The guys at audio sanctuary are great as well.
I actually called and had a bad line, so they took my number and called me back. After our call, about 10 seconds later i get a call back. It was the guy i spoke to and he was telling me to put in an order asap because they just got the earpads in and half were already allocated to back orders.
I bought two sets of ear pads and 2 headbands. I am a 650 headband guy.
This may be a question that has already been answered before, but does anyone know if there are any differences in sound or anything between the different versions of the HD600 that there have been? I heard someone say that once but that was just one person so I wasn’t sure if this was a widely-known thing that happened or not.
That’s essentially what half of this thread is about lol. But yes, there are massive differences in the HD 600 line. Essentially, the older the better.
General comparison is that the newer ones have very little extension in the bass, more claustrophobic (much more forward), much more narrow Soundstage width in my experience to where I would generally recommend a 6xx/650 over the new 600. Which is not the case over the og 600.
I’m terrible at reading through threads. Thank you for simplifying and dumbing it down for me bro. 
I get u. I always respond to something without reading everything to find that someone already addressed it etc lol.
Yw!
The older drivers seem to keep the good parts and better technicalities of the newer 600 but it thickens it up, is a drop more wet and it sounds even more “right”. All slight nudges. Like it has some of the appeal of the 650 added to the 600, but with it still resoundingly being a 600 and losing nothing while doing so.
Its also a bit more “black” in the space between things. The newer versions seemed like it had white noise/fuzz filling the blanks and it was a more wall of sound, but not in a good way.
This is more for nostalgia sake, but I am reunited with my long lost HD600 marbled.
This will be interesting because my chain now is significantly different than a few years back. Every single aspect in this chain is worth more than the headphones themselves including the interconnects and power cables lol…
We expect impressions within the hour. : >
But they scale well so let’s see!
Alrighty. I have a couple of hours on these now and feel like I don’t need to have a ton of time on them since they used to be my dailies.
Let me set up the ridiculous scenario first.
This is my chain at the moment:
PS Audio P5 Powerplant with Audience PowerChord SEi
Antipodes CX to EX stack, both with Audience PowerChord SEi with
FTA Metis ethernet connecting between the two, playing local files only.
LampizatOr Golden Gate R2R with Audience Au24 power cable with FTA Callisto USB and Danacable Diamond Reference Interconnect. Tubes are RK KR 5U4G and Psvane ACME 300b
Preamp Cary SLP05 Ultimate Upgrade with the same power cable and 3-holed Bad Boys as the headphone tubes. The preamp headphone out is likely the limiting factor here, but there is a crap-ton of scaling electronics on the front head of this headphone.
So, as expected, the emotional vocal-/mid-centric specialist is back. There is some nostalgia here. It works very well with anything vocals, guitar, some classical, or solo music. Anything else, especially things with bass, I quickly kind of skipped or risk losing interest.
Aside from vocals, they are okay… I really get the strain of their voices, probably visualize the emotions of their faces when they are singing, and definitely any breath-y details.
If given the choice, would I ever listen to these over my speaker system that it is attached to? F- no. It’s still fun. It scales. I can listen to music without bothering others. That’s all it has going for it though.
The negatives. It is particularly intimate. I feel like I am listening to a concert in a closet. All of the voices and instruments are within reaching distance of my body if I trying to point at the voices. I know my Lampi wouldn’t really limit here either. On my speakers, my room is about 15 feet wide and I know my setup will throw sound that sound at least 20-25 feet wide, beyond the space of my walls. Here it sounds almost claustrophobic. On the other hand, I’ve used HEKv2 or Susvara (from memory) and I would get a stage that is much blacker and feels infinite like this:
Anyways, it’s fun though. I will likely keep it because it’s a classic. It definitely evoked more emotion and toe-tapping than I do with my current Hawks. Aside from not bothering anyone else in the home, will I be willing to get a hotspot on my head, have a less visceral experience, more intimate, less detail, for a vocal specialist? No. It does what it does well, but has its limits.
Sorry for the back and forth. I love the headphones still, but I had to have realistic expectations.
Very interesting. Compared to my current 600 i think that one was a bit leaner tilting, almost like an HD800, and dryer. You can hear the bass but many times it lacked the feel, it took hip hop and edm to make bass pop up again. It did have the best technicalities of all the hd6## ive used, largest space of the 600s with the 6XX a hair behind. A good cable did help thicken things but it wont transform it.
The 6xx jas a bigger slightly more laid back stage than i remember when comparing head to head. It was a more laid back listen. Less edge, rounder, softer, slightly slower, more mid bass bump for sure. I bit more focused towards the mids with sub bass and treble being rounded down. Doubled vocals sound like one where on the 600s you can pick the two tracks apart. Honestly if they dont sell soon i am going to keep them and say it was meant to be. And ONLY listen to them sipping tea on rainy / snowy days.
Ill put in some thoughts on the vintage one i have soon.
any recommendations for nice upgrade cables for the hd650? boosting technicalities and maintaining what it’s good at would be the priority I guess. Not looking to take away from its magic just not a fan of the stock rubber cable it came with.
I like my Norne drausk. It did feel slightly darker than stock on my hd600 which may not be what you want with a 650. I also ised PlusSound x8 with dhc adapters and that is good too. Maybe an x6 from them will keep the costs down, as i wouldn’t buy an x8 just for that headphone.
Edit: and if you have a balanced output and want to try my drausk let me know.
I’ve been eying this cable (for a different headphone).
He compares it to his PlusSound Copper+ Apollonian Series. He found the Eletech to be better in most every regard.
I’ve been listening to the HD650 way more than I thought I would… being newer in my collection probably is a sizable factor but still, really enjoying them.
Hey, did you ever find a good cable for your HD580? I bought some homemade HD600 cable and they didn’t fit my HD580. I’m not too sure if the HD600 has a different size or the guy sold me a poorly made cable.
I did not. I ended up selling it on before I hunted down a cable
Dang, back to the drawing board for me. I have an HD580 Jubilee, so sound quality-wise, it’s closer to the original HD600. I think I just got a poorly made-cable, so that’s why it didn’t fit my HD580. I am probably going to continue looking for cables good for the original HD600.
Make sure the pins are flipped right. One is bigger than the other.
Nah, it still didn’t fit. I think the DIY cable is just a little too fat to fit in the HD580 hole. Appreciate the input though. Honestly, I don’t mind my current cable (I think its a stock HD650 cable).
The only thing I don’t like about the stock cable is that the Y is really short and keeps touching my beard. Its a little annoying during listening sessions, but I don’t mind it too much. I was considering getting the Cardas Clear cables since the HD580 Jubilee is basically the same as the OG HD600, but realize people are probably talking about pairing Cardas cable with the current HD600 (which imo is brighter, but is less smooth than the original or at least compare to my HD580 Jubilee). I also considered the Eletech Inferno cable that was mentioned in this thread since there was a review in another forum saying it doesn’t change headphone characteristics while still improving the headphone sound qualities. Currently saving for an almost 20-year-old DAC/AMP and another audio equipment, so I probably can’t afford it right now. I might visit the cable talk again later in the year when I got probably like $500 plus available.
Stock HD650 Cable on the left and DIY cable on the right
