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
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...).
I was watching a movie at home, The Bourne Identity some time ago. For my main fronts I was using Audio physic tempos,( no loss of fine detail) as it is stamped on the front. I put on my Senn. 580 for fun during an office scene, and the amount of inner detail they picked up was incredible. I heard little chair scrapings on the floor, printers that were in the back of the room quietly printing, people in the back talking to each other. things that had nothing to do with the shot, which was focused on two people talking in an office. If I put my ear to the speakers, I could just hear some of them but not many. It wasn't important to hear all these tiny little details in the movie. I just found it interesting that the headphones picked them up. Of course there is no replacement for dynamics and I will continue to crank my latest speakers whenever possible.
Hey, thanks for all the replies guys!

I know what a few of you mean about the "imaging in the head" with the cans, and the lack of the sound having viseral, physical impact like you get with speakers in a room.

I have occasionally augmented the headphone listening experience by having my subwoofer on, at the same time, which is placed right behind my listening chair. Just like the old "Sensa-round" EARTHQUAKE movie of the seventies, (but obviously a LOT tighter and cleaner bass!). When properly balanced and level adjusted, it really adds to the overall listening experience. Course again, this is only during the weekend daytime and early evening hours through the week...

Those of you who ARE headphone junkies should give this set-up a try.

MEGASAM -- the jury is still not out on the Reality Check CD process. I literally just rc'vd (2) discs a few days ago, and while initial impressions seem to be pretty impressive, I plan to conduct a non-scientific "double blind" test, with a friend switching between the treated vs. non-treated discs, to make sure I'm not having a placebo effect -- and hearing simply what I WANT to hear.

The treated CD's do seem to sound smoother and more cohesive overall, without any seemingly loss of detail, BUT, I wonder if I detect a slight compression effect on sharp transients???

Still, for $12.00 a pop for the Reality Check process, again, I recommend everyone at least experiment with one of their favorite (& well known) CD's to judge for themselves.

I'll keep you posted.
Interesting thread. I haven't listened to my HD600s in a long time. But since my system is without amps right now I listened to some music on my headphones today. I think what makes a headphone system enjoyable is that it delivers the essense of the music. The song and melody is still there! But I really miss my main system. You don't get the enveloping sound of an orchestra, the interplay of instruments from their various positions, you don't get the sense that the whole drum kit is in your room, and the kickdrum and timpani whacks lose a bit of authority.

As for detail retrieval. You might hear more detail with headphones but you also lose the feeling of a low noise floor with instruments emerging out of the darkness.
Well, just thought I would "update" my thread.

I purchased the Silver Dragon headphone replacement cable for my 650 cans a little while back. In-freakin-credible.

I guess I shouldn't be so astonished by this, as I've heard positive changes in all the other cables in my system, but again -- just didn't expect the jump-up in level that this after market cable provided.

I'm even more perplexed? depressed? disapointed? by the stark difference of the sound gap between my headphone set up vs. my "outer" rig...

Anyone in the market for a nice pair of Prodigys?