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Sennheiser HD650 Review (Headphone)

restorer-john

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@amirm I think these may appeal to me, apart from your comments on build quality. Great review. :)

Try this wonderful clip from Nils Frahm for example

Appears to be an entry-level Jean Michel Jarre. ;)
 

solderdude

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A quick question to @amirm

When looking at this plot:
1608971369646.png


we see that the distortion (@ 30Hz) has increased from 2.5% to 45% with EQ applied.
Would it be safe to assume that the average level in the bass, due to the +9dB bass boost (I use +3dB bass boost at 30Hz but lower the middbass hump) would result in 104dB SPL at around 30Hz ?
If so, when looking at the plot below one would expect to see around 5% distortion at 30Hz (which is as good as inaudible) and not 45%.
1608971668781.png

Where is this discrepancy originating from.

Not fully comparable but below my distortion measurement (hardware EQ) at 90dB SPL (so including bass boost)
DISTkam 2 new pads redone.png

It shows around 1.5% distortion (2nd and 3rd combined) at 30Hz.
 
Last edited:

ZolaIII

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It won't work good (Harman curve) with those as they have a rather big distortion in lows. Somehow I have to mention that inter modular distortion from DAC/AMP (again in lows) also plays important part when EQ-ing which is somehow neglected hire, but usually that's not a problem with good engineered desktop equipment.
 
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amirm

amirm

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A quick question to @amirm

When looking at this plot:
View attachment 101579

we see that the distortion (@ 30Hz) has increased from 2.5% to 45% with EQ applied.
Would it be safe to assume that the average level in the bass, due to the +9dB bass boost (I use +3dB bass boost at 30Hz but lower the middbass hump) would result in 104dB SPL at around 30Hz ?
If so, when looking at the plot below one would expect to see around 5% distortion at 30Hz (which is as good as inaudible) and not 45%.
View attachment 101580
Where is this discrepancy originating from.

Not fully comparable but below my distortion measurement (hardware EQ) at 90dB SPL (so including bass boost)
View attachment 101585
It shows around 1.5% distortion (2nd and 3rd combined) at 30Hz.
Oops. Please ignore until I fix in the morning. Took out headroom to make graph easier to understand but of course it is clipping now.
 

Dreyfus

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You need better smoothing for the preference rating in the upper spectrum. The target you choose ignores ear canal resonances and does expect a broad power response.
 

Thomas_A

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The HD600/650 are fine headphones and the only reason I don't have one is the weak region <100 Hz.
 

Thomas_A

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How does the EQued HD650 sound like with Terje?
 

Jimbob54

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Is it confirmed that the massdrop 6xx is basically the same exact thing? That one is only $200

I dont think Senn have ever confirmed but other than cosmetic differences, every review/ look I have seen suggests they are mechanically the same but made in a different territory. If you can get Drop shipped to you cheap without paying import fees etc , I would get the Drop 6XX
 

modes

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I found they sound more agreeable with the suggested 4db lift @ 7600 hz left omitted. Also cutting a few db centered at ~210 hz seems to elicit improvement.
 

Robin L

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I've got the Drop 6XX/Topping E/L30 combo. Closest to Stax earspeaker's overall sound I've experienced of any dynamic phone. Hopefully Amir will measure the Stax Amp/Energizer/Earspeaker set as a combo instead of measuring the amp separately.
 

Robbo99999

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@amirm, so going forward are you just positing the 1 channel target deviation and not the 2 channel raws? Would help to know in order to setup my spreadsheets to be streamlined.

Preference Rating
SCORE: 73


Again, the huge 10kHz dip (-20dB, Oratory’s is -10dB) is reducing the score a lot.
I can do whatever but not sure anymore what you need. :)
I'd like to see the raw data for both channels in the attached file, it would aid me in using them for EQ purposes. Probably best to display all of the information in the attached file so people can pick & choose what they need. You could include raw left & right, raw average, and then deviation from target, if it's not much extra hassle, but it's the raw left & right which I would most find useful.
 

bt3

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I've got the Drop 6XX/Topping E/L30 combo. Closest to Stax earspeaker's overall sound I've experienced of any dynamic phone. Hopefully Amir will measure the Stax Amp/Energizer/Earspeaker set as a combo instead of measuring the amp separately.

I own same setup.
Curious to see Amir's (or members) Parametric EQ for Drop 6xx.
Of course few of us have the same auditory test results!
 

jazzendapus

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Focusing on 100 Hz to 7000 Hz, we see that the response of the HD650 comes very close to our reference curve in dashed blue. This is interesting since the HD650 predates the research that led to the blue preference curve. No wonder then that HD650 is so popular.

There's an interesting bit from an interview with Axel Grell:
How do you feel about the Harman Target Response Curve? Does it have any influence on your design when working on a headphone’s sound signature?
It is interesting. We did something similar 23 years ago. And we had very similar findings. When you tune a headphone only following these findings it sounds okay, but a bit boring. As headphones should transport the music, the emotions, we tune them using our ears, knowing all these findings.
https://drop.com/talk/989/community-interview-axel-grell

23 year before that interview puts it at 1993, about the same time HD650's grandfather, namely the HD580 was released.
Of course the last part of the quote means they're screwing with their own (possibly scientific) findings to appeal to global audiophoolery...
 
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