Senheiser Headphones
Sennheiser MM400, HD650, HD800 Overview
Sennheiser (common misspelling: Senheiser) headphones are real quality items! They're the brand of headphones I personally use.
Sennheiser make a vast range of headphones for all uses and budgets. They have headphones aimed at people who travel, for use during sport, for MP3 players, and for studio use.
But our main interest here is Senheiser headphones for home audio!
You should think about three things when looking at getting headphones:
- The quality of the rest of your audio system. If you have all your music stored as 128-bit MP3 files, then hi-end headphones will sound average at best. They will expose all the shortcomings of your recordings.
Maybe you would get a better sound by diverting some of your funds to another part of your system, such as studio-quality audio files, an external DAC or perhaps a headphone amp?
- Your budget. How much can you afford to spend? You need to set yourself a financial limit before you even start looking. Then stick to it!
- Where can you audition the headphones?
The only reason to get new headphones is to get a better listening experience. (Unless your previous headphones are broken. Or they were stolen. Or maybe you're a first-time headphone buyer? Actually, there are several alternative reasons, but we'll stick with "better sound" for now!)
You want to be sure that you're getting something worthwhile for your money. The only way to do that is to find a Sennheiser dealer who will arrange a fair audition.
If you can, take a couple of your favorite music files with you. And your DAC and/or headphone amp. Then plug in the candidates one after the other. See what differences you can hear. Are the $500 headphones significantly better than the $250 ones?
Sennheiser Selector
But before you answer the 3 questions above, head over to the official Sennheiser headphone selector.
This is an absolutely GREAT tool! You just select the options that are important to you, and the Selector will narrow down the options to headphones suited to your purpose!
When I enter my requirements for listening to classical music at home, the suitable Senheiser headphones are:
MM400 - Blue-tooth enabled, but with a wired option. Great sound for the price. Some people have reported issues with bluetooth reliability, but if you plug these cans in with wire, they certainly deliver the goods! Quite light on your head, too.
HD600 - These are full sized headphones that have a fuller range than the MM400, most noticeably in the bass area. A lot of folks think that this model hits the sweet spot in the trade-off between price and performance. The only downside is the slightly "cheap" look of some of the plastic.
HD650 - A development of the HD600, but mainly in how they look. They have metal housings in place of plastic, and certainly look very smart. Recommended.
HD800 - The Tops! Like listening to full-sized audiophile loudspeakers, without any room acoustics to get in the way. If you are a serious listener and classical music enthusiast, with a great "front end" on your audio system, these could be the icing on the cake!
But be warned - the HD800 will mercilessly expose poor recordings. If you don' have Studio Quality music files, these headphones will be wasted.
All these Senheiser headphones are true audiophile quality headphones.
Which ones should you choose? You'll have to listen for yourself! First set your maximum budget, then see which headphones sound the best with YOUR OWN music files.
Don't let the dealer use studio quality audio files if you have 128-bit MP3 files at home! And don't let him tell you which headphones you are listening with. To be of any use, it must be a "blind" audition.
Happy testing!
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