Listen up! My favorite wired headphones are $200 off ahead of Prime Day

You may have heard of the Sennheiser HD 600, the pair of headphones that's powered audiophile listening since the mid-nineties. To bring them up to date and introduce some more bass to a traditionally light-on-the-low pair of headphones, Sennheiser released the HD 660 S2 with a range of improvements to the formula.

You can now get a pair of Sennheiser HD 660 S2 for $479 at Amazon, thanks to a pretty special $200 discount. That's not quite their lowest price ever, but it's a mighty saving on some incredible headphones.

Sennheiser HD 660 S2: was $679 now $479 at Amazon

Sennheiser's upgraded audiophile cans take a classic design and make them even better. They're a rich-sounding, open pair of headphones that bring stunning detail and expansive soundstage to the table. They're power hungry, so they won't sound their best directly out of your laptop headphone jack, but they're worth every cent.

View Deal

When I test headphones, I have a selection of what are called 'reference' headphones. They are permanently on my testbench, giving me clear sound quality and comfort references to compare with any of the best headphones that arrive. The HD 660 S2 have a place in my venerable reference list for one, very important reason — their immaculate, detailed and dynamic sound.

Thanks to the open-backed nature, they've got one of the widest soundstages around. The Sony WH-1000XM5 are known for their wide soundstage, and yet they can't hold a candle to the spaciousness of the sound from the HD 660 S2.

Their detail is one of the other key reasons they get compared to everything else. They're able to extract even the finest points of any track you throw at them, from the shuffling of feet and papers in an orchestral recording to breathy moments that would be otherwise inaudible in other headphones.

Whenever people ask me what headphones they should buy if they're getting serious about quality, the HD 660 S2 are always close to the top of the list. In addition to their excellent sound, they're light and comfortable and feature a helpful replaceable cable.

They're not cheap, even at this deal price, but they're a stunning pair of headphones and a great way to really dig deep into your listening. Even better? They not only sound better than the AirPods Max, but with this discount, they also cost less.