HD 650 Audiophile Open-Back Dynamic Headphones-Grey

I've owned a pair of the Sennheiser HD-650's for almost a year now, and decided after 1000's of listening hours to finally write a review and praise how astonishingly good they are. Some reviewers concluded these headphones were not as good as others that cost much less, I suspect this comes down to personal taste but could be for several reasons. These are HiFi quality headphones, meaning Hi-Fidelity, and are designed to reproduce music as accurately as possible without for example, dramatically increasing bass to a false extent. Some 'bassy' headphones may sound great for dance music, but sound muffled and destroy the detailed instruments of an orchestra; detail is one area where the HD-650's wonderfully excel. Also be aware that these headphones require 'burn-in' time, some time to loosen the diaphragms. At first I'll admit I was disappointed with the sound, they first appear slightly flat and dull sounding, so be aware that these headphones need around 100 hours of music before brightening up and sounding their best. I left the music playing on repeat for around a week at an acceptable listening level and only listened in every so often, after around 24 hours their sound had quite noticeably improved, then after 48 hours I began to smile. Before spending you hard earned cash, be aware that the overall quality of music produced by your HiFi system will be limited by the lowest quality bit of kit. These are debatably the highest quality pair of headphones available and as such require an exceptionally high quality headphone amp, source, and cabling to fully benefit from the superb sound their capable of producing. After much reading many reviews, and making several hardware changes I finally paired these with a Graham Slee Solo Amp, an EMU 1212M sound card, a Stefan Audio Art Equinox headphone cable, and a Van Den Hull First Ultimate phono cable. All together my set-up exceeded around £1.2k, I could have spent a lot more, like another 2k on a DAC but I'm very happy with the sound produced, to the degree that I find it hard to turn off which was something I never expected of any HiFi equipment. I've listened to some wonderful HiFi equipment in the past, including some 7-way speakers costing around 20k each, with a separate power amp to drive each cone... that adds up to a lot of money! Sorry to disappoint but this set-up doesn't complete with that level, but believe me when I say you'll never get near the quality of sound this set-up produces if you spend that same money on a speaker set-up, you'll need a lot more money to do that. This was the main reason for my purchase... being able to listen to high quality music without the high expense. Unlike a lot of HD-650 users I'm not a big classical music listener, I certainly enjoy the likes of Holst, and absolutely love Ludovico Einaudi, but I'm more accustomed to the soft rock and smooth jazz genre's including artists like Dire Straits, Phil Collins, Katie Melua, Eva Cassidy, and Dave Koz. This is where I noticed the first problem with the HD-650, the headphone cable that comes with them is great for about 10% of my music, it reproduces the vocal range wonderfully and provides a reasonably large sound stage, but unfortunately it lacks in almost every other area, bass is especially poor and high's sound a little to harsh and fatiguing. The Stephan Audio Art cable resolved all these problems, it brought back the bass, toned down the highs, kept the vocals clear and precise but unfortunately shrunk the soundstage a little, a small price to pay for such a vast improvement though, and now 95% of my music sound stunning. Your probably wondering about the remaining 5%, and I'll put that down to recording quality! With high quality hardware it's amazing how much the recording quality of different albums is noticeable, most sound good and some sound exceptional with every detail evident, but the odd few sound muffled, exhibit clipping and distortion, to the extent that I now also notice these problems when listening through my speakers! It's quite astonishing how much more 'sound' appears present within song's I've been listening to for years. Every strum of Mark's guitar in "Private Investigations" is crystal clear yet the details provided by each background instrument still shines wonderfully through. The bass drums in Phil's "That's just the way it is" made me double check I hadn't left the speaker and main amp switched on, as did the bass within Damien Rice's "Blower's Daughter". Katie's albums have all been recorded well, her amazing voice producing that music nirvana that I could listen to all day long without fatigue, unfortunately there's a few disappointing recording glitches in her latest album but nothing damaging enough to destroy the pure listening enjoyment. I could, and probably do listen to the smooth sound of a well played saxophone for hours on end, Dave Koz's album "The Dance" plays great on the HD-650's, exhibiting a smooth and yet detailed performance. Another of my favourite artists is Lene Marlin, the live recording of her "The way we are" allows the HD-650's to excel, as they do with most live recordings, such as Eva Cassidy's fantastic "Live at Blues Alley" album. As you've probably figured out I'm very happy with my HD-650's and pared HiFi equipment. Finding it hard to put the headphones down must be a good indication that I made the right choice, at least for my personal preference. If you like similar styles of music to myself, enjoy the clarity of great vocal performances and the detail of highly skilled musicians, and have the equipment to match I'm sure you'll have many years of enjoyment using the Sennheiser HD-650's.

Great sounding headphones!. As we know HP are subjective to ones listening taste. Wanted a pair that were not too clinical and flat, last thing i wanted was to come home after a hard day and start an analytical listening session. Went through a lot of pairs before these ranging from Senny RS165 blutooth, a pair of Sony MDR1 and another Sony blutooth , Audio Technica MSR 7 which were good but occasionaly peaked the higher frequencies too much for me at my age 40+, set of grados (couldn't justify the price). All these fell short apart from the Sennheiser HD650's which gave the best return on cost comfort and my listening signature. I did end up comparing these to a set of Audio Technica M50x's and you may laugh but for me there were many similarities with the sound signature even though right off hand i will state these are in another league compared to the M50x's depending on your music and listening signature. You will find the review for the AT M50x's here aswell as ive posted this review for the M50x's also. Let me start by saying for me the M50x are an excellent set of cans that hold the frequencies with integrity. Tops never peaked and sounded harsh, mids were separated and slightly pronounced and never sounded muffled once, and the lows are tight and controlled but ever so slightly pronounced for a more warm sounding experience exactly what i was wanting. A run of Yanni Rainmaker and Estas Tonne The Song of the Golden Dragon shone on these with a good soundstage but not as expansive as the HD650's, one was able to distinguish the instruments and the vocals more on the HD650's especially from the senorita in the Rainmaker which was nothing short of sublime and more of an epic journey to the heavens and back on the 650's. A few further tracks of Coldplay, George Benson, Randy Crawford, Qawalli Folk Music. Clannad Irish Folk, and finally some classic hip hop from the likes of Cool Herk, Afrika Bambata, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash etc and modern hip hop likes of Mobb Deep, CNN, Fat Joe, Big Pun etc let me say the M50's brought a smile to the face and made me listen more attentively to the HD650's. Please note i was running both headphones through a headphone amp/32 bit dac with 2 HP ports capable of running both pairs at the same time. Both sets of cans did an excellent job at lots of different genres. Very rarely do you come across a pair that can handle the above genres with authority, never once sounding uncontrolled or overwhelmed. Where the M50x's were like satin the HD650's were like silk, both handled speed with finesse but at times the M50x could get lost especially with a bit of rock whereas the HD650's had a vice like grip with excellent separation. Please do bear in mind the cost of the M50x's. "I also tried the headphones with my Nexus 6P through a quality HP amp and 32 bit DAC the M50x sound was further enhanced and now the smile had turned to a grin with a few audible affirming compliments, totally sublime and these were testing the waters of my HD650's which were more than twice the price of these." However let me state for the record these M50x are very good for the person who wants to disappear into the audio and doesn't want a totally flat response as monitors can provide but they are not as good as the HD650's which has hand picked drivers on the assembly line for uniformity. However after much consideration on the point of diminishing returns and the power hungry 'open back' HD650's i went with the M50x as they were also easier to drive and did not need a lengthy set up when you wanted a quick portable listen, but these are 'NOT' as good as the reference standard HD650's which are definitely a couple of notches above the M50x's. The reason the HD650's were better for me were 1) The comfort level of the velour pads. 2)The open back design also let your ears breath. The tops mids and bottoms never lost integrity once 'no matter how hard they were pushed' 3) You could hear the breath intake of vocalists and individual strike of the music instruments on the HD650's especially when listening to Estes Tonne the legendary guitarist. That's not to say these expressions were not noticeable on the M50x but their was a great soundstage on the HD650 which the M50x could not compete with, bear in mind the HD650s cost over twice the price of the M50x. Now youll be wondering why did i sell the HD650's, the choice was one of diminishing returns of how much one has to pay for the little improvement in sound in the world of hi-fi audio and the fact that i have kids that constantly disturb me and the HD650's being OB design became unsuitable. I may have possible kept them had it not have also been the set up procedure of the DAC and headphone amp being anchored to the listening room. This was one of the more difficult decisions i have ever made on a set of cans so ill finish by saying where the Audio Technica's were like Satin the Sennheiser HD650's were like silk. The choice is yours!

En primer lugar aclaro que soy entusiasta de la música y trato de disfrutarla con la mayor calidad posible pero no me considero audiófilo, por lo que mi comentario es muy simple. He estado utilizando los sennheiser hd 599 SE y es la referencia que tengo. La diferencia es bastante notable al actualizar a los HD 650, desde que me los puse y escuche algunos de los disco de referencia que utilizo se nota la mejora del sonido en general, agudos y medios bien definidos y graves controlados. hice pruebas conectados a un DAC CAMBRIDGE AUDIO modelo DAC MAGICPLUS, 24 bits 192 kHz, con trasmisión de TIDAL y archivos propios en HI-RES. Próximamente haré pruebas con un DAC- amplificador dedicado de mayor resolución.

Struttura solida, leggera molto comoda da indossare per svariate ore, materiali plastici che non vogliono essere di particolare pregio ma comunque molto affidabili e che hanno dimostrato di poter resistere a svarati anni di utilizzo intenso. La riproduzione resta concentrata sulla perfetta riproduzione delle frequenze medie ed alte, i bassi risultano tuttavia adeguati e soprattutto articolati ma senza occultare la scena sonora. _______________ » COSTRUZIONE Nessuna parte metallica se non l'anima dell'archetto che permette la regolazione, il resto dei materiali è costituito da plastica di ottima fattura trattata e verniciata in maniera gradevole. Probabilmente il trattamento superficiale rischia di essere delicato ma una minima cura nell'uso dovrebbe garantire durabilità negli anni. I padiglioni morbidi e vellutati risultano molto comodi e solidamente applicati. Molto semplice la rimozione e l' installazione, operazione che ci si troverà a considerare almeno una volta l'anno data la facilità con la quale i padiglioni si consumano andando a variare leggermente la magnifica firma sonora. Buona la regolazione dell'archetto che si adatta perfettamente, risulta inizialmente molto serrato ma sono sufficienti poche ore perchè si lasci andare andando quasi a "scomparire". » PRESTAZIONI L'impedenza, come per le HD600 e HD660S2, è di 300 ohm, di conseguenza per godere appieno delle prestazioni della cuffia è bene utilizzare un buon amplificatore cuffie, possibilmente dotato di uscite bilanciate. Le frequenze medie ed alte sono riprodotte in maniera perfetta e non risultano mai affaticanti neppure dopo svariate ore di ascolto. Frequenze basse sono precisione, presenti ma non eccessive per garantire un ascolto piacevole ma fedele e non colorato diversamente da come previsto dall'autore. La scena sonora è discretamente ampia e dettagliata, l'ascolto resta tuttavia intimo come per le HD660S2 cosa che non è necessariamente un difetto, garantisce infatti una buona rappresentazione dell'immagine sonora, ogni strumento e voce sono perfettamente individuabili nello spazio dall'ascoltatore. » CONCLUSIONI Ottimo dispositivo, solido concreto e resistente. Concentrato sulla riproduzione sonora della fascia medio alta delle frequenze con assoluta fedeltà, ma che allo stesso tempo non priva l'ascoltatore del divertimento derivante da una gestione colorata delle frequenze basse riprodotte in maniera articolata ma non enfatizzata. Sono garantite ore di ascolto soddisfacenti ed appaganti senza alcun tipo di affaticamento.

I think these headphones give you a pretty accurate sound, so there is no hype in them. You seem to get the straight studio sound to a large degree. You don't get boomy basses or sparkling highs.

Inimaginável a qualidade sonora. Você ouve as músicas que ouviu durante a vida inteira e as redescobre através deste fone. 5 estrelas!

Comfortable to wear, though I can see some people finding them too tight. I didn’t think it handled the mids as well as my AKG K240 MKII’s but with more use the mids are well represented. They do pickup a bit more sounds because of the frequency range. I would look to buy them when they’re on sale though as regular price is a bit steep.