Sennheiser HD600 Review (Headphone)

[Jarick]

Just a point on the HD560s - it has more bass than any of the other headphones you mentioned, and mids are not recessed (if anything they're pushed a bit too far forward):
View attachment 292748
I'm not going to include frequency response pics of all the other headphones you mentioned, but you'll see that HD560s has more bass than any of the other ones you mentioned. You can check the frequency responses here:

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I mean it's not super contentious me pointing this out to you, and it's interesting to hear your experiences, but I didn't want readers to get the wrong impression of some of the headphones you mentioned.

All fair, actually I completely agree with all those frequency responses!

I might clarify, compared to the 600, the 560s sounds leaner and brighter to me. If I look at his measurements of the 600, he has a bigger peak in the low mids (just above the bass region), and the 560s has a bigger peak in the treble. That's generally what I hear.

To me the 560s is a better version of the Beyer 880, as the midrange is a little flatter and there's less of a peak in the bass and harsh treble.

 

[Mkilbride]

Got these headphones last year during the Amazon pricing error for 99$. It lasted less than a minute, I was just browsing reddit and randomly saw someone posted it. I only bought one pair, feeling like it'd be canceled, others bought a dozen lol.

before this I had used Sennheiser PC350, then HD598 SR, and Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3 Over-Ear headphones. All sounded pretty good to me, though the 598 at times felt a little anemic.

I hadn't had a chance to sit down and really use them until this last month, been busy with life. At first they were way too tight...and still are a little, I've bent them to be more comfortable, almost at the perfect spot comfort wise, but yeah. They sound absolutely incredible with music. Like listening to a few songs I always check out new audio gear on: KDA's songs(I know, not a fan of rap / pop, but these have such a wide range and are appealing in their own way), as well as some anime OST's like Eighty Six, Promare, and Devil may Cry's soundtrack as well. As far as music goes, they are just the best thing I've heard. I was using them with a Fiio A5 Amp, with a Bass Boost function that added +6dB to the low end and I really enjoyed that. Watching some shows with them, they were pretty good, but I did notice the sense of "Closeness", that I didn't notice on my HD598. But whenever music started to play, as is often in anime...wow. It was just incredible and they also somehow felt more open, like speakers than the HD598, yet still "close", not really a audiophile so I can't explain it better than that.

After diving deeper into this audiophile world and needing to use headphones to play the recently released FF16 due to my work hours I couldn't use the home theater setup I got, I wanted to get the best experience as the music in FF16 is mind-blowingly good. I set out to find out how to get the best experience and on PS5, it's a pain in the ass. I ended up getting a Soundblaster G6 to connect via Optical to my TV so I could push 5.1 Audio and use Virtualization, it took some tweaking to get it how I wanted it, but it worked surprisingly well and I normally don't care for this kind of thing, but at least in FF16, it works better than the 3D Audio for sure. There have been moments where I almost forgot I was listening to headphones and I tipped them off my head, thinking I turned the speakers on by accident lol.

Noticing the Soundblaster G6 had a EQ function, I talked to my friend on Discord and he talked of the Harman Curve. He linked to me AutoEQ, and Oratory1990's presets. So I applied them and it sounded a tad different, though from what I can see the HD600 already follow the curve very well, it rather sounded like the bass boost function of my Fiio A5 actually. It seemed to even them out and some of the "Closeness" went away, but is still there.

Of course with the Pre-gain being a native value so high, my volume naturally dropped. The G6 and the fiio A5 both had issues pushing the HD600 to the right listening level with a -11dB pre-gain applied. So I picked up a Topping L30 II for 110$ on Amazon, Open Box / new, with a 1 year warranty.(4 are still available!), which had 6x the power of my Fiio 5.

It was enough to get it to the proper volume and even beyond, but I had expected 6x the power to honestly blow my eardrums out, so I was shocked. Still a noob audiophile though, so yeah.

They sound quite incredible now and it's worrisome almost because it's making me want to buy more headphones, specifically Planars and try them out, I had heard the MM-500 are basically the HD600 - but with more bass and a huge soundstage, which sounds almost perfect, the price however is far beyond me. The MM-100 therefore interest me greatly.

So happy I got that pricing error.

 

[Doodski]

the 598 at times felt a little anemic.

I have HD 598SR headphones right now and wonder how is the top end compared to the HD600? I like the top end stuff... Like how metallic is it for the cymbals drumming and the sizzle in horns etc compared to each other.

 

[Mkilbride]

That's a very tough thing to say, while the HD598SR sound good to me with music, I tend to find they muddy up the top end a little. Everything on the HD600 is perfectly separated, imaging is the term I believe. Some can find the lack of warmth offputting, but they reproduce exactly what they're supposed to.

 

[aliaksej]

Tested both HD 660s and 560s.
660s are lacking tasty treble, but very cool for jazz, vocal-oriented music and extremely comfortable for me.
560s sound too tasty, a bit harsh in treble and too bright.
Definitely 660s is more solid, better resolution, deeper mid bass and overall more neutral. But with my Yamaha synthesiser 660s are making timbres a bit dull/lifeless because of the lack of treble. On PC I can fit the problem with EQ. But not on a synthesiser. 560s makes voices sound too trebly, lacks the warms and fullness, consistency of 660s.

I wonder how does 600 compare to 560s from treble perspective. Is 600s treble more moderate and accurate then on 560s?
How're 600 for dynamic and punchy heavy metal music?

 

[Jimbob54]

Tested both HD 660s and 560s.
660s are lacking tasty treble, but very cool for jazz, vocal-oriented music and extremely comfortable for me.
560s sound too tasty, a bit harsh in treble and too bright.
Definitely 660s is more solid, better resolution, deeper mid bass and overall more neutral. But with my Yamaha synthesiser 660s are making timbres a bit dull/lifeless because of the lack of treble. On PC I can fit the problem with EQ. But not on a synthesiser. 560s makes voices sound too trebly, lacks the warms and fullness, consistency of 660s.

I wonder how does 600 compare to 560s from treble perspective. Is 600s treble more moderate and accurate then on 560s?
How're 600 for dynamic and punchy heavy metal music?

 

[adelaidestevens]

View attachment 296836

see that little spike on the 560s? your ears will adjust to it eventually, I used to think it was sibilant but turns out a lot of headphones are just conservative treble wise, I have a 6xx as well but I honestly dunno which one I love more

 

[reficver]

@Maiky76 I have read from beginning to end of this thread. Could you suggest EQ for the new HD600 version as well? I'm curious! Because your EQ score profile always suits my taste!

 

[fountain]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Sennheiser HD600 headphone. I purchased this sample new after I visited major labels around year 2000 and noticing this was a reference headphone they used. I handed it to my son Karman who has been using it for years and replacing the worn out pads. He was visiting us (we are all vaccinated) and brought it with him. I had shown him how to make measurements and what you see below are his.

Other than showing some wear, you can't tell the HD600 from HD650:

View attachment 128745

The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. Other measurements made using different fixtures and protocols will vary from mine. I confirm the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers with large variations in bass and treble as a minimum. As such, you better take a high level view of headphone measurements. Anything else is not supported by the state of measurement system for headphones.

Sennheiser HD600 Measurements
Let's start with our usual frequency response measurements:

View attachment 128746

This is basically the same as HD650 given the vagaries of headphone measurements, fit, pad wear, etc.:

View attachment 128747

Distortion is higher but this could just be wear and tear:

View attachment 128748

View attachment 128749

Here is Group Delay which again is similar to the HD650:

View attachment 128750

Sensitivity is essentially the same. Variation is due to slightly different reference point:

View attachment 128751

Sennheiser HD600 Listening Tests
I only made a brief evaluation of the HD600 with and without equalization I made for HD650. I could not tell a difference between the two in the confines of slow switching time between the two headphones. As with HD650, I was yet again impressed by how good this headphone sounds. Equalization made an improvement but the headphone was very listenable without it.

Conclusions
I don't know what is supposed to be different between HD600 and HD650. Based on both objective and subjective testing, these two headphones perform the same.

To the extent the HD600 is available and costs less than HD650, it would make just as good a purchase.

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hey, does someone know on scale 1 to 10 how is the detail on this?

 

[Chagall]

hey, does someone know on scale 1 to 10 how is the detail on this?

"Detail", "detail retrival" or "resolution" can't be given as a number in an objective way.

But what can be said is that this headphone stood the test of time for a reason. The best way to know is to listen to it yourself and compare it with other headphones on your shortlist.

 

[milosz]

hey, does someone know on scale 1 to 10 how is the detail on this?

What units is detail measured in?

 

[NDRQ]

What units is detail measured in?

kilosparkle

 

[IAtaman]

kilosparkle

That's the SI unit I think. Imperial one is barley cones per octave.

 

[Macmanuk]

Similar tonality but clear differences. Leaner bass, little harsh/shouty middle and airier, more open sound in the case of HD600, both of them are easy to spot. Even from memory, its hard to mix the little congested sounding HD650 with the open sounding HD600. The 650 has a warm/dark sound, while the HD600 is neutral, borderline bright with the low treble peak and lean bass.
Probably the problem is the worn, flat earpad, thats why i said that this review is kinda useless.

Not useless as it defines the key attributes of the review so if you are aware of them then you take them into account. A flat earpad is a factor that was mentioned. So just take that factor into account when you read and don’t assume all reviews are for box fresh items.

 

[Mimimetal]

Hi, i ve these headphones since yesterday and they seem to me better than 6xx and 660s but I need a good dongle to match with them. I ve tried the shanling up4 22 and the ua4 but both aren't enough powerful. What do you suggest? I can buy the hip dac2 second hand for about 100€ and it should be enough powerful even though it's a bit bulky

 

[solderdude]

You can increase the max. SPL an audible amount (+6dB) by buying a dongle with balanced output (4.4mm Pentaconn) and a Sennheiser balanced cable (also 4.4mm Pentaconn).
Otherwise you need to look for something that can deliver a higher output voltage which usually means a bit bigger in size.

 

[Mimimetal]

I m using the balanced output on both but in some songs the volume isn't enough, anyway the ua4 sounds louder. Both dac give more volume with a pc, I think that is due to the voltage of the usb port

 

[solderdude]

USB port voltage is around 5V (between 4.9V and 5.2V in general).
Internally, in a dongle or USB fed device, some of this is 'eaten' by smoothing of the incoming DC voltage.
In SE (TRS) this leaves a max. voltage swing of 4.8V(pp) = 1.7Vrms = 10mW
In balanced mode this is doubles so around 3.4Vrms = 38mW (max, usually just below it) .

If you want to go louder one needs a dongle that converts the incoming 5V DC to a higher internal voltage rails. This is easy to do but costs some space, and is limited in power and costs more.

You will probably need more output voltage than that so should look for a device spec'd to at least 100mW in 300ohm (so a device spec'd to say 1W in 32 ohm) if you want to play noticeable louder.

 

[Mimimetal]

Topping NX4? Too old?

 

[solderdude]

It can supply 5.5V, 100mW (SE only) so somewhat (4.5dB) louder than a balanced dongle could do.
Its not too old.