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
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Truth. Ā
Thanks for the req, Iāll check it out!
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I think most people (including myself) consider them too warm to call neutral. The HD600 is closer to neutral.
Iāve got this cable from Lunashops. I love it.
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.
You glue 4 pieces of wood together. Solder a bunch of stuff and screw a few things.
Their entire business model is DIY kits.
You can buy a built one used or professionally assembled. They range from $500 to $800.
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Usually people do, I didnāt I bought mine pre owned. You can find used units pretty often.
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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.
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Great review!
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 
Iām sure it will be fine. Probably wonāt be as good as a tube, but the Element II shouldnāt hold it back much.
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Not sure if anyone posted this video yet, but this is fascinating:
The 6XX and the 650 donāt sound the same (according to the video)
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
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Everything Mon mentioned. Plus this bugās me so badlyā¦
Are they even on the exact spot on the mic-head? Kinda takes the floor off the hole thing if they arenāt and twisted.
Well it was entertaining for the first 40secā¦
I only came across your review today having given up on the HD650/XX and moving on to the more high end stuff thinking that the extra money will bring sonic bliss. After two years of Focals/HD800S/Hifiman 1000s I picked up a used pair of Made in Ireland HD6XX because it was a bargain at US$160 in virtually unused condition. After burning it in for a few days I suddenly come to realize that the ease, comfort and involvement in the music far outweighed the extra headroom, frequency response and details I have long chase after in putting more money into the hobby.
As a side note, the 6XX scaled up beautifully in the Eleckit/Western Electric 300B set up although you will think itās an immense overkill. That setup also brought out the full potential in the HD800S.
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Itās funny you say that because I too own Focals/HD800s/Arya and recently tried the 2021 LCDX. Before then, Iāve tried probably 20 different low to mid tier headphones. Anyway, Iāve owned the 6xx for awhile and decided to try it out again. To my surprise, they blew me away. I donāt know if itās the amp (I own an RME ADI-2) or if I got tired of the extreme details and treble presence of the 800s/arya, but these headphones just sound perfect to me right now. And the soundstage sounds way bigger than I had even imagined? Listen to the song āWidest Possible Apertureā by Slowly Rolling Camera and wait until a few minutes in and youāll hear knocking on a door in the song and youāll see what I mean.
I feel the 6xx has just enough clarity, sparkle, soundstage, and the bass with a few DBās of EQ sounds 
@M0N is it possible that my RME ADI-2 can produce more width in sound and deeper bass with the 6xx?
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What was it being run on previously? Also just to ask are you saying larger than the 800s or Arya? Or just can they become more spatially capable with better source gear? (they absolutely can)
It was run on a THX 789. No definitely not as wide as those, but close. Maybe 10-15% less wide. Still wide enough where you turn your head when you think you hear a knock or something 
I definitely donāt remember them being this wide.
gotcha gotcha, yeah then the 6xx will change itās stage depending on what itās run on for sure