Sennheiser HD-800 headphones

I don't see the point of the mod or even tube amps to smooth detail
These cans are true revealators.
If you want warm try the HD 650 or the planars
Ive been listening to Previns Peter and the Woolf on Telarc
Never have edits been so ruthlessly exposed....
Art Pepper and the Rythmn Section is fascinating, all the detail of the 50s session is laid bare,as is the post production manipulation,its doesnt degrade the experience, it enhances it,(for me).
Now will my IPod classic drive them,currently its recharging
Work in progress on some of the fastest cans on earth with excellent spacialistion and stereo field, I know of no LS that could equall them.

 

Anybody heard the HD-800 paired with a Chord Hugo?

 

I'm listening to Hans Zimmer's Batman: The Dark Knight Rises with my Sennheiser HD-800 and this is the first time that I've heard the album as completely as possible. It really gets the subtle differences between the softest sounds and the loudest sounds just right with tremendous bass extension for the lowest notes. The smooth and lightning fast transitions in dynamic range is also superb which gets the crescendos just right. Music sounds more alive with the HD-800s. This is the first time that I've heard this album so well. Bass impact is okay; it's not particularly strong and it's not anemic either.

I'm listening to LAME 3.99 joint stereo 320 kbps CBR. It sounds wonderful.

 

One thing that I noticed about the Sennheiser HD-800 is that they can make rap and hip hop music sound intelligible. I can follow the lyrics clearly. These headphones really have speed going for them and they parse words extremely fast. I'm listening to 50 Cent, Eminem, Rihanna, and for a change up I'm listening to Maroon 5. All of my other headphones don't do this.

 

These headphones have a natural sound. They are so accurate, neutral, and transparent that it reproduces sound in such an effortless and natural way that it is easy to be fooled into thinking that pre-recorded music sounds like live music. I have only heard a very few number of other headphones or in-ear monitors that can do what the Sennheiser HD 800 excels at. I'll be keeping these headphones as the gold standard by which to judge other headphones.

They are very picky and they do need the right headphone amplifier and DAC to make them sing. I've narrowed down my selection to the Sennheiser HDVD 800 or the Chord Hugo. I have found that lower priced DACs and headphone amplifiers don't bring forth the same magical sound that the HD 800s are fully capable of. My CEntrance HiFi-M8 LX XL4 portable DAC and headphone amplifier is a good fit, but it lacks the high definition and resolution to make the HD 800s shine. I'm debating which one to get, but both of these products are well suited to drive the HD 800 to its fullest. Hopefully, I will have enough cash saved by the end of this year to get either one. I find that the HDVD 800 has the edge in terms of synergy, but the Hugo has the edge in terms of resolution and detail retrieval. It does sound like a top of the line analogue turntable especially with DxD or DSD source material. Both of these products add higher definition that fleshes out the timbre accuracy and body of the music and instruments that adds that magical sparkle to the HD 800s.

 

I do. Went from HD700 to HD800. Brilliant upgrade!

 

Yes. Sounds very good to me. But I don't use this combo normally.

-- Sanjay

 

The Senns are tha **** !! They're like Shure carts, even the cheaper models perform well enough. I have the CX-100 earbuds.

 

Finally got a pair of these myself. A friend had told me about them and I thought the idea of a $1500 pair of headphones was completely nuts. Then I spent a weekend at his studio and used them almost nonstop and immediately started saving my pennies. Decided a used pair made more sense for me financially, so poked around until I found a pair for 700 (EUR) on a hi-fi site. They arrived in the box, in good shape, and with an extra pair of the earpads (but maybe they come that way).

I absolutely LOVE these phones. The sound is crystal clear and extremely musical to my ears. I trust them. And - miracle of miracles - I get no headphone fatigue, even after 5-6 hours of listening. I guess the only issue is that they don't do so well with badly recorded stuff, but I can live with that as they take well-recorded material to such beautiful place.

 

I found that scalability is really nice on the Hd800's.
I've arrived to my summit-fi with Linn Klimax DS as source and Sennheisers own balanced amp HDVA600.
For every upgrade of source/amp I've taken since getting the HD it's become better and better.

I've tried aftermarket cables from Moon Audio, Nordost and Toxic Cables but I've actually come back to Senneheisers own balanced cable which in my opinion is neutral and laid back.

The biggest and best upgrade was of course the Linn Klimax DS.

Game over.

 

Probably an unpopular opinion, but after living with the HD800s for a year, I find that I've gone back to the HD 650 for most of my headphone listening now. Just way, way too bright for my ears and they seem to really aggravate my tinnitus. I even got a special cable to play them in balanced mode on my Pono player but I still usually end up pulling the headphones off before finishing a couple of tunes. I'll take the Sennheiser "veil" of the HD 650 over the HD 800s any day. I have no problem listening to music for a couple of hours at a time with these phones. I will say this much for the HD 800s: they are extremely comfortable to wear and you can forget that they're on your head.

 

I felt the brightness disappeared completely when buying the Klimax DS, even with van Gelder's Jazz masterings

 

I absolutely disliked the HD800 when I trued them, i found them excessively bright. The new 800S version however changes all that, they removed all the brightness of the original model.
I've spent the last couple of days listening to them and find them much more relaxed.

 

indeed. coming from hd650, hd800 is way to bright.... until you EQ them. Try sonarworks, its amazing what it does and all the brightness is gone. the cold clinical nature is also gone.

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