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Electronics : Sennheiser HD650 Reference Headphone
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Rating: 
- Fantastic headphones, great detail and clarity.
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.
Rating:
- The Best or Not ?
Like a lot of people on here I looked at these headphones on and off for quite a while. Having read the reviews I thought they must be good so I brought a pair. I have used these headphones with a Cyrus 8x cd player and Cyrus 8vs2 Amplifier and Sonus Faber Signam speakers. I also have a fantastic Sony NW3000 mp3 player with Sony MDR EX90 in ear phones. The Sennheiser HD650 headphones are a little disapointing to me. Yes they are very detailed and smooth, but to me they lack attack and excitment, almost sleepy, the bass is detailed but lacks the ability to reproduce the very low frequencies with any real weight or feeling. Some people may say I need to use a headphone amp, but if Cyrus can't design an £1000 amp with a decent headphone amp inside, then I will start to wonder if the HiFi world is a con ? From a comfort point of view I can feel the distinctive sausage shape of the ear piece cusion against my face/head when you start a music session, although this fade's after you have had them on for a while, but you tend to remain awair of their overall size. If you like a laid back sound, these are for you, otherwise compair them against other makes befor you buy, wish I had done, I am sure their is better out their for the money.
Added on the 7th July 2008
Ok I have had these headphone's a while now and all I can saye is that they are fantastic, much better than you relise on first trial. Not sure what happens between the first hearing and a few weeks of listening but you come to relise that they are reproducing all the music in a highly detailed, natural and smooth way, and you can wear and listen to them for extended periods of time with comfort.
Rating: - SATISFIED
yes it is very high quality ,however i did expect more of a bass kick from the standard equaliser setting , so i modified the equaliser and they still sounded crystal clear after modifying equaliser.
i recently took the speaker into the light and saw through them , the actual size of the speaker is quite small and surprizingly powerfull for its size,about 3.5 cm diameter , unless you can see light straight through the big speaker these headphones are actually not as big as they may seem
I would have wanted something with a bigger size speaker though ,i dunno maybe smaller is better , if its this expensive
but otherwise i wont be looking for new headphones in the near future , they are very satisfiying quality and are quite powerful
Rating: - Cracking!
Purchased these after much thought, testing and debate. Yes, they are expensive, yes they need running in and yes they will struggle on a mp3 etc. Run mine through a Rega Ear with a Rega AMP and also through the PC and they are great. Very clear audio and also I find I can quite easily forget Im wearing headphones at all. Well worth the money, very much a case of you get what you pay for (quality!). Invest without hesitation if your happy spending this sum on headphones and run them through a pretty decent amp/headphone amp set up and you will be rewarded with great sound!
Rating: - Excellence in sound
The Aston Martin DBS at 160,000 GBP is widely regarded as the most stunning care that sort of money can buy. 007 is well suited to that motor car. The HD650 are well suited to every type of music, jazz, rock, Piano, violin, double bass and the list goes on. No matter what you throw at it the HD650 performs with ease, the V12 of headphones, the sophistication of all that is good about great engineering, these headphones have it all, the reviews rate them, the engineers crave them, the HI-Fi experts applaud them I just love them. These headphones after 30 years of listening to all that music has to offer have filled the gap my listening experience needed. What to do now, pay the money, put on the DBS of Headphones and sit back and be taken for the ride of your life in sound. Just excellence in a beautiful box.
- Fantastic headphones, great detail and clarity.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.
Rating:
- The Best or Not ?Like a lot of people on here I looked at these headphones on and off for quite a while. Having read the reviews I thought they must be good so I brought a pair. I have used these headphones with a Cyrus 8x cd player and Cyrus 8vs2 Amplifier and Sonus Faber Signam speakers. I also have a fantastic Sony NW3000 mp3 player with Sony MDR EX90 in ear phones. The Sennheiser HD650 headphones are a little disapointing to me. Yes they are very detailed and smooth, but to me they lack attack and excitment, almost sleepy, the bass is detailed but lacks the ability to reproduce the very low frequencies with any real weight or feeling. Some people may say I need to use a headphone amp, but if Cyrus can't design an £1000 amp with a decent headphone amp inside, then I will start to wonder if the HiFi world is a con ? From a comfort point of view I can feel the distinctive sausage shape of the ear piece cusion against my face/head when you start a music session, although this fade's after you have had them on for a while, but you tend to remain awair of their overall size. If you like a laid back sound, these are for you, otherwise compair them against other makes befor you buy, wish I had done, I am sure their is better out their for the money.
Added on the 7th July 2008
Ok I have had these headphone's a while now and all I can saye is that they are fantastic, much better than you relise on first trial. Not sure what happens between the first hearing and a few weeks of listening but you come to relise that they are reproducing all the music in a highly detailed, natural and smooth way, and you can wear and listen to them for extended periods of time with comfort.
Rating:
- SATISFIEDyes it is very high quality ,however i did expect more of a bass kick from the standard equaliser setting , so i modified the equaliser and they still sounded crystal clear after modifying equaliser.
i recently took the speaker into the light and saw through them , the actual size of the speaker is quite small and surprizingly powerfull for its size,about 3.5 cm diameter , unless you can see light straight through the big speaker these headphones are actually not as big as they may seem
I would have wanted something with a bigger size speaker though ,i dunno maybe smaller is better , if its this expensive
but otherwise i wont be looking for new headphones in the near future , they are very satisfiying quality and are quite powerful
Rating:
- Cracking!Purchased these after much thought, testing and debate. Yes, they are expensive, yes they need running in and yes they will struggle on a mp3 etc. Run mine through a Rega Ear with a Rega AMP and also through the PC and they are great. Very clear audio and also I find I can quite easily forget Im wearing headphones at all. Well worth the money, very much a case of you get what you pay for (quality!). Invest without hesitation if your happy spending this sum on headphones and run them through a pretty decent amp/headphone amp set up and you will be rewarded with great sound!
Rating:
- Excellence in soundThe Aston Martin DBS at 160,000 GBP is widely regarded as the most stunning care that sort of money can buy. 007 is well suited to that motor car. The HD650 are well suited to every type of music, jazz, rock, Piano, violin, double bass and the list goes on. No matter what you throw at it the HD650 performs with ease, the V12 of headphones, the sophistication of all that is good about great engineering, these headphones have it all, the reviews rate them, the engineers crave them, the HI-Fi experts applaud them I just love them. These headphones after 30 years of listening to all that music has to offer have filled the gap my listening experience needed. What to do now, pay the money, put on the DBS of Headphones and sit back and be taken for the ride of your life in sound. Just excellence in a beautiful box.