Sure. Right now I am running 4 stations. Streaming Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon HD (highest tiers all 3) on all of them.
First station using Lumin U1 Mini to Chord M Scaler to Hugo TT2 to GS X Mini (not using the TT2’s headphone output);
Second station using Bluesound Vault 2 i to RME ADI 2 FS to Flux 10 using both headphone outputs;
Third station Project Streamer Pro to another RME ADI 2 FS to a Drop 789 (using both depending on headphone power need and whether I need to run balanced)
Fourth station Bluesound Node 2i to Topping D90SE to Topping A90 (this one I use mostly for Tidal MQA)
Just for giggles a few minutes ago I called in my 28 year old son and had him listen to both cans on first station and fourth station (not enough time to do this right). He preferred the 58x on station 1 and the 660s on Station 4. He is not an audiophile at all though.
Did same thing with my wife she chose 660s on Station 4 and 58x on the third station but said there was so little difference it wasn’t material. She is not an audiophile but would like to be .
Most of these are higher end but the Drop experiment was interesting.
I still say for 99 per cent of the time imo you can go with the 58x. Both are good and there are slight differences but you like what you like.
Has anyone tried these? I’m wondering if there is a different foam attenuator profile that is best suited for each of the HD 650, 600, and 580.
Regarding pads, assuming one would prefer to increase the warmth of the HD 600, would the Yaxi Alcantara pads be effective for that?
I’m finding my HD Precision 580 Black Silk to be my preferred tuning and am exploring ways to bend HD 600 and HD 6XX sonics in that direction, without doing irreversible mods.
I’ve had my HD560s headphones for a month or so. I don’t have enough to experience for a nuanced assessment. BUT - I listened to Miles Davis/Kind of Blue on two occasions, with my Hip Dac v1 and straight from my MacBook, on both Apple Music and Qobuz, and there is a consistent crackling in the trumpets early in “So What” (appears in R). No doubt about it. Can someone else try this? Do I have a bad unit?
FINALLY my HD6XX don’t suck.
I have Massdrop HD6XX on my head right now. I have stated more than once that I hate these headphones and I have tried them on all of my amps and only got somewhat decent performance playing them from the Darkvoice 336SE with EQ. Just now, I was just rolling tubes on my Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline II The Raptor and I finally struck gold. This is the first time Massdrop HD6XX have actually sounded good to me, and they sound buttery smooth!
For anyone wondering what tubes were playing, they are Tung Sol 5687 $100/pair and a Mullard ECC82 (12AU7) $150. Schiit Bifrost 2 as the source.
I am going to roll more tubes now to attempt to create more magic.
In my experience, Senns don’t fully reveal themselves until being driven off an amp with an output impedance of at least 100 ohms, which I believe applies to your Raptor.
I think that you are very correct, ALL the difference.
Apparently, the old RCA 5687 driver tubes that I have been using forever were not a favorable pairing with the Massdrop HD6XX. I rolled in Tung Sol 5687 and Philips JAN 5687WB. Both were a huge improvement over RCA, with the Tung Sol creating an extra wide perceived soundstage. So, don’t let anyone convince you that driver tubes don’t matter much, because in the case of HD6XX it mattered to a HUGE degree.
The GE JAN 563/12AU7A sounded fine and I could live with it’s performance. But the Mullard ECC82 (12AU7), oh man! An entirely improved level of performance. The Mullard brings buttery smoothness and increased micro reverberations for wetter clearer presentation. When combined with the Tung Sol drivers, heaven. I was not aware that the Raptor was this capable. It has brought the HD6XX to the forefront of my headphones, but with the caveat of being driven by a properly paired tube setup. I am SO impressed and pleased right now.
I went ahead and decided to buy the 660s to add to my headphone lineup. I am also going to buy the 6xx next. Reason for this…I just really love Sennheiser’s audiophile lineup. I still only see only small differences between the 58x and the 660s but I will say that I like the fit and look better on the 660s. Other than that the 58x still has the better bass extension without early roll-off while the 660s has a little better imaging but that’s it. And for the most part EQ settings can really make these almost identical either way.
Overall I think I will end things with the 8xx or something like that as my final conclusion for the line-up. But outside of collection purposes after all of these, I still don’t see massive differences and only see small shifts of focus of all the Sennheisers series which I still believe all still have the same tonality in their DNA.
Thanks everyone for their opinion and shared thoughts though.
I tried the Dekoni Audio earpads (multiple ones) on my HD800S. All those earpads make for an extremely comfortable fit but constricted the open soundstage that I cherish in my cans. Sent them all back or refunds.
I looked into Dekoni’s 800 series pads, but per the website they transform the frequency curve. From what I recall they are thicker than the factory pads and move the drivers farther away from the ears. You might be able to regain some of what was lost through heavy EQ, but maybe not. They could have been designed to tame the treble of the original 800 (not S), or create an alternate tuning for a niche market.
