tl;dr Headphones: Sennheiser HD650 or the newer HD490 Pro Plus? Using with interface: NI KA6 mk1 (and stock pc soundcard sometimes). Sound quality accurate enough? Enough power from the soundcards? Comfort for long hours?

Hi everybody, I have been researching headphones for using to produce, mix and master especially when I travel.

The interface I use is either stock system soundcard or NI Komplete Audio 6 mk1 (the original one) which is important because if possible I want to try to avoid buying another device for powering these headphones, unless it is absolutely necessary, very small and not too expensive. I dont work at loud volume, usually low to middle, but then listening back to rendered mixes and masters I need to listen loudly to make sure the music is hitting correct in spectrum and also to really feel the vibe. i wont be using for everyday casual listening to music, gaming or anything like that. I only use for making my music and music videos.

From all of the material I have read and watched, it seems Sennheiser HD650 or the newer Sennheiser HD490 Pro Plus are often and highly recommended, but specs are different, there is price difference and I am not sure which is better for my setup and use purposes. Unfortunately, where I live I cant demo either and I have never even heard them before so I am little worried they wont be a good match for me.

The music I mostly produce is House, Synthpop, Melodic Tribal Techno, this kind of stuffs, so while accurate lows are obviously extremely important for club music and sound systems, I am not doing anything really crazy down there. Just typical solid, punchy fat warm basses and kicks for these genre.

Another important consideration is comfort for long hours of use. Normally, I spend around 5 or 6 hours before taking a break, but some days I work nonstop for 12 hours or more. So comfort and non-fatigue are important to me.

My current headphones are old Sony MDR7506, which work just ok for tracking at low-mid level volume, only to hear something is recording lol but nothing else really. Plus the way they fit on top of ears starts becoming uncomfortable after 1 hour or so. If I am going to spend 400euro I really hope the new phones will be amazing by comparison.

Does anyone own these Senn headphones and interface or can recommend something else newer and better?

Thanks!

 

Can't really speak to the senn's mentioned although I do check mixes on the HD280pro's which are profiled for Equalizer APO. My regular go-to's are Audio Technica ATH-M50X's with the proper freq profile from auto.eq for Equalizer APO. Also changed out the earpads and headband to some non-toxic comfy velours which makes the wear factor go up by order of magnitude.

 

Last edited: Jul 1, 2026 at 12:52 AM

Look at the MassDrop community's HD-6XX Sennheiser clone of the '600 series'. MassDrop went out of business, but MassDrops clone of the '600 Series' is on the Sennheiser website???? Check it out --> https://us.sennheiser-hearing.com/products/hd-6xx

I have the 600 and 650 btw. The 650 has a little bit more of a bass bump. The 600 is more ...flat across the spectrum. I happily use either one of them no problem.

 

The 650 has a pretty high impedance and you're likely to have issues properly powering it. It has an infamous issue where you get skewed low end (for better or worse is up to you) because the low frequencies have really high impedance. I would suggest looking for headphones that are 80 ohms or less if you don't want to buy an amp. Though, in my opinion, getting an amp should be the second thing you get after an interface. Again, up to you. Any headphones can mix, produce or anything in-between, you just need to use it enough and learn the sound. If you want great accuracy, maybe the HD600 is what you want.

The 6XX is not a clone, the Massdrop (now called Drop since they've been bought by Sony) headphones are crowd sourced headphones made by Sennheiser themselves. That is true for every Massdrop/Drop product. The 6XX is essentially the 650 with minor differences, the data is pretty much available. I think it's a better deal if you can get one, but I think it can be hard.

Speaking of Drop, I own the Sennheiser HD58X back from the time they were called Massdrop and Sennheiser still made them in some non-obvious country in the EU. It's great, though I've moved on from Sennheiser since I don't like paying the Sennheiser pad tax yearly. They 100% make shitty pads on purpose. These days I've been daily driving the FiiO FT3 (now discontinued? idk) and the Sennies are in a drawer. I actually find the FiiO way more comfortable to use, I used to enjoy the Sennheisers but the headband is crazy painful. Using the 58X for just a few minutes almost made me feel like my head would pop like an watermelon full of rubber bands.

 

so far the best pair of cans I have found is the Neumann NDH30. I like them because when you make a decision with them, you'd make the exact same decision on a pair of good speakers. There is no need for guesswork or time to "know" them as it is the case with so many other pairs of cans (i've had a bunch, HD600, HD650, DT880, K240 (600ohms), pro750....). These Neumann are kind of WYSIWYG