Thank you Vertenna,
Yes I already own a HD800s and HD650 (I don’t like very much this one but I have never paired it with a decent headphone amp). I am thinking of getting the RME that I have never listened to but according to reviews it seems a priori very good.
Are there any tutorials or presets to get the HD800s working better with this amp or should I experiment until I find a good tuning for me ?
Hi ,still experimenting with the settings as I have not had a great deal of time to adjust much apart from the bass/treble settingHave to say there are quite a few YouTube tutorials on the RME website that will be of help and interest.If you download them there is a particular tutorial for the adjustment of the wave envelope to alter a particular frequency to suit your taste.( this is as far as I have got as there are so many adjustments that you can make).
You can really appreciate that this dac/amp is from the high quality side of the audio business ,especially when you compare it to its professional version …also meant to add that I found that with the 650’s I use a chord mojo hooked up to iPad Pro for taking on holiday etc.,this tends to work well for my tastes.
Come and say hello to the family
Sennheiser HD25’s
I bought a pair of these back in the ‘80’s to improve on the little on-ear Walkman type headphones and really liked them. They were “proper HiFi” back then. On a bit of a nostalgia trip I hunted down this pair on eBay a couple of years ago. They spend their life permanently plugged into my mac-mini. They’re light and unobtrusive, easy to throw on and take off. They’re not exactly wide bandwidth but that’s a good thing … no thunderous bass or sparkly highs to draw attention to themselves. Just very easy to forget you’re wearing them
Sennheiser HD600’s
A few years ago I was between houses and without a permanent HiFi wanted to get back into semi-serious headphone listening. I went through a pair of Grado’s and a pair of Beyerdynamics before settling on the HD600’s. They’re have a pretty neutral frequency response and a relatively unfatiguing listen. Not the fastest when it comes to transients (ref. grado for that) but they’re not spikey or prickly either
Sennheiser HD650K’s
I was intrigued by the perennial question “Do you prefer 600’s or 650’s”. I had to find out so picked up a pair of 650’s. They’re smoother, more refined, and darker sounding than 600’s. That slight tilt up in the bass and the smoother tone gives them a bit of a syrupy character. These have now been K.I.S.S. modified (Google “Sennheiser HD650 KISS mod”) which retains the refinement of the 650’s but brings the tonality back to closer to neutral whilst giving a nice uptick in transient response which is always welcome with the 600/650’s
Sennheiser HD660S’s
The latest headphones in the Sennheiser 600/650 heritage. The 650’s are decades old now. I imagine Sennheiser had a product meeting one day to discuss replacing the 650’s and someone said let’s put a pair of drivers from the HD700’s into a 650 enclosure and make them easy to drive for dem crazy kids mit der phones und der tablets … and the 660S’s were born. These sound like a super imaging and crisper sounding HD650. Do they have the resolution and smooth refinement of the 650K’s? Erm, no, it’s close but not quite there. The 650’s imaging is a bit flat in comparison but ultimately I think they are the better headphones for serious music listening. However, the 660S’s are my go-to phones for listening on a tablet (where ear-buds just won’t do) plus, due to imaging and ease of driving, listening to movies (at night on headphones) in the AV system, plugged into my AV amp with Dolby Headphone DSP through the headphone socket.
Very nice Allan. Many headphones have come and gone over the years with me, but I still have my original Sennheiser HD600s (I was going to buy HD580SEs but the HD600s had just come out, so…). These days they run 650 cables, one set single ended and another set shortened and running balanced for connection to the Ponoplayer. Matched up right they still really satisfy.
p.s. with a set of HD580s and HD580SEs, you’d have the entire family.
Does the family not include the HD545 Reference and HD565 Ovation? Many of the parts are interchangeable.
I have a pair of HD650’s for serious listening but still use a pair of HD545 Reference for bedside listening.
Dave
I’m not sure about the HD545’s and 565’s but the 580 was definitely the forerunner of the HD600’s and an integral part of that run that currently ends at the HD660S. The 580’s, from what I can gather, are not quite as detailed as the 600’s but has a tonality somewhere between the 600 and 650 and so have their advocates who prefer them to the two others for that very reason.
Ha, yes, if I was being completist I probably would! I fear that particular Sennheiser/tonality/performance space where the HD580’s would fit is a bit crowded in this household. As my headphones are sounding a bit second best now following a recent run of upgrades to my ‘speaker - based setup I’m beginning to have a few thoughts about what next (for headphones)? I’ve not heard either, yet, but I think I might be tempted to a listen to HD800’s and/or Focal Clears
This is where I got my information from plus the ear pads and cables are certainly interchangeable…
Dave
So what we could say is that the 545’s were the great-grandfather of the 650 and the 660S is the son!
Recently bought some Dekoni Elite sheepskin pads for my Elegia. Nice to have a spare set as it means I can keep the originals clean in case I want to upgrade in future. They do change the sound a bit, bringing warmer bass and upper kids are improved as well. Good news overall because it removes the need for EQ to my ears. Downsides, leather pads do get a bit warm in the summer and these will be no different, although they seem better than the equivalent Brainwavz pads on my Meze 99C’s. Recommended albeit quite pricey.
Well done 
[quote=“InTune, post:767, topic:8095”]
As long as you have an amp to drive them, they will not disappoint.[/quote]
And which one is it / will it be at your side?
Two headphone-friend use Riviera AIC10 / Trafomatic Primavera with the 1266 and both are verry happy with their units.
atb, Tom
I am currently using the XLR out from the TT2 which provides them with 7 watts of power. The SE out doesn’t cut it for me - things all sound a bit looser. I have a set of speaker taps being made and will try my Chord Etude, which in theory should really make things sing.
Them dekoni pads are great. Use them on my clears. Better than the originals that for me, get a bit warm.
Suprised how good these are specially with Apple Music… Detail is there with an exceptionally good sense of soundstage. I did not pick up my HD 650s since these came.
I use the same also with Custom Cans cable.
What better way to monitor recordings via headphones on my Naks than via a pair of Nakamichi SP7 headphones from the early ‘80s.
Highly rated back in the day (IIRC Grado used the same drivers), they still sound pretty good.
