MiloTheFirst
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- Jul 11, 2020
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These were the very first Audiophile tier headphones I bought. Back then I didn't know much and my logic was that the best entry point for the hobby was a set of good ol' HD 600 series and among the 600, 650 and 660s, the later would save me the need to buy an amplifier... things didn't go as well as expected. As it turns outs I was too greedy, vocals had great definition but everything else was too anemic, except for those ocassions when I listened to them in the middle of the night at very low volume (then it sounded very elegant and pleasant). I figured as time passed that maybe the issue was the lack of power from my very old PC 3.5mm jack. so I set too buy a "powerfull" dongle DAC that would cost me less than a bonafide desktop DAC-AMP combo (plus that way I could also use it with my smartphone). I decided to buy a Tempotec Sonata HD PRO (of which a non-OEM branded version was reviewed here with fliying colours across the aboard), after evaluating the specs I concluded that it might be just what I needed, but to my bewilderment the headphones still didn't sound "right", they could get extremely loud, painfully so (but so they could with my original motherboard's 3.5mm jack to a lesser degree), but it would still sound shouty and unbalanced. it wasn't until Amir reviewed a different headphone here which included a graph of the impedance across the frequency spectrum that the answer hit me, I was indeed lacking power but in a more nuanced manner. I had bought the Dongle DAC after calculating that it could deliver enough miliwats at 150 ohm, little did I know that a device impedance might vary in response to the electrical frequency (which in retrospective makes perfect physical sense). after admiting defeat, my stingy self saved up the money to buy a desktop Amp and finally close the chapter with the mistery behind these cans' not living up to their potential.
It was an adventure full of discovery and learning, but also of anguish and self doubt, at times wondering whether I was crazy or going deaf and eventually just thinking that this model just didn't live up to its predecesors and was just a design flop. ultimately I can say that these do in fact sound pretty good, I was just doing it wrong originally. Ironically, just recently I built a new PC with a higher tier mother board that advertised capability for high impedance headphones (I didn't choose it specifically beacuse of this, though), and to my surprise, yet again, the HD 660s sound perfectly acceptable when connected directly to this board.
So to those considering buying this model because it doesn't need an amp, be mindful that while on board audio has gotten really clean and well performing compared to a decade ago, it might still not have enough power to drive these cans properly depending on the motherboard in question. the same applies to a smartphone. I own an LG V50 (from the series with the quad DAC) and it can get the HD660s loud, but it only sounds balanced and proper at very low volume. in any case, without an amp they will still be serviceable if you only need to get audio out of your system to get something done, but it wouldn't be worth their price tag when used that way.
As for my subjective impression of the sound signature I will say this: They sound like a Live performance at which the mixing technician purpousefully equalized the vocals notably higher than the rest of the instuments, like there are 2 planes of depth, one for the vocals range and another for the rest of the mix. imagine as if they wanted to make the 650 but way less cluttered, as a result the instruments are less inpactful and fun but in return we get significally better instrument separation. They definitively lack bass and I specially notice it when I listen to orchestral music with plenty of cello and tuba, but for everythign else I can't avoid the feeling that having more bass would ruin the balance and be distracting. on the bright side, soundtracks and ambient music compoused mainly with acoustic guitars and piano sounds glorious on these.
It was an adventure full of discovery and learning, but also of anguish and self doubt, at times wondering whether I was crazy or going deaf and eventually just thinking that this model just didn't live up to its predecesors and was just a design flop. ultimately I can say that these do in fact sound pretty good, I was just doing it wrong originally. Ironically, just recently I built a new PC with a higher tier mother board that advertised capability for high impedance headphones (I didn't choose it specifically beacuse of this, though), and to my surprise, yet again, the HD 660s sound perfectly acceptable when connected directly to this board.
So to those considering buying this model because it doesn't need an amp, be mindful that while on board audio has gotten really clean and well performing compared to a decade ago, it might still not have enough power to drive these cans properly depending on the motherboard in question. the same applies to a smartphone. I own an LG V50 (from the series with the quad DAC) and it can get the HD660s loud, but it only sounds balanced and proper at very low volume. in any case, without an amp they will still be serviceable if you only need to get audio out of your system to get something done, but it wouldn't be worth their price tag when used that way.
As for my subjective impression of the sound signature I will say this: They sound like a Live performance at which the mixing technician purpousefully equalized the vocals notably higher than the rest of the instuments, like there are 2 planes of depth, one for the vocals range and another for the rest of the mix. imagine as if they wanted to make the 650 but way less cluttered, as a result the instruments are less inpactful and fun but in return we get significally better instrument separation. They definitively lack bass and I specially notice it when I listen to orchestral music with plenty of cello and tuba, but for everythign else I can't avoid the feeling that having more bass would ruin the balance and be distracting. on the bright side, soundtracks and ambient music compoused mainly with acoustic guitars and piano sounds glorious on these.
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