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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
ellery911
549 posts
 
Robm321 summed it up for me with headphones stating that the soundstage is in your head...drives me crazy.

just my 2c
david_berry
211 posts
 
Denf,

I hear you loud and clear.
I also have a good 2 channel system (that is ever evolving - I should update my profile :)); however, I feel that when I put my headphones on (Senn 600 / Corda HA-1 MkII), I seem to relax more. No worrying about sitting in the sweet spot. Not worrying if the loudness is bothering anyone else in the family. Realizing that I am getting this incrediable sound for a small fraction of what I paid for my 2 channel system.
Just seemingly, a lot less fussiness or tweaks required.
david_berry
211 posts
 
Unclejeff:

"...except when no volumn setting whatsoever is low enough for the wife."

:)

That exact situation happens many times in our house. This was one of the main reasons why I bought a headphone setup.
megasam's avatar
megasam
798 posts
 
Denf.....what about the CDR you got from Reality Check?

I have had good results playing with my outboard CDR drive and am seriously considering getting $500 custom CDR duplication decks offered by this company. What are your findings so far?

Please start new thread here, we have briefly mentioned this in a couple related threads about CDRs and I saw recently a few people at AA have been to guys house that sells these see/hear for themselves.
mezmo
516 posts
 
Yea, there's a level of detail that I've never managed to replicate coming from speakers. That said, I definitely agree that there is something unequalable about the room-filling sound that you get from speakers and a proper soundstage.

To too had a crisis of faith when I got the Cardas cable to replace the stock wires on my HD600s. They sounded SO much better than the speakers that I was a little depressed. After about a year of monkeying with the various room treatment and isolation tricks for the system, I've gotten to the point where I feel that the speakers are equally involving as the headphones. Yes, there is definitly a resolution gap between the two, but there are things that I now feel the speakers do better (and vice versa). Don't despair, there is a time and a place for everything. (But definitley upgrade the wires on those cans -- it gets much better...).
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