In 2003, audio engineers in the music industry were calling for something new. Six years earlier, Sennheiser had lavished them with the HD 600 headphones, a new gold standard in neutral, natural audio. The HD 600s played music which had been painstakingly mixed and mastered exactly as it was meant to be heard; no extra bass, no treble flares, no added colour. But people – including a growing contingent of non-pro audio geeks – wanted more (the greedy bastards!) So Sennheiser got their audio boffins to work and soon delivered what was to become another modern classic: the HD 650s.
Now, I’ve only recently started my journey into audiophile/studio/reference) headphones. Before that, perhaps like you, I enjoyed years of whatever consumer headphones happened to end up on, in and around my head. Dozens of forgotten, inexpensive models, both wired and Bluetooth, that could never be considered the most beautiful of headphones, came and went. And the truth is, I enjoyed every single one of them.
But my god, I’ve been missing out! I’ve had the HD 650s for a few weeks now, and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed music this much. I had previously discovered the HD 550s – my official introduction to pro audio – but they seem a little cold compared to the HD 650s. These guys are comfortable, stylish and they sound kind of perfect… but what the hell does that actually mean?
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The goal for neutral perfection?
Since 1958, and the release of the Koss SP-3s – the first stereo headphones designed specifically for consumer music listening – music fans have been trying to capture the magic of live music through headphones. And though there’s a whole article to be written about the difference between what’s become known as commercial headphones (Beats, Skull Candy) and audiophile headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro, Audio-Technica ATH-M50x), the long and the short of it is commercial cans usually have a V-shaped frequency setting: lots of base, drowned out mids, high trebles. It’s been the audiophile’s self-imposed life goal to crap on this sound profile, and find headphones that offer a neutral, ‘as god (or music engineer) intended’ sound. Kind of.
The thing is, the HD 650s are considered warmer than the neutral gold standard headphones, the HD 600s. Listening to the Quincy Jones-produced Off the Wall, the bass is punchy as hell throughout. For the first time listening to this album, I can follow the bass from start to finish, clear amongst the other instruments. It’s not so big that it’s at the expense of the details in the mid frequencies, like many commercial cans. But there be bass!
The mids of the HD 650s are, well, revelatory. Michael Jackson’s voice is crystal clear, as are his secondary and tertiary vocals, all the piano lines, horns, synths and guitar strings. The imaging of these headphones is a highlight too – how they map, or image each instrument in space (poor imaging makes all the instruments mush together, good imaging means you can identify individual instruments clearly). With the HD 650s, I feel I can ‘see’ the exact instruments playing. The soundstage isn’t vast, but never before when listening to this album have I known exactly how many instruments were involved. Now I do.
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The other benefit to this frequency profile is that I’ve been able to listen to music for hours on end, without feeling fatigued. That’s something that eventually came up with the still-excellent HD 550s. Those headphones offer fantastic mids but less bass, so the treble feels way more pronounced. The end result was everything felt louder, and sharper. That’s awesome, but I could only take it for a couple hours at a time. With the HD 650s, I just feel like I can carry on listening, such is the warmth and ‘rolled off’ treble (where very high frequencies, like cymbals, are reduced to sound less sharp).
One thing to consider before you buy the HD 650s – other than they’re wired, open-back headphones, so they’re not meant for your morning train commute – is their impedance (300 ohms) and their Sensitivity (103 dB at 1V). Basically, the impedance of a headphone determines how much power it’ll need, while its sensitivity determines how loudly it can get once that power is supplied.
The HD 650s are considered high impedance, with moderate sensitivity. What does that mean? They will definitely benefit from a dedicated amp – they will play louder, and you will be able to get more clarity and precision out of them. The funny thing is, I didn’t use an amp with them, and they sounded loud enough and amazingly detailed, just plugged into my MacBook Air.
With the addition of an amp, it’s comforting to know that I’ll be continuing my new found appreciation of music with the HD 650s for a long time to come.