I'm not new to the Sennheiser HD 600,
650, 6XX, whatever it is you want to call it. I bought my pair of them along
with a selection of cans from the likes of Bear Dynamic, AKG, Ody, and Audio
Technica back in late 2013 when I was
working on a review of some other audio file headphones, and I realized that I
lacked the context to discuss their place in the market. Anyway, while I was
able to achieve the context I desired, for one reason or another, I never
actually got around to reviewing any of those contextual headphones. In the case
of the Sennheiser HD600 specifically, it
was because while I loved them and they became my still to this day daily driver
about a year later, they're very, very
similar replacement. The HD 650s already
existed and I wasn't going to run out and drop another $400 on the same damn
product so that I could make a video that would already be 10 years past its
best before date. But there's good news.
Massdrop is in the house with their Sennheiser HD 6X Massdrop edition, aka
the excuse to have Brandon shoot seven minutes of gorgeous B-roll of a
20-year-old product that I think is awesome. Not to mention, spoiler alert,
an unbelievable
value. Corsair's ML fans feature
magnetic levitation technology and custom engineered rotors to provide a
high performance, low-noise experience. Learn more at the link in the video
description. So, let's kick this off with what
exactly makes the Sennheiser HD 6XX a
Massdrop edition product? Not much. Compared to the HD
650, it features a shorter cord that terminates in a 3 and 12 mm jack instead
of a quarterinch jack. Oh, there's an adapter to quarter inch if you want. And
the plastic color scheme has been changed from a speckled gray to a really
dark almost black matte blue that feels
a little cheapo. And that's it. They're matte
blue HD 650s with a 50-inch cable and a
smaller connector on the end. And oh right, wait for it. This is where I
dropped the big change, the bomb. They've got a cheaper black and white
packaging. I've got my confirmation from Sennheiser directly that unlike previous
Massdrop edition products like the K7XX, nothing has been altered
acoustically. So then for the uninitiated, what are the HD 650s and
why should you care? They are along with
their close siblings the HD600 and HD 580 one of the most famous audio file
headphones in the world whose performance has been chased by other
manufacturers at this price point since the release of the original over 20
years ago in 1993 and whose sound
signature I would say even more so than the flagship HD800 series is
identifiable as the Sennheiser sound
since from my experience it bears more similarity to the company's lower-end
products, just better. So, that is to
say, they're not accurate in the same sense that a studio monitor might be
accurate. They don't have a totally flat frequency response curve, but this is by
design to make them less fatiguing and more natural sounding on human ears
where they're intended to be worn. And they don't make the mistake that many
mainstream headphones do today of overdoing the bass at the expense of the
clarity of everything else because that's what sells to millennials. They
sound great whether you listen to them out of the box or tune the EQ because
you do like a little bit more thump. On the subject of out of the box,
the included cables are replaceable. So you can go bananas replacing them and
you can run out and buy a audio Valhalla 2 headphone amplifier. But in
spite of their 300 ohm impedance, they also destroy just about anything else at
this price point running off of an iPhone. So just because you don't have
additional budget for an amp today doesn't mean I would stay away from
them. With that said though, even fans of the HD600 series don't believe that
they are perfect. They are not a fashion
statement and are definitely part of the reason that the original Monster Beats
by Dre was able to storm onto the personal audio scene in 2008 by not
looking stupid. Even though they didn't work without a battery in them, suffered
from subpar build quality and sounded like thumpy ass. But at least the HD600
series is comfortable. Clamping pressure out of the box might be a little tighter
than some would like and the ear cup foam isn't the softest memory foam known
to man or anything like that. That award is reserved for the Bose QC35s, but they
break in very nicely over time to the point where it's easy for me to forget
that I'm wearing mine entirely. But a part of that too, I think, is the
openbacked design of the HD600 series.
The benefit of this is the natural sound of the music, movies, or games that
you're listening to. With the drawback being though that ambient noise can be
disruptive and well, let's just say I wouldn't flip on some really loud angry
porn with your mom in the next room cuz everyone around you knows exactly what
you're listening to. Which leads me then pretty well into a conclusion that is
both obvious and very difficult for me
to write. On the one hand, I feel the need to defend myself from the incoming
barrage of comments criticizing me for giving a positive review to a product
available exclusively from one of our sponsors. But on the other hand, I can
use literally any headphone I want. I
literally have more than one shelf of
headphones and headsets ranging anywhere from 50 bucks to over a thousand. And
these or ones almost exactly like them are the ones on my desk at home. So for
some of you that won't be enough and that's fine. Line of shield tips,
whatever. For the rest of you, go grab some HD 6Xs, assuming there are any
left. The 350 that I paid secondhand
felt like a good deal already. $200 brand new is an absolutely unreal value
for these. Enjoy. Today in front of me,
I've got the bloody gaming peripheral lineup from A4 Tech. They sent us a
bunch of their products. Their G500 gaming headset, which has got 40
millimeter drivers and inline mic and is $39.99 on Newegg for a limited time.
Their B720 keyboard, which is a full layout keyboard that comes with eight
silicone key caps, as well as an extended palm rest. Their ZL50 mouse is
driver-free and comes with an Avago 9800 sensor. And their B070 is a smooth
surface mouse pad that it's getting it all over. You can
see this and more over at Newegg at the link in the video description for a
limited time. So, thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know
what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or
check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured at I'm just kidding.
It's not an Amazon mass drop in the video description. Also linked in the
description is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should
totally join. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. So, click
that little button in the top right to check out our latest video over on Channel Super Fun.