tree.
denf
david99
1,467 posts
 
You cant shake the room with cans.I like the bass thump in my chest too! :~)
philefreak
423 posts
 
Sell the Martin Logans, the JC 1 and buy you a nice SET amp (2A3 or 300B) and a pair of horns.
bigtee
803 posts
 
I used a pair of HD600 phones and I agree with Megasam about the soundstage. It sounded awfully flat through the phones. The one other thing I discovered was my system did sound better than the phones overall. I did find that the Vandersteen's I use were a touch brighter if you can believe that! Overall, I'm glad I don't have to listen to the phones that much.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I go through phasses where I prefer headphones but I generally like to go back to full-room speakers, except when no volumn setting whatsoever is low enough for the wife. This problem seems somewhat cyclical.
robm321
932 posts
 
Well, it all depends on your perspective. Usually it's the room acoustics that prevent the "perfect" soundstage you get from headphones. But, that's where the benefits end for headphones.

The soundstage is not life size in front of you (just as live music would be) like speakers give you.

You don't get the heart pounding thump that vibrates your body like you do with speakers. (unless you want to cause yourself some hearing loss) (you have to be more careful in what level you listen to headphones at)

The soundstage is in your head, very unrealistic (in other words you can't imagine your in a concert hall and believe it like you can with a good system with speakers.)

Frankly, my Grados give me more detial then my Senn 600s (I use senn for classical and grado rs-1 for rock, jazz, etc.)

And after all of that my stereo still gives more detail and sparkle than the headphones anyway.

So, it's probably your system or acoustic setup of your room, or both.

Rob
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