high performance
headphones
models $500 and under
models over $500
go to: noise-cancelling headphones | in-ear headphones A perfect example would be Holly Cole’s performance of the Tom Waits song “Take Me Home” from Temptation [Metro Blue]. The track opens with Cole softly whispering “here we go” to her sidemen before the music begins—a detail the HD 650s rendered with exceptional clarity, then expands, and then begins to unfold as bassist David Piltch and pianist Aaron Davis join in. The acoustic bass is recorded at high levels that can be tough to handle, but the HD 650s kept the low end perfectly but powerfully under control. What really floored me, though, was the way the Sennheisers nailed the subtlest of inflections in Cole’s voice, making the whole track come alive in the process. The Sennheisers consistently provided an up-close-andpersonal view of the music. Sometimes, though, this means getting more detail than you bargained for. On “You Were Always There” from Lyle Lovett’s My Baby Don’t Tolerate [Lost Highway], for example, the HD 650s reveal that both Lovett’s voice and Russ Kunkel’s cymbals are so closely mic’d that their sound can momentarily become hard-edged and aggressive—problems that other ’phones won’t always expose (probably because they 64 HEADPHONES REVIEW COLLECTION
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can’t). My point is that the HD 650s are sonic truth-tellers, at times almost to a fault.
COMFORT FACTOR At first I found the HD 650s squeezed the sides of my head much more firmly than other ’phones did, but after experimenting with the Sennheiser’s sliding earpiece arms, I eventually found a position that was more relaxed, yet not overly loose. Hint: if the HD 650s grip your head too firmly, try lowering the earpieces relative to the headband.
BOttom Line The HD 650 must be considered one of the benchmark products—if not the outright “gold standard”—in it price class, because it does all things well while exhibiting few if any weaknesses. While there are a handful of ‘phones that can perhaps outperform the Sennheisers in one or two areas, few if any offer a more balanced and refined set of sonic virtues overall. Indeed, the HD 650’s
only “shortcoming”—if you can call it that—is a tendency to sound almost hyper-revealing at times, owing to its accurate but slightly analytical-sounding highs. But it’s better to have too much clarity than not enough, right? PB
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• Highly transparent sound, from top to bottom. • Tons of definition, with excellent resolution of low-level details. • A great do-all headphone with no significant weaknesses. • We got your “gold standard” right here … • Expensive, but worth it. • Finicky listeners might find highs sound more “analytical” than “sweet” • HD 650s grip your head more firmly than most other ’phones do.
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