Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Sennheiser 650 headphones

I just purchased A Sennheiser 650 Headphone (supposedly the best) for late night listening ( wouldn't want my m80's to wake the neighberhood).All the headphone forums recommend replacing the Sennheiser plug in cables with high priced ($150-$250)replacement cable for optimum sound quality.Does anyone that has enough experience with cams know whether this is the same hype used to promote high end cable and interconnects? I don't mind spending the money if they really work,but I really don't feel like dishing out that kind of money for a piece of worthless junk.

i would say listen to the 650's, and if they sound pretty good the way they are, then leave 'em alone.

i dont know for sure, but i would reckon the "replacement cable" theory is about as much hog-wash as the 'monster speaker cable' theory.

and how do the 650's sound? i have been wanting to get a good pair of headphones myself. do me a favor.. put them on, crank up some music, and have someone sit about 10 feet away from you, and ask them if they can hear the music coming from the headphones.. and if they can, how loud is it?

bigjohn

John,

You would be able to hear the music coming from the 650s as they are an open design.I have some Sen 280 pros that are of that the closed design,they might work for your situation.

Arthur,

I wouldn't buy into the cable replacment either.The 650s are the top of the line.I can't see them being supplied with a cable that would affect their performance in a negitive way.

I'm going to be controversial and say that I heard a clear difference in the Sennheiser 580 stock cable and a replacement cable I got.

That said, I think you would be far better served by getting a headphone amp. The 650s are very power hungry (your average headphone has a 32ohm-64ohm impedance - the 650s have a 300ohm impedance), and your regular old headphone jack might not provide enough juice to adequately power them.

there always has to be a boat-rocker!!

BTW- wid, i found some 280 pros online for $89 bucks.. i am interested..

bigjohn

Just walk away, Bren...

Bren R.

John, you can definitely hear them from ten feet away, enough for my wife to ask me to lower the volume ,but they are a fantastic sounding set of cams, and Adam, I do have a Rega Ear head amp.By the way what cable do you use to replace the stock one? Does is give a subtle improvement or a clearely audible one?

That seems to be a pretty good price.I got mine from ecost,they were refurbs for $63 and change.It seems they don't have the refurbed one right now.

Art, the principles of physics which are applied in audio engineering aren't mysteriously repealed when headphones rather than speakers are being connected up. The exotic headphone cable thing is the same total nonsense that we often read about regarding interconnects and speaker wire.

Buy them (I mean HD-280). For the closed headphones these are among the best. I've been using them for 6 months and I'm very happy with the sound and build quality. Detailed but not fatiguing, excellent midrange and decent bass - and totally isolated from the outside world. Will have problems hearing your phone ring though.

You would probbly be better off spending money on a seperate headphone amp (depending on what sources your using and what you have them plugged into now) than you would by buying a replacement cable. Perhaps you could biwire them

I’m sure you’ve heard this before..., don’t play headphones too loud. I have a bad case of tinnitus that I blame to high volume headphone listening. Now, I don’t get anywhere near a set of headphones, ever... :0

Haoleb - I don't think biwiring would help a single driver speaker (headphone).

Asher - The improvement I heard from the Cardas cable replacement was mainly in bass impact and a slightly more forward sound overall - not drastic by any means, but I heard it *shrug*. But then, this is nonsense, so you should ignore what I just said.

Looking back I probably would've been better served by putting that money towards a better source. That's the one area besides switching headphones where I've heard clear (ie not subtle at all) improvements and differences.

I was just joking about that.... It could however, the two wires in parallel means that the resistance will be less than the least amount of either wire. The 4 gauge wires im using for my phones seem to really open up the highs joking!

In reply to:

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The 4 gauge wires im using for my phones seem to really open up the highs

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Tsk tsk... only two wires are used for telephony... the red/yellow wire (ring) and green/black (tip) in station wire... once you get into CAT3 or 5 twisted pairs, first pair is White(w/blue) - tip, Blue(w/white) - ring... then the orange pair... usually you don't have to go further than that in your house (though it's green, brown, grey to finish up Group 1)... then the secondary colors change from white to red, black, yellow and purple in that order I think... I need a mnemonic for those - give you a total of 25 pairs in a binder.

Cliff Clavin, eat your heart out!

Bren R.

Speaking of Sennheiser headphones... Does anyone know where I can get replacement earpads for my old but trusty hd414 set? The yellow ones turned to dust years ago.

Wid and all,

The problem I always have with the closed headphone designs is that they never seem to fit my pinnae.

Regards,

Cat 5 is 4 twisted pairs, but you have to untwist the wires, reorder them as follows:

orange-white
orange
green-white
blue
blue-white
green
brown-white
brown

then align them all and jam them into an RJ45 connector without messing up the wire order, and then crimp.

We rewired our office last year, including punching down all 6 jacks at each desk. Boy was that fun.

Those fluted, rather grotesque, protuberances that extend out from each ear canal are called pinnae.

Well after having to look up pinnae I must say Alan that sure don't sound to good

Lorenzo, you should be able to get replacement pads from Sennheiser USA. In fact, here's a direct link:

http://shop.sennheiserusa.com/retail2002/ProductDetails.aspx?direct_cat=Parts&direct_prod=019545

Thanks Adam, I am in Canada so it doesn't look like they are set up to ship here but I will try calling them on Monday.