Sennheiser HD600 (New Version) Headphone Review 

yeah dont

only for hd600, rests go ahead

its important to listen to good sound as soon ap, whether youll upgrade or not its up to you

bcs audio 'experience' really took long time and trials

6XX and Sundara make for terrific pair to appreciate all aspects of music at a mid-fi price.

@@sammencia7945 True , I'm love them but now I use 660s2 most of.the time to me more High-fi

It is true there is still nothing else quite like the HD600 out there right now. If you look at it from that perspective, 400USD is reasonable. My objection was more in relation to the fact that a sibling model (HD6XX) with essentially the same build quality and technical ability with slightly different tuning is close to half that price. It puzzles me a bit that a 30yo model is still going for $400 when there is a slightly different version out there closer to $200. I think the Beyerdynamic DTXX0 series is another data point. The DT770/880/990 lines were $4-500 when they were released in the '80s-'90s, remain mostly the same here in the 2020s, but are regularly sold around $200 now. It's a case of one of these things is not like the other.

@@wavetheorysound Yea good point, it should be cheaper. Not to mention that we need a powerful amp to drive them, or a tube amp which are a kind of a fringe product outside of audiophile circles.

I have and love all HD 6 line , HD 660s are the most technically best of them , The speed The imaging the energy of HD 660s are way better from them all , Vocals also . What HD 600 is doing better is clarity on highs and what HD650 is doing better is Smoothness on highs , Thats it .

If i can Help i had the FOcal Clear Not the MG . ANd they was amazing headphones when i hear them i got the WOW factor but after months of listening there was a Big problem they dont sound Natural like HD 6 line , yes they have bass , clarity, soundstage , etch etch but they sound strange almost metalic compare to HD 6 line. Also i had 3 major Problems , the Weight of them - the Cable and most of all the Position of the ear caps when i wear them had a huge role on the sound signature .... even a small movement of them up down or front rear could change the sound a lot . So i sell them and now i use 600 for clarity , 650 for old recordings and 660s for modern music and games , Sundara for Movies and i stop there . My journey has end selling all of my expensive headphones . By the way i kept my Koss 30i these are great to sleep at night with :)

@@Tripokaridos22 Yea I demoed the clear mg and the clear and neither impressed me much. For detail, I got an x65 from austrian audio, for 1/4 the price of a clear, and it sounds like my hd600 but with way more detail, which is ok sometimes. Weird thing for me is that I find the sennheizer line rather uncomfortable after coming back to them. I can't wear them for more than 30 minutes, I think I need to stretch out the headband and loosen the clamp. The curse of a big head.

This youtuber doesn’t;t know what he’s talking about 😂 Tube amps have tones of harmonic distortions, a entry level L30 or JDS lab has enough power to drive these cans without distortion, They are powered by a 16VAC transformer, and internally regulated to 18VDC. There is a lot of headroom for the HD600, can swing the voltage very quickly, and they sound fantastic.

BHC has a "fun" tuning with a bit of extra bass presence and slam added in. Agreed, good pairing.

Agreed on this. The HD600's can sound pretty crappy to my ears (like out of a laptop headphone jack)-but scales exceptionally well with more power (voltage). On the higher end of things, any of Craig's Eddie Current OTL amps work brilliantly with the HD600's, as does Headamp's GSX mini or mk2. With those amps, hearing differences in DAC's becomes pretty transparent. With the GSX amps, the HD600's have tight, fast bass control with excellent treble extension (up to their design limit, of course). Upside-they scale incredibly well to reveal details that the upstream equipment are capable of. Downside-they require that level of gear to be their best-as opposed to something like Focal's or Meze's which tend to sound like themselves no matter what they're plugged into.

@@spektrograf I have been researching the GSX Mini and I'm interested in it... but It's a little out of the price range for me right now. Does the GSX Mini have a warm sound with some dynamics? How would you describe its sound? I'm looking at a used FLUX Lab Acoustics FA-10 PRO for my HE6se V2 because it has tons of power to drive them.

@@JTB-- TBH, it's really hard to say whether it's "warm" or not. I find the GSX (I have the mk2) with the HD600's are "transparent" to the source. DAC's that I rotated through that combo swung the sound characteristic between what would be considered "warm" or "neutral". Timbre also swung substantially through different DAC's. If you read through enough of the head-fi threads on the GSX's, you might notice some head-fi'ers consider the design a bit bright. I experienced that only with particular DAC's, so YMMV depending on what's upstream from the amp. With respect to Flux Labs…I had the FA-12S for a while, and incidentally sold it to Mid-fi Guy. He reviewed it against the FA-10 and the Monolith Liquid amps. I find his observations of the Flux Lab amps pretty spot on with my experience. Flux Lab amps are incredibly powerful and articulate, but I found them missing a bit of midrange character and a bit bright (V-shaped)-but never so bright to be irritating, just clearly "bright". They also express more of their own character to the music and the upstream content than the GSX's-i.e. upstream source differences weren't as apparent with the FA-12S as with the GSX's. I'd say if you could wait and save up a bit more, the GSX's won't have you searching for another amp anytime soon, whereas, you'll still be hunting gear with the Flux Labs amps. Mini's seem to be going for around $1.2k on Head-fi, so if you keep an eye out, I bet you can score one good one for a decent price.

@@spektrograf Hey thanks for all the great insight and advice. I'm basically looking for a cheap option on an amp for a second audio setup that would drive the HE6se V2 decently. I recently got the Burson Flagship Conductor 3X GT and it drives the HE6 really well. But I'm not looking to spend that much on a secondary setup that's hooked up to an entertainment center via TV for some gaming action and watching movies along with some music. I already tried the cheaper amp route with the Jot 2 but I didn't like the pairing at all so I returned it. My secondary setup is the Bifrost 2 to the LYR3 Hybrid Tube amp with the Lokius in between. Surprisingly the LYR3 drives the HE6se V2 very respectably. But I still want a SS Amp in the mix to go back and forth with. I'll have to start saving for an amp above the 1K price range like a GSX and find something I'll be happy with on the first try. I could always get a Soloist 3XP... but I want something other than a Burson SS for my secondary setup to have many different sound signatures to choose from. Thanks Again for all your Sage Advice!!

Gotta get my hands on an OG...

they're all the same! u r delusional if u think one hd 600 can be audibly different from another bcuz of a cosmetic change.

Hmmm, for pro audio work where you need better bass response I'd look into an Audeze LCD-X. The 2021 edition is really good (I have a review). Tube amps can do funky things in the time domain - changing attack and decay timings - that can be amazing for listening but may not translate out well for mixing/mastering.

@@wavetheorysound Thx for the reply. Yeah i tried Auedeze once, thats totally different price league. Maybe one day :). Also i really didnt like Audeze sound and headphones are heavy they can break your neck :))) I think you can not mix/master on headphones alone, but HD600 do very decent job. Its just if you dont hear the bass on Hd600 you can easily overdo it. I feel like blind in that area bellow 100hz. Sonarworks perhaps…

@@DjorMil.CineMusic Gotcha. How about Beyerdynamic? A little more bass response there but more V-shaped. Should make a good bass checking companion to HD600

they need pure class A amp to shine

@@soulfulfool Dont mix it up. What you mean is a DAC. An Amplifier only makes the sound louder.

@@makunouchiippo816 you are certainly a fool to think that but ok live in your world

@@soulfulfool No, I'm educated and you are certainly not.

@@makunouchiippo816 go research amps... amps have different classes.

Topping is rarely worth it man, I had the L50 E50 stack and it sounds sharp and boring, very bad separation with bloaty midbass. It is so apparent even my non audiophile friend told me so after switching from his cheap behringer audio interface. In fact he choose his behringer because it sounds clearer than the topping.

🤦Ofc l30 is not adequate, and topping rarely worth it, and everything else he says. He's an audiophile that knows his stuff, you better believe it

Yes. You gotta spend big big $$$ to meaningfully better the HD600 series' mid timbre.

Also remember that there is qualitu control and build quality issue with HiFiMan. With Sundara you might have great sound for 3 months to 3 years at max but with sennheiser, you're going to have great sound for almost a lifetime.

I love metal...old metal, thrash metal, black metal, death metal, etc. I have a modded pair of HD 600s I use and a pair of Neumann NDH 30s I love for metal. The HD 600s I modded, I removed the foam behind the ear cup and sewed nylon to the ear pads and removed the foam behind the driver and put a copper weight that Custom Cans makes that let's them breathe better and doesnt add low end but allows more of it to come through, and got a balanced cable for them into an ifi Gryphon portable amp/DAC. So for less than $100 in mods to the HD 600s it opened them up sound stage wise (not a tremendous amount) some and added low end. The Neumann NDH 30s have a larger sound stage (but not huge) and a similar sound to my modded HD 600s but not quite as much highs (or perceived detail) but I still love the NDH 30s and they were $650 and $100 for a balanced cable. The NDH 30s are 120ohm but much easier to drive

I also own the Neumann NDH 20s and they have way more low end than either (not a bassy headphone though), and are as clear as both but the sound stage is claustrophobic by comparison. They are 500 bucks and I love them and use all 3 sets for mixing/mastering music as well. I love the Hifiman HE 1000 V2 and Audeze MM 500s for metal too. Some people don't like the mids of the Audeze MM 500s because they are accentuated for mixing/mastering like studio monitors, I like them and use them for that. Audeze MM 500s are 1800 bucks the Hifiman HE 1000 V2 Stealths are 1400 bucks new. The Audezes are super easy to drive and the Hifimans aren't terrible to drive and the sound stage is much better on the Audezes and Hifimans. Lots of detail as well on both. The Audezes you could probably just plug them into a CD player, your phone, lap top/desk top, or whatever and not need an amp for them.

... Meanwhile I'd buy the $200 HD 6XX all day over this $400 HD 600. ✌️😎

Ed XS. The 2 are playing very different games in the low end.

The XS has more sub bass quantity but the HD 600 hits harder in the mid bass

Usually, yes. Switching to high gain usually increases the total output level, which can mean more voltage and/or current, depending on how the amp is made. Often, that comes with an increased noise floor. It depends on the individual equipment as to whether that increased noise floor is audible. For most amps, the HD600 will likely benefit from high gain (for those amps that have gain stages) because of its hi-Z load.

@@wavetheorysound ok thank you, you are the first one that i know that actually explained why they benefit from tube amps

@@wavetheorysound Interesting, I have an IFi Zen can kicking around that has gain options, I wonder if it might change the experience for me with my 600

they sound amazing with Class A amp's, balanced cable full power ☠☠🔥

Metal music sounds bad on them because it is often poorly mastered and the lack of bass is another reason.

That's funny, my experience is opposite to what you say. For mixing and mastering I find they let you hear exactly how it is (once eq'd though) the HD600 takes EQ really well. Once EQ'd (With Sonarworks Sound I.D Reference for example) When EQ'd they become one of the most valuable tools an audio engineer could have.

Likely the Beyerdynamic DT880 600 ohm. It's a different signature but has a lot of openness and air for the price range.

@@wavetheorysound Oh I own that one! Spaciousness is great. A little harsh mid-treble though, I found the Treble resolution in the air region better on the Sundara! But that was a tough grainy to me in the mids.

@@Lucaat What did you use to drive them? I have had my eye on them for a long time but feel they need one of the amps made by beyer to drive them...