advertisement


Question for Sennheiser HD600 Owners

stackowax

pfm Member
A couple of quick questions for owners of HD600s. I've just purchased a used pair which were represented has having "virtually no use on them" and with their condition rated as 9/10. When they arrived the foam/padding that goes over your head was completely flat (see below), which is not as it appears on the Sennheiser website. They also have a very strong smell--smells like moth balls to me.

So two questions: how long does it take the padding on the headphones to completely flatten out? Does anybody own older HD600s that came without the padded headband (e.g., has Sennheiser changed the product so that it now comes with more padding on the headband than it used to).

5543419034_6dc25b3ffd.jpg
 
I have had a pair for 8 Years now and the foam padding on the headband is still just fine. Used quite a lot during this time too..Mine still look like the website ones (maybe a little flatter but not much) except for a slight extra flattening where I hang them over my rack.

Those look maximum flat..
 
Ive new ones and there are thick cubes of foam, maybe an inch thick or more.
Mothballs....mmm....naphthalene......maybe degrades foam?
 
Doesn't sound good, another owner here for about 7 or 8 years and the foam is thick as others have described, no smells from my 600s either
 
stackowax.

I have the HD 650s and have no problems with mine whatsoever, though one would expect issues if you buy the cheaper 600s. Buy cheap, buy twice as they say.

Regards,

Chris.

('Being Mick')
 
Thanks everyone. Fortunately, the seller has agreed to refund the purchase money--the 600s are going back to him. I'll probably end up buying a new pair.

Note to starbuck being mick--I doubt the build quality of the 650s is any better than the 600s. Actually, the construction of my 595s looks better than either. The 595s have a padded leather-covered headband (or at least leather-like). I'm surprised the more expensive phones don't use this.
 
IIRC all of the foam parts are replaceable and available as spares. The 600 is just an older version of the 650. They each have a slightly different balance and there doesn't seem to be any real consensus as to which is better. I'm certainly happy with my £99 HD-600s bought on the Play.com deal, an excellent pair of cans.

Tony.
 
At £99, the 600s are a no brainer. On this side of the pond, the cheapest new 600s are around $350 (about £215).
 
I have had HD600's for many years and the foam seems pretty well good as new to me.

Your story rang a bell with me though and I wouldn't mind betting that the pair you bought had been stored in a plastic bin liner (or similar).

A few years ago we were having a lot of building work done on the house and I took the precaution of protecting/storing my ProAc Supertower II loudspeakers with black plastic bin liners. Big mistake! :eek:

They were stored in these bags for ~3 months and on removing them once all the building works had been completed I was horrified to find that the foam surrounds on the bass drivers had started to disintigrate (splits and holes were visible on all 4 units!) I know these drivers are prone to this kind of damage but storing them in bin liners had definitely accelerated the process. The other noticable thing was that the speakers smelt - of moth balls!

Hope this story prevents another disaster for fellow forum members.
 
I have HD600s which I bought on a £99 deal 10 years or so ago. The cable went and I replaced on eBay with a better one. Then one channel went silent and I had to buy a new capsule (=speaker) for £70. On the old one, a gossamer-like wire from the speaker had severed; I did manage to solder in a replacement but it was still silent so maybe I damaged something in the process.

Still, I get good value from them and the foam is fine.

Tim
 
Ditto, had HD600s since late 90s. No flattening of foam. But mine did smell a bit musty after putting them in storage, in original box for a couple of years, but without silica gel sachet. The wonderful in-head world of Shure se530s, keeps the HD600s in their box, although i am tempted to get them out on reading this thread. Just for old times sake. And just to see how they sound away from the dreadful MF XCans, and onto the Cyrus DAC with Squeezebox combo.
 
Thanks everyone. Fortunately, the seller has agreed to refund the purchase money--the 600s are going back to him. I'll probably end up buying a new pair.

Note to starbuck being mick--I doubt the build quality of the 650s is any better than the 600s. Actually, the construction of my 595s looks better than either. The 595s have a padded leather-covered headband (or at least leather-like). I'm surprised the more expensive phones don't use this.

If I had got a pair like that dirt cheap I could live with the missing foam but not the smell of moth balls around my head.May I ask how much you bid for them?
 
I have had HD600's for many years and the foam seems pretty well good as new to me.

Your story rang a bell with me though and I wouldn't mind betting that the pair you bought had been stored in a plastic bin liner (or similar).

A few years ago we were having a lot of building work done on the house and I took the precaution of protecting/storing my ProAc Supertower II loudspeakers with black plastic bin liners. Big mistake! :eek:

They were stored in these bags for ~3 months and on removing them once all the building works had been completed I was horrified to find that the foam surrounds on the bass drivers had started to disintigrate (splits and holes were visible on all 4 units!) I know these drivers are prone to this kind of damage but storing them in bin liners had definitely accelerated the process. The other noticable thing was that the speakers smelt - of moth balls!

Hope this story prevents another disaster for fellow forum members.

Sorry to hear your experience. I noticed the same thing with a pair of speakers I had stored in plastic bags in the garage. Completely fine for 14 years in the lounge, the surrounds were separated from the cones and rotted after five years in storage. Dismaying as I'd wanted to give the speakers to my stepdaughter. I put it down to the damp salty air of our beach location permeating tiny holes in the bags.

Reading your story leads me to wonder if either chlorine outgassing or the plasticisers in the PVC, or a combination, is the real culprit. Could the the chlorine react with atmospheric moisture to create HCl? A quick web search revealed that dioctyl phthalate (or DOP), a derivative of naphthalene, is commonly used as a plasticiser. Hence the mothball smell, I suppose. (DOP is a rather nasty stuff in general, according to Wikipedia.)
 
I had the 580's for years and the foam at the top of the headband was still pillowy. I bought a pair of 600's off of Craigslist (don't ask why) and they had the flattened top like yours does.

Honestly, it makes no difference to my head. I gave the 580's to a buddy and kept the 600's.

Edit: Glad you posted this because I've wondered what happened to these 600's before I owned them. I don't know where the foam could have gone. Did it really flatten out THAT much? I thought maybe the 600's were just different.
 
It makes me wonder a little bit whether some 600s were made that didn't have the foam padding. On the ones I bought it doesn't really look like the foam has been flattened--more like it was never there in the first place.
 


advertisement


Back
Top