I attached a JDS Labs element DAC/AMP to my 650's which improves how they sound immensely which I should say the hd 650's require an amp to perform

You have to have a proper amp to drive them and hopefully a good DAC to get the right signals, and lossless (or at least CD quality) but you won't know what you are missing until you buy these and use them with an amp

Paired together with a proper AMP/DAC, these headphones will truly sing

This means that they keep getting better and better with better source, dac, amp etc... up to a high upper limit that you would expect with headphones maybe twice this price

The HD650 is very source sensitive and they do sound their best when paired with good DAC/Amps fed with clean power supply and lossless FLACs

For the DAC, I ditched the Dragonfly and Modi because the Modi was worse than the other options and I already had a Creative X-Fi Titanium HD, and its DAC sounded very good to me (roughly the same as Dragonfly).For the Amp, I decided to

Either way you go, for music, movies or games both pairs of cans are extremely comfortable for long listening sessions but you will need a good DAC/Amp to really appreciate either.

I knew I need some sort of USB Audio Advanced DAC something to convert my DSD files Natively & Hi-Res Audio max out of

I HIGHLY recommend a good DAC/Amplifier setup, does not need to be crazy, but is sooo worth it, even if just a good entry level combo unit

The Sennheiser HD 650 is an excellent pair of headphones to own; when paired with a proper, Amp and Dac

Absolutely excellent pairing with my DarkVoice 336 SE tube amplifier and using the IFI Black Label portable DAC amp as a preamplifier into my DarkVoice amp to clean up the audio signal coming from a smart phone or laptop

The Creative worked well as a DAC only

The Creative worked well as a DAC only

With the DAC kicking in and no internal computer noise to cause the slight hissing, the difference became quite

Any external DAC will suffice.

When you're on the go the IFI Black Label is a portable DAC amp to power your HD 650 when you're away from home.

The Modi did okay as a DAC, but I didn't feel it was as clear as the Dragonfly as a DAC in front of an amp or the Creative X-Fi as a DAC (

DAC is HIGHLY recommended

They scale well with good hardware upstream, so a good DAC helps a lot too.

Don't really understand why the 650's would get anything under a 5 star because they're pretty much always rated the best under $1k and it shows with a decent dac/amp

My setup:Flac > Musical Fidelity V-DAC

Using a decent amp and DAC, it rivals and often surpasses headphones double and triple it's price.

Also I recommend a good DAC and headphone amplifier

However with a good amp/dac I'm often sit back in blissful heaven listening to music open back headphone design is really quite amazing

These headphones paired with a Woo Audio WA6 or WA2 and a nice DAC will sound fantastic.

I have proper DAC now

If you’re looking to upgrade to these from something like a HD558 or 598 I would say go to an audio store that can provide you with a burned in set of headphones with good quality DAC/Amp and the listen to the kind of music you like

The Dragonfly did well as a DAC only

I was worried after spending the money that my DAC wouldn't push these monsters

They're probably right, and eventually I will get around to upgrading to an adequate amp and an external DAC, but even at a base level, these headphones have been a treat

Great headset; recommend AMP/DAC to utilize it's capability to the maximum.

I'm still searching for the dac/amp that really knock it out of the park for me

I completely forgot these were NON-POWERED phones, but my DAC worked quite well with them

Assuming you don't sweat as much as me, you'll never want to take them off :pAs a newbie to higher end audio equipment, I bought a somewhat cheap DAC/amps,

If you like a laid-back, really mellow phone with no personality, you might like these

I am etiher getting accustomed to the sound or they are improving as I use them more

In excellent condition as well--almost as if they were never opened :D Thank you!

So I looked at Sennheiser other phones as well as

and I absolutely love them months after purchasing just as much as I did the first day.

The HD650's may not have the fancy technologies of orthodynamic or electrostatic units, nor the pricey parts and accessories, but they definitely sound nearly as good and even better in some ways

I have found they sound marvelous with vintage Marantz receivers that can be obtained inexpensively, as well as from modern dedicated headphone amps