I've really been enjoying this channel. As a musician/hobbyist, it's really fun learning all the different equipment and what may work best for my studio. I've searched all throughout your channel, and I don't see any videos dedicated to studio monitor controllers. I think it would be great if you could give insight to monitor controllers. So people like passive (Big knob, etc.), but I think I'd prefer an active controller. Even getting some insight on something like the Behringer Control2USB all the way through something like the M905 or the API MC531. So many choices and decisions, and that last thing I'd want for a monitor controller to do is change the sound in any way shape or form for the worst. Take care, and thanks for all the great content!
Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying my videos. Great suggestion on monitor controllers, they are one of the most critical components as everything we hear goes through them. I have been assessing options myself after recently doing a pretty significant upgrade to my converters and I will definitely cover this topic. Cheers!
great headphones for shooters, you can pinpoint sound locations very well. I hear footsteps and other enemy actions my teammates can only dream of hearing.
I believe the HD490 Pro is even better for mixing, more comfortable and Sennheiser has done a great job extending both the bass and treble responses. The HD600 has a boost in the 1-3kHz region, then nose-dive after that, the HD490 extends it all the way to 8kHz, so you can hear bad mixing more clearly.
Great review. The HD600 are definitely a legendary and reliable pair of headphones for critical listening and mixing applications. I would also like to see a review of the AKG K712 PRO open back studio headphones, these are headphones made for "precise listening, mixing and mastering". I would love to see them be reviewed and measured. Thanks for the awesome content.
Amazing review!! Can you please recommend the best headphone for an aspiring voice actor? My primary purpose is to monitor my own voice recording and recordings by other voice actors. I pay most attention to the micro accents and nuances on the spoken words. Thanks!
If you've had these for a few years with a lot of use, and you feel the sound isn't quite what is was when new, you must replace the earpads. Old worn out ear pads really take away from the sound. Particularly the already weak bass response and airiness to the treble fade away as the pads wear down.
I was able to compensate for the lacking bass with Sound ID Reference (formerly sonarworks), they have a premade custom profile for these that makes them sound much better.
I appreciate your objective evaluations. I'm curious about headphones with USB and/or bluetooth connectivity. A lot of console gaming has limited connectivity issues, so I want transparent-sounding headphones that actually work. Ideally, if you could provide open-back and closed-back options, that'd be swell.
Thank you so much for this important review😊. In your opinion, which headphones are the best if I want to consider all the important elements in the sound - neutrality, details, resolution, and soundstage? The Sennheiser HD 600 or other headphones? Thanks in advance
Sir for gaming, console only, which headphone would you recommend? mic do not matter, i want wide soundstage and bass and a technical question, what makes soundstage wide? is it the frequencies like the hi res ones that typically have 5hz-40hz?
I have a set of HD650 and have been working with them. I like to get some good hours on headphones before I post a review, but it shouldn’t be too long before I have one ready to post.
I've never been a fan of the Sennheisers I have listened to, and listening to the live/Memorex here, so to speak, I can see why. Opinions are always subjective, obviously, and these phones do all the wrong things with their shortcomings, to my ears. If I had a digital equalizer back then, since the analog versions back then made my ears bleed, I might have been more amenable to them. Even the old SR5s I listen to now require some pretty severe shaping at the top and bottom. I should go in and redo the compensation network, because they did a lousy job of it. They are very bass heavy, and very top end heavy. With some properly applied EQ they sound great. I should put an analyzer on them, but I certainly don't have your equipment. It would be a cheap instrumentation mic stuck through a board. :-) It would also be interesting to see a curve generated with a board and the head, using the same mic as well, to see the deltas. Often when I do tests like that I am surprised at how little difference there is, but sometimes it is massive. Most lie between, as you well know. When you look at frequency response in today's on the head transducers of any quality at all it is always pretty good, but I would prefer if they would design in the time domain, rather than frequency. The flat frequency response automatically falls out of that IIRC, but there are other benefits gained. If you listen to mics like the Earthworks, you will see what I mean. I don't think that frequency response is by any means the be all end all of good sound, although it is one legitimate heavy driver. In fact I don't think that ALL of the audio specs tested and designed to today guarantee truly great sound vs not. Very lousy specs always generate lousy sound, in my experience, but really good specs do not always relate to really good sound. And some specs we use today, at the typical levels you see in relatively good equipment mean nothing, like a THD of 0.01% vs 0.1%. It has been demonstrated many times in double blinds of even trained ears that that cannot be remotely differentiated. In fact you have to go to about another order of magnitude on the larger one before pretty much the best listeners can even begin to hear it on the best music suited to the task. Soap box warning: Kind of like some sound engineers dragging notes constantly to the zero error level, when the best trained (non pitch perfect) ears can detect at about 5 cents. Autotune should virtually be trashed, IMO. When they apply that to a truly well trained singer, other than to clear up a couple of notes in a song THAT THE MUSICIAN THAT CREATED IT agrees should be corrected, it can just destroy the nuance of a performance. As usual, off in tangent city...sorry.
Thanks for sharing and no worries about “tangents” here, I often do the same thing… The more information, ideas, and opinions we all share the better off the whole community is. With so many interesting ways to evaluate audio it is difficult to know what to include…I could go on for hours, but it probably wouldn’t play too well on RUclips… Love the “Is it Live or Is it Memorex” reference…Cheers!
is that true that HD600 is just good for music that have emphasys or as the main instrument vocals? I'm searching about and found lot informations that HD 600 has a significant drop in bass and the 3k hz is very pronounced and in front of everything. Thanks for the great work on the video :)
@LuckySeven50507 i got the hd600 but defintely gonna get another headphone that fits more with my needs that are focused in modern music. I don't recommend hd600 for those ones that are in the same way
@LuckySeven50507 thanks for the suggestion bro! I'll search about it. I work specificly with electronic music and games so I miss lot of low end in the hd600 and the other pretty dramatic thing is the space of the sounds, the soundstage is not enough, is so center L and R and it really don't go too much in the space and in the details of elements in all different places and heights in my opnion
Hello how would you describe these against the HD400 you reviewed which are basically the 560s with different look and coil cable. Comfort and sound quality for spoken word, editing and transcribing (separation in instruments) or other recommendations? Open back design. Thank you so much very informative and new way of reviewing headphones. From a professional doing professional work! Thanks
Glad to help out! Both are very competent options for spoken word production. The 600 has the edge in detail and seems less affected by ambient noise even though both are open-back. When used for mixing, again both can produce audio that translated well across a variety of playback devices. While subjective, I find the comfort of the 600 superior as the 400 tend to apply uneven pressure from the earcups (more on the bottom vs the top). This is due to limited range of motion on the 400 earcups. Another option would be the K702. These have excellent separation of instruments and deliver superior speech intelligibility for voiceover applications. I find them comfortable for longer sessions, but some have said they feel pressure from the band on top of the head. I hope this helps out!
Glad you enjoyed it! I have been testing a set of NDH30 for some time and will have a full review coming soon. I am trying not have unrealistic expectations of them being a Neumann product with a $700 price tag. They have excellent build quality, very low distortion, and a generally neutral sound profile except of a slight scoop around 1-3kHz. To my ears they are clear with very good imaging and soundstage, but I was expecting more detail…their sound is on the “smooth” side. The ND30 offer a number of objective performance metrics that are superior to the HD600 and they should be at more than double the price. They are not the “U67 of headphones” imo but they hold their own very well at the $700 price point. Setting budget limitations aside, the biggest issue for me is that the performance improvement moving from the $300-400 price point to the $700 is not as compelling as is could be imo. Many will disagree, and that’s absolutely fine as the physics of our ears makes sound very subjective, but that is my take ahead of sharing objective measurements in my upcoming review. Hope this helps out!
@@askdrtk Of course! Thank you very much for such a comprehensive answer. Your observations intrigued me because when I replaced the original Sennheiser pads in my HD 600 with ZMF (lambskin perforated) pads, the sound stage widened significantly, there was more bass, the wind instruments became more holographic, the midrange receded a little, and the treble smoothed out without losing detail. Everything you just wrote about NDH 30 seems close to this result so I’m even more interested in a direct comparison. And maybe one more thing if you don’t mind… I know you liked the HD 400 pros - which one do you find more useful for checking the mixes? HD 600s or the HD 400 pros?
can you try the Beyerdynamic TYGR 300r if you can get ahold of a set? Test with stock pads and silver pads for 880 as well as the inner pads to see if there is a difference?
well, i know the HD660S2 extend deeper into the lows out of all of them, also both models with 's' in them have wider soundstage, possibly more resolution. funny thing is i've been comparing graphs between all of them recently! 660s2 will be my next purchase, but not at full retail price...i'll wait about 5 years!! 😆
I use Cold as Ice by Particle House for the music tests. It is royalty free (necessary for RUclips) and is available from Epidemic Sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a lot of play on RUclips.
This headphone alone is nothing special. But the value increases, when you plug it into better AMPs. Plug it into $200 Solid State its a $250 headphone. Plug it into $400 tube, it's a $800 headphone. Plug it into MHA 200 it's a $2000 headphone.
Brilliant review as usual!
I really appreciate the effort you make to show us an objective opinion based on data and analysis.
Much appreciated, I try to help out where I am able.
I've really been enjoying this channel. As a musician/hobbyist, it's really fun learning all the different equipment and what may work best for my studio. I've searched all throughout your channel, and I don't see any videos dedicated to studio monitor controllers. I think it would be great if you could give insight to monitor controllers. So people like passive (Big knob, etc.), but I think I'd prefer an active controller. Even getting some insight on something like the Behringer Control2USB all the way through something like the M905 or the API MC531. So many choices and decisions, and that last thing I'd want for a monitor controller to do is change the sound in any way shape or form for the worst.
Take care, and thanks for all the great content!
Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying my videos. Great suggestion on monitor controllers, they are one of the most critical components as everything we hear goes through them. I have been assessing options myself after recently doing a pretty significant upgrade to my converters and I will definitely cover this topic. Cheers!
great headphones for shooters, you can pinpoint sound locations very well. I hear footsteps and other enemy actions my teammates can only dream of hearing.
I believe the HD490 Pro is even better for mixing, more comfortable and Sennheiser has done a great job extending both the bass and treble responses. The HD600 has a boost in the 1-3kHz region, then nose-dive after that, the HD490 extends it all the way to 8kHz, so you can hear bad mixing more clearly.
I own both and I agree with you
Great review. The HD600 are definitely a legendary and reliable pair of headphones for critical listening and mixing applications. I would also like to see a review of the AKG K712 PRO open back studio headphones, these are headphones made for "precise listening, mixing and mastering". I would love to see them be reviewed and measured. Thanks for the awesome content.
Bright mids, softened treble, tame bass is how I describe these. Pleasant. With some eq they do fine for the price paid, to my ears.
Thanks for sharing your take on these, that’s how I hear them as well.
Amazing review!! Can you please recommend the best headphone for an aspiring voice actor? My primary purpose is to monitor my own voice recording and recordings by other voice actors. I pay most attention to the micro accents and nuances on the spoken words. Thanks!
HD600 is a great pair of headphones. I have been using it for years.
Thanks for sharing…I purchased my first set in the late 90s and have had a one ever since.
you use for mixing and mastering or very technical purposes? Wich genres of music you applying it
?
Thank you for the detailed review.
Waiting to see the review of Aune AR5000 , ATH-R70x compared to HD600.
If you've had these for a few years with a lot of use, and you feel the sound isn't quite what is was when new, you must replace the earpads. Old worn out ear pads really take away from the sound. Particularly the already weak bass response and airiness to the treble fade away as the pads wear down.
Agree 100%, I have two of these and have changed the pads several times.
I was able to compensate for the lacking bass with Sound ID Reference (formerly sonarworks), they have a premade custom profile for these that makes them sound much better.
to have big bass try equalizer apo with peace gui +sonarworks. very nice combo
I appreciate your objective evaluations. I'm curious about headphones with USB and/or bluetooth connectivity. A lot of console gaming has limited connectivity issues, so I want transparent-sounding headphones that actually work. Ideally, if you could provide open-back and closed-back options, that'd be swell.
Great review :=)
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for this important review😊.
In your opinion, which headphones are the best if I want to consider all the important elements in the sound - neutrality, details, resolution, and soundstage? The Sennheiser HD 600 or other headphones?
Thanks in advance
Why driver should we use for these headphones?
Sir for gaming, console only, which headphone would you recommend? mic do not matter, i want wide soundstage and bass and a technical question, what makes soundstage wide? is it the frequencies like the hi res ones that typically have 5hz-40hz?
Great review. Are you planning to take a look at the HD650 anytime soon?
I have a set of HD650 and have been working with them. I like to get some good hours on headphones before I post a review, but it shouldn’t be too long before I have one ready to post.
@@askdrtk dope! Can't wait.. 👌🏽
That sine sweep does my head in
I keep reducing the level in the videos for the sweep, I’m thinking about adding a 5 second “warning” before that segment…
@@askdrtk That would be helpful. I'm one of those who have very sensitive hearing and can hear higher frequencies than the average.
I've never been a fan of the Sennheisers I have listened to, and listening to the live/Memorex here, so to speak, I can see why. Opinions are always subjective, obviously, and these phones do all the wrong things with their shortcomings, to my ears. If I had a digital equalizer back then, since the analog versions back then made my ears bleed, I might have been more amenable to them. Even the old SR5s I listen to now require some pretty severe shaping at the top and bottom. I should go in and redo the compensation network, because they did a lousy job of it. They are very bass heavy, and very top end heavy. With some properly applied EQ they sound great. I should put an analyzer on them, but I certainly don't have your equipment. It would be a cheap instrumentation mic stuck through a board. :-)
It would also be interesting to see a curve generated with a board and the head, using the same mic as well, to see the deltas. Often when I do tests like that I am surprised at how little difference there is, but sometimes it is massive. Most lie between, as you well know. When you look at frequency response in today's on the head transducers of any quality at all it is always pretty good, but I would prefer if they would design in the time domain, rather than frequency. The flat frequency response automatically falls out of that IIRC, but there are other benefits gained. If you listen to mics like the Earthworks, you will see what I mean.
I don't think that frequency response is by any means the be all end all of good sound, although it is one legitimate heavy driver. In fact I don't think that ALL of the audio specs tested and designed to today guarantee truly great sound vs not. Very lousy specs always generate lousy sound, in my experience, but really good specs do not always relate to really good sound. And some specs we use today, at the typical levels you see in relatively good equipment mean nothing, like a THD of 0.01% vs 0.1%. It has been demonstrated many times in double blinds of even trained ears that that cannot be remotely differentiated. In fact you have to go to about another order of magnitude on the larger one before pretty much the best listeners can even begin to hear it on the best music suited to the task. Soap box warning: Kind of like some sound engineers dragging notes constantly to the zero error level, when the best trained (non pitch perfect) ears can detect at about 5 cents. Autotune should virtually be trashed, IMO. When they apply that to a truly well trained singer, other than to clear up a couple of notes in a song THAT THE MUSICIAN THAT CREATED IT agrees should be corrected, it can just destroy the nuance of a performance. As usual, off in tangent city...sorry.
Thanks for sharing and no worries about “tangents” here, I often do the same thing… The more information, ideas, and opinions we all share the better off the whole community is. With so many interesting ways to evaluate audio it is difficult to know what to include…I could go on for hours, but it probably wouldn’t play too well on RUclips… Love the “Is it Live or Is it Memorex” reference…Cheers!
is that true that HD600 is just good for music that have emphasys or as the main instrument vocals? I'm searching about and found lot informations that HD 600 has a significant drop in bass and the 3k hz is very pronounced and in front of everything. Thanks for the great work on the video :)
@LuckySeven50507 i got the hd600 but defintely gonna get another headphone that fits more with my needs that are focused in modern music. I don't recommend hd600 for those ones that are in the same way
@LuckySeven50507 thanks for the suggestion bro! I'll search about it. I work specificly with electronic music and games so I miss lot of low end in the hd600 and the other pretty dramatic thing is the space of the sounds, the soundstage is not enough, is so center L and R and it really don't go too much in the space and in the details of elements in all different places and heights in my opnion
Hello how would you describe these against the HD400 you reviewed which are basically the 560s with different look and coil cable. Comfort and sound quality for spoken word, editing and transcribing (separation in instruments) or other recommendations? Open back design. Thank you so much very informative and new way of reviewing headphones. From a professional doing professional work! Thanks
Glad to help out! Both are very competent options for spoken word production. The 600 has the edge in detail and seems less affected by ambient noise even though both are open-back. When used for mixing, again both can produce audio that translated well across a variety of playback devices. While subjective, I find the comfort of the 600 superior as the 400 tend to apply uneven pressure from the earcups (more on the bottom vs the top). This is due to limited range of motion on the 400 earcups.
Another option would be the K702. These have excellent separation of instruments and deliver superior speech intelligibility for voiceover applications. I find them comfortable for longer sessions, but some have said they feel pressure from the band on top of the head. I hope this helps out!
@@askdrtk thank you so much! I’ll look into the k702 was also looking at k712 and k612 from AKG.
Thanks for the video! I have a question - how would you compare them to NDH 30?
Glad you enjoyed it! I have been testing a set of NDH30 for some time and will have a full review coming soon. I am trying not have unrealistic expectations of them being a Neumann product with a $700 price tag. They have excellent build quality, very low distortion, and a generally neutral sound profile except of a slight scoop around 1-3kHz. To my ears they are clear with very good imaging and soundstage, but I was expecting more detail…their sound is on the “smooth” side. The ND30 offer a number of objective performance metrics that are superior to the HD600 and they should be at more than double the price. They are not the “U67 of headphones” imo but they hold their own very well at the $700 price point. Setting budget limitations aside, the biggest issue for me is that the performance improvement moving from the $300-400 price point to the $700 is not as compelling as is could be imo. Many will disagree, and that’s absolutely fine as the physics of our ears makes sound very subjective, but that is my take ahead of sharing objective measurements in my upcoming review. Hope this helps out!
@@askdrtk Of course! Thank you very much for such a comprehensive answer. Your observations intrigued me because when I replaced the original Sennheiser pads in my HD 600 with ZMF (lambskin perforated) pads, the sound stage widened significantly, there was more bass, the wind instruments became more holographic, the midrange receded a little, and the treble smoothed out without losing detail. Everything you just wrote about NDH 30 seems close to this result so I’m even more interested in a direct comparison. And maybe one more thing if you don’t mind… I know you liked the HD 400 pros - which one do you find more useful for checking the mixes? HD 600s or the HD 400 pros?
can you try the Beyerdynamic TYGR 300r if you can get ahold of a set? Test with stock pads and silver pads for 880 as well as the inner pads to see if there is a difference?
I’ve been wanting to try those…I’ll see if I can get a hold of a set.
Hi please review the moondrop para or the sundara. Thanks
Thanks for the suggestion...on my list!
Can you please try hd58x?
does anyone know if and where there is any difference between the HD600, HD660S AND HD660S2 on the audio spectrum,
well, i know the HD660S2 extend deeper into the lows out of all of them, also both models with 's' in them have wider soundstage, possibly more resolution. funny thing is i've been comparing graphs between all of them recently!
660s2 will be my next purchase, but not at full retail price...i'll wait about 5 years!! 😆
ruclips.net/video/SsA8qSDfRBs/видео.htmlsi=YjeELmmpqDQ0gJoz
Looking for AKG Headphon tests Akg k 92 and akg k 245
Thanks for the suggestion, I will see if I can get these in for review.
I think I've heard that music before on someone else's channel
I use Cold as Ice by Particle House for the music tests. It is royalty free (necessary for RUclips) and is available from Epidemic Sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a lot of play on RUclips.
chad
This headphone alone is nothing special. But the value increases, when you plug it into better AMPs.
Plug it into $200 Solid State its a $250 headphone.
Plug it into $400 tube, it's a $800 headphone.
Plug it into MHA 200 it's a $2000 headphone.
Why? Aren't they just boosting the volume?
nah
HD600 can’t even compete with sub $100 IEMs anymore. I can’t imagine spending the money on one in 2023, it’s badly outdated by this point.
Serious question, not trying to be mean but are you deaf?
Could you name a few iems you're thinking of?
@@iroquaijam Dunu Titan S or Truthear Zero Red.
@scorpioassmodeusgtx1811 but what about other headphones and not iems?
Nah . You're delusional