The HD 600 opened my eyes of how a well-designed headphone could sound. The HD 650 always lacked ever-so-slightly detail and the lows felt somewhat “bloated”, the HD 600 we’re for me the first time I used them. It was closer to what I would say it is a pretty good-sounding headphone than all of what I’ve tried up un that time. And I am talking about “flagship” headphones of many recognized companies.
I loved them with priority for a pretty long time, until I tried to get a perceptual bass boost out of them, then I understood their engineering limitations and why they were so close of perfect for me, yet not quite. Also, having tried the HD 800 (S) didn’t help matters in the spaciality area.
But looking for a replacement wouldn’t be an easy task. I tried even more headphones, but none of them were enough. I always came back to my trusty HD 600.
One day I tried the HD 560S. I saw the measurements and it was promising. Listen to them, they were “meh”. Back then, I had the LCD-X (2021) and the HD 600. The Audeze had better bass than anything I’ve owned, but their highs, even with EQ, weren’t the best. I returned the 560S and sold the HD 600, but their limitations started bothering me when my music taste started to change.
After a while, I rebought the 560S to give them a fairer chance, but this time when EQing, instead of using a preset, I generated the EQ myself from the actual target (both Oratory’s and AutoEQ presets don’t follow strict Harman OE 2018), and that really opened my eyes.
We’re talking about taking a LCD-X, a HD 800, a Focal Clear, and a HD 600, somehow fusing them, and giving that resulting headphone all the main qualities and characteristics of the ingredient headphones (just a bit worse, but still extremely competitive). That is the HD 560S I listen to everyday. The only thing I complain about them is that that THD isn’t less than 1% from 0.02-20 kHz. Just that.
The HD 600 is my reference of FR when it comes to a stock headphone and what I expect as a minimum from any “flagship” or headphone costing more than the HD 600. It also taught me to value lightweight headphones (I hate neck-breaking headphones nowadays), and FR consistency. It is a great headphone I wouldn’t doubt to recommend to somebody looking for a balanced sound without the bass boost of the Hartman target.