After all the self anointed “Audiophiles” turned their nose to this set of headphones lets step over the charred remains of their dimwitted, uninformed  and baseless words and take another look at was is actually….a REALLY nice set of cans 🙂

Some specs

1. Photobombing in 3…2…1

Wearing Style: Headband

1. While the weight is weighty…the headband is comfy enough to make this a non issue. Not sure if these are as portable as advertised but that is up to the user.

Ear coupling: Circumaural

1. Fancy way of saying this set is an over the ear design. It could be considered such unless you have very large ears. The pads are removeable/changeable

Transducer principle: Dynamic, closed

1. Driver sizes are generally not released by Senn but taking off the pads reveals a 40-45mm driver

Frequency Response: 10-42,000 Hz

1. There are no noticeable dips or roll offs between 20hz and 16Khz. I am sure of my own ears in that range and nothing jumps out as being off or spiked or recessed.

Impedance: 23Ω

1. As these were designed for use with Apple or Android devices they are relatively easy to drive and most DAP’s will be fine. You can also use this off a smartphone though dynamics may suffer a bit due to lack of driving power

Sound Pressure Level: 114dB (1 kHz / 1Vrm)

1. These get loud. As noted above, playing these from a smartphone is fine. Quality of the sound is another thing.

Total harmonic distortion: <0.08% (1kHz, 100dB)

1. Mmmm, not much to say besides they sound very detail rich and with the bass adjustment turned off

1. Bass Boost: +/- 5dB at 50 Hz

This is the point where fans of the brand turned their back. Not at the ridiculous giant headphone character commercial pouring salt into an urbanite cup to show bass response…perhaps one of the worst ad vids ever. THAT did not raise the ire of Senn fans….it was the bass dial on a HD series set. Essentially it was a rebuke by folks who had an image they helped create and foster and then were apparently duty bound in defending it. Head-Fi psuedo audophilia at it’s worst.

Contact pressure: 5.5 ~ 6.8N

1. This is…pressure on head? I had not thought about it? Ultrasone often makes me think about that and head vices and torture devices from the 12th and 13th century but this set seemed to fit nice.

Weight (headphones excluding cable): 400g

1. As mentioned earlier, I find the weight to be an issue less than the size which makes outdoor use a tough sell for image purposes. The profile is large and lots of folks may balk at that. Weigh?….meh, not that big O’ deal!

Accessories include carry bag and 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter.

1. The carry case is stout and nice and that with an adapter is all you get. The non removable cable was the 2nd biggest complaint and THAT is valid and listening or holding it does not need to occur before jumping on that. @PETEREK has told me that making a removable cable is no big deal.

The inline control and flexibility with 2 operating platforms may be related? No idea but this is a legit complaint. The bass dial bashers were just homers homering on and on but the cable is an easy and legit target.

It can be changed though!

Head-Fi User @PETEREK formerly known as CasperTFG is a well known customizer that has said he can do removable cable mods for this set

The reality it seems is that that the bass dial is quite polite and is no more impact full than the MEZE 99 Neo.

That well regarded set (by some, most) is in stock form about the same as this Senn set with the bass dial 1/2 turned or ¾.

With the dial fully turned off it is so polite it sounds small. The driver size would be suspected by anyone who likes bass dominant sets.

Actually the acoustic tuning done by Senn is impressive because it can go from polite to robust with a vent adjustment and still keep everything beyond 2Khz stable and clear. There is no compensation EQ needed to get back the sparkle. It never leaves.

While the 99 neo sounds intimate with a comfortable if not slightly smallish stage the Senn manages to display a bigger presentation with all forms of music from 70’s rock to hip hop.

STAGE

Stage

Foreplay/It’s Been such a long Time

The studio created but seemingly live played
Foreplay/It’s Been such a long Time sounds big and spacey. The notes in the high treble come in clear and the sense of electronic drops of water falling off of a cliff into space all around sounds fantastic. The sense of space around your head is a good real music take on Dr Chesky’s panning test tracks.
This track sometimes/often sounds compacted in IEM and over ears but the 630 has just enough high end and good design to make this feel right.

Noted that these cans benefit from adjusting on head more than most due to driver position and baffle board design.

Outta 10?……Mmmm 7?

Bass

Bass

Wanna be Startin’ Somethin’

The first track on the classic album is held down by a prominently placed and talented 4 string bass guitar. It is of a quality hard to match when judging bass on a real music album. It took me years to get past mike’s issues and re-appreciate his and on this LP’s producers skillz.

synesthesia is a term used to describe people who see sounds as colors.
I happen to be one. It gets freaky responses so I keep it to myself. Was pleased to read the following when learning about Thriller.

“I have synaesthesia, and Quincy does too,” confirms Swedien. “The low frequencies are represented by dark colours like black and purple, while high frequencies are bright colours such as silver and gold. When I listen to a mix I want to see all those colours.

“I’m not a big fan of compression or limiting at all — I can’t emphasise that enough. On many of the recordings that you hear today, all the excitement and all the colour is gone because they’re so over compressed. I never did that. I would never have a compressor or limiter on the [master] bus, for instance. I want all that transient information there.

-Bruce Swedien

The Purple and Gold is a masterwork on this track and turning the 630 dial to about ¾ puts the darker colors near the front but never taking over the silvers and golds of the track.

Outta 10?……Mmmm 9?

Mids

Mids

While I usually use “On the Run” to check for staging in this instance I chose to focus on the woman announcing the departure of a flight to Rome. My recent experience with planar IEM showed how clear this can be and checking that on these returned a nice replay. No sense of veil or distance in the fundamental or harmonic region of the woman’s voice

Outta 10?……Mmmm 7?

Treble

Yep, trebs with 2pac

Heaven Ain’t Hard 2 find

This track is just stuffed with sample deck goodies. Stuffed. The better the driver and treble tuning the more of the stuff you will hear. There are spinners, dew drops, and sounds like from a carnival just far enough in the background that if your driver cannot reach their you’ll never notice. No biggie usually but a definite bonus when it is there because the tuning took you there

Biggest surprise of the 3 fundamental ranges.

Outta 10?……Mmmm 8?

I would rec this set to anyone who likes an audiophileish sound with an ability to adjust the sub-bass and bass.

That’s a lot of folks.

https://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-630VB-Headphone-Variable/dp/B013TLYRC8

https://en-us.sennheiser.com/high-quality-stereo-headphones-around-ear-hd-630vb