Sennheiser HD 650 Headphones

I have these same headphones and they "sounded" great until I changed my preamp to a Lexicon MC-12 which does not have a headphone jack?? Any advice, or am I missing it?

I stumbled into having a pair of headphones when I saw a new pair of Sennheiser 600's on craigslist for $100 and couldn't pass them up. I soon after found a great deal here on audiogon on a Headroom Little More Plus headphone amp. I'm using an Ah! Tjoeb tubed CD player as a source and the combination is very nice.

The Headroom amp has a 'Crossfeed' option that mixes the signal a bit to simulate the more natural soundstage of speakers. It's not the real thing but I find it makes listening to the phones a lot more enjoyable.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but I to really enjoyed my 650s with Cardas cable, right up until the day a got a pair of AKG 701s. After repeatedly listening to both, it got to were I couldn't ever listen to the 650s anymore.

As good as they are, the 701s trounched them is overall accuracy, revealing the 650s sometimes pleasing, but VERY colored presentation, especailly in the bass.

I had tried several aftermarket cables with both of my Senn headphones. The one I could not stand was the Silver Dragon. It was way too bright. The Zu is not as bright, and the Cardas has that warmth similar to the Golden Reference.

I have both the HD650 and HD 600, and I also have the Zu Mobius and Cardas cables. I had tried various combinations. To me, the HD650 has a warmer sound and better bass. I think it's voiced specifically for digital playback. In my system, HD650 sounded better with Zu Mobius, and the HD600 sounded better with Cardas. HD600/Cardas sounded better when listening to vinyl and HD650/Zu sounded better with CDs. I had originally wanted to sell the HD600/Cardas after I got the HD650, but decided to keep it for that reason.

There are several other cables out there that I've not tried. And most of these companies, except Cardas have come out with newer version of these cables within the past year.

If you are looking for a headphone amp. Go over to Head-Fi.org. There are tons and tons of reviews on various amps from $50 to $20k. And you can check out the For Sale section.

FrankC

Another growing site to check out that seems alot more geared towards the higher end headphone listening is.
www.head-case.org
It and head-fi.org will get you any info on headamps and phones you will need.
i have owned two over the top Singlepower amps in the past(SDS and SDS-XLR) and now have a Singlepower Maestro-XLR with outboard tubed power supply that pulls preamp and headphone duty. Amps like these and others take the Senns to a whole new level of headphone listening.