Chuck Dee
Member of the Trade: Chris Cables
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
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...continuing on from the above post, I managed to get 5 of these cheap but highly effective cables completed in order to give the Sennheiser 'Irish' collection a completely level playing field when hooked up to my Tascam MH8 multichannel headphone amp.
This is the first time I've felt completely comfortable with making comparisons between them as previously they have all been hooked up via different cables.
The test conditions are pretty straightforward; listen to various types of music with each set for around 10 mins and decide yes/no if I'm enjoying the experience.
The simple anser is 'yes' for all except one of them - the HD535. They're absolutely terrible! No life, totally anaemic bottom, mid- and top-end and I cannot listen with them for more than around 2 minutes. It's actually an unpleasant experience, which is a shame because going a bit deeper, each set has its own distinct character and generally all are a joy to listen with, even the bass-heavy HD265's. So it's a big shame that there is a 'runt in the litter' but still interesting nonetheless.
Moving up the bench towards the 'top end' of the scale and comparing all others with the HD-565 re-confirms my attitude that the 565's are just a simple and absolute joy to use every time. Even when compared to the HD600 and HD650 they have a life and sparkle all of their own! These crop up on 2nd hand sites and hifishark occasionally and can be had for an absolute bargain! The foams usually require replacing and as a rule I completely disassemble the components and sanitise the sanitisable parts in warm soapy water before drying and re-assembly and finally rendering an as-new set, ready to enjoy.
The HD565's can actually EQ to within a cats whisker of the HD650's too! Hence, if you're hankering after a pair of HD650's give theHD565's some serious consideration before dropping the coin.
I have two HD565 chassis kitted out with a set of HD600 and HD650 drivers respectively and I'll be comparing these with the 'pukka' versions at some point using the new cables too....
Happy days.
This is the first time I've felt completely comfortable with making comparisons between them as previously they have all been hooked up via different cables.
The test conditions are pretty straightforward; listen to various types of music with each set for around 10 mins and decide yes/no if I'm enjoying the experience.
The simple anser is 'yes' for all except one of them - the HD535. They're absolutely terrible! No life, totally anaemic bottom, mid- and top-end and I cannot listen with them for more than around 2 minutes. It's actually an unpleasant experience, which is a shame because going a bit deeper, each set has its own distinct character and generally all are a joy to listen with, even the bass-heavy HD265's. So it's a big shame that there is a 'runt in the litter' but still interesting nonetheless.
Moving up the bench towards the 'top end' of the scale and comparing all others with the HD-565 re-confirms my attitude that the 565's are just a simple and absolute joy to use every time. Even when compared to the HD600 and HD650 they have a life and sparkle all of their own! These crop up on 2nd hand sites and hifishark occasionally and can be had for an absolute bargain! The foams usually require replacing and as a rule I completely disassemble the components and sanitise the sanitisable parts in warm soapy water before drying and re-assembly and finally rendering an as-new set, ready to enjoy.
The HD565's can actually EQ to within a cats whisker of the HD650's too! Hence, if you're hankering after a pair of HD650's give theHD565's some serious consideration before dropping the coin.
I have two HD565 chassis kitted out with a set of HD600 and HD650 drivers respectively and I'll be comparing these with the 'pukka' versions at some point using the new cables too....
Happy days.
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