Sennheiser HD600 Review (Headphone)

[PuX]

From an "old iPod", which I actually happen to have, HD600 would sound lower and will never be able to reach the same sound levels as when driven from a dedicated amp or from a CD-player's headphone output. Still, I think that the sound quality, when level matched, would be comparable. Let's not confuse sound quality with sound level.

I also still have an iPod classic and I am relatively confident that level-matched HD650 will sound noticeably different vs Atom+EL DAC. Amps/DACs don't all sound the same, there has been lots of progress in the last 5 years, let alone 15 since the iPod was relevant. Otherwise what would be the point of measuring everything? (main point of this site, really).

It's definitely not about how loud iPod gets. I always felt it's noisy, has background hiss and everything sounds thin/without body and even metallic on certain headphones. It was never any good, about the same quality as onboard audio in a computer.

 

[GaryH]

Just found this, I didn’t expect the HD 600 being so high in Harman-based rankings: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/RANKING.md.
Interesting, I’ll even do some experimentation with EQ to find out more….

 

[Limopard]

View attachment 129412

That a wonky sounding 569 ranks (slightly) higher than a well balanced 650 is beyond me. The former may have better bass extension, but the deviations of the 569 are where it really hurts.

 

[AdamG]

View attachment 129412

Welcome Aboard @GaryH.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Maybe after adding +8 dB low shelf Great headphones nonetheless!

Edit: Oh, this is after EQ...don't mind me.

Even before EQ, they are pretty much agreeable with Harman. I can hear a similar thing between the midrange and highs of my Galaxy Buds+ and the HD 600, they’re just missing bass and the distortion is a bit too high for my liking for a bass shelf.

 

[raistlin65]

Sometime soon we are going to open the can of worms that is "how audible is a dB or 2 of eq difference when playing music? "

Yep. And one day, we're going to have to figure out how to do fMRI scans to see how much the brain adjusts to a headphone frequency response over extended use, vs. in quick comparisons during DBT.

That may be the big surprise, thinking about this research that shows the audio processing pathways changed in response to expectation bias

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210108120110.htm

The expectation bias adaptation may not be the only instance of audio processing adaptation. Certainly would explain brain burn in with headphones.

 

[StevenEleven]

KeithPhantom said:
Just found this, I didn’t expect the HD 600 being so high in Harman-based rankings: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/RANKING.md.
Interesting, I’ll even do some experimentation with EQ to find out more….

Cool chart a few posts above. For context folks should know that’s just the top of the list, it goes way down into the negatives for scores. So everything on that list as copied a few posts above did at least pretty well.

Certainly puts the HD600s in a positive light!!

Might be nice to click on the link so as to give the GitHub site some net traffic and see things in context and give the author appropriate attention and credit.

I think it shows once again how inexact “ranking” of headphones is. Better to measure and describe them well and give a ballpark assessment as to quality than try to rank them definitively, IMHO.

 

[Chagall]

Even before EQ, they are pretty much agreeable with Harman. I can hear a similar thing between the midrange and highs of my Galaxy Buds+ and the HD 600, they’re just missing bass and the distortion is a bit too high for my liking for a bass shelf.

Yes! Pretty much best value for money I've ever spent.
Had them for 13 years now, heavy usage, but this thing just doesn't die! German panzer plastic I guess.

Distortion doesn't bother me that much, although maybe that is up to the music I listen to.
Only thing that I wished it had would be a wider soundstage.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Yes! Pretty much best value for money I've ever spent.
Had them for 13 years now, heavy usage, but this thing just doesn't die! German panzer plastic I guess.

Distortion doesn't bother me that much, although maybe that is up to the music I listen to.
Only thing that I wished it had would be a wider soundstage.

I like them because they are low weight, they’re pretty utilitarian, and sound great while at it. I realized that “soundstage” is something you can only get with physical speakers, and two small transducers around your ears won’t be enough to fully convince you.

 

[GaryH]

That a wonky sounding 569 ranks (slightly) higher than a well balanced 650 is beyond me. The former may have better bass extension, but the deviations of the 569 are where it really hurts.

Research has found bass to play a large part in sound quality preference in blind tests which could compensate for deficiencies elsewhere. Anyway 1 point difference is not significant. In fact oratory1990 who made most of the measurements that ranking uses calculated those two to have the same score of 78/100.

What is significant and noticeable however is a difference of 13 (actually 14 using oratory1990's calculations) in preference score and a tonal balance slope difference of 0.53 between warm and bright sounding as I highlighted.

 

[Robbo99999]

I like them because they are low weight, they’re pretty utilitarian, and sound great while at it. I realized that “soundstage” is something you can only get with physical speakers, and two small transducers around your ears won’t be enough to fully convince you.

It does vary with headphone though, so may as well choose a headphone that maximises soundstage to be as close to speakers as possible. All my headphones have different levels of perceived soundstage with the HD600 being the worst, a closed in in-your-head experience. K702 is my best for soundstage & also my favourite headphone. So some headphones do it better than others. Depends how much you value soundstage. In defense of HD600 I'll say it's the best headphone I have without EQ, so as not to attract hate & provide perspective!

 

[Svperstar]

Waaaay late to this thread, real life has been super busy last couple days.

Been into this hobby and this series since 2004. HD580 was my first "real" pair of audiophile grade headphones. When the drivers started to go I replaced them with the 650 drivers and then I also got another pair of HD580s and a pair of new 6XX. I had a pair of the now discontinued HD590s and those broke but I got a pair still in the box from England off ebay and paid twice their original value to get them.

Anyway, the 580/600 family are largely the same. Back in 2004 when I joined Head-Fi made it seem like there were these massive differences. There really aren't. Just buy any one of them and be happy with the interchangeable parts.

 

[KeithPhantom]

It does vary with headphone though, so may as well choose a headphone that maximises soundstage to be as close to speakers as possible. All my headphones have different levels of perceived soundstage with the HD600 being the worst, a closed in in-your-head experience. K702 is my best for soundstage & also my favourite headphone. So some headphones do it better than others. Depends how much you value soundstage. In defense of HD600 I'll say it's the best headphone I have without EQ, so as not to attract hate & provide perspective!

I had the HD 800 and even with my widest music recordings it wasn’t enough to convince me of a sensation of “space outside of your head”. It was spread out around my ears, but never got close enough to fool me that I had speakers playing music. But yeah, it depends on how transfer functions work in the individual and the transducers and it’s qualities.

 

[markanini]

I hope that Amir reviews Beyerdynamic DT880 and AKG K612 in the future. Those are Beyers and AKGs takes on the HD600.

 

[buz]

I had the HD 800 and even with my widest music recordings it wasn’t enough to convince me of a sensation of “space outside of your head”. It was spread out around my ears, but never got close enough to fool me that I had speakers playing music. But yeah, it depends on how transfer functions work in the individual and the transducers and it’s qualities.

Much the same, currently even have my hd800s on my head. Very rarely there might be a sound that makes me turn my head assuming it's in the room... Never in front of me.

 

[Robbo99999]

I had the HD 800 and even with my widest music recordings it wasn’t enough to convince me of a sensation of “space outside of your head”. It was spread out around my ears, but never got close enough to fool me that I had speakers playing music. But yeah, it depends on how transfer functions work in the individual and the transducers and it’s qualities.

I think it really depends on each individual how they perceive soundstage of a headphone & how close that is to the experience of listening to speakers, so we can't really generalise. HD800s is often touted as the soundstage headphone, and they probably are on average for most people indeed a soundstage headphone, but people will still experience the soundstage aspect differently. With my EQ'd K702 they sound really quite similar to my speakers...my speakers (equilateral triangle at 2m) are like a wide wall of sound in front of me and to some extent surrounding me from the sides.....my K702 also has this wall of sound effect rather than an in-your-head experience with wideness outside of my head and to some extent in front.....I'm not gonna say it's exactly like listening to speakers in terms of soundstage, but it's my best headphone for getting the closest to them (headphones in my sig).

It could be that experimenting with different frequency response EQ's will help you with the spatial effect.....with my EQ experimentation I've noticed it makes a difference, I think if you can find a frequency response or tweak on the Harman Curve for instance that is closer to your own HRTF then this should enhance the effect......the further the frequency response is away from what you experience as truly flat then the less accurate spatial effects you will have.

 

[KeithPhantom]

Right now I am testing my HD 600 with the Harman target and they sound great. Not only that, if you see Oratory's EQ file, the preference rating of the HD 600 is 92/100 with no equalization. It is a great headphone that is just lacking some bass to be pretty much perfect if following the Harman target.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I don’t think it will shock anyone that the HD580, HD600, and HD650 are essentially the same headphone. The differences are primarily cosmetic, with higher quality materials (metal replacing plastic, headband differences, etc.) as you go up the line.

 

[BrEpBrEpBrEpBrEp]

I gotta say, I really don't understand all the controversy surrounding this, especially on other sites.

https://crinacle.com/graphs/headpho...20)_(fresh_pads),HD650_S2_(2020)_(fresh_pads)

Crinacle's graphs show essentially the same story. 2 dB difference at most with fresh pads and newer pairs of both. He also measures left-to-right variations in excess of the differences between the two models.

With wear and tear, I don't understand why people have such a hard time believing the differences are imperceptible to Amir. I'd wager unit-to-unit differences would blur the lines even more.

 

[GaryH]

I don’t think it will shock anyone that the HD580, HD600, and HD650 are essentially the same headphone.

Not according to measurements and Harman's headphone science that predicts even seemingly small differences in frequency response can mean a significant difference in overall tonal balance if they are low Q and so result in a significant difference in predicted preference score. See my posts above.