Ok so the Saga continues.
I am still even after years looking for the "perfect" whatever that is headphone
and am finding it more and more a bit crazy difficult over time.
I want to have
1) Line In (because...)-> I apart from listening to a lot of music am also producing music so i
2) ...want to be able to have the exactly same sounding, customised and adapted to my liking...
3) Standalone Headphone that i can use on
4) A Computer Line Output, a Synthesizer Analog Headphone Output, An old Cassette player output, A Groovebox output,,,,,ANY Line output
5) Ideally without having to use an extra device like a Dac like Qudelix 5K (which i own and in real life almost never use even though i find it amazing)
6) Cause, i want it to be simple. 1 Headphone= With 1 Sound signature (the one i like)
So based on this one day it hit me "Why dont i just try wireless Headphones with integrated Eq, Decent initial response and Line in ability?
And i concluded till now there are not really that many.
I basically only found
A) Audeze Maxwell 2 (Many Upsides- Biggest downside, Eq is not parametric)
B) Sennheiser HDB 630. (Many upsides.....But.....
So i bought the HDB 630 used but as new on Ebay. So i cannot give it back but its ok cause that is the price of wanting
to save some money some times. So fair play.
THE COMFORT:
First of all the ear pad opening diameter-size is as if Sennheiser measured the average human ear and made the opening 3mm bigger would be an
exaggerated way of describing it. I have what i would consider as relatively average ears. The Pads are engulfing my ears but i literally feel the walls closing in
all around when wearing them. I understand that the design argument might have been portability but this is almost like the designers could not make up their minds
and created a size between Around ear and on ear in a way. My Fiio Ft 1 (in the Picture i post here next to the 630) or my Shure Sh 840, Dt 1770 Pro etc feel like Giants in comparison or in a more objective way of describing, come closer to what i consider Comfortable Closed Back Headphone size.
The Ft1 especially is one of the most comfortable closed headphones imo regarding clamp pressure and
the way the pressure is distributed on the head.
Just did a quick search and quickly found that some people find the seal a bit too much on the 630 and it creates a pressurised feeling on the eardrum.
Thats also what i feel to a degree
With the 630 my ears overheat after 10 minutes and when i wear them after a few seconds i feel like wearing suction devices where when i pull them slightly off my head i feel like
my ear drums are getting sucked out of my head. Very weird feeling. I guess it maybe is helpful i.e helping the noise cancelling but tbh regarding their
passive Noise Blending out ability i would not call them very isolating. The washing machine was spinning in my home and producing a low bass note as always
but when i was wearing the headphones with ANC Off i was getting a dizzying sound almost like a standing wave in a big untreated basement with a subwoofer playing a constant Note inside. As if the headphone amplified only the bass coming from the machine. I know it might sound like a random example
but this makes me predict that this might also be the case with any subbass loaded environment like Airplanes or Trains i.e if wearing the headphones
simply to blend sound out with ANC off the bass might sound even more dominant which is counter productive imo
But lets for the sake of argument ignore the wearing sensation for a second cause we all have different comfort criteria so maybe others either don`t
feel the same or even like the feeling. Dunno
THE SOUND:
When i did my first out of the box listen i put on some Dub Techno music. I listen to basically All music directions known to me. From Classic in the "Classical" term
to bad sounding Punk, From deepest experimental experiments to the most "expensively produced" Jazz and anything in between or on the sides and below and above and also around the corner.
But for testing bass i find well produced Dub Techno gold for testing bass response behaviour of sound systems in a fast way.
So on this music mix which by the way sounds sounds fantastic on my Neumann based Monitor-Sub combo (mentioning the speakers to give an impression of what sound i am after i.e Flat) i jumped-started accidentally at a passage where some Atmospheric sound made a slow transition to an incoming 4/4 Kickdrum sequence. When the bass and Kick came in i felt a completely overwhelming bass and had to apply a low shelf at around 200 hz and shaved of everything the Eq can shave of which is 6 db. Then the music got bearable. Out of the box the bass is tight and impressive but at the same time
sounds to me like an audio system setup by an amateur where the Subwoofer will almost always be set much too loud. Like quite a lot too loud.
I am surprised some seem to like it out of the box.
The PEQ is awesome to have. At last Parametric and not Graphic.
However would be even better with another 3-5 bands but still pretty nice to have a parametric eq inside a headphone the settings of which can be stored there.
*Update, listening to Amon Tobin "Hot Pursuit" i apply a low shelf at 175hz with Q 0,66 shaving of 4.5db of bass and a Bell of Q 0,6 and +0,7 db at around 7khz and starting to like the sound.
On the Fiio i also need to do some heavy Shelving and reductions in the bass regions to make it sound something near flat so its not like the Sennheiser is the only one
doing this. Maybe i have grown a bit tired of hyped bass but i simply find them both having a great lot too much bass by default.
So i would like the opinion of the good people here.
Do you own the 630? Have you played around with the PEQ which has only 5 bands and found a "flatter" sound?
Do you have similar experiences with the 630 or do you have the opposite opinion?
I am not sure that i want to keep them as i am fairly disappointed. To me this does not feel like a
product worth 500 euros. The materials are not really different to the touch than 150 bucks headphones
and the combination of too much seal with initial bloated and a bit laggy sound makes it hard to love them.
Having owned older Sennheisers i am a bit surprised tbh
Until now the closest i have come to the sound of my monitor+subs in my space is an AIAIAI TMA-Studio 2 combined with the Ik Arc On Ear running the Ik multimedia Correction profile
on which you unfortunately have 0% influence on the correction curve apart for a wide 3 band Eq after the fact.
Would love your opinions and feedback. Also would much appreciate suggestions in case i have missed Headphone models that would serve this purpose
I cannot find literally not even 1 headphone with a Line in ability that i can customise
to my liking (ideally without having to use 30 bands of Eq cause it always sounds a bit "wrong" to me at least the Correction presets till now like
Qudelix 5k Oratory and the likes)
I don`t know if anyone is interested in all this but i thought to share my thoughts like i enjoy reading yours
I am still even after years looking for the "perfect" whatever that is headphone
and am finding it more and more a bit crazy difficult over time.
I want to have
1) Line In (because...)-> I apart from listening to a lot of music am also producing music so i
2) ...want to be able to have the exactly same sounding, customised and adapted to my liking...
3) Standalone Headphone that i can use on
4) A Computer Line Output, a Synthesizer Analog Headphone Output, An old Cassette player output, A Groovebox output,,,,,ANY Line output
5) Ideally without having to use an extra device like a Dac like Qudelix 5K (which i own and in real life almost never use even though i find it amazing)
6) Cause, i want it to be simple. 1 Headphone= With 1 Sound signature (the one i like)
So based on this one day it hit me "Why dont i just try wireless Headphones with integrated Eq, Decent initial response and Line in ability?
And i concluded till now there are not really that many.
I basically only found
A) Audeze Maxwell 2 (Many Upsides- Biggest downside, Eq is not parametric)
B) Sennheiser HDB 630. (Many upsides.....But.....
So i bought the HDB 630 used but as new on Ebay. So i cannot give it back but its ok cause that is the price of wanting
to save some money some times. So fair play.
THE COMFORT:
First of all the ear pad opening diameter-size is as if Sennheiser measured the average human ear and made the opening 3mm bigger would be an
exaggerated way of describing it. I have what i would consider as relatively average ears. The Pads are engulfing my ears but i literally feel the walls closing in
all around when wearing them. I understand that the design argument might have been portability but this is almost like the designers could not make up their minds
and created a size between Around ear and on ear in a way. My Fiio Ft 1 (in the Picture i post here next to the 630) or my Shure Sh 840, Dt 1770 Pro etc feel like Giants in comparison or in a more objective way of describing, come closer to what i consider Comfortable Closed Back Headphone size.
The Ft1 especially is one of the most comfortable closed headphones imo regarding clamp pressure and
the way the pressure is distributed on the head.
Just did a quick search and quickly found that some people find the seal a bit too much on the 630 and it creates a pressurised feeling on the eardrum.
Thats also what i feel to a degree
With the 630 my ears overheat after 10 minutes and when i wear them after a few seconds i feel like wearing suction devices where when i pull them slightly off my head i feel like
my ear drums are getting sucked out of my head. Very weird feeling. I guess it maybe is helpful i.e helping the noise cancelling but tbh regarding their
passive Noise Blending out ability i would not call them very isolating. The washing machine was spinning in my home and producing a low bass note as always
but when i was wearing the headphones with ANC Off i was getting a dizzying sound almost like a standing wave in a big untreated basement with a subwoofer playing a constant Note inside. As if the headphone amplified only the bass coming from the machine. I know it might sound like a random example
but this makes me predict that this might also be the case with any subbass loaded environment like Airplanes or Trains i.e if wearing the headphones
simply to blend sound out with ANC off the bass might sound even more dominant which is counter productive imo
But lets for the sake of argument ignore the wearing sensation for a second cause we all have different comfort criteria so maybe others either don`t
feel the same or even like the feeling. Dunno
THE SOUND:
When i did my first out of the box listen i put on some Dub Techno music. I listen to basically All music directions known to me. From Classic in the "Classical" term
to bad sounding Punk, From deepest experimental experiments to the most "expensively produced" Jazz and anything in between or on the sides and below and above and also around the corner.
But for testing bass i find well produced Dub Techno gold for testing bass response behaviour of sound systems in a fast way.
So on this music mix which by the way sounds sounds fantastic on my Neumann based Monitor-Sub combo (mentioning the speakers to give an impression of what sound i am after i.e Flat) i jumped-started accidentally at a passage where some Atmospheric sound made a slow transition to an incoming 4/4 Kickdrum sequence. When the bass and Kick came in i felt a completely overwhelming bass and had to apply a low shelf at around 200 hz and shaved of everything the Eq can shave of which is 6 db. Then the music got bearable. Out of the box the bass is tight and impressive but at the same time
sounds to me like an audio system setup by an amateur where the Subwoofer will almost always be set much too loud. Like quite a lot too loud.
I am surprised some seem to like it out of the box.
The PEQ is awesome to have. At last Parametric and not Graphic.
However would be even better with another 3-5 bands but still pretty nice to have a parametric eq inside a headphone the settings of which can be stored there.
*Update, listening to Amon Tobin "Hot Pursuit" i apply a low shelf at 175hz with Q 0,66 shaving of 4.5db of bass and a Bell of Q 0,6 and +0,7 db at around 7khz and starting to like the sound.
On the Fiio i also need to do some heavy Shelving and reductions in the bass regions to make it sound something near flat so its not like the Sennheiser is the only one
doing this. Maybe i have grown a bit tired of hyped bass but i simply find them both having a great lot too much bass by default.
So i would like the opinion of the good people here.
Do you own the 630? Have you played around with the PEQ which has only 5 bands and found a "flatter" sound?
Do you have similar experiences with the 630 or do you have the opposite opinion?
I am not sure that i want to keep them as i am fairly disappointed. To me this does not feel like a
product worth 500 euros. The materials are not really different to the touch than 150 bucks headphones
and the combination of too much seal with initial bloated and a bit laggy sound makes it hard to love them.
Having owned older Sennheisers i am a bit surprised tbh
Until now the closest i have come to the sound of my monitor+subs in my space is an AIAIAI TMA-Studio 2 combined with the Ik Arc On Ear running the Ik multimedia Correction profile
on which you unfortunately have 0% influence on the correction curve apart for a wide 3 band Eq after the fact.
Would love your opinions and feedback. Also would much appreciate suggestions in case i have missed Headphone models that would serve this purpose
I cannot find literally not even 1 headphone with a Line in ability that i can customise
to my liking (ideally without having to use 30 bands of Eq cause it always sounds a bit "wrong" to me at least the Correction presets till now like
Qudelix 5k Oratory and the likes)
I don`t know if anyone is interested in all this but i thought to share my thoughts like i enjoy reading yours
Last edited:
Sure you understand whay 
Presets not only storable on headphones (20 custom presets per device) but can also be shared in cloud. And another user of same headphones can apply your preset from online list and receive exactly same sound.
