Listening to my HD650's, a sobering experience...


My fellow audiophiles, I'm a bit depressed. Please let me take a moment & jump up on my soap box and vent a little..

A couple months a go I picked up a pair of the excellent Sennheiser HD650's, to replace my venerable HD600's.

While I primarily listen to my "big rig", during the evening hours I am relegated to listening to the cans to keep the peace around the house.

So, I'm listening to a couple discs recently re-processed and re-transformed by the Reality Check CD-R process (more to come, see www.positivefeedback.com, Clark Johnson's report for details -- EVERYONE should check into this, but I digress...) when it dawns on me how much more detailed, relaxed, natural, musical, REAL -- well you pick your adjective, EVERYTHING sounds through the headphones.

It just really makes me realize that even as good as I think my big, honkin' EXPENSIVE main system is, there's STILL a helluva lot of information that's in those little pits that I'm just not hearing.

Just HOW friggin' high up on the scale do you have to go to get this "HD650" type of reproduction in your listening room anyway???

Is it even POSSIBLE????

Since I'm using my CD player as the same source for both the 'phones and the main speakers, I guess I can rule it out as the culprit. Must be in the speakers, amp, room acoustics, or a combination of all.

Not like my system is a "lightweight" by any means, and I'm generally happy listening to it, but...

I know, I know, SELL MY HD650's, right?!

My main system; MArtin Logan Prodigys, Halo JC-1 amps, Audio Aero Capitole 24/192, Analysis Plus cables, PS Audio P300, SoundString cables, Acoustic Zen AC cords, dedicated AC lines, dedicated soundroom, and one slightly depressed and frustrated audio-dude.

Headphone System: A. Aero Capitole, Wheatfield OTL tube headphone amp, Sennheiser HD650 (with STOCK cord, how good are they gonna sound when I get that Silver Moon replacement cord???).

Oh well, thanks for lending an ear (or eye, in this case) and Happy Holidays everyone. I've been pretty good this year, so maybe Santa will leave a set of Lamm's in my stocking and a pair of DALI Magelines under the tree.
denf

Showing 3 responses by robm321

Well, it all depends on your perspective. Usually it's the room acoustics that prevent the "perfect" soundstage you get from headphones. But, that's where the benefits end for headphones.

The soundstage is not life size in front of you (just as live music would be) like speakers give you.

You don't get the heart pounding thump that vibrates your body like you do with speakers. (unless you want to cause yourself some hearing loss) (you have to be more careful in what level you listen to headphones at)

The soundstage is in your head, very unrealistic (in other words you can't imagine your in a concert hall and believe it like you can with a good system with speakers.)

Frankly, my Grados give me more detial then my Senn 600s (I use senn for classical and grado rs-1 for rock, jazz, etc.)

And after all of that my stereo still gives more detail and sparkle than the headphones anyway.

So, it's probably your system or acoustic setup of your room, or both.

Rob
MDhoover,

Definately listen to the AKG K1000 before you buy. They are my new reference phone and the only one I've heard that throws a soundstage out of the head. Blows my Senn HD600 and Grado RS-1 out of the water. Prior to listening to the K1000, I thought Grado and Senn were the top of the line. I still listen to Grado RS1 and ocassionally the Senns, but the K1000 is amazing and to me on another level entirely.
Larryi,

I agree. There are no headphones that match speakers, but the K1000 hits a middle ground. You get a wide open soundstage rather than a line in your head between your ears as the soundstage. Nothing beats a full sized stereo.