Sold my 600āsā¦After a few months I bought a set of the 650āsā¦had to see if they were really any better or different.
The 650ās are my low end /low cost gold standard for all things headphone related.
Having the TOTL cans, amps and dac, yes these are not at that level, but for the cost and design they are absolutely superbā¦
The other day I put them on and connected to a Schiit Jot1 (and I have a jot 2) with the SE jack and low gainā¦played some random low pedal organ music and was floored at the bass (bass extension) that these 650s presentedā¦yes maybe not the most accurate etc but the freq response was indeed very very good do these dynamic driversā¦
Hey All,
My 6XX finally arrived yesterday (actually, the deliverer wouldnāt drop them off as I owed import fees and so I had to walk for to the post officeā Totally worth it!) Having lived with the peakiness of my AKG K701 cans for the last few months, I was forever playing with eq to make them listenable, and found them incredibly fatiguing, especially with older material. These are far more relaxed and forgiving - just smooth like butter in comparison. Not as (artificially) wide, which I suspect is down to the weird tuning of the AKG, but that always led to far too much stereo separation and was especially disorienting on older tracks. Even my wife, who tolerates this hobby but has 0 interest, was impressed when she put them on, and similarly noted how much more pleasing they sound! Well worth the drop price, for sure. Iāve tried EQ (crinkle, etc.) as well, but actually prefer their out of the box tuning, which is just fun and brings a nice mid -forwardness and roundness to the sound.
Now to hear how I need bottlehead, lol!
Out of curiosity, how are these headphones considered neutral? To me, they are like sitting down at a nice, warm fire in a wood cabin - cozy, not overly spacious by any stretch, rolled off treble that is still accurate, but a definite mid bump and 0 harshnessā¦ I can get why some people would find them less immediately exciting, and even call them veiled, but damn. They kinda sneak up on me and, before I know it, Iām several songs in, just grooving - or at least that is my experienceā¦
I wouldnāt want them to be my only cans, but pour me a scotch after a hard day, throw these on, and I can just melt into the couch without a care in the goddamned world. Anyone have similar experiences?
Or are you thinking, 'Oh, wait until you hear x, ācus I had that experience and then heardā¦ā?
Or, āYou are listening to them on JDS element II, but wait untilā¦ā?
Ideally I would really skip the DarkVoice/Little Dot (only the budgetary, this brand has some high end tube amps) level of stuff and aim for something like the Bottlehead Crack with Speedball or sth equivalent (to name a few: Feliks Echo, Hagerman Tuba, Tor Audio Roger, Shortest Way SW51+), but I personally believe the Crack has the best synergy with the Senns at this price range
I want to make sure I understand this. The Crack is an amp that you assemble yourself? Looking at the page, itās not clear to me what exactly this involvesāis it mostly soldering wires?
I understand how some people might like this sort of thing, but I donāt really understand why they donāt sell a pre-assembled version and charge more money for it. If itās as good as you say it is, thereās surely people who might want it who donāt feel comfortable assembling their own electronics.
There are a few pre built ones online too. Check out the crack thread and there would be some links to people who build them and sell them. They do a nice job too.
Was curious to get your thoughts on how 6XXs perform with sayā¦a JDS Labs Element 2? Figured itās a slight step up from the atom, which I think you mentioned was okay with these headphones
From my experience they donāt sound the same, but this being said, Iāve only heard older 650s vs 6xx, perhaps the newer 650 would be more in line with the newer 6xx, not sure (given different location of manufacture and different tooling iirc). They are still pretty close either way where imo itās still pretty clearly a 650 either way. When doing comparisons like this, you really want to account for things like wear on pads (pretty important), the amount of time on the drivers (smaller importance), and also the age and time of manufacture to account for both batch variation and if you go old enough almost silent revisions/slight changes in design (also important), because those can definitely skew results. I mean you might even get multiple pairs of a single headphone and have them sound different between each other a bit, depends on the level of current quality control (although this is less an issue for sennheiser and more for other brands lol). Anyways, the 6xx is still a great deal, but if given the chance between an older 650 vs a 6xx Iād go 650. But if you arenāt a diehard fan that wants to get everything out of them as possible, the 6xx is frankly a better value and I donāt think the differences are going to matter that much in the end for most, they are again more similar than not, still pretty damn close most of the time
