Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Sennheiser HD 600 Headphones?

[sidetrack]
Frank: that's cool that you've met Brian I became aware of him due to his Roland demos (V-Piano initially, I think). I really like the piano sounds in his recordings, and I'm pretty sure I've heard some that use that Mason & Hamlin - very smooth pleasing sounds.

Greg.

Re: Doug

Doug makes some great points as usual. I thought to add a bit more color to my experience in case it could be helpful.

I hold out that I am 50 years old and though my ears may be well-practiced, their sensitivity is likely lesser than a younger person’s.

My A-B testing was done at home with an inexpensive amp (interesting observation!) and an MP11SE …. But I also tested in the Sennheiser store… comparing 600, 650, 660S, and 800S while using Sennheiser amps…

I thought it noteworthy that Sennheiser demo’d all in that group but the 800S sans amp. I was a bit surprised… so I tested with and without repeatedly.

I chose the character of the 600 over the other 600 series headphones; the character difference between them is pronounced … but the 800S was laugh out loud superior. Some day perhaps I’ll justify the cost.

You mentioned a Sennheiser store.
Where would I find one of those?

San Francisco is the location of the only store in the USA. https://en-us.sennheiser.com/sennheiser-brand-store-flagship-store

San Francisco is the location.

Correct.

Cheers

Unhappy. SF is "only" 2800 miles away.

The Senn web site lists a few local dealers that may have some selection of Senn phones.

There are around five Best Buy stores in the Raleigh, NC area. (Gag!)
There's Moon Audio in Cary NC ... by private appointment only. Translation: high prices.
There's a little boutique store called Sound Pure in Durham, NC.

I think I'll take a look at Sound Pure.

If that doesn't work out I'll likely try Doug's advice:
One can order a set from Amazon and return if you don't like, or order several pairs, compare them and return those you don't want.

I purchased through Amazon as their price was significantly lower than the store price.

Prior to the Sennheiser store opening, I had planned on leveraging Sennheiser’s generous return policy as my only real recourse.

30 day money back

I genuinely love the HD600’s

Now, I’m looking for a closed back option - not to prevent piano sound leakage (my wife reads next to me without complaint) - the converse… sometimes my wife is distractingly loud and I want sound isolation.

So a new search commences.

If you are using headphones chiefly to get the best sound experience as a player then open ended phones offer an additional benefit.

Of course no digital piano's output sounds much like the sound you get from a live acoustic piano. But one way to get a bit closer to the latter will sound odd, but you might try it: Try playing with both an open backed set of headphones and speakers at the same time.

Open-backed headphones give you the best sound stage, not necessarily the best sound experience. Depends what you define as best.

Wait for the Massdrop HD 6xx.
It is a customized HD-650 but only for $200. (Normally it is $479)

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx

Hmm.. Regarding amps.. Well let me see I have a cheap 8 year old laptop, let me try them on it. Let's see on my Toshiba Portege from long ago, volume setting's maxed, Windows Media Player playing Vaughn Williams.. it's just a little loud for standard listening levels at maximum volume.

Don't know how good quality your laptop's headphones out are, that'll affect the quality too. These HD600's are great sounding if you give 'em great sound. I have them plugged into my Denon receiver, they sound better there than out of my emergency radio.

I use them as a reference and that was part of my excuse for spending that amount on headphones in the first place. I have my normal pretty good listening JBL Loft's otherwise, I use Lofts because they're very easy on the ears for longer listening, listener fatigue is pretty much a non-factor. Yes, if you want an idea of what other people are hearing.. I think listen to them in the car, and on cheapie speakers. I'm saving up for some Magnepan's but I don't imagine most folks will have them or listen to what I compose on them. .

Haha! Those Jankos sure are something aren't they? I figure someday someone'll make a midi keyboard out of them so they'll be more easily played than behind the museum ropes! I know there's a prototype out there somewhere. And I think some fellows were working on some sort of add on you could stick on a regular piano.

Yes I'd like to play one at least once, along with Lippens, and some other rarities. I bet you saw a lot of interesting pianos on your tour! Is there a thread about it you can point me at?

Puremusic,

Thank you for your feedback .

I'm trying to find headphones that will do justice to the sounds PianoTeq can produce. They don't have to be Sennheiser, I chose that one because the owner of a recording studio where I tune pianos uses one and loves it. Of course in his case he is professionally mixing.

I should note here that even though PianoTeq is a paying advertiser with Piano World my focus on their product is because I liked what I heard and I now own a studio copy.

I've tried playing through my PA system, my Hartke Amp, and the speakers PianoDisc provides. None of them do justice to the sound. I did hear the output through a good pair of speakers a friend brought over and the difference was amazing!

Re: European Piano Makers Tour of 2011
Yes we saw an amazing collection of pianos, and got to play quite a few. The museum with the Janko also had a double keyboard piano, a piano with a full pedal board, and a Cristofori. The Cristofori was behind glass, I genuflected in front of it :-)

You can see lots of pictures and read some stories here:
http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/1690750/European_Piano_Tour_-_See_the_.html

Best,
Frank B.
Piano World

The HD660s are supposed to be better than the HD650 / HD600 and seem to be easier to drive. A good review can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KvRJtcvSLs

I'm really happy with my HD650. For listening to music / PC, I have a Schiit DAC & AMP combo (http://www.schiit.com/) since my built-in PC out isn't too great. They also sound great with my Kawai CA98. Unfortunately I don't use PianoTeq.

I was also going to buy the (very old) HD600, but in the end went with the HD598. Why? Not for the lower price (I have 2 pairs, bought $100 each, while new they were more like 150 or 200 dollars), but for the comfort and freedom to use them without an amp... The sound of the HD600 is better but only slightly better, while the soundstage in the HD598 is clearly better. And they are more comfortable than the HD600...No headphone under $150 beats them... (I don't know how they compare to the new and more expensive HD599)




They probably are but only marginally. Some famous reviewers were disappointed... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t13YuPVOBg And they are not comfortable due to their strong clamp...
I would avoid the more colored HD650 for piano playing...
If one day I upgrade it would be something like the HD800s (definitely not the HD800) or the electrostatic staxx L700, but that's a very expensive upgrade with all the amps, energizers etc. Well over $2000, let alone the hassle, which seems too much for a still relatively small upgrade (once you go beyond a level like that of the HD598, it's the law of diminishing returns...)

A quick thanks for this thread! I was using my old Sennheiser HD 280's with my new Clavinova, was disappointed with the sound, and I was quick to blame the Clavinova and worried that I didn't like the model I got. Because of this thread I picked up the HD 600's, thinking I'd just return them if I didn't spot a real difference. The difference was *huge*: it actually sounds like a piano now, no longer tinny (and even a little painful, oy) in the mid range. I *love* them.

Re: amplification, for connecting directly to a DP I just need to turn the volume up slightly higher than I would with the other headphones. I can imagine needing (or just wanting) an amp with a laptop or some other outputs.

I can imagine even more expensive headphones being even better for music in general, though maybe not much better for DPs. Amazon has the HD600 for $286 and the HD660S for $499, so I think I'll stand.

Some good news, my Roland FP-90 arrived in the mail today. Great piano, I am a very happy fellow tonight. The Lord is gracious.

Interestingly enough I tried out my HD-600's on it. The volume was too low! Suddenly I needed an amp! Well there's the receiver.. Wait.. I had put the headphones in the line out rather than the headphone out at the front of the piano. They worked fine in the right outlet.

Speakers on the Roland FP-90 aren't bad at all either, and I haven't even burned them in yet.

Headphone amps are expensive for what they are, and one's decent enough to power 300 ohms are way over the top in cost (as much as the headphones). If you don't already have a DAC or Audiointerface, you might want to consider buying one of those that comes with a headphone amp. That way, you'll get more tech for your money.

That's good advice. I had a Focusrite briefly, but maybe I got a bad copy.. audio quality just wasn't there. Lots of people seem to like them a lot so I'm guessing it was a bad copy. Being able to plug in the headphones and still use speakers at the same time would've made it more convenient than my receiver if it'd been decent.

I'm saving up for an RME or a MOTU, and considering what I just bought, that's not going to happen for awhile. Glad I don't need one urgently.

The new HD660 is an interesting prospect especially as it has lower resistance than either the 600 or 650 and therefore should be much easier to drive. However I've read that the difference is small - rated at one dB. (Although what that means in practice, I admit I don't know).

But this review makes me think twice about the new 660 https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/sennheiser-hd-660-s-over-ear-open-headphones-page-2

I'm a fairly happy owner of the HD598. I also use other phones for recording/mixing, though, as the HD598 are a little too smooth, to the point of lacking crisp presence. I'm not sure if any of the three 6xx series would solve that problem, but so many people here, and elsewhere, regard the 650 as true reference phones. To get that for the Massdrop price $199 plus import taxes is tempting.

Digitalguy!

Funny how two people can come to so different conclusions. I returned my 598 directly after comparing it with HD 650, because of the veil. Can’t agree with your description of the soundstage either. Furthermore I think Sennheiser HD 650 is perfect for my DP. Big difference compared to the 598. Worth every Swedish Crown.

I skipped the 600 because I found the 650 to be superior. And I don’t need an amp to drive them.

Perhaps this depends on you plugging in on a Roland and I use it with my Yamaha CVP 709.