2. misc-audio
  3. 1102391869

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
mdhoover
695 posts
 
FWIW,

I'm having the OPPOSITE problem, just having purchased the Intuitive Design Summit PSL 624 loudspeakers, which have everything, except the very deepest of the deep bass, which is where the Rel Storm 3 kicks in anyway (crossover is set at 27 hertz, to give you an idea of how deep the Summits go, with a rolloff at about 40 hertz). I love to listen to these so much that several times my wife has told me to turn it down (after 9:30 pm, usually) or else use my "super" headphones (Sennheiser HD 600's that I insisted on several years ago).

The problem is that the Summits are BOTH smoother AND more detailed on the high end than the Sennheiser HD 600's which I currently own. Now the Sennheisers sound annoyingly bad to me (yes, really). The only weak link in the chain to them that's any different than the signal path to the loudspeakers is the Ramsey SHA 1 headphone amplifier.

I'm reluctantly considering purchasing Stax Lambda Pro headphones with a tube amp, used for a killer low price. If THOSE don't sound good enough, then I'll be really frustrated, probably being forced to get the Omega 2's. No, I'm not being sarcastic. I really do NOT want to spend upwards of 3000 to achieve sound quality on a par with the loudspeakers. If I have to do that, then it's going to be "wait time".

Does anyone know if the Lambda Pro's are a great headphone?

Are the 650's that much better than the 600's?
robm321
932 posts
 
MDhoover,

Definately listen to the AKG K1000 before you buy. They are my new reference phone and the only one I've heard that throws a soundstage out of the head. Blows my Senn HD600 and Grado RS-1 out of the water. Prior to listening to the K1000, I thought Grado and Senn were the top of the line. I still listen to Grado RS1 and ocassionally the Senns, but the K1000 is amazing and to me on another level entirely.
mdhoover
695 posts
 
Robm321----Thanks! I'll check them out.
larryi
4,188 posts
 
I, too, like the AKG 1000. But, while it is not as much an in-the-head experience, it does not come close to the natural soundstage of speakers. I consider headphone listening to be a completely different experience so soundstaging is not important when I have the phones on. Still, on all other accounts, the AKGs are quite nice.
robm321
932 posts
 
Larryi,

I agree. There are no headphones that match speakers, but the K1000 hits a middle ground. You get a wide open soundstage rather than a line in your head between your ears as the soundstage. Nothing beats a full sized stereo.

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