PLACEBOS!!
Let me rephrase.
I want someone to do before/after measurements on the same unit on a calibrated measurement rig, like a B&K or something. The differences Marv shows in his measurements could easily be attributed to unit-to-unit variation.
I also want to see someone take it apart and actually show what JAR is doing. He was charging a lot of money for what is probably just a piece of 3d-printed plastic and some dampener. If he didnāt want to do the mod anymore, he should have released the STL file along with instructions on how to do it.
lol meme? I would say most who listen to the 600 series off an OTL would prefer it over a ss.
But it seems the new meme is amps and dacs are the same and synergy isnāt real so just pick up the cleanest measuring dac amp ASR recommends and weāll just stop the hobby.
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Many OTL amps have high output impedance, so unless itās a particularly bad design the most obvious difference vs a SS amp is going to be the increase in lower frequencies. It isnāt surprising at all that a lot of people are going to like that effect since the HD6X0 series is bass light.
You can achieve a similar effect with a bass shelf filter.
Ok so weāll use many zmfs as an example. It has bass but 9 times out of 10 itāll sound better off an OTL or transformer coupled tube amp.
EQ isnāt giving you the same experience. Weāll have to agree to disagree here. You may as well just own the cleanest dac and amp you can find, and EQ your one neutral headphone to sound like other headphone signatures.
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That was my takeaway from some other recent threads. It seems some influential people on this site really do believe in that strategy. In my experience it works for brief periods, but then the processing always creeps through.
That discussion isnāt worth the time IMO.
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Absolutely 
ā¦..
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I would indeed expect a ZMF to have more bass off a tube amp with a high output impedance.
With all due respect: Zoom, right over your headā¦
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I should have added a ā/sā to the end lol.
Right, unless you have actually listened to the difference with your own ears any opinions are essentially hypothetical in this instance.
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Iām curious about what you normally listen to, and what you have listened to. When I checked your profile, there isnāt any commentary about your equipment, daily driver, etc. And this a thread about Sennheiser. Iād lived with the original HD-580 since about a year after it came out, and got the 6XX from drop. I have not listened to the HD-600, which I suspect may be the best of the lot, or the newer models along similar lines.
I do have a range of DACs and amps, solid state and tube, nothing super TOTL, but generally decent stuff. @generic and @robson are trying to point out that itās not merely impedance and any impedance-related frequency shifts that count. Nor is EQ a substitute for the beneficial harmonics in the sound of a decent OTL tube setup.
For reference, my at-work (non-speaker) setup consists of the Schiit Modi Multibit, Eufonika H7M OTL tube amp and ZMF Auteur Classic headphones. Itās good enough that I donāt aspire to any higher level setup there. (well possibly the Atrium openā¦). I donāt think @generic has had the opportunity to audition the Modi Multibit (on LAST CALL!) but I find it an entirely acceptable little brother to the Bifrost which we both have, so Iām guessing that he could happily listen to this setup all day.
The point being, itās very important to hear with your own ears, and your opinions will be additionally informed.
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Bruh Iām just joking around.
I see no evidence of humor or sarcasm in your (earlier) comments. I donāt even know how to apply those words in this situation.
I too am curious about your setup and preferences.
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I have been a fan of Sennheiser headphones for years, having owned both HD 580s and HD 650s. I never had issues with them, and was baffled that some reviewers complained about a wooly mid-base hump, while others liked it, but I had never heard it. I finally plugged my HD 650s into a headphone jack that was woefully inadequate to drive them, and there it was! As both a musician and an engineer, that was an epiphany for me. Why did no one understand that the headphones were accurately reproducing the sound of headphone jack electronics crapping out? And why was no one pressing the issue that, in order to accurately reproduce music, the driver must be presented with an accurate copy of the voltage signal as it was mixed in the studio? There are many filters and transforms the signal needs to pass through between the mixing board and your ears, and crappy headphone jacks need not apply.
Thatās when the crazy engineer in me took over. Long story short, I now have highly modified Muse Model 100 power amplifier with external dual mono power supplies, revised star grounding throughout. It has six extremely high quality MOSFETS per channel, with a highly respected and novel at the time feedback arrangement that provides dramatic dynamics with extremely natural and effortless timbres and soundstaging. The knock on this amp in its heyday was a bit of hum, but mine is now stone cold quiet and for headphones operating in pure class A. A switchbox allows me to switch between stereo speakers and my headphones. I also built a DYI cable using aftermarket Sennhieser connectors and a run of professional grade Mogami Neglex 2534 microphone cable to each driver. Microphone signals are the smallest, most fragile in the recording studio. These cables never had it this easy!
I loved my HD 650s on this rig but wished for better bass. Enter a new set of HD 660S2s. The first thing you notice is there are tons of ārefurbishedā open box samples available. All brand new, not even broken in yet. People are returning these things in droves. What is going on?
So the new cans arrive, I plug them into my Muse amplifier with the supplied cord and am completely gobsmacked! These things are dynamically compressed, with soundstaging homogenized and flattened so you can barely tell where anything is. Musical details are smeared together or lost completely. These things are junk! No wonder reviewers hate them and customers are returning them.
So I get out a cheap Cardas knockoff cable from Arctic Cables, and dynamics are better, soundstaging and details are better, but there is a familiar clanginess in the treble I recognize from playing with this cable before. By now the new cans are breaking in nicely and initial stuffiness is gone, so I pull my DYI cable from the HD 650s and start doing some comparisons.
Holy mackerel! When you mind their care and feeding, these new Sennhiesers are a revelation! The HD 660S2s are dramatically better than the HD 650s, and a bona fide audiophile reference. Dynamics, quickness, punch, rhythm and drive are incredible (also known characteristics of the Muse amplifier), and soundstaging and detail are stunning ā almost like you are seeing all the sound sources with your eyes as well as your ears, and they never get congested no matter how loaded the mix. The overall quality that really blows you away is the smoothness. With so much dynamic punch you donāt expect world class suave delivery, but there it is. You are able to effortlessly follow many musical and lyrical lines at once. Top marks for both naturalness and musicality. You will not only tap your foot, but you will dance with the music and break out singing involuntarily! I am rediscovering my music collection. These headphones are the best purchase I have made in a long, long time.
If you are thinking of buying these headphones, but intend to use the stock cordā¦ well, donāt bother. Save your money. But if you like music, grab yourself a pair, feed it from worthy electronics only, and get yourself a good aftermarket cord. Or make yourself one. Itās not difficult. You wonāt be disappointed.
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Not trying to chase you off. Iām curious.