Sennheiser HD 700 vs. HD 600 - first impressions

Having owned and used some Sennheiser HD 600 headphones every day since 2007, I have now taken the plunge and bought HD 700 also.

Here's my impression after 15 minutes of listening time with the HD 700:

Everything sounds a little "woolen", which is to be expected with new equipment that has had no burn-in of course.

The musical delivery is done with significantly more power than with HD 600. The HD 700 sounds full of confidence and in total control. It's as if it reacts instantly with respect to delivering the music while the HD 600 sounds more hesitant and thus "lags" a little behind.

What I probably mean is: HD 700 sounds more accurate/agile than HD 600.

Immediately you also notice that the bass goes deeper than with the HD 600 and it's way more present all the time also – but in a completely natural way.

The overall sound is balanced, coherent and frankly more enjoyable with the HD 700, perhaps because taken as a whole the sound is considerably more alive and vibrant than what I'm used to with the HD 600.

Anyway, that's it for now :)

PS. Setup is optical out from pc->NAD M51 dac->GS Novo


Edited by Hbuus - 30 Nov 2015 at 5:49pm

Hm, that may be true, I'm not so familiar with those terms - I don't even know how to listen for upper bass emphasis But I can say that now the HD700 has burned in for some hours (or my ears have adjusted, whatever is most likely ), I cannot go back to HD600, I think. Just tried to do an A/B-switch between the two phones this morning, and for the first time I realize what people mean when they say the HD600 has a "veil". That's exactly how it sounds compared to the HD700.

That would be great!
I'm already very happy with them, they sound wonderful, but further improvement is of course welcome.
It will be interesting.