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$289.95 - Sennheiser HD-650 headphones

Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Quick review: I received mine; the sound quality is excellent and both my laptop and iPod Nano drive them directly with no amp. Most owners recommend purchasing a quality amp to get the most out of them. Flaws in MP3 files are much more audible with these headphones; I recommend using CDs or lossless audio files. As a warning, they do clamp your head pretty well. I don't even like wearing hats; my HD-570 headphones are as light as a feather in contrast. Bottom line, I like the sound quality improvement (bass & clarity over my 570s), but not enough to justify keeping them with the way they clamp onto my head. If you want mine, shoot me a PM; I'm selling them for $280 shipped.

Update: J&R has them for $299.99 shipped linky credit to John for the link 🙂

I was saving up for the 650's as an upgrade from my 570s. ZipZoomFly had them for $337 shipped, which was a pretty hot deal, but when they came back in stock they jacked the price up to $499. I did some Froogling and found them on Comp-U-Plus for $289.95. Click here for the link; if the price is over $300, just go to Froogle and do a price sort for "Sennheiser HD-650" and it should show up as $289.95. Shipping options are: (to Connecticut at least)

UPS Ground - $14.95 (Ships in 1-2 days)
Second Day Deliver - $19.95 (Ships in 1-2 days)
Overnight Service - $28.95 (Ships in 1-2 days)
Priority Overnight AM Delivery - $33.95 (Ships in 1-2 days)

I chose Ground shipping; total came up to $304.90 shipped for me. This is an audiophile-quality headphone and more or less requires an amplifier to get the most out of it. If you haven't had a quality set of headphones before, you'll be amazed at how much better they sound than most of the other headphones and even speakers you've listened to. My old Sennheiser HD-570 headphones blew away everything I had heard in terms of quality.

As far as amps go, you can go three basics ways: portable, solid-state, and tube. If you just want a cheap cmoy amp, looked up juice2214 on ebay in Altoids cans. I have one of them and it's really nice; runs on a 9V. You can also build your own or get one custom-built (ask around at the Head-Fi headphone forums if you're interested in that). Here are a couple links to solid-state headphone amp manufacturers:

Headamp
HeadRoom

HeadRoom sells a special portable amp called the BitHead that doubles as a USB sound card in addition to a portable headphone amplifier. Link to HeadRoom's portable line is here:

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-mobile-line/

Forums:

Head-Fi
HeadWize

There are lots of upgrades you can get if you decide to get serious about headphones, included aftermarket cables, DACs, tube amps, high-end sound cards (not talking X-fi here), and so on. If you have any questions, feel free to ask 🙂

 
I should also note that I recently bought a Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote from Comp-U-Plus and had a good experience with them. Also, Grado makes good headphones, although they are not nearly as comfortable to wear as Sennheisers:

http://www.gradolabs.com/
 
There are also a few other options if you're looking at $300-500 headphones.

Don't forget to consider amplification.

You might also check Amazon's marketplace. There's some ok prices there, and you're covered by Amazon's safe buying guarantee.
 
I've heard that the Sennheiser HD-700's are due out later this year, which may be the reason for the price drop. Whatever the reason, I'm more than happy to jump on this one 🙂 Here's a good DAC for about $500 USD shipped:

Storm Digital D02 DAC

Here are a couple high-quality sound cards:

ESI Juli@

Creative 1212m

Be sure to note that if you have highly-encoded MP3s, you will hear the artifacts a lot more with higher-quality headphones like the HD-650s. I can easily tell the difference between a 128kbps iTunes AAC and an audio CD even with my HD-570s ($80 headphones), and I don't even consider myself an audiophile.
 
I know im talking about a sub-step down from the 650-s, but I <3 my Sennheiser HD-580s... (got for $230 or so)

Honestly, im not an audiophile, im not a pretentious prick about sound quality, I just like what sounds good to me. 🙂

Ive been told around the HD-580 is where you want to start considering getting a headphone amp.. could you maybe provide more details about those?

Thanks.
 
HD650 for $299 shipped @ J&R

If you want a quality DAC/Amp under $300 look no further than the Zhaolu D2 that can be configured with 2 different DAC's (3rd to come later) and a discrete amp upgrade.

I ordered one with both DAC modules, the Blackgate and Dale mod, and the amp upgrade that should ship out late next week from Hong Kong. 🙂

I'll run a 1/8" mono mini to rca using Belden 1505F cable from X-Fi XM digital out for bitperfect output to the Zhaolu. I'm sure my HD595's will sing some pretty notes, and I'll have the AKG K701's to do an a/b comparison. One of them must be returned. 😛
 
Originally posted by: John
HD650 for $299 shipped @ J&R

If you want a quality DAC/Amp under $300 look no further than the Zhaolu D2 that can be configured with 2 different DAC's (3rd to come later) and a discrete amp upgrade.

I ordered one with both DAC modules, the Blackgate and Dale mod, and the amp upgrade that should ship out late next week from Hong Kong. 🙂

I'll run a 1/8" mono mini to rca using Belden 1505F cable from X-Fi XM digital out for bitperfect output to the Zhaolu. I'm sure my HD595's will sing some pretty notes, and I'll have the AKG K701's to do an a/b comparison. One of them must be returned. 😛
Click to expand...

Now that is hot. Too bad I don't have 300 bucks laying around my house.
 
Originally posted by: Pathogen03
I know im talking about a sub-step down from the 650-s, but I <3 my Sennheiser HD-580s... (got for $230 or so)

Honestly, im not an audiophile, im not a pretentious prick about sound quality, I just like what sounds good to me. 🙂

Ive been told around the HD-580 is where you want to start considering getting a headphone amp.. could you maybe provide more details about those?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: for the HD580s. Very close acoustically to the 600/650 from what I've read. I bought mine years and years ago and it's one of the best purchases I ever made.
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Not good resllerratings for that site.
Click to expand...

Oof! A number of people bought the Harmony 880 remote from them recently and had good experiences with them. Check out the thread here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...&STARTPAGE=2&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear
Click to expand...

Comp-U-Plus Sucks. Slow shipping and crappy Service. Took them like 5 days just to ship the Remote out. would not do biz with again and will be leaving a bad resellers rating also.
 
Originally posted by: Bullhonkie
Originally posted by: Pathogen03
I know im talking about a sub-step down from the 650-s, but I <3 my Sennheiser HD-580s... (got for $230 or so)

Honestly, im not an audiophile, im not a pretentious prick about sound quality, I just like what sounds good to me. 🙂

Ive been told around the HD-580 is where you want to start considering getting a headphone amp.. could you maybe provide more details about those?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: for the HD580s. Very close acoustically to the 600/650 from what I've read. I bought mine years and years ago and it's one of the best purchases I ever made.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've heard those are excellent. My 570s are lacking the bass I wanted, which is my reason for upgrading. I don't plan on ever upgrading from the 650s unless they break 😉 I'm not much of an audiophile; I just want something that will sound good and last a long time. $300 for headphones is a bit of a stretch, but I'm on my computer roughly 12 hours a day between school and work so I think it's going to be a good investment.
 
Originally posted by: John
HD650 for $299 shipped @ J&R

If you want a quality DAC/Amp under $300 look no further than the Zhaolu D2 that can be configured with 2 different DAC's (3rd to come later) and a discrete amp upgrade.

I ordered one with both DAC modules, the Blackgate and Dale mod, and the amp upgrade that should ship out late next week from Hong Kong. 🙂

I'll run a 1/8" mono mini to rca using Belden 1505F cable from X-Fi XM digital out for bitperfect output to the Zhaolu. I'm sure my HD595's will sing some pretty notes, and I'll have the AKG K701's to do an a/b comparison. One of them must be returned. 😛
Click to expand...

Updated the OP, thanks! 🙂
 
I currently have a Senn HD590

I dont have the cash for the HD650, but am very interested in the headphone amp from the ebay seller juice2214.

My question is how big of an improvement will I notice with the altoid-can amp on my HD590? Will it be noticeable?

I use it on my computer with X-FI xtrememusic sound card.

Thanks in advance.
 
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