The excellent Sennheiser HD650 are down to an equally good price from Scan Computers
A great set of open back cans.
The Sennheiser HD650s are some legendary audiophile cans that the German brand have been making for naffing ages, and from Scan Computers at the moment, they're back to £229. This is a price we last saw them at right at the start of the year, so if you've been holding on for these excellent open back headphones to come back down in price, now may well be the time. For reference, they're anything from £280-£380 at other retailers, so this is a genuinely excellent saving.
Sennheiser has been making the HD 600 line of headphones for nearly the last 30 years, and over that time, they've marked themselves out as one of the best pairs of headphones for audiophiles to use due to their nature as reference headphones. This means they offer a true to life presentation and the sound you here is as it was intended to be heard by the original artist. I've had the pleasure of using a couple of different models of the HD 600 lineup over the last few years, including the newer HD660S2. They offer some truly sublime audio with immense precision and an expansive sound thanks to their nature as open backs, while being an engaging listen for all kinds of music and games, too.
A big reason for the HD 650 being able to offer such a wide and immersive listen is because these are open-back headphones. This means they let all kinds of noise from around you in, as well as letting the noise of music out, all in the name of a wider soundstage. It means that the HD 650 is a pair of headphones suitable for home listening, as opposed to taking out with you. Another reason why the HD 650 are more suitable for use at home is the fact they're a bit of a pain to run without the right equipment. They've got a 300 ohm impedance, which means that they aren't necessarily designed to be smashed straight into the headphone jack of your nearest 15-year-old MP3 player or laptop. Instead, you need a dedicated DAC which is capable of working with the HD 650s to offer enough power to run them - I use a Chord Mojo 2, but you don't need to chuck that much money on a DAC just to run these cans. You can get more affordable options including the iFi Go Blu and the Astell&Kern HC3, which will cost between £100 and £200, and can drive the HD650 no problem at all.
As well as offering some of the richest and most precise audio for the price, the HD 650 should also offer a comfortable fit, if the other headphones in this line from Sennheiser are anything to go by that I've used in the past. They have a bit of a tight clamping force, but there's enough padding around the headband to negate it. The HD 650 also weigh just 259g, which makes them especially light and means you should be able to wear them for hours on end, and their titanium finish also makes them rather sturdy, too.
The HD 650 from Sennheiser are a fab set of headphones, and with this deal from Scan Computers to bring them down to £229, they're at a good price, too.