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Very late to the party - HD6XX

Jagamov

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After a few months of waiting on Drop, I finally received my HD6XX.

I dont have a lot of headphone experience. My current pair is the Focal Elex and I’ve had them for 2 years. To say that I’m impressed with the HD6XX’s would be an understatement. For $200, they are a steal.

I’m not a reviewer at all, but I wanted to share my thoughts. The comparison with the Elex may not be quite fair, but its for this reason that I’m so impressed.

I wanted to come up with an analogy that would explain my thoughts. Imagine 2 equal length springs. One coiled tight and the other, much looser. The HD6XX is the tighter one. To me the width of the music is the same as the Elex, yet everything seems to blend a bit more, where as the Elex seems a bit more open and airy. The HD6XX is a small club, and the Elex is a large auditorium. Bass response is about the same on both, which I think is good.

To me, where the HD6XXs shine is in the fullness of the sound. When I listen to the Elex, I’m always impressed at how clear it is and how much detail I hear. Yet with the HD6XX, the detail remains, but its richer and more engaging. I find that I lose myself in the music much easier with the HD6XX. They seem more emotional.

And as far as the “Sennheiser Veil”…what exactly is that?? I hear all the same details and crisp highs as my Elex. There is no sheet in front of the music…

Both were used with my Asgard 3 and JDS Element III. Neither needed high gain to drive them.

Thanks for reading.
 

twsecrest

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Maybe in the future, try an OTL tube head amp, with the 300-Ohm HD6XX.
 

twsecrest

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What would be the advantage to this? I dont’t know much about tube amps.
Voltage swing and tweaked sound.
 

threni

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What would be the advantage to this? I dont’t know much about tube amps.
Literally no advantage whatsoever. If you want to deviate from the hifi (literally "high fidelity to the recordings") the rest of your hardware is attempting to provide, simply use EQ, not some inferior legacy solution.
 

threni

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Voltage swing and tweaked sound.
head-fi, eh? The site which banned science from its forums! (Well, apart from one! Perhaps ASR should have a token "chatting shit" forum - our yin to their yang?!)
 

sejarzo

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And as far as the “Sennheiser Veil”…what exactly is that?? I hear all the same details and crisp highs as my Elex. There is no sheet in front of the music…

I believe it is this, in light of Amir's comment above the graph and the circled areas:

1678029002849.png



Couple a slightly "fat" mid-bass region with a relative deficiency from ~6-10kHz and some listeners might perceive the result as being slightly muffled. That's all I have ever been able to glean from looking at FR curves for the Senn HD6.... series.
 

threni

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I believe it is this, in light of Amir's comment above the graph and the circled areas:

View attachment 269562


Couple a slightly "fat" mid-bass region with a relative deficiency from ~6-10kHz and some listeners might perceive the result as being slightly muffled. That's all I have ever been able to glean from looking at FR curves for the Senn HD6.... series.
More on Sennheiser and veils here (not changing what you wrote at all):

A bit of EQ and one is sorted, generally!
 

Rayman30

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I sold my Focal Clear's because while I did prefer them to the HD-650, it was by a small margin, and for the price difference could not justify it. However to my ears the Clear was the more resolving headphone, specifically imaging and bass quality (Assume it would be this way with the Elex as well) but that's just my opinion. I have had my HD-650 since 2009, have replaced all the pads just once, they are fantastic and will stay in my collection until they fall apart. The veil people refer to seems to be related to the thicker mid range, which I found present on only the HD555, HD595 and HD650, the HD600 does not seem to have that same thickness and is the more neutral headphone. I love the thick mid range!
 
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sejarzo

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Thanks for the reference to solderdude's page, which I had read in the past yet completely forgotten about.

When I was attending a few headphone meets back around 2006-2009, my main headphone was the HD600, and all of the HD650s I auditioned then were at least warmer if not quite darker than my HD600. His explanation of matching driver pairs to attain improved L/R consistency while allowing more unit-to-unit variation could account for that.
 

Phorize

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The hd6xx are a very good headphone that are very acceptable without eq and great with. Glad you like them.
 
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