Sennheiser HD600, king of the heap
- Thread starter Robert
- Start date
The Realiser is certainly a far cry from any Dolby Headphone or similar emulation - as it should be for the price.
For me it really depends on your listening room. The bigger room you have, the better because if you have a small room and load a profile where the speakers are placed far away, it is hard to take in for the brain that the sound is coming outside the walls of the room. At least that's how I felt, for me it worked better with emulating Genelec nearfield monitors, which are to be placed closely to the listener anyway.
Or if you are "cloning" speakers that you have set up in your listening room it will work again, because they remain in that position so the illusion is 100% believable because it correlates with the room acoustics and with what you are seeing.
I also suggest using an external DAC between the Realiser and the amp and headphones, yes it is yet another extra investment, but it simply sounds better than just using the internal DAC.
Allan Probin
pfm Member
Thanks for the insights padam. Out of interest, which headphones are you using with yours?
Faux
pfm Member
How much tax etc to you have to pay?
guey
pfm Member
Just under 50 quid. In total, with shipping £235
Faux
pfm Member
Thank you.
Hi Allan,
Unfortunately, I don't have it anymore as I felt I didn't use it enough, didn't have the right environment, so I didn't create enough profiles.
It is a key element to the Realiser, while there are a lot of profiles out there to download and they are fun to try, they will not lead to optimal results as opposed to the user carefully setting up everything.
Ideally, you would "rent" speakers (preferably high-end ones), set them up in your listening room (you can even use only two speakers and move them to make it a 7.1) and take them back after their sound is "stolen" but I don't imagine a lot of people being ok with that (of course buying and selling is another option if the budget is unlimited)
I got the old A8 HDMI model, not sure how it compares to the A16, but that one seems prohibitively expensive.
I saw it used just last week again for just under 1000£, at that price I was contemplating giving it another try (and I still have a few good profiles), they might show up again if more people are switching to the A16.
I highly recommend Stax headphones to use with the Realiser. I have tried quite a few headphones with it, and these were by far the best in terms of results.
My reference Stax headphone of choice is still the SR-Lambda normal bias (the full setup was PC->HDMI->Realiser->optical->Lavry DA11->XLR->SRM-T1S->SR-Lambda)
I was very surprised how much bass it was able to present with the EQ in place and yet it still kept some subtle qualities of the headphone that I love, which was interesting.
The SR-009 is probably the ultimate choice for this specific purpose.
It's in a different league. The HD280 is quite bad, to be honest, the old HD250 Linear walks over it as well if you want it to remain closed (but it's long time discontinued, so good earpads may be difficult to find).
jandl100
Box swapping classical fan
Resurrecting an old thread, as it seems to be the one that is dedicated to my recently purchased Sennheiser HD 600.
From many recent forum posts it's clear that the HD 600 is very popular. So I thought I'd add my own experience and thoughts. (And then duck behind the sofa!).... Actually, I like them a lot, but they do need some tlc imo.
____
Here's the tale of my HD 600 journey so far
I was rather expecting a bit of closed in chocolatey creaminess, but there's none of that.
My immediate impression was brightly lit clarity.
It's a kind of sound that isn't very satisfying or involving but makes me a bit dissatisfied with everything else. Duh.
There's a brightly lit insistence to them that doesn't seem amenable to my initial attempts at broadbrush eq and is a bit annoying. Maybe some high Q low treble peakiness?
It may well be an amplifier thing. I need something beefier?
I've a couple of high power amps arriving soon that have had good user reports with HD 600.
The 600 go a lot louder than I need them to, though, with current amplification (DOUK U4, a valve hybrid Bluetooth amp I've not been able to find the spec for).
.... An hour or so later....
OK, right. Interesting.
I've been looking at the ASR review measurements and there's a quite narrow 4 or 5 db peak around 3.5khz.
Switching my eq app to its maximum of 32 bands I've inserted a 4 dB dip at 3.5khz.
Much better!
There's a smaller peak around 5khz. Nipping a bit off the eq there improves things further.
..... a further period of half hour or so goes by....
That's working well for me.
So now, as per the HD 600 ASR measurement, inserting a 9db rise from 100hz to 35hz and a 2.5db dip centered on 200hz....
Cooking with charcoal comes to mind.
Now I can start listening to these cans properly......
... A day later...
Classical music is a particular challenge for the Sennheiser HD 600, I suspect.
A substantial bass boost does seem to help.
And without addressing the peaks at 3.5khz and 5khz an orchestral violin section is pretty much unlistenable, imo.
I've had a quick listen to some electric guitar music (Mark Knopfler live) and that was a much better match to the Sennheiser's strengths and weaknesses imo.
.... And another day goes by....
Hmm, yes, OK.
I've been won over by the Sennheiser HD 600.
Suitably EQed they are impressive, enjoyable and realistic, imo.
Getting rid of the 3.5khz peak is essential.
Getting rid of the 5khz peak is desirable, as is a gradual and eventually substantial bass boost below 100hz.
The bass boost I've settled on for now...
0db 100hz, 3db 80hz, 6db 55hz, 9db 35hz.
I'm a bit surprised that the soundstage isn't more expansive, but it's OK. I actually prefer a bit of a more distant perspective.
There's still a little treble emphasis and associated grain, but I'm sure I can sort that with a bit more EQ twiddling.
I think I've got too many headphones now (is that possible?), and a bit of a cull is probably coming up, but I can see the Senns being long term keepers.
From many recent forum posts it's clear that the HD 600 is very popular. So I thought I'd add my own experience and thoughts. (And then duck behind the sofa!).... Actually, I like them a lot, but they do need some tlc imo.
____
Here's the tale of my HD 600 journey so far
I was rather expecting a bit of closed in chocolatey creaminess, but there's none of that.
My immediate impression was brightly lit clarity.
It's a kind of sound that isn't very satisfying or involving but makes me a bit dissatisfied with everything else. Duh.
There's a brightly lit insistence to them that doesn't seem amenable to my initial attempts at broadbrush eq and is a bit annoying. Maybe some high Q low treble peakiness?
It may well be an amplifier thing. I need something beefier?
I've a couple of high power amps arriving soon that have had good user reports with HD 600.
The 600 go a lot louder than I need them to, though, with current amplification (DOUK U4, a valve hybrid Bluetooth amp I've not been able to find the spec for).
.... An hour or so later....
OK, right. Interesting.
I've been looking at the ASR review measurements and there's a quite narrow 4 or 5 db peak around 3.5khz.
Switching my eq app to its maximum of 32 bands I've inserted a 4 dB dip at 3.5khz.
Much better!
There's a smaller peak around 5khz. Nipping a bit off the eq there improves things further.
..... a further period of half hour or so goes by....
That's working well for me.
So now, as per the HD 600 ASR measurement, inserting a 9db rise from 100hz to 35hz and a 2.5db dip centered on 200hz....
Cooking with charcoal comes to mind.
Now I can start listening to these cans properly......
... A day later...
Classical music is a particular challenge for the Sennheiser HD 600, I suspect.
A substantial bass boost does seem to help.
And without addressing the peaks at 3.5khz and 5khz an orchestral violin section is pretty much unlistenable, imo.
I've had a quick listen to some electric guitar music (Mark Knopfler live) and that was a much better match to the Sennheiser's strengths and weaknesses imo.
.... And another day goes by....
Hmm, yes, OK.
I've been won over by the Sennheiser HD 600.
Suitably EQed they are impressive, enjoyable and realistic, imo.
Getting rid of the 3.5khz peak is essential.
Getting rid of the 5khz peak is desirable, as is a gradual and eventually substantial bass boost below 100hz.
The bass boost I've settled on for now...
0db 100hz, 3db 80hz, 6db 55hz, 9db 35hz.
I'm a bit surprised that the soundstage isn't more expansive, but it's OK. I actually prefer a bit of a more distant perspective.
There's still a little treble emphasis and associated grain, but I'm sure I can sort that with a bit more EQ twiddling.
I think I've got too many headphones now (is that possible?), and a bit of a cull is probably coming up, but I can see the Senns being long term keepers.
jandl100
Box swapping classical fan
I'm having a bit of a problem with longer listening sessions with the Sennheiser HD 600.
I'm finding them a bit uncomfortable. The earpads are a bit too firm and small. And I'm not keen on the feel of the material, either.
Basically, I don't like the stock earpads!
Any recommendations for a replacement?
On ebay I spy Dekoni sheepskin pads for £55, and cheaper pleather options.
I'm finding them a bit uncomfortable. The earpads are a bit too firm and small. And I'm not keen on the feel of the material, either.
Basically, I don't like the stock earpads!
Any recommendations for a replacement?
On ebay I spy Dekoni sheepskin pads for £55, and cheaper pleather options.
narabdela
who?
That's weird. They're the most comfortable earphones I've ever owned. Then again, I suppose they're a bit like shoes. One size doesn't fit all.
jandl100
Box swapping classical fan
It's strange.
They feel quite soft to a finger squeeze, and they look quite large.
But for me they definitely aren't comfortable.
Actually.... are they memory foam? If so and if they are as minty as they look, then they'll need time to conform to my ruggedly handsome features.
They feel quite soft to a finger squeeze, and they look quite large.
But for me they definitely aren't comfortable.
Actually.... are they memory foam? If so and if they are as minty as they look, then they'll need time to conform to my ruggedly handsome features.
jandl100
Box swapping classical fan
Tony L
Administrator
Try gently relaxing (i.e. bending) the metal spring plate parts of the head band outwards a bit. You will find a fair bit of info how to safely do this if you google, and I’d do so before starting. It is certainly possible to persuade them to be a lot less ‘clampy’ and as a result far more comfortable. I did this to mine without issue and whilst it has not turned them into HD-414s comfort-wise they really are a lot better. Just be very careful doing it as it is apparently fairly easy to break the plastic headband if you apply pressure without care (all parts are available as spares). I got mine from a point where they really weren’t comfortable for me to being pretty typical for cans of their size and weight.