HDB 630

Shure MV6 Mic w/ Sennheiser HBD 630s 🤷🏻‍♂️

I guess it also depends on how highly you value decent ANC as there is a trade-off between that and decent sound. The Sennheiser HDB630s are undoubtedly the best wireless cans out there in terms of sound quality BUT their ANC is no better than the M4s. For ANC the Sony WH1000XM6 are great, as are the Bose, but neither have the pure sound excellence of the 630s. Also remember that "sound excellence" is relative - what I think sounds great you might thing sounds poor. The other thing to remember is: headphones can theoretically give amazing sound reproduction but once you're on a train or bus or plane that all gets devalued compared to sitting at home with a glass of your beverage of choice. For what it's worth, I have a pair of XM6s I use for long haul flights, which I have PEQed and now have pretty dang decent sound. They suit my requirements as I value decent ANC just above decent sound in that scenario (air travel) - I wouldn't use them for listening at home but then I wouldn't use my Meze 105 Aers on a plane!

It's a great headphone and pretty most things the community here has been asking for. It's just when you make content and have a great product to review, you don't want to be accused of being a schill or overhyping it. So people take the little nits and make things of them because there's not much else to talk about. - anc isn't the best - PEQ only has 5 bands - it's $500 - plastic yokes - no water or dust resistance The rest you can... Resolve.

Agreed on all this. I bought mine the first week and love them more than my M4s. I've tended to just leave them default neutral so far - HD6xx for home and HDB630 for work and everywhere else seems to be fairly consistent apart from sub-bass and the openness from the HD6xx. I don't need super strong ANC, so it's the right product for me.

***TL;DR:*** *Yes, they're that good. For me they hit all the sweet spots with ideal compromises for the price/package. The best ANC/Wireless/BT headphone I have heard. I think they deserve the hype in their neutral / out-of-the-box EQ. They cherry pick lots of great qualities and bundle them into a class defining package. I am happy they hit the price point they do. They feel made with love and care for anyone that loves high quality sound. They're what I have been looking for and they deliver.* Stuff I use as references / comparisons / competition: * Sennheiser ie900 + Qudelix 5K PEQ * Focal Clear OG + Topping A90+D90 * Focal Elegia * sennheiser HD650 + Topping A90+D90 * Focal Bathys + Android/Linux * Sony WH-1000XM5 + Android/Linux Music I usually listen to: * Mostly metal/rock/prog (Bleed from Within, Knocked Loose, Mars Volta, Mastodon, QOTSA, Deftones...) * Classic rock (think Fleetwood Mac, Beetles, and friends) * Pop/Alt (Taylor Swift, Wolf Alice, Last Dinner Party, Manchester Orchestra, Portugal. The Man, ...) * Hip hop, mostly 90s but also some newer stuff * Jazz, but only on a Friday **Sound** The important bit. All thoughts are based on the neutral, default EQ settings. I have different headphones for different things. I have my Focal Clears and ie900 for detail. I have my HD650 for cosy and relaxed listening. I have my Focal Bathys for times when I need to block the world out and enjoy music without disruption. I have my WH-1000XM5 for ... everything else. Seriously, I wear these 8 hours a day while working, doing the dishes, hoovering, gardening. They're just great at being portable and disappearing on my head. They get out of the way and the sound is very unremarkable and never distracting. Oh and the Elegia. They're terrible. We don't talk about those. Now imagine if somehow all those headphones were put in a blender and out poured the perfect mix of them all. All the compromises in the right places. The bad bits barely noticeable. The good bits there in enough measure to make the whole mix perfect. That's the HDB630. * Just enough detail that I can listen to the detail without being waterboarded and fatigued by it. * Just enough warm buttery smooth mid-range without being muddy or overly warm. * Just enough treble sparkle without feeling ringy, metallic, or sharp. * Just enough bass without feeling swollen, thick, or intrusive. * Just enough width and imaging without feeling sparse or overwhelming. * Just enough physical lightness and clamping to be comfortable. * Just enough flattery of the recording without being cute. * Just enough ANC without ... well, the ANC could be better but nobody is beating Sony. * Just enough for serious listening without hogging your attention Point is, it's enough of everything. In the right mix. It is just ... right. My Bathys will be going on ebay or something, and I can't see my XM5 getting much use anymore. They're not "impressive for a closed back" or "impressive for a wireless headphone" or anything like that. They're "impressive. Full stop. In all categories.". **BT700 dongle + App** This all seems OK. Not really played with it too much and don't feel the need. The dongle works fine and works on Linux so that's good. BT on Android was the usual. Seems stable. **Build quality** It's enough. If not having metal hinges means they hit the price point, then good on them. I'd rather this level of sound was accessible to as many people as possible. The chassis is good. Comfort is good. Not the best, but perfectly enough.

They have better bass FR in the bottom end of the response, so they have good enough bass for techno and demanding hip hop for example. They do lack a bit of slam, but that's in character and fine. They're tight and controlled whereas the 650 has a hole at the bottom.  To my ears they share HD650 qualities all the way from upper bass up to the treble, where they're totally different. Brighter and more detailed, much more forward. At times the extra bass and treble presence can get the better of the mids, unlike the 650 whose mids are the center peice. Overall I'd say you can hear some kind of relationship between them. I adore my HD650 tone and musicality. They certainly sound like cousins, but still do different jobs. What surprised me most is the sound stage and general depth of the imaging on the HDB630. As the HD650 aren't super wide and vast, the HDB felt compatible in openness especially in the vocal range. Would I die on the hill saying theyre a modern closed back HD650? No, but in many ways they're better without being without that mellow 650 charm. 

I tried them at e-earphones today in Japan. They’re decent commuter headphones but I think how good they are is significantly overblown by folks like DMS and Jake. They’re a leg up over XM6s but they’re still pretty closed-in sounding and misses the mark on airiness and imaging. Are they the best closed ANC over the ears today? Yeah, probably. Are they significantly better in audio quality over the APP2/3 to justify the bulk? No, IMO and their ANC is still leagues behind the APP3 and has the feeling of “pressurized” ANC that the XM3/XM4 has. The default tuning is also very bass heavy, not even close to neutral — I find it surprising that the same reviewers that complained about the bassiness of the APP3 applaud the default tuning of the HDB630s considering it has the same bass bloat without EQ enabled. Would I replace the HD650s with them? Not a chance. They sound way more realistic in its imaging and sound staging, and while you can EQ it similarly, you can’t EQ away the fact that it’s still a closed back headphone. Did Sennheiser disrupt the market with these headphones? Yes, the USB-C dongle and built in PEQ are amazing and should be the default for all TWS headphones. But the amount of overhype and shilling by prominent YT reviewers is pretty disturbing IMO — comparing it to HE-1s and saying it makes everything else redundant? Misguided at best and malicious at worst. I personally would just stick with my APP3s for on the go use… and definitely keeping my HD650s/HD800S (and IMO the HD800 secondhand is a way better bargain than this unless you actually need TWS/ANC)

I tried them at e-earphones today while on vacation in Japan. They’re decent commuter headphones but I think how good they are is significantly overblown by folks like DMS and Jake from LTT. They’re a leg up over XM6s but they’re still pretty closed-in sounding and misses the mark on airiness and imaging. Are they the best closed ANC over the ears today? Yeah, probably. Are they significantly better in audio quality over the APP2/3 to justify the bulk? No, IMO and their ANC is still leagues behind the APP3 and has the feeling of “pressurized” ANC that the XM3/XM4 has. The default tuning is also very bass heavy, not even close to neutral — I find it surprising that the same reviewers that complained about the bassiness of the APP3 applaud the default tuning of the HDB630s considering it has the same bass bloat without EQ enabled. Would I replace the HD650s with them? Not a chance. They sound way more realistic in its imaging and sound staging, and while you can EQ it similarly, you can’t EQ away the fact that it’s still a closed back headphone. Did Sennheiser disrupt the market with these headphones? Yes, the USB-C dongle and built in PEQ is amazing and should be the default for all TWS headphones. But the amount of overhype and shilling by prominent YT reviewers is pretty gross IMO — comparing it to HE-1s and saying it makes everything else redundant? Misguided at best and malicious at worst. I personally would just stick with my APP3s for on the go use… and definitely keeping my HD650s/HD800S (and IMO the HD800 secondhand is a way better bargain than this unless you actually need TWS/ANC) FWIW — currently use APP2/3, HD650/HD800S/ES-2a/X9000 and have owned XM3-XM5 in the past as well as almost all of the TOTLs back in the early 2000s including HE90/SR-O/Qualia. So was really looking forward to a true game changer but IMO this ain’t it. It is at best an incremental improvement over other TWS IMO

As I wrote in my original post — DMS and Jake from LTT. DMS is even in the linked video. Plenty of other hyperbolic posts on this subreddit too like https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/s/EgnpfjMIG5

I agree. They feel more like a Momentum 5 than anything truly groundbreaking. They just needed a new model naming convention to justify the price increase and the dongle