Yeah, I'll probably buy a pair at some point. I'd probably have bought some before, but unfortunately the reality of my life is that 99% of my listening opportunities are at my desk using a PC as a source, so open headphones aren't much use to me these days. I love the 650s but rarely use them.
When shopping for a used pair, I have seen this issue repeatedly. Seems to be a case of a bad material. I do not believe in sonic properties of cables, so I bought an AliExpress cable. That was the only one not priced at excessive premium to match the headphone price.
It is indeed poor materials selection. They should have used a cable with at least an inner shielding or secondary substrate.
2 years so far. Some minor cracking on the strain relief on the headphone connectors, the cable itself shows no signs of aging.I'd be interested to hear how long your aliexpress cable lasts...
That's pretty good going tbh.
There's a fair few headphones that are better than what was offered back when the HD600 was created in the 1990's, which still should be well regarded.....but yes there are quite a few options nowadays for good headphones and at lower price points, so headphone design has definitely moved on and advanced. Not absolutely stratospherically better than HD600 though, it's not like the advancement of computing power since then for example, but still better options nowadays and for less money.
I would classify the cable as passable. Connectors are a bit less smooth than the original ones. But all the non-Aliexpress cable makers price HD800 cables very high, so I would buy this one again. And, of course, I would never buy the original cable only to have it disintegrate in the same way.
I'd actually go one further than that and say that while there maybe more choice of manufacturers and models than when the HD600's were released, that 'sonic superiority and improvement' has actually stagnated.
Nah.... you just have to look around buddy.
I know you didn't ask me, but for practical use, $50 max. If it's extremely well made like a work of art, I am willing to pay extra knowing there is no sonic difference.Nah.... you just have to look around buddy.
But out of interest, what would you consider as a genuinely acceptable price for a decent cable?
There's a limit to what can be done with a headphone that is designed to hit just one Target Curve without any degree of personalisation to the user. The HD600 did exceedingly well for it's time, and also now in terms of stock performance without any further EQ applied - mainly because it was fairly close to Harman Curve without the bass hump, so it got a lot of stuff right. That can't be improved on much apart from bass extension & more bass to get somewhere closer to Harman Bass depending on individual taste as well as the imaging & soundstage properties of the HD600 which I find leaves a lot to be desired. But HD600 is not all that far off when considering it as a stock headphone without use of EQ, so that's why I don't think there have been massive improvements since then. It comes down to the fact we're being limited by headphones that are designed to one target curve without personalisation to your own HRTF, which would require DSP & measurements of your own HRTF. So I agree with you inasmuch that there have not been large improvements, but I wouldn't say "stagnation" since HD600 (year 1997) because now you have more & better value options that are better than HD600. From this point onwards though we've got a degree of stagnation, I don't seen any meaningful improvement, again we're limited by what you can do with a fixed target curve that has not been personalised to your HRTF using DSP. So we're a bit stagnant now until there are some easy, affordable ways of being able to experience something like Smyth Realiser (personalised to HRTF) in cost effective headphones. There's the Impulcifier Project by jaakkopasanen over on github, but it's a bit complicated and not very easy entry I'd say. There are some shockingly bad headphones out there though even nowadays, just have to look at Amir's reviews of them, and oftentimes they can be very expensive headphones - just gotta choose wisely and then you're pretty close to the limit of our current "stagnation".I'd actually go one further than that and say that while there maybe more choice of manufacturers and models than when the HD600's were released, that 'sonic superiority and improvement' has actually stagnated.
Disclaimer; I'm a Sennheiser/Audeze fanboy and this is my own totally subjective opinion.
I'm in the fortunate position to be able to sample various headphones on a long-term basis and I've had exposure to some of the most expensive, highly-regarded and widely-reviewed headphones in recent times. These include models from Meze, Focal, Dan Clark, Audeze et al.
While all have been arguably of better build quality, using better materials and components I've been less than impressed with the core function of sound quality. I just don't see the value proposition in 'trading up' from my HD600, HD650, LCD2-Fazor daily drivers.
I'm not claiming that there aren't 'better' headphones than my DD's (and I was very impressed with the Meze Elites) - just that there isn't a sufficient margin of improvement over them to justify the expense of buying newer and phenomenally more expensive models.
I suspect familiarity is a major factor in that rationale however and we all know how the saying goes...
Familiarity breeds contempt.
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Totally agreed, but how much better we have gotten since HE90 which released in 1990?
Ha, yeah, well that's another 7yr back from HD600, and looking at Oratory's measurements it measures reasonable, but wouldn't be my taste re frequency response. I'd still say we've improved since then. At the moment I mainly see headphones improving in price (lowering) while more reliably hitting something like Harman, as a way to maximise the "One Target/No HRTF personalisation" approach, whilst also reducing unit to unit variation, and maximising ability to fit different heads whilst not giving much frequency response variation from one persons different head to the next. So even though we're stagnating a bit currently re the "One Target Approach", they can probably improve everyone's experience & ease on pocket by doing those things mentioned in my previous sentence. But for the future it needs a leap into personalised HRTF & dsp that is easy & cost effective for the consumer, as we've mostly reached the limit of current accessible / affordable headphone tech.Totally agreed, but how much better we have gotten since HE90 which released in 1990?
I agree with @ReaderZ, $50 is the max for me for utilitarian cables, even for expensive headphones. For comparison, Sennheiser's replacement cable for HD650 is $10 around where I live.Nah.... you just have to look around buddy.
But out of interest, what would you consider as a genuinely acceptable price for a decent cable?
I'm not sure how 'utilitarian' is defined but $50 should get you a nice-looking cable from aliexpress, but then it will be a gamble regarding the build-quality. There are good and bad cables there and not much in-between.
I have the have a pair of HD800S and and I do like them, but they are are too big. They tend to slide down my head. Sound quality - HD800S; comfort -HD650.
