CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

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Author Topic: The Amazing Super Duper Underrated HD650. A Headphone That Kicks Serious Ass.  (Read 51298 times)

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maverickronin

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Proly depends on what you are used to. I find the Lambdas inferior to the HD650s in many ways. The Lambdas are perhaps a tad brighter relatively speaking. I don't think the Lambdas are as resolving. Bass would definitively depend on cup fit and is lower than with the HD650s going by memory.

I can understand people not liking the Lambdas for not having enough weight behind them compared to dynamics or orthos, or for being too bright, but calling them less resolving than the HD650s honestly just baffles me.  I can hear far deeper into the mix with a Lambda than the HD650.

OTOH the HD650 are still my favorites out of all the dynamics that I've had a chance to hear.  They manage to be exceptionally clean (above the bass anyway) and decently resolving without any 'fake detail' from sharply boosted treble and are free of nasty CSD ridges that force me to put them away after 20 minutes.  I'd guess a properly modded HD800 would dethrone them (despite it's other advantages, the stock HD800's treble has too much of a metallic timbre) but I haven't actually heard one yet.

Stock, the Lambdas I've heard do tend to be a little bit plasticky but my ears find that less offensive than the HD800's metallic tone and it's not too hard to mod away either.

Even throwing orthos into the mix, the only ones I'd take over an HD650 would be an A-Grade LCD2/3, and HE1000, or possibly a vintage T50 base model.  Most of the other HIFIMAN orthos didn't sound as clean as my modded T50RPs, and the ones that did (5, 5LE, and 6) had too much sharpness in the treble.
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Anaxilus

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I can understand people not liking the Lambdas for not having enough weight behind them compared to dynamics or orthos, or for being too bright, but calling them less resolving than the HD650s honestly just baffles me.  I can hear far deeper into the mix with a Lambda than the HD650.

You might not like, believe or want to hear this, but if you are using an O2 to pair with them then that's one reason you could feel that way. My Leckerton even with the older 209 opamps slaughtered the O2 in resolution.
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maverickronin

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You might not like, believe or want to hear this, but if you are using an O2 to pair with them then that's one reason you could feel that way. My Leckerton even with the older 209 opamps slaughtered the O2 in resolution.

That would be the first time I've heard such a thing.  Except for my BH Crack (which has pretty obvious reasons for sounding different), they sound pretty much the same from everything I've tried them with.  300 ohms is pretty easy load for most headouts to drive, so provided you're happy with the volume they're quite widely compatible.

/heresy

I can give it another chance and see if there's still room in the BW loaner tour.  Unless you wanna tell me my ODAC or Scarlett 2i2 are bad enough all the amp in the world won't matter...
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atomicbob

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You might not like, believe or want to hear this, but if you are using an O2 to pair with them then that's one reason you could feel that way. My Leckerton even with the older 209 opamps slaughtered the O2 in resolution.
I would like to thank Anaxilus for all the posts discussing the virtues of Leckerton. As a direct result I acquired a UHA-6S mkII. Initially I thought what a nice USB upgrade from ODac+O2. Then  I discovered the spdif input. You see, I bought an iBasso dx90. Now that was a reasonably decent improvement over my portable devices' native headphone output. But the dx90 has a spdif output. You see where this is going. dx90 as digital music server and Leckerton doing the heavy lifting. Now I have a portable system that kicks butt and takes names. Thank-you.
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ultrabike

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I can understand people not liking the Lambdas for not having enough weight behind them compared to dynamics or orthos, or for being too bright, but calling them less resolving than the HD650s honestly just baffles me.  I can hear far deeper into the mix with a Lambda than the HD650.

I cannot hear deeper into the mix with a Lambda (or Lambda like stuffs). I had an SR307(Lambda Like) for audition for a while, again, not as revealing to me. Here are my impressions from then:

http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1819.msg49245.html#msg49245 (might have to scroll up a little)

and some measures (if you believe in that stuffs):

http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1820.msg49360.html#msg49360

and associated comparo (HD600s and SR009 though) at the end of the post (can'd easly link images from here)
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OJneg

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We need a better way to explain "resolution" to planar people...I think Marv, Anax, ultra and I all hear it but we keep running into this descriptor conundrum when trying to explain it.

Resolution is NOT macro-clarity. The Stax provide more of that due to their ultra-clean and synthetic plastic timbre. And possibly slight FR accentuation in the upper mids.

Resolution is NOT treble spikes that "enhance" detail. This isn't even worth addressing...none of us think Grados, AT's, etc. are resolving. You can't add resolution by EQing the treble up.

Resolution is NOT "speed". Things can attack really fast and then decay really quickly and evenly, but still be missing all of that musical information beneath and around it. Which leads me to....

Resolution is, as I have come to define it independently from what I hear as well as what I glean from others, the ability to portray information on the recording. The ability to render the picture/frame in its entirety if we want to use the video analogy. It's not a big leap to extend that definition to include both microdetail (plankton, inner-whatever, etc) and spatial information (ambient cues, precise imaging, etc.)

If we can all agree on this definition (feel free to add your interpretations guys), then the Lambdas are certainly a few notches below the HD6xx in terms of providing that resolution. Yes they sound nice and clean and clear, but they just aren't as resolving. It fucking baffles me how people can say a headphone like that is resolving...clearly we're listening to different things or have very definitions/interpretations. Hope that all makes sense
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Marvey

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I'll take $50 off the money you owe me for gear if you write a terms glossary for Changstar.
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Ringingears

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I'll take $50 off the money you owe me for gear if you write a terms glossary for Changstar.
We could really use one.
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OJneg

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I'll take $50 off the money you owe me for gear if you write a terms glossary for Changstar.

I'll get started
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n3rdling

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I can understand people not liking the Lambdas for not having enough weight behind them compared to dynamics or orthos, or for being too bright, but calling them less resolving than the HD650s honestly just baffles me.  I can hear far deeper into the mix with a Lambda than the HD650.

You and me both (and every comparison of the headphones I've ever read up to about a month or two ago).

OJ, I pretty much agree with your definitions and have no idea what you're hearing. :p
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