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AnOldMoth t1_j5w89z9 wrote

Reply to comment by Norville84 in HD600 = absolute Endgame by xGuacamolly

They aren't even that good. 650/6XX in particular have so many issues, it has decent mids and basically nothing else.

The fact that everyone calls them their endgame tells me that they either don't know any better, or don't care about anything other than timbre and mids. Which you can get them just as good in other headphones after EQ.

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206Red t1_j5wgrgc wrote

Tbf timbre matters a lot, especially if you need one headphone to listen for hours while working/studying. Also reliability is a thing, and hd 600 it's pretty good on that, just a great all-rounder with a inoffensive timbre

I'm not saying that they're endgame for everyone, at least it's not for me, I still want to risk a Focal Clear or an Hifiman Arya someday. But they can surely be an endgame or have its place in anyone's collection

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AnOldMoth t1_j5wpevj wrote

Timbre is a reflection of frequency response, though. Which can be changed.

And no, I'm not saying that frequency response is literally everything, but timbre is a property of instruments, and its essentially the properties of an instrument that make it sound like... well, itself.

So for good timbre to be correct, that means that the tonality of the headphone has to be accurate to your ears in that respect, which is, again, frequency response.

That's why I don't put much importance on a headphone's timbre, because if I have issues with that specific property of the headphone, I can just fix it with EQ.

With the 6XX, it has recessed treble (EQ thankfully helps), really muddy bass with no texture or definition (EQ hasn't helped this, have tried for a while), and all the frequencies smear together compared to other headphones because the driver is over-dampened. Yeah, the mids and timbre are good, but the rest of the sound suffers as a result. I'd rather just get a headphone without these issues, and tune the mids to be similar to the 650/6XX, so I can get its benefits and the rest of them as well.

That's why I disagree so heavily with the recommendation. It's way too expensive for what you get, there's better-sounding (I know, subjective, but at least in terms of the rest of the frequency range), options both more expensive and less expensive.

I still have my 6XX, right next to me. Sometimes I'll put them on, give them a listen to see if there's anything I'm actually missing about them, but all it ends up doing is make me appreciate how much better almost everything else is.

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xGuacamolly OP t1_j5wj2s3 wrote

I had the focal clear OG and the Arya Stealth, but hifiman is superior to my ears. Arya aren't necessarily endgame as hifiman release headphones none stop. So the upgrade/sidegrade is a normal thing. That's why i said hd600 is endgame. Since 1997 Sennheiser released 2 other models ( 650 & 660s ) in the 6 series. So i'm good for a long time with it.

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LTHardcase t1_j5wogut wrote

> Arya aren't necessarily endgame as hifiman release headphones none stop. So the upgrade/sidegrade is a normal thing. That's why i said hd600 is endgame. Since 1997 Sennheiser released 2 other models ( 650 & 660s ) in the 6 series. So i'm good for a long time with it.

This is a genuinely bizarre definition of endgame. New models alter your perception of your holding's value?

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xGuacamolly OP t1_j5wtgph wrote

It depends i prefer the 1997 model from Sennheiser, i tried every headphone from serie 6 to 8. Hated serie 8 open or closed. It's my endgame in Sennheiser actually, not in my audio life ;)

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206Red t1_j5wl8v3 wrote

These are two of headphones that I really have my eyes, maybe someday on the future. Definitely will keep my HD 660s for a long time too, as I just love their tonality :)

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nagisa_09 t1_j5wjygy wrote

Midrange and timbre are very important to me, which is why I pretty much enjoy the 600's sound more than other headphones I've tried. But I do listen to my K701's from time to time for something unique.

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AnOldMoth t1_j5wprko wrote

HD600 is a much, much better headphone than the 650/6XX. It's basically the same driver as the 650, except it isn't over-dampened. Its only real downside is the bass roll-off, but everything else about it IS good, and you can EQ the 'boring' parts of it to be more lively without much issue.

It's kind of like a much, much better version of the KSC75, which to my ears, still sounds better than the 6XX/650, lol

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nagisa_09 t1_j5x1264 wrote

Sounds like I made the right call then lol. I haven't heard the 650, and don't have any plans to, but I have heard the Rode NTH-100, which did sound overdampened and blunted.

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AnOldMoth t1_j5x343h wrote

Oh for sure, those things are probably Sennheiser's best, imo. At least in terms of tonality.

Enjoy them, they tend to last forever as well.

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politeCanadaPlatypus t1_j5wc621 wrote

I would rather return a headphone than need to EQ it. Too hard to sync the EQ across all devices. Plus it’s just not my jam ,I’d rather get new headphones to fix my sound.

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AnOldMoth t1_j5wcyi3 wrote

I have never heard a headphone that didn't need EQ, so your strategy doesn't really work in my experience. Even my favorite headphones have things about them that need correcting. Plus, EQ is very easy to apply across devices, takes a minute or two at most if you've already made a profile.

The perfect headphone does not exist. That is why we have the tools to make them into what we want.

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rajmahid t1_j5wikcx wrote

Heeere come the fanboy downvotes!! Lol

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AnOldMoth t1_j5wohzz wrote

I'm fairly used to it, lol. No one likes hearing that their favorite might not be as good as they think it is.

People can like what they like, no debating that. But when people say that there's nothing beyond this, I'm like, "Buddy, you're using a headphone that's good at like two things out of eight. Don't even go there."

But that's okay, Reddit is free to Reddit all it wants. I don't expect the hivemind to change course.

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