Well this is actually a bit of a downer.
It looks like this experience did lead to some damage to my hearing.
Iād had tinnitus for about a year that was maybe a 1 or 2 out of 10, and basically didnāt interfere with my life at all or bother me.
And a couple of months after this experience of using the 6xx for 3 weeks or so, with a strange eardrum tightness/pinprick sensation/listening fatigue which continued for a few weeks after ceasing using the headphones (diagnosed as retracted eardrum from blocked tubes), tinnitus has gone to a 4 or a 5 on a bad day. Basically bad enough to be a rather major bother and source of distress.
So itās a bit of a bummer really but not the end of the world.
So lesson learned for anyone out there any ear discomfort when listening to music is not your imagination and should be taken seriously.
Also things can still damage your hearing even if youāre listening at less than 85db.
@AndyOrgan Sorry to hear of your experience. Good that you shared it. I have some tinnitus too, which seems to change at times so perhaps yours will improve over time. Iām older and also have some damage/wear n tear from being a percussionist (symphony and combos.) Rim shots and crash cymbal on the left soā¦! I think the important thing again for everyone is if you are having trouble get it checked out by a professional!
Yeah I never imagined Iād do any damage from headphones because I always assumed it had originally come from exposure to ultrasonic cleaners while at university, and Iāve never been one to play music above a reasonable level.
From what I can tell itās unlikely to get better but my dad supposedly had it at around my age and his went away after a few years of basically not listening to music so thereās always a chance.
So for me I can live without this hifi stuff in my life, and I donāt need music if itās going to risk making this worse.
Itās actually occurred to me that I may have actually just shredded my ears by blasting the volume too loud for the three weeks I had the 6xx, but underestimated the volume because of the lack of distortion and being over-confident in a decibel meter app.
A scary thought.
Perhaps this forum should contain an ear health section.
[quote=āAndyOrgan, post:164, topic:104ā]
Perhaps this forum should contain an ear health section.
Agreeā¦maybe you can start one?
Sorry to hear about everything mate, that kind of thing is no joke so i hope it gets better.
As for the health post, you could start one but be careful, suggesting anything relating to peopleās health is is extremely dangerous territory. you could share your personal story as a cautionary tale but anything above that is something that should be left to that personās doctor. part of the reason why i didnt say anything that might suggest what it could be aside from āgo to a doctorā.
Yeah donāt worry I think any damage was done by the time I asked the question on this forum.
It had just started to drive me nuts as I realized it was staying louder after the pain had gone away.
But in the grand scheme of things there are worse things to happen.
And yeah. I will probably just put it on as a cautionary tale.
We have had few Right Volume to listen to / Hearing Damage PSA / What volume do you listen at? etc topics but not really a sticky/pinned topic of Listening Health.
But i personally have tried telling not to trust those appās and phone mics for measuring anything.
They are not accurate and not to be trusted for anything.
Okay I wrote up my full experience in a new topic on the headphones as a cautionary tale.
Link below if interested
Okay, so I have owned the HD650s since they were given to me about a year after they came out. To be honest, I never liked them all that much, but kept them as a reference mostly. Not that they were bad, I just mostly found them a bit too warm, unexciting, the staging too small, and occasionally shouty in the upper mids. I was discussing my lack of enthusiasm for the HD650s with a friend on head-fi and he said to get the mod kit from Custom Cans UK because it really fixes a lot of the issues I was mentioning having with the HD650s.
I was skeptical that this driver weight mod would change much, but it was inexpensive and, upon researching a little, my friend wasnāt the only dude saying this mod kit could make a substantive positive difference. I decided I really had nothing to lose so I ordered the kit, received it, and then proceeded to not install it for over a year until last weekend when I was home and spotted the kit in my modding supply chest and something told me I needed to finally install it. So I didā¦
The install takes very little time even considering that I had to open them back up a second time to adjust my work. To make a long story less long, I was surprised at the results which is why Iām posting this. The mod kit really did make immediately noticeable differences for the better. The bass now extends deeper, hits with more authority, and is nicely articulated shaking off some of that fuzziness/woolliness I normally associate with the HD650ās bass. The occasional shoutiness in the upper mids has been nicely toned down, leaving a more linear mid range thatās still as legendarily lush and smooth as expected from the Sennheiser HD6xx family. The treble gains a bit of extension at the top, though itās still characteristically rolled off.
If that were all that had changed I would be quite satisfied, but I got one more bonus that might be the best part: The hazy, veiled presentation has been largely replaced with a new clearer and more detailed overall sound. I no longer feel like Iām missing details or having to fight through the warmth/haze to find them when listening to my HD650s. For good measure, I borrowed an unmodded pair to do some side by side listening for comparison and not only were the differences there, but the changes in the bass and the presentation of detail were actually greater than I was probably initially giving them credit for.
Now, donāt get me wrong, this mod doesnāt change the fundamental tuning or overall character of the venerable HD650. When you put on my modded pair youāre still immediately aware that youāre listening to an HD6xx series headphone. If youāre like me and the HD650 has never been your favorite, this mod kit is unlikely to make it your favorite. That said, it does significantly improve the performance of the HD650 and since I have installed the kit I have actually found myself wanting to listen to them for musical enjoyment and not just for reference for the first time in a VERY long time. If, however, the HD650s (or the HD6xx series headphones in general) are amongst your favs, this mod kit will elevate their performance and take them to the next level. Youāll still have your beloved HD650s, theyāll just be doing everything they have always done, but better and at a much higher level. I wanted to post this because I think there are many Sennheiser 6xx series owners out there who will enjoy this mod just as much as I did, if not more.
Iām a fan of the Custom Cans mod also - which insert have you settled on?
Curious - previously what source chains have you tried your HD650ās on?
Because my HD650s have been with me so long I have used them on everything from vintage receivers and bargain basement amps to multi-thousand dollar rigs, on tubes (OTL and SET), hybrids, and SS, with delta sigma, r2r, and multibit DACs, listening to vinyl, CDs, and digital/streamingā¦so basically I have heard the HD650 on just about every kind of rig I can think of. I even tried them off speaker taps once.
Honestly, I havenāt put enough hours on them since the mod to say I am settled on an insert because I only had a few days at home. Which one are you using and why if you donāt mind me asking?
Edit: I currently have the grey foam insert with the smaller hole in it installed. I have found so far that it gives me the best combination of that clarity and detail increase I mentioned with the deeper, more authoritative bass. That said, the grey ring with the bigger hole can also be very nice. I didnāt get around to trying the grey solid foam yet, but I have tried the solid blue foam insert and felt that it brought back too much of they veiled/hazy mid range.
I did really feel them loosen up so much in the low/high end and become less claustrophobic on OTL tubes. I donāt spend near enough time with them, should certainly play more. I think I truly liked the green inserts most initially, but left in the bored to emphasize the āfunā, as I have a range of cans, including HD600 for āless funā.
Hmm, I didnāt get green inserts. Mine came with three grey versions (small hole, big hole, and solid) and a solid blue insert. Weirdā¦
For reference, my kit came like this:
Just the weights, waveguides, and these 4 inserts to tune the bass ports.
And I only got one hole!
My foams werenāt a nice uniform gray, they were off-white with coloring thrown on them. lol
LOL 
i guess theyāve been revising as they go. So are the green inserts solid and are they lower or higher density foam?
After buying a pair of HD6XX, I would just like to say that I canāt honestly why anyone would prefer the HD560S over these. Even if the HD560S is closer to dead neutral. I held off buying these because I thought the HD560S was a littleā¦ boring? I incorrectly assumed that 6XX would be really similar, but it just feels like a so much more engaging experience. More dynamic, for sure. I mean, itās definitely more midrange-centric, but so much music lives in that range, and it just does it better. (Also, just a little plug for the Fiio FT3 here, but Iād say that if you like the 6XX, youād probably really like the FT3 also. That headphone needs a little more attention.)
Anyway, I didnāt use my HD560S much. I will definitely be using these.
The 600s are even better than the 6xxs IMO. YMMV.
Yeah, seems like everyone has their favorite in that range. Maybe someday Iāll try the 600s. The 6XX is great value at $200, though. The line is clearly as good as advertised (by most). These may be considered āreference,ā but I sure donāt find them to be boring at all. Iād like to try the whole 6X0 line eventually.
Edit: they were less awesome on a BTR5, which isnāt all that powerful. Makes me wonder if a lot of people who donāt like these are trying to run them on something not powerful enough (not that a lot of people donāt like themā¦).