To achieve the highest level of sonic excellence, you usually need to sacrifice some convenience. The standard in the audiophile world is that connecting your IEMs and headphones to your source with cables is better, which could sound crazy to the non-audiophile. The most popular in-ear monitors in the world are very likely AirPods, which can only be used via a bluetooth connection. Many other consumer brands like Bose or Sony have plenty of wireless options for headphones or IEMs, but if you look at brands like Meze, Dan Clark Audio, or FiiO, all of their headphone options can only be used wired. It is rare that you can get something that bridges the gap between a convenient user experience and audiophile grade sonics, but that is exactly what you get with Sennheiser's latest release, HDB 630

HDB 630 is a wireless over-ear headphone from Sennheiser that comes in at $499.95. For the first time, I can truly say I think we have blended the worlds of bluetooth convenience and audiophile excellence in sound quality. This headphone sounds great out of the box, but it also features full parametric EQ / band EQ support in the SmartControlPlus app, where you can tune this to truly be your perfect set. In this article, we are going to break down all things HDB, from its accessibility features, sound, build and design, and see if this would be worth adding to your on-the-move collection.

Build and Design

The build of this headphone screams simplicity. Everything you need is on the right ear cup, including the button to turn them on / off and pair, the light status indicator, the 2.5mm jack for the wired connection out, and the USB C port are all on the right side. The right side cup is also where all of the touch controls are, which we will get into a little bit more later. The cups are wider than some past releases from Sennheiser like the Momentum 4’s, but they are generally a smaller cup size. I can see this fitting snug on most people, but I can also see a world where these may be too small for some.

This headphone boasts a total battery life of 60 hours, and has a total weight of 11oz. There is no tactile sound or locking mechanism on the cups as they swivel or on the head clamp, which promotes a smooth feeling to 630’s build. The fit is snug, which is partly due to the smaller cups, but also the head clamp fits tightly on the head without any slipping or loosening. I was moving around a good bit with this set and did not have any issues with it slipping off, which made me appreciate the tighter cup size. I was listening to 630 for hours at a time and the fit was not too fatiguing, I found it to be comfortable for hours with no issues in that regard.

Features

HDB630 may be one of the most feature packed TWS sets out there, and the integration with the SmartControl + App is one of the best app integration I have seen in this hobby. But before we get into the app, let's talk about the touch controls. On the right cup of this set, you can access all of the touch controls. If you go into the controls area on the app you can see that there are tons of touch controls for multiple different things, but I mostly found myself just playing and pausing the playback by tapping the side once, or turning up and down the volume quickly by swiping up and down. The integration is seamless and the usability is good, but I’m usually on or around my phone when using the headphone so I control most things through the phone naturally.

Another really cool thing about this headphone that just makes sense is its head tracking feature. When you are listening to music and you take the headphone off your head, the playback stops. Then once you put the headphones back on, the playback resumes right from where you left off. This is something that I always loved about AirPods, that seemed like Apple black magic. Little quality of life features like this may seem small, but it's actually what keeps me wanting to listen to this headphone as opposed to its competitors.

The App is something I want to spend some time talking about as it is another way that Sennheiser is knocking the competition out of the water here. Firstly my compliments go to the team that designed the UI on this app. I am a huge UI guy, and while other brands have corresponding apps that serve alongside their headphone, I have found the user experience on those apps to generally be terrible, look clunky, and overall just leave a bad impression. The Smart Control + app is clean, straight forward, and visually appealing, which is a big plus for me.

Crossfeed is something that is featured in Sennheiser's magnum opus $60,000 headphone HE1, and it also made its way onto the app for HDB 630. Crossfeed is something we are seeing a lot more of in this hobby, and it essentially blends the sound of the right and left channels to provide a listening experience that is akin to listening to music on a speaker set up. It doesn’t really give the full experience in my opinion, but it does add a cool immersive element to the sound that I found works best on the “low” option. For all of those asking us for headphones that sound like speakers in our live chats, this may be something for you.

Another sweet customization option on the app is a slider that allows you to fine tune between ANC, Transparency, and somewhere in the middle. I believe that the ANC is some of the best that I’ve seen in this hobby from a brand that caters to audiophiles. This is a strength of Apple, and I believe that the APP3 or AirPods Pro Max have the best ANC I have ever seen. However, I think that HDB 630 does a good job, when on 100% it isolates the sound well, in a way that would be more than permissible in an office or around the house setting. The one way I think 630 misses here is the transparency mode, which I found to be extremely underwhelming. I usually was just using this on ANC, or having it set to normal (right down the middle), as again the ability to fine tune the amount of ANC you want is cool, and is going to make this more accessible for more people, but is not something that I took full advantage of in my extended listening.

Lastly when it comes to features we have to talk about the EQ capabilities with HDB 630 and the Smart Control + app. For starters, there are plenty of EQ presets that come in the app that are catered to genres of music or general sound signatures. There is also a bass boost option right on the sound tab, giving you another easy way to adjust the sound without getting too nerdy about it. Following that, there are 2 different types of PEQ on this headphone, band EQ and parametric EQ. Band EQ is the simpler of the 2, giving you 5 bands to adjust from the lower regions to the treble regions. I thought the band EQ was great, I’m newer to PEQ so this was a simple way to adjust things more to my liking. Then there is parametric EQ, which again allows for 5 bands total. You can find the frequency you want to adjust, change its width and placement, and use the convenient bypass button once adjusting the EQ to listen to the stock tuning to compare.

All of this is to say, the features on HDB 630 make it one of the most personal experiences you can get your hands on in this hobby. There are multiple different wants to manipulate the sound to your exact liking, whether you want a little bass boost, or want to tune it exactly to your liking. The app makes things clean and easy, with multiple different accessibility and sound options to make this a fully customizable experience. Which is what makes talking about the sound so interesting, because while it does have its own sound signature and we will get into that next, you truly can make this headphone whatever you want it to be, and I think it was really cool of Sennheiser to offer that with this set.

Sound

HDB630’s stock sound is very neutral. The low end on this set is satisfying, but it doesn't deliver the most impactful slam I have seen in a headphone. Rather, it provides lots of detail in the lower mid range, which really defines bass guitars and drum kits. I like how bass guitars are presented, they do not leave an overwhelming rumble, but separate themselves quite nicely and are extremely detailed and accurate, which allows for you to hear the fingers moving and changing notes in a very life-like way. The sub bass region is punchy and fast in its presentation, but nothing really stands itself apart here. HDB630, while not the most bassy headphone out there, does certainly pack a punch, and I would say that the focus on the low end of this set is more so on the quality than the quantity.

this graph is from sennheiser, not us

The mid range on this set is silky smooth - and the highlight for me is just how well separated everything is from each other. In my past experiences with wireless headphones or IEMs, I am usually a little underwhelmed by the midrange due to the lack of separation and detail, especially if I am coming from a wired IEM. I was very surprised at how balanced everything was, and how smoothly the mids were laid out. That being said, I have certainly seen better spatial imaging and resolution in the midrange, but for a wireless set at $500, with EQ capabilities that can fix things I don’t like in the mids, this is certainly permissible and very clean on HDB630.

The upper mids were quite impressive on this set, vocals came through in a strong way without going over the top and becoming harsh or bright. Like many things sound wise on this set, there was intentionality in the tuning to make sure that the upper mids were balanced and played along nicely with the rest of the frequencies, delivering a smooth overall sound that wouldn't offend anyone. This leads nicely into a delicate treble region with lots of resolution and reverb extension, which is something I am always looking for on any set that I listen to.

Again what's really cool about HDB 630 is that they gave you a great blueprint of a balanced headphone full of detail and clarity, and then gave you access to turn it into whatever you want with full parametric EQ. So if you are looking for a little bit more low end slam or low mid detail, you can just boost it. If the upper mids are too forward facing for you, you can find the frequencies that you don’t like and take them out. This is the audiophile's dream - a headphone that should just work for most people sound wise, that can also be manipulated to become whatever you want it to be with an easy, user-friendly interface. I mostly personally found myself listening to HDB 630s stock sound, as I really appreciated the detail that is packed in and thought it sounded great out of the box, however there were extended sessions where I increased the low mids and upper mid range a bit more which was very nice and catered a lot to my music library.

Concluding Thoughts

At the $500 price point, it's hard not to recommend HDB 630 to a wide range of people. I can confidently recommend it to veteran audiophiles for a solid, detailed on the go set that would work well for convenience while traveling. I can also recommend it to the everyday consumer, because at this price point, it is competitive with lots of other headphones made by consumer brands like Apple or Sony. I think that 630 would be a great introduction into this hobby, showing audiophile novice’s just how much better their music can sound. It would be great for travel, it would be great for gaming, casual or intensive music listening, and just about anything else you could throw at it. HDB 630 wonderfully combines convenience and audiophile quality. This set is personal, customizable, non offensive, and accessible for all, making it a great option for just about anyone, no matter where you are on your audio journey.

This set is available on our website now. If you have any questions about HDB 630, shoot us an email athello@bloomaudio.com, or hop in our live chat by clicking the red chat button on the bottom right corner of your screen. We would love to chat with you about this set or any of the other sets we carry!