Sennheiser HD 650

Cable Connectivity (12.22)

The HD 650s cable is 9 feet, 9 inches, which is a great length for a set of at-home headphones. This is long enough to stretch to an audio set-up that’s across the room from your favorite easy chair.

The HD 650s have a 1/4-inch plug but come with an 1/8-inch adapter.

Portability (0.23)

These aren’t portable headphones in any sense. First of all, they’re large; if they’re not no your head, you’ll need a separate bag or container to carry them since there’s no way they’d fit in your pocket. Also, the thick, long cord is simply unwieldy, taking up a significant amount of pocket space.

The headphones do come with a case, but it doesn’t help you port them around much. There’s no latch to it, so it’s really better used as a storage device.

Maintenance (3.50)

There’s not an awful lot you can do for headphone maintenance. You can take off the padding, but that doesn’t really get you to anything worth repairing. You can’t remove the grating, so if the back of the headphones get dusty you’ll have to rely on compressed air. The one positive maintenance feature is the removable cord. If the cord should succumb to wear and tear in some way, you can cheaply replace it with a new one.

Other Features (5.00)

Battery

The HD 650s don’t require batteries, so they get some points here. This is because batteries are annoying. They require you to maintain an additional power source, either by recharging or replacing the batteries. If your iPod still has juice, you should be able to listen to music with them.