Sennheiser HDB 630 Wireless Headphones - Official Discussion Thread

Headphones Official Headphone Model Discussion
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I have the DCA Noires, as well as the Focal Radiance for balance. I would put the HDB 630s’ tuning somewhere between They don’t punch as hard as the Radiance, and nor are they as open & detailed as the Noires… but at the same time, they are better tuned and almost as fun hdepending on genre). The bass is comparable with the Radiance (even if without the dynamics), but much better extended. I’ve never heard the Radiance rumble like the 630s, and the Noires don’t come close, even while the Noires’ bass is just as clean and accurate. I believe the Noires’ treble is very much like the 630s’, and more accurate than the Radiance.

I cannot tie the 630s’ to any genre, and also believe there’s much subjectivity to what I’m claiming. All while there can be absolutely no argument that the HDB 630 can are a much better value, offer features that do not come with wires, AND much more portable.

#jussayin

Edit… Tonight I thoight I’d pick an album and listen to it with the HDB630 and the DCA Noire headcans. I picked London Grammar’s “California Soil”

First off, comfort and clamp are comparable, as is isolation…

Tuning is significantly similar, including a divot ~2-3kHz that’s claimed to enhance the 4-5kHz region. And, I think I hear that sometimes in the higher reaches of her voice, moreso with the Noires but I don’t find it objectionable.

The Senns are warmer in the sense of being in a room with proper speaker placement, whereas the Dan Clarks remove the front & rear walls. The Senn’s bass is also very much more extended, and does it rumble!

The pairing reminds me of why I purchased (… and have thusfar kept…) the Focals to go with the Noires. Comparing the 630s with the Noires is not about finding anything objectionable, only different but respected. For me however, I’ll probably be listening more to the Noires, as their musicality is just a touch more textured and real, while knowing I have near equal fun option when on the move…

Cheers

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​Hi everyone,

​I currently own the Sony WH-1000XM4, which I find to have significant ANC self-noise (hiss), especially in a quiet room. The passive isolation is also not very great. I live near a street with few cars per minute, and I need ANC or good passive isolation, especially in low frequencies.

​Therefore, I have a few questions:

​Is the self-noise (hiss) in the HDB 630 quieter than in the WH-1000XM4? If so, how much? How does the passive isolation of the HDB 630 compare to the Sony? Or maybe the Meze 99 Classics V2 will be better? I read in a review that the Meze has good isolation. What do you think will be the best in my environment?

​Sound quality is also important, and the reviews for the HDB 630 are very enthusiastic. My reference is the HiFiMan HE600, but there are rarely moments when I can listen to them in absolute silence. @Resolve I would appreciate your help.

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Passive isolation is only okay, better on stuff like the 99 classics v2. But for overall attenuation the HDB 630 is going to be better I expect. I didn’t really notice any hiss, but I’ve come across other products in the past where that was a matter of QC. I’d go with HDB 630 personally.

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Hi! Should we expect a written review by Griffin as well?

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Howdy, Resolve. Can we see the raw 5128 measurements on this headphone as well? T’would be much appreciated.

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Yes, I have them. Not sure why I missed posting them earlier, but I’ll try to add them in the morning.

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That’d be very groovy. :+1:

A raw graph of the XV would be cool too, if one’s available.

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Here you go. As noted in the vid, the channel balance may be a bit more challenging given the mechanical design of this one. But this is also 20 seatings.

Raw
Raw1920×1080 143 KB

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Index / collection of measurements made by Resolve
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Many thanks! Added this to your measurement index.

I’d describe the FR as slightly smiley due to the slight recession in the lower half of the mids. So maybe especially good for listening at lower volumes. The smile appears a little too forward around 1.5k though. And a bit withdrawn around 8 to 8.5k. This is just a guess though.

Those are some of main features I’m noticing in the general FR.

Re L/R asymmetry… do you think that would be consistent in other units, and maybe correctable with their EQ app?

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I enjoy analyzing squigs too, but it’s difficult to make generalizations about how it’ll actual sound on your head without actually listening.

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Not in their EQ app but I suspect it’ll be somewhere within the ballpark. I expect this to be more of a mechanical design issue rather than a specific driver matching issue.

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53

Or, perhaps an head/ear placement matching issue…(?)

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This is what I mean re mechanical design. This is 20 seatings, but it can be worn many different ways. So it’s hard to know if this is predictive.

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Thank you for the detailed comparison!

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In one of your review videos, you alluded to a wide soundstage being at times an artifact of something to do with frequency response, but I haven’t found more information about what you meant. So are you saying that the illusion of out-of-the-head soundstage is an artifact of something in FR and/or angled drivers?

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It’s common for people to report a more open sounding sense of space with certain types of headphones. As of yet the driver angle thing has not been well-evidenced. But yeah essentially psychoacoustic components to it outside of FR will be influential in the perception of headphone sound. The same is also true of the fact that headphones are effectively ‘the sound helmet’ condition, rather than listening to a sound source at a distance, like with speakers.

The point is more that ‘soundstage’ is not an acoustic property, it’s a psychoacoustic effect, and this can be impacted positively or negatively via FR colorations.

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Not that it would have anything to do with FR, but left & right aside, is it really psycho-acoustic to perceive sounds coming from above or from behind? Or, for that matter, further away? #curious

As an aside, I am listening to HAIM now with my 630s connected via USB to my ipad, and if I type too fast systems sounds will make the audio drop out. I would’ve thought employing USB would eliminate the interference. I hope this can be fixed…

… otherwise, HAIM sounds great!

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That’s not really what I’m talking about here. It’s more like… the perceived sense of spaciousness a given headphone has. There are a number of factors that contribute to this perception, some of which are likely to be outside of frequency response, depending on the person. These are things such as a headphone’s openness, the feeling of the coupling to the side of the head, the lack of occlusion effect, that sort of thing. But unfortunately it’s unclear how consistently human perception is affected by such things, though I believe this is currently being researched by the folks Axel Grell was working with on the acoustic impedance question.

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In case it was not clear in my previous post, I do not own and have not personally listened to the HDB 630. And my comments re the FR are based solely on the raw plot Resolve posted above.

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There was no confusion - that was evident by your post. Thanks for clarifying, though!

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