My guess is that’s why ZMF’s Verité are so revered.
Instead of using pure beryllium, they opted for beryllium infused biodyna (I think I’ve read 20% somewhere).
That seems to result in a sweet combination of speed and a more natural timbre.
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HiFiMan does seem like a good choice!
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Yes, I’ve own the 650s, had them for years; they are very good. Then I decided to go for an upgrade and almost no one has anything bad to say about Clears. They look great, good build quality and stellar reviews. Thought I couldn’t go wrong 
Thanks for the recommendations, ZMFs were on my radar but there is almost no where you can go and demo them. At least in the Seattle area.
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I am not sure if I can point to something and say this is the problem, when I start listening to them – it’s resolving, it’s fun. It gradually gets annoying, and after about 45 mins, I just can’t listen to them anymore 
. As if I was listening to extremely loud music, and I listen to music at fairly low volume.
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The biggest thing that fatigues me, is spikes in the upper mid range and lower treble area. The one headphone that really set this off for me, is the Sony MDR Z7. I really loved the comfort of that headphone but the there was quite a spike in the upper mids, that always got me fatigued after a long listening session. I learned a lot from this headphone and what to avoid, with future purchases.
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I have a hard time correlating the material used in a headphone driver with its actual imparting of characterictics from the driver material. I have other headphones that do not used beryllium, and they are to me mcuh more irrating on the high end than the Clears.
Its easy to jump to a conclusion with simple analogies which may or may not be really accurate in the underlying experience.
That said I am not trying to take away from your less than perfect experience with the Clears, its just time to get something that will really make you happier for sure…
Alex
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I know what you mean. For me it’s not the frequency response of the Clear that causes fatigue (I never felt I had to EQ them) but how dynamic or punchy they are, although I never had issues with them at low volume. When the Elear came out, at first I thought they sounded a cut above most other headphones I had heard because of how dynamic they were but after a few minutes it felt like Javier Bardem was firing a bolt stunner at my head. When the Clear came out I found them to be much more tolerable in that regard, which is one of the reasons I bought them. I have since moved on to ZMF Verite in large part because of how much less fatiguing they are and because, like the Clear, I do not feel like I need to EQ them. That said, I do at times miss the dynamic nature of the Clear in comparison to the Verite, which can at times can sound a bit boring.
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What do you have them paired with?
They’re not a particularly bright headphone, where as the HD650 is definitely on the darker side of things, so it may be what you’re running the HD650 with isn’t a great match with the Clears.
EQ will help.
Obviously different headphones are a possibility.
Get to know the Seattle crowd here, @TylersEclectic, @antdroid and I, as a starting point, have most of the ZMF cans in our respective collections.
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@S_P also a few others in the area too like @lichie and @westyjeff and a few others i can’t think of off the top of my head have or had ZMF headphones.
ZMF is all around us.
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The most funny thing of the day!!! Love that movie!!
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Roddy Piper…
God rest his soul. 
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I’m in the Everett area, my ZMF Aeolus can be available for listening with some planning. They sound wonderful and non fatiguing on my Cayin HA-300!!
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I don’t have an amp for my HD650, as I listen at fairly low volumes;To my ears, I find it more pleasing to listen to with the Khadas Tone Board (this totally may be my imagination :-))
I paired the Clears with Monolith (Dual AKM 4493 DACs & Dual AAA-788 Modules) that I borrowed from a colleague, but then I had the same problem with just the Khadas Tone Board. I ended up returning the Clears, and I wasn’t sure if they were going to work long term and if I was going to be able to find a solution. So I didn’t want to put many hours on them.
I am now looking for a different headphone
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The HD-650 sounds better with adequate power, even at low volumes. I do not really understand why this is, but it is.
Maybe 40 years ago, when talking about the same phenomena with regard to loudspeakers, I recall magazine writers saying that amps with more than adequate power controlled speaker positioning better. Maybe that’s bogus. I think they were saying that a dynamic driver had less movement slop when well powered.
I don’t often listen at high volumes, but I can tell in an instant on content like streaming FLAC if I am coming from low power iPad audio, though a Dragonfly DAC/AMP, the iFi xDSD as DAC/AMP, or with the xDSD in DAC, going to the Lyr3. The xDSD does drive the HD-650 well, so it is possible that the additional quality I hear with the Lyr3 is the tube hybrid, or that it’s amplification is just better than the xDSD, however I suspect there is a power component because it is more obvious as the volume increases.
@Torq might have something to add. And there may be psycho or physio acoustic factors at work also.
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I think your observations here are completely correct. Sure, it will make sound when you plug it into an ipad, but it’s not great sound.
A headphone’s impedance and efficiency changes with frequency, so it’s not hard to believe that amps with more power - as well as being able to accurately control super fine variations in power - will better drive the HD650.
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I was astonished at the difference, @ProfFalkin, I’d had HD-580s since they came out, so I was familiar with the house sound. Even used my old Headroom Airhead for amplification. The 6xx’s were better, slightly different. I thought they were great with the DFB/Jitterbug, but @Torq told me (I didn’t believe him) that they were not being driven adequately. Like @S_P, I wasn’t listening near “loud” levels.
After getting the xDSD and the Lyr3, I made a note to be very careful before discounting Ian’s words.
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I’ve always taken this as a function of the ability to span the performance envelope. The electrical signal combines frequency and volume information – without enough power either the frequencies or the dynamics will be truncated and shaky. With more than minimum power the amp is never straining and can fully transmit the signal.
The same principles apply to race cars, airplanes, and athletes. “More than enough” helps to work around unavoidable slippage, leakage, and losses (wind, sand, etc.)
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This is tempting, I think I want to get an amp for my HD-650s , before I start looking into new headphones. Any recommendations? Do 650/6XX sound better with the THX 789?
My stock pads have also worn out quite a bit, I have been considering the Dekoni pads but given the $70 cost, thought I’d put them towards new headphones.
I think that has to do with the wild swings in impedance they exhibit: they are 300 Ω at 1 kHz, but 500 Ω around 200 Hz if I recall correctly. 500 Ω is a lot and requires quite a bit of power to correctly produce sound. I experienced this myself and that’s actually one of the tests I run with amps and other stuff I review (e.g. DAPs, DACs with integrated amps, etc): the lower-powered ones aren’t able to drive the HD 650 properly.
As for the “fatiguing” bit, as of late I find myself being extremely sensitive to upper midrange and mid-treble. Even small peaks at 5 kHz and 8 kHz are completely intolerable, to the point I feel actual pain. I do wonder why that’s the case: could it be stress, prolonged headphones usage, getting old (but I’m just 28…!)? Have any of you experienced momentary additional sensitivity to certain frequencies?
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