Headphones
Sennheiser HD 650
Once considered (at least by us!) the "world's best," the Sennheiser HD650 remains one of our absolute favorite headphones. This full-size open-back reference headphone delivers silky smooth, accurate sound with a laid-back tonal delivery; a truly gorgeous can for acoustic music of all kinds and for listeners seeking warm, richly rendered musical detail. Detachable headphone cord makes it easy to upgrade to Cardas Audio standard and/or balanced XLR cable upgrades.
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Product Features:
- Best in class performance from these cans. A classic!
- Connectors on each earpiece make cable upgrades a snap.
- Extremely comfortable with replaceable velour ear pads.
- Lightweight aluminum voice coils ensure excellent transient response.
- 2 Year Warranty
What's In The Box:
- 1/4" to 1/8" adaptor cable
- Storage Box
Applications:
Sennheiser Electronics has always taken its time developing its audiophile reference headphone line. In fact, they're well-known for blissfully ignoring the apparent audio industry demand to come out with "brand-new" products every single season. We think their patience and persistence researching and developing headphones has paid off very handsomely over the years. With the HD650, the music is so smooth and relaxed when it's supposed to be; so liquid-quick, so punchy on demand, so effortlessly competent you just fall worry-free into its lovely sonic embrace. Such a thing is the Sennheiser HD650. Its warm yet refined and impossibly seamless sound coupled with great comfort has kept this can in the top echelon for years as one of the best headphones available on the audiophile market.
Liveried in a slick, deep gold-grey and gloss black look, these cans are largely the same headphones as the HD600 with a few quite noteworthy improvements. First and foremost, Sennheiser improved the baffling damper for tighter acoustic control, and boy did that work! The measurements of these headphones are phenomenally good, and the sound is probably as close to perfectly neutral as is available at this price. The renowned Sennheiser sonic 'warmth' has been coupled to a clarity of detail in the HD650 that is hard to beat by most other audiophile headphones. Design-wise, the earcup grilles on the outside of the earpieces have been made sturdier; those who have suffered a dented housing on their HD600's will likely be appreciative. A new velour headband pad design improves on the already good comfort of the HD600 headphones, and a slightly tighter tension on the earcup adjusters makes for a more secure fit. The HD650 cord has also been much-improved with a thicker OFC cable design terminated to a full-sized 1/4" stereo plug. A short cable-style adapter to a 1/8" (3.5mm) mini-plug jack is handily included in the HD650 package. Although it's a decent mini-adapter, we still highly recommend getting the superb Cardas Audio 1/4" to 1/8" adapter if plugging the HD650 into a source with small sensitive 3.5mm outputs. Overall, we definitely more than recommend these HD650 headphones. We say shell out big and cry once, but forever have world-class blissful audio at your ears!
NOTE: Though the HD650's re-designed Sennheiser cable is certainly better than the original HD600 stock cable, we continue to suggest the Cardas Audio upgrade cable for truly ultimate detail resolution, musical texture, instrumental separation and soundstage depth. The significant audio benefits of the Cardas Audio cable upgrade will be especially evident with 'reference quality' high-end audio sources. Please feel free to buy a Cardas Audio cord and compare versus the Sennheiser cord to determine for yourself the advantages. As always, our standard HeadRoom 30-day return/refund policy with zero re-stocking fees guarantees you'll like what you hear!
Winner of the 2004 Brutus Award!
2004 Brutus Awards: HeadRoom BlockHead Amp & Sennheiser HD650's
Please enter coupon code hd650 for best price!
Specifications:
- Sensitivity: 102 dB/V
- Warranty: 2 Years
- Cord Type: Straight Y
- Coupler Size: Large
- Microphone: No
- Detachable Cable: Yes
- Cord Length: 10 ft. (3 m)
- Weight: 9.2
- Connector Type: 1/4" with 1/8" adaptor
- Driver Type: Dynamic
- Isolation: 0
- Ear Coupler Type: Full-Size
- Impedance @ 1kHz: 300
- Manufacturer Warranty: 2 Years
- Headphone Type: Full Size
- Wireless: No
- Noise Cancelling: No
- Acoustic Seal: Open
Additional Resources:
- Manufacturer's Website
- http://www.sennheiserusa.com/
- Product Manuals
- HD 650 Manual
- Product Reviews
- On Hifi Wes Phillips April 2004
- SoundStage! Doug Paratore July 05
- Personal Media Review David MacNeill Dec 07
- Techradar.com, Richard Black
- Ecoustics, Mark Brezinski
Average Rating
Posted by Rob "Lunatique" Chang on 2010-05-30
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Smooth, non-fatiguing sound, comfortable, well-balanced sonic signature
Cons: Sub-bass could be deeper, treble could be slightly more airy
The HD650's clamping force is strongest of the three, but it's still comfortable enough that I often forget to take them off after I was done listening to something. The velour earcups are always the most comfortable to me compared to leather, pleather, or foam.
In terms of looks, the Sennheiser are probably lagging behind all the competitors, looking kind of drab and boring, while the HD800 takes things to the opposite extreme, looking like some science-fiction head gear.
I quite like the Sennheiser sonic signaure, which many people refer to as being relaxed, or veiled. I think of it as being very smooth and non-offensive. The treble and upper mids never get fatiguing or too bright, and the overall tonal balance is very good, with nothing sticking out or recessed in any of the frequency ranges. The sub-bass rolls off around 30Hz and I wish the HD650 had more extended sub-bass and weight, since that's what it needs in order to sound like a full-range speaker system. The Audio-Technica ATH-M50, ES-10, and Denon AH-D7000 all do this very well--sounding like there's a subwoofer in the headphones. The treble of the Sennheiser is nice and smooth and articulate, but it seems to lack just a little bit of that airiness that audiophiles really love.
Overall, I tend to think of the Sennheiser HD5xx/6xx series as workhorse headphones that sound great, are very comfortable, and are never offensive. They may not win awards for looks or have that really high-end "magical" hi-fi sound, but they are tonally well-balanced and very pleasant to listen to.
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Posted by Jack_Hammer from Texas on 2010-04-10
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Great Sound and Comfort
Cons: None That I Can Hear
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Posted by Milhouse on 2010-02-14
Recommend Product: Yes
Pros: Very clear sound
Cons: It is a bit tight around the head
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