Sennheiser Consumer Audio HD 600 – Audiophile Hi-Res Open Back Dynamic Headphone, Black

Updated (6/20/21) – HD600’s are still a great pair of headphones, and here’s what I’ve learned since I bought mine. You get out what you put in; these headphones like better quality recordings, so if you have live-recorded and properly made music, you can crank that music up and it will sound phenomenal. With poor quality recordings, you’ll find yourself steering away from those songs pretty quickly with how badly they sound. These are good to listen to records with, too, as long as you have a decent record player. I’ve had my HD600’s for 4 years now, and they’re still going strong. You may need to replace the cable, earcups, and headband over time, but these will last you a very long time.TL:DR – These headphones are great, especially for the price. The sound is neutral, but the quality is far from lacking.FULL REVIEW Despite an issue with my first pair of HD 600’s, I liked the sound so much I got a second pair once the first was returned. Here’s what I’ve found out about the HD 600’s in the 6 months I’ve had them.Comfort – These headphones are very lightweight, so it’s easy to forget you’re wearing them. However, when you first get them, these headphones clamp your head hard. Keep on using them and let the headband stretch out, and over time you’ll be able to wear them for literally all-day use without any soreness. W/O Amp and DAC – The bass is very recessed on anything you listen to without a proper amp. Mids and highs are still good, but the sound isn’t as full or realistic without a proper amp. The sound is still good enough to outperform everything else I’ve tried and blew me away when I first tried them out, which was with this set up.W/ Amp and DAC (Magni 2 and Modi 2) – The music really seemed to come to life. From classical remixes of songs to Slash’s performance in Paradise City, these headphones still leave me impressed. Bass, mids, and highs all sound good with none over powering the other. There is a lot of detail with these, which has led me to picking up background sounds I couldn’t hear or overlooked before. Hearing a lot of extra details in music I already knew took a bit of getting used to, but I very quickly started to like certain songs more because I realize they had more sounds than I realized. This has been very helpful when comparing the sound between my HD 600’s and other speakers and headphones I’ve tried. The only real problem with the HD 600’s is that if there are any imperfections in your music, such as problems with sound mastering or just being an MP3 you converted from YouTube, you will hear every imperfection. Keep that in mind when getting these or other audiophile grade headphones; you will need to get CD’s or, at the barest minimum, 320 kbps MP3’s for listening to music. The static and distortion in anything lower quality will be really annoying. Not to mention their open-back design and 300 ohms of impedance mean you shouldn’t be using them while traveling, though this doesn’t bother me as I use the at home.Overall, if you want to get a pair of audiophile grade headphones for under $300 and you can afford these, do not hesitate. There are definitely other and better options out there, but not for the same price as these (unless these go back up $385 again for a short period). Sure, they aren’t the best sounding headphones in the world and the $270 I spent when I got these is still a lot of money, but I haven’t regretted these since I got them. These changed my perspective on listening to music for the better and you’d be hard pressed to go wrong with buying a pair of HD 600’s.

For $300, the HD600 even with it’s current cheaper -feeling build is still a great value. If you’re not an audiophile or don’t listen to music with much care for the detail or production, then you probably don’t need them. Ironically, the HD600 just so happens to be a headphone that really reveals the quality of the track your listening to. It has a relatively neutral frequency response, but that honestly doesn’t say much by itself.The headphone is primarily great for enjoying mids, while providing sufficient bass and delivering a nice and stinging snare (the way you should want it :O). The imaging and soundstage is relatively narrow, but actually exists unlike on the HD6XX, which lets the HD600 actually let vocals pop-out more. The sound is very in your face, it delivers intensity and a certain rawness without sounding too harsh. It still has detail and reveals the timbre of instrumentals really well. As long as you’re driving these headphones pretty well with a good DAC/Amp setup, they should sound magnificent. Acoustic guitar, male vocals, and instrumentals in general are among my favorite type of music for listening to with the HD600.The only thing, which I think is kind of up for debate is the so called “veil”. When I first listened to the HD600 they of course sounded amazing, nearly perfect. When I tried another headphone, however, the Hifiman Edition XS and then switched back to the HD600, things got a little weird. I felt like I couldn’t recognize the same sound I had once heard from the HD600. Things just started to sound unclear, but after a day to let my mind refresh, the HD600 sounded fine as they normally would. To this day I’m still unclear as to what the Sennheiser “veil” is supposed to mean, but it might certainly exist. However, this is not an actual problem if you drive these headphones daily.You don’t really even need to read my review to understand how important these headphones are. The tonality of these headphones and what Sennheiser has to offer is pretty much embedded within these headphones. They’ve withstood the test of time for nearly, what, like 25 years? They’re a part of most of audiophile collects I bet, and I know quite a fair number of people who either have the HD600 or the HD6XX. If you want a more neutral and intense sound with actual imaging for more well-produced songs, go for the HD600. If you want a similar sound to the HD600, but something more comfortable in exchange for less soundstage, go for the 6XX, they’re better for instrumentals I find.

My road to the Sennheiser HD 600’s has been a little long and filled with some interesting twists and turns that have, or so I hope, led me to a better understanding of what are a great set of headphones. Naturally it is very typical to wish to compare these to other headphones. After all, isn’t that how we so often make purchasing decisions? We try differing products until we find the one which works best/right for our needs. So my review is going to work on two fronts: a review of the product itself, and a review against some competitors I have acquired in the last year in my quest to find headphones that are right for me. And hopefully for you.Regarding the HD600’s themselves I have mostly nothing but excellent news to report. Personally, I like the way they look. The mottled black and blue coloring is different, but not garish in any way. The large and deep oval ear cups are precisely what one wants for an over-the-ear design. At 6’4″ I’m certainly sporting a larger head than the average male and fortunately for me my entire ears fit comfortably inside the ear cups. My ears do not touch the protective cloth over the drivers, but the outer edge of my ear does touch at places around the inside of the ear cup. This is a minor annoyance and goes unnoticed some of the time. Those of you more average of height and head size will likely never have this issue. The ear cups themselves are very comfortable, seal well to my head and do not get hot even after a good number of hours of use. This also means the head clamping force is perfect for me; I never feel like my head is being squeezed. Everything about the headphones seems to indicate they are well-made, but I cannot help but feel the plastic seems a bit thin. Maybe cheap even. They do not creak and nothing flexes, but it’s the only part which lets me down at all about the headphones.The included box, while awesome for storage, is clearly not oriented for travel. But I would argue these aren’t portable headphones meant for the on-the-go user. They do not fold up. The ear cups do not turn to lay flat. And considering the amplification needed to properly drive these, using a typical portable music player (your cell phone, iPod, etc.) isn’t ideal anyway.Now for what I consider to be the more important part of how I came to select the HD600: research and listening. Let’s first be clear about something… audio equipment is not unlike some other equipment markets in that you often spend exponentially more money for an item just to gain minor, incremental increases in some important criteria. To you speaker X sounds better than speaker Y, all other things being equal. It’s likely speaker X costs more. Most of the time it will cost more, but not all of the time. But how much more does it cost and how much more quality of sound are you receiving for that additional cost? It’s almost always a matter of diminishing returns… loads more money for a bit firmer bass or slightly clearer treble. But this is the nirvana for which we seek in audio equipment.Over the last year I purchased two other sets of headphones: Grado 80e and Sennheiser Momentum. Clearly the Grado’s at $100 are the least expensive with the Momentum jumping up markedly to $299, while the more recently acquired Sennheiser HD600 hit the $400 mark. Comparing my first two purchases, the 80e’s and Momentum’s, the differences were pretty straight-forwarded. To me the Grado’s sounded brighter with good bass and sligthly harsh mids (“smeared” is the word which came to mind as I compared them in listening tests at home). The Mometum’s sounded more laid back (not as bright) with great bass (that could be a bit smeared itself in the upper bass) and definitely superior mids (thinking men’s voices here – became painfully obvious will using a live track from Morrissey between the two headphones). And so it was I came to find myself using each pair for different purposes.The Grado 80e’s became my preferred can for classical music (a genre into which I am becoming more deeply involved of late) as I felt, for my personal preferences, the brighter qualities enhanced the instruments typical of classical music, while the bass was more than sufficient. But when I wanted to rock (or alternative as is more often the case) I broke out the Momentum’s. The accentuated, but not overblown bass, was quite welcome and I noticed less the laid back nature of the treble, especially as I used them more and more.But with the also recent purchase of some better home audio equipment (Marantz CD6005 CD player and a SoundEngine D1 DAC/Headphone amp for my computer – listening to ALAC encoded tracks) I found myself thinking both the Momentum and 80e were somehow lacking. That I wasn’t getting everything I could from my music via this better equipment.From all the research I had done previously I elected to spend the money and purchase the HD600. I don’t think I have found a single bad review out there in the Internet sphere. A few have thought them a little warm or laid back. But most every review hits upon how, and especially for the money, the HD600s hit all the right notes (sorry). Having had them burned in for 30-hours the listening tests began. I had considered this purchase principally for classical music. I really didn’t think I’d get more from them for rock/alternative than I was already getting from the Momentums and so it was the classical CDs came out and I plugged into the CD player. I also plugged in the Grados to the Marantz A/V receiver, direct mode engaged. Adjusting for volume as best I could (this is hardly scientific) I played a handful of very familiar tracks from very familiar CDs; swapping back and forth between the HD600s and Grado 80e.It too almost no time to hear the difference. I’ll concede that it’s sometimes difficult to put into words the differences heard, but I’ll try. The first thing I noticed were the violins. When a number of them are playing notes together the Grado’s sounded smeared compared to the HD600s. Not unlike a poorly created JPEG from a digital point-n-shoot versus a well-made JPEG from an original RAW processed via Adobe Lightroom. Details are are lost in the former, but the latter does a far superior job of keeping the detail even in the process of losing information. The HD600 left me feeling like I was actually sitting there in the room with the musicians. I’m not referring to placement of the instruments (the HD600 do a good job, but I’ve read reviews for other cans that do better), but simply how clear, precise, concise and live-sounding are the violins. Actually, it was true of all the stringed instruments. The resonance of the strings… their very clear nature… was a welcome and astonishing difference.Granted, the Grado’s are one-quarter the cost and I shouldn’t be surprised the HD600’s sounded better. Markedly better. And I didn’t have to listen long or hard to notice the differences. They are obvious; not subtle. That said, I can’t say I was every displeased with the Grado’s. It was only in comparison to the HD600’s that it became possible to hear and understand the Grado’s limitations.And like the stringed instruments, voices also became sharper, clearer, more focused. I had found what I was looking for regarding my classical music interests: a pair of headphones that while generally neutral (which some would consider to be ‘flat’ and flat has, I think, a negative connotation), are not at all boring or flat. I feel the music is more alive than ever in comparison to the Grado’s.So… I also broke out some rock and alternative music (the recently remastered Led Zeppelin discs, some Nine Inch Nails and Pet Shop Boys) to see what the HD600’s could do. Here I feared the Momentum would just kick butt thanks to the fuller bass, but I must say the HD600’s continued to impress. All the good things they brought to mid and higher frequencies (clarity, precision) were still present, but, surprisingly, the bass was rock solid as well. I may hate myself for saying it, but I think the bass was a bit better. The upper-bass bloat in the Momentum’s doesn’t appear on the HD600’s, which tends to make the lower-bass stand out more because they aren’t overwhelmed by the enhanced upper-bass. I’d still say the Momentum’s have more punch and who doesn’t like that when listening to rock or alternative, but I could find myself readily using the HD600’s just as often for The Smiths, The Cure, Skinny Puppy, etc. as I would the Momentum’s.And here I think I have found a most excellent trio of headphones. Finding one perfect pair of headphones for all needs and opportunities is probably impossible. But I think I have accidentally stumbled upon a most excellent hat trick of cans that meet my various needs. I like to listen to music when I’m on the go; I have needs for portability. And while not truly the most portable of headphones, the Grado’s for classical (and still quite reasonable for rock and alternative) and the Momentum’s for rock and alternative (I confess I don’t like them as much for classical as I do the Grado’s for rock and alternative), AND the HD600’s for more critical, at-home listening with audio equipment that has enough amplifier ooomph to properly push them.Add my name and voice to the long list of of folks who think, dollar for dollar, the Sennheiser HD600 are the best value in headphones out there.

General Thoughts: Coming from the Philips X2 this headphone was full of surprises! First of all I could not detect this veil people were talking about. On various forums these can’s were described as being recessed sounding; Like you were sitting in the back row at a concert. To me they were the opposite! Everything sounded very clear and crisp to my ears and I felt as though I was on stage with the musicians. These headphones were also characterized as being boring but I found that I can rock out with them! I was also surprised at how easy they were to drive. I have an O2 amp/ODAC and I rarely had to engage the high gain mode to get my desired volume. Very cool.Sound: The midrange is definitely the highlight of these cans. They are in your face and will immediately grab you and pull you in! Both male and female vocals sound very good on these. If you prefer a more intimate midrange then these are the headphones for you! Bass is a bit light but not as bad as I was expecting. Still I would prefer a bit more as everything sounds somewhat thin. The treble was another surprise as I found them to be a little too shouty for my tastes; specifically in the upper midrange to lower treble. Then again I have pretty sensitive hearing so this may not be a problem for others. The sound was very clear and not lacking in energy. The soundstage though was almost practically missing! There was never a moment when a voice seemed to be shouting from across the room or from behind.Comfort: The comfort was good but not great. There’s definitely a clamp on these. They do get a little annoying after awhile but then again I have a big head so YMMV here. The X2’s on the other hand almost disappear on my noggin’. They are easily the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever worn.Build Quality: Somewhat lacking. It feels like the plastic on the headband will crack under slightest amount of pressure. They feel very cheap to me. These headphones do not seem to be built to last and I could see myself breaking them within a few years even though I’m very careful with my possessions. If they were to fall on tile or a hardwood floor then I could see them breaking or cracking easily. The X2’s on the other hand are built like a tank! You’d have to run over those with a car to damage them!Conclusion: All in all these are very nice headphones. They have a reputation of being the gold standard for headphones and though I feel that’s somewhat justified I still prefer my X2’s. If you get the HD600’s then I think you’ll be pleased with them. They sound very natural but do lack a bit of the fun factor of the X2’s. If you like to analyze your music or do any kind of mixing then these should definitely be on your short list! If it wasn’t for the X2’s then these might be my go to headphones despite their shortcomings.Update (2/6/16):Well it seems that my X2’s bit the dust. I barely had them for 6 months when the right side driver blew. I returned them to Philips for a full refund as I was within warranty however the new version I procured sounded very little like the original. Bigger but less controlled bass, very little treble to speak of, and an even more distant midrange! Needless to say I returned them to Amazon as soon as I could! Thanks for ruining an excellent headphone Gibson! I liked the HD600’s a lot due to the naturalness of their tone but I didn’t care for their somewhat lacking bass and their annoying upper mids. So I decided to give the HD650’s a try considering they were very similar in tone and I was totally blown away! They had all the things I loved about the HD600’s but with more bass and none of the peaky upper mids! They also have a larger soundstage though not as large as the X2’s. The midrange is to die for and these are now my go to headphones for rock! Even electronic music sounds very good on them. So if you’re like me and enjoy some bass with your music but still want beautiful mids then give the HD650’s a try. You’ll be glad you did!

It’s easy to forget that, next year, the HD 600 will turn 20 years old. Admittedly, audio transducers have a funny way of sticking around longer than just about any other piece of electronics equipment. A line of speakers will, usually, be in production for at least several years. Even when they’ve been replaced, they usually aren’t even close to obsolete, because even mid-fi has gotten pretty far into diminishing returns. But, even in this alternate timeline of audiophile-dom (others might call it an alternate reality, an insane asylum…) the HD 600s are freakin ancient. I can only think of a few other cans with this kind of longevity:The Sony MDR-V6; so old that it still has “for DIGITAL” emblazoned on the side. A quick trip through audio theory will reveal that this is meaningless, but in 1985 it sounded really cool.The Beyerdynamic DT770/880/990; so old that they still have shag carpet earpads.Various Grados; so old that it’s too late for anybody to admit they sound like trash. Instead, they just mumble something about “sparkle” and then go buy something else.And yet, 20 years later, the HD600 is still the headphone that, within headphone circles, everybody talks about and everybody has heard. There’s a reason for that: it’s not just really good. Purely on the strength of its sound, it stands out as excellent. When price is considered? It might just be the best headphone in the world.THE SOUND:Inevitably, whenever anyone tries to talk about the HD600 or the HD650, someone brings up the “Sennheiser Veil.” This so-called veil was a kind of muffling of the sound, and the people who complain about it would have you believe that the HD6XX sounds like Apple Earpods.I cannot state emphatically enough how much the veil does not exist. It is either a product of the imagination of people who wish the AKG K701 was a bit brighter, or the result of people trying to plug the HD6XX straight into an inadequate source, i.e. most phones, MP3 players, iPods, laptops, etc. They need an amp. More on that later. At any rate, these headphones are as veiled as Eva Green in The Dreamers. You. Will. See. erm, Hear. Everything.That’s both a blessing and a curse. Lesser headphones – even my Sony MDR-V6s, for instance – can mask the flaws in a bad recording. All of those 128kbps MP3s you’ve pirated because you’re a bad person? They’re gonna sound awful. If your father-in-law-to-be hands sends you some recordings of his garage band, grab however awful a set of backup cans you need for it to sound good. Because these will tell you the truth. Yet, to a good recording, they are shockingly flattering. If you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out. Give it something good, though, and you’ll get magic. I’ve listened to just about my entire music library with these, and there are a few recordings in particular that really demonstrate how well these shine:-In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins, Face Value, 1981): On a decent-to-good set of headphones, this song sounds ominous; it sounds cool. Whatever. On the HD600s, it’s a religious experience. Sounds swirl around your head. The crescendos and diminuendos blow you away. The vocals sound perfect. Incredible.-In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel, So, 1986): The entire album is fabulous. Listen to it over and over again. But there’s a reason this song is singled out. It’s a sibilance nightmare. On my MDR-V6s, it’s unlistenable above a moderate volume. Enter the HD600s: there’s no hiding how much sibilance there is, but they handle it as gracefully as possible.Enough ink has been spilled over how these handle classical and jazz (spoiler: fabulously), and their vocal presentation in particular is spot-on.THE STUFF YOU’LL NEED:To get all of this brilliant sound, you’re going to need a few things. First and foremost is an amp. This can get crazy pretty quick, so first let’s draw a distinction: solid state vs tubes. The HD600 has a high enough impedance to really get along with OTL amps (ie, most headphone tube amps). This will color the sound somewhat, get hot, be unreliable, need to warm up, etc. If you want to go down this road, you can. There’s also a lot of really expensive solid state amps.Or, you could just get a Schiit Magni or a JDS Objective2, both of which sound… well… about perfect.Next, you’ll need to think about a DAC. Now, a lot of people just assume they’ll need one. That may not be the case. If you have a Retina Macbook Pro, for instance, skip it. You’ll never hear the difference between it and whatever you get for 150 bucks. Same deal if you’re plugging a (good) CD player or receiver or whatever straight into the amp. If your source is something else, like a midrange PC, you’ll need to evaluate this yourself. Unfortunately, I can’t help you with that.If you decide you need a DAC, there are a lot of expensive options out there.Or, you could just get a Schiit Modi or a JDS ODAC, both of which sound… well… about perfect.(Side lesson: The internet audiophile community fights back and forth all the time about whether the O2/ODAC or the Magni/Modi is the better setup. Realistically, their performance is nearly identical. Buy whichever you think looks better.)(Another side lesson: You seriously probably don’t need to spend a ton of money on DACs and amps. The O2/ODAC was designed by some wacky internet crusader who wanted to prove that the performance of the Benchmark DAC2 and HPA2 could be achieved without spending thousands of dollars. From an engineering perspective, this is obviously possible. If you look into this further, you will still find people who insist that the O2/ODAC doesn’t sound as good as significantly more expensive gear. Just remember that these are audiophile crazies, who think they need 192kHz recordings because Nyquist-Shannon doesn’t apply to special snowflakes. The two most important things in any digital-to-analog system are the input file and the transducer.)Finally, you’re going to need good recordings. iTunes is sufficient. Vinyl is pretty good (repeat after me: vinyl does not sound better than CD, it is objectively worse, a record will only sound great 25 times, and will be the equal of the CD never). CD is your best bet, particularly those mastered before the “loudness wars” started up in the late 1990s. However, the world isn’t perfect; fear not, the Senns still sound good with stuff that has a compressed dynamic range (within reason). Anything beyond the Redbook CD standard is simply a ploy to get you to spend more money for things you can’t hear, and that your dog can’t either.SOME REALITIES:The way that the Senns achieve all this great sound is by being “open-back” headphones. This means that, on the side of the driver opposite your ear, there’s just some mesh to protect it from damage. This means that you can’t really use these outside a quiet environment, because you’ll hear everything around you. It also means that you probably won’t want to listen to them in public, because it’s really difficult to look cool when everybody knows you’re blasting the Bangles.Also, they’re ugly as sin. But they aren’t leaving your house, so who cares?A WORD ABOUT THE HD650:Released several years after the HD600, the HD650 at first glance looks like an upgrade. That… depends. The HD650 is darker and smoother at the expense of detail. That’s all. I prefer its sound signature. But, it usually costs between 75 and 150 dollars more than the HD600, and so it wasn’t worth it for me. It probably isn’t worth it for you, either.So, yeah. These headphones sound just about dead neutral, wonderfully crisp, and yet smooth enough that you can listen at high volumes without fatigue. They can usually be had for less than 300 dollars. And for the price, they have no equal. Now we just have to hope that someday the HD800S can be such an easy decision to make.