The Sennheiser HD650s don't come cheap. Does their sound justify the price?
Review summary of the Sennheiser HD650:
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 The HD650s are simply great-sounding headphones. They're somewhat cheaply constructed and need good amplification, but serious audiophiles would do no harm in picking up a pair. Release: November 2007. Price: $599.
Pros: Pristine audio-quality
Cons: Not rugged, not easily driven
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Full Sennheiser HD650 Review:
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Design - Very good
Like most of Sennheiser's audiophile headphones, the HD650s are big, soft, and comfortable. The phones themselves are outfitted with deep, well-cushioned muffs, and the headband is similarly lined with cushioning for the top of one's head. Otherwise the headphones are springy but durable and, moreover, surprisingly lightweight: unlike some circumaural phones, they don't feel unduly weighty after a few hours' use.
Also in line with Sennheiser's products, the HD650s look tastefully restrained. While they certainly won't circumvent the cyber-geek goofiness of sporting humongous headphones about town, they at least don't look particularly silly or distracting. Unfortunately, their quality is somewhat sold short by the shiny, plastic material of the frame (you probably wouldn't guess these are $600 headphones just by seeing them), but all in all the look and feel of the HD650s are befitting top-of-the-line audio equipment.
Build - Very good
The build quality of the HD650s is marginally improved over the lower-end Sennheiser HDs. The headband is resistant to breakage yet easily adjustable, and the fabric along the phones is comfortably plushy. The wire connections have been redesigned, making them far less susceptible to being accidentally ripped out.
The main drawback here is, as mentioned, the plastic frame: it's fairly obvious the HD650s could not withstand much duress. This isn't to say we expect to be able to take our headphones to the local Fight Club, and home users who keep their phones secure upon their desktops should have little concern for the HD650s' hardiness. However, frequent travelers will have to take care in how they pack them and, most likely, hope and pray that the TSA is feeling uncharacteristically gentle.
Prospective buyers should also keep in mind that the HD650s do require a fair amount of juice. They're not as difficult to drive as a professional pair of studio monitors, but they're certainly more demanding than even the HD595s. More dynamic recordings, such as the "Across the Universe" issue on Blu-ray, required 75% power from our headphone amp, in comparison to only 30% power for the HD595s to produce a perceptibly equivalent volume. The HD650s are by no means a beastly pair of headphones, but they really should be paired with an amp.
Sound - Excellent
Any and all complaints melt away in the glow of the HD650s' sound reproduction, which is as crystalline as it is powerful. Granted, at this end of the market, improvements in sound-quality are understandably subtle; that is, if you already enjoy a mid-level pair of headphones, then moving up to the HD650s probably won't blow your socks off. However, they will afford a clarity and richness that, with the right source-material, is just shy of a live presentation.
The HD650s are not, of course, aurally neutral. This makes them unsuitable for studio applications but excellent for entertainment purposes (studio monitors sound ‘boring'), and in our tests they never seemed unreasonably colorful. The HD650s are also decidedly less colored than Sennheiser's lower-end offerings, which we've found to be a tad ‘bright.'
Above all, the HD650s are a punchy pair of headphones, with clean, sharp attacks and rich, textured mids. This superb articulation also lends them excellent directionality, especially when paired with a quality virtualizer, all of which combines into a wonderful sense of space and placement. Bass is also awesomely deep and filled with presence, but never ‘boomy' or out-of-control. In particular, these headphones are a percussion-lover's dream.
The HD650s shone in all of our subjective tests: the concussive cannonballs in Telarc's DVD-A issue of the "1812 Overture" were appreciably skull-shattering, the guitars and horns of the AC3 version of The Who's "Tommy" were impressively crisp. Sonic Youth sounded as cacophonously textured as could be expected. The only caveat here, as with all high-end audio equipment, is that the HD650s actually make lower-quality sources sound worse, in that compression artifacts are rendered just as distinctly as the music itself. In other words, 500kb MP3s found in the darkest regions of Bittorrent will be mercilessly chewed up and spat out by these headphones. Those that worship at the altar of FLAC, however, would be well advised to give the HD650s serious consideration.
Price and availability
The Sennheiser HD650 will start selling for $599 () in November 2007.
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