Upgrading From Sennheiser HD650s?

[Lechmere]

I feel as though I'm not getting as good a high end response from my 650s as I do low end.

Is there something in the $500 range then that would articulate those highs with a little better fidelity?

Will be using these for basic all-around home-recordings if that's of any help.

 

[Empryrean]

everyone's got different ears but to me I think if you want more high end you should try out Beyerdynamics. They've always hurt my ears cause I can't deal with the treble but if Sennis aren't sparkly enough for you I think the Beyers will do the trick.

 

[Seybsnilksz]

You could try Sonarworks (or SoundID Reference as I think they call the product now). It corrects some of the EQ-variations on the headphones, and you can add an extra high shelf if you want more.

 

[4Eyes]

I feel as though I'm not getting as good a high end response from my 650s as I do low end.

Is there something in the $500 range then that would articulate those highs with a little better fidelity?

Will be using these for basic all-around home-recordings if that's of any help.

What do you drive them with?

 

[ItWillDo]

I used to be a big Sennheiser user, until I got the Neumann NDH-20 a couple years back. Completely unrivalled in that price range. If you really need open-backs, I can't imagine the new NDH-30 being much different.

 

[Lechmere]

I used to be a big Sennheiser user, until I got the Neumann NDH-20 a couple years back. Completely unrivalled in that price range. If you really need open-backs, I can't imagine the new NDH-30 being much different.

What was it about those Neumanns that you thought made them sound better than the Sennheisers?

 

[ItWillDo]

What was it about those Neumanns that you thought made them sound better than the Sennheisers?

First thing is that I used to dislike closed-backs mainly due to the comfort associated, they always press harder against your head and I feel like Neumann gets the pressure just right. You can keep it on your head for a long time without actually getting that pressing feeling of discomfort after a few hours.
Next to that, it gets the bass response just so much more right than the HD650's in a reference sense. I feel like the Sennheiser's are usually lacking in that area when using it for mixing, because as soon as I take them off to listen through my monitors (Adam A7X), the mids are too dominant for my taste in the 250-400Hz area and I got "mentally used" to have to tweak that area through my monitors again.

I can pretty much completely skip this last step when using the Neumann's as the low mids aren't as suppressed as they are on the HD650's (although admittedly this is also a known difference between open vs closed backs).

Aside from that, when comparing my HD280 Pro's with the Neumanns, the Neumann's have a much more enjoyable and wider soundstage compared to the HD280's which are really direct.

 

[MrWulf]

Get Slate VSX. Use it with their plugin. My mix get 10x better once i use it right away