Sennheiser HD 800 Redux

[purk]

Indeed! At least for now, the plan is to do a small run of Black Diamonds. I am just investigating some machining issues right now, so hopefully they'll be ready this fall. Work has also started on a DSHA-2, but I haven't even prototyped it yet, so it is probably a winter or spring thing, if it works at all.

[RudeWolf]

Indeed! At least for now, the plan is to do a small run of Black Diamonds. I am just investigating some machining issues right now, so hopefully they'll be ready this fall. Work has also started on a DSHA-2, but I haven't even prototyped it yet, so it is probably a winter or spring thing, if it works at all.

 

I'd be down to get a Black Diamond PCB, if that's an option. Not that I need any more amps, but I might build one when fancy strikes me. 

[ellevoid]

DSHA-2 !!!   
 

[Tyll Hertsens]

Indeed! At least for now, the plan is to do a small run of Black Diamonds. I am just investigating some machining issues right now, so hopefully they'll be ready this fall. Work has also started on a DSHA-2, but I haven't even prototyped it yet, so it is probably a winter or spring thing, if it works at all.

 

Doug, please let me know when you've got a production version so I can spill some ink and hopefully get them moving a bit for you. 

[ellevoid]

Anyone try HD-800 with DAC/Amp HDVD-800 or HDVA-600 from Sennheiser ?
 

[deepak]

Sometimes, when I start a song when I'm wearing my HD-800, I am startled, because I think I've left my speaker system on, because the soundstage is often well away from my head.  Damn these sound good.

this is a nice effect, 'specially on some live music. IIRC you are anti-Miles, but you should listen to some of the Plugged Nickel concert on the 800z, I finally got this guy on the vinyl box. Almost sounds like my ESL63s in the dark

[deepak]

I sent my Pass monoblocks back to Pass to get recapped (was getting a touch of 120 hz hum; great customer service btw), so I spent a few days getting reacquainted  with the HD800 with some new vinyl- Maiden Voyage, A Love Supreme and Blonde on Blonde all 45 rpm reissues. Still rank up there with Omega 1 and 2 as my all time favorites. And in the dark when I drift into the music they sorta project the sound in a way like the ESL63 do. I've also been using the BA as a preamp which is really nice.

[wink]

Yours is pretty much like mine except it has more bass from that step up at 225Hz going back to 100Hz.

 

Mine gains about 1dB to 100Hz in 3 slight steps whereas yours gains about 3.5dB in 3 more pronounced steps.

[Riotvan]

Hmm i think it's time to give these another shot, they have been haunting me lately and then i come here and read this thread... fuck me and my wallet. 

[tin ear]

I tried but never could engage with it.

[wink]

Try harder. The problem is usually the amp and source.

[wink]

http://www.head-fi.org/content/type/61/id/934324/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL

[wink]

You've just gotta love the brutality of the HD800.

[tin ear]

No one should have to try that hard.

[Dusty Chalk]

I think he's referring to the difficulty in finding an adequate amp and source for the headphones, as well as still referring to the "engage" comment.  I mostly agree with him.  I think people should have to try that hard if they want to, I just don't find myself wanting to.

 

That said, I really need to hear these again.

[tin ear]

Sorry, I was replying to wink. I've heard the HD800 out of different rigs and there's no denying its technical capabilities. Maybe I just prefer a more coloured sound.

[wink]

Therein is the rub.

 

True high fidelity is getting as close in the reproduction of the source material as possible.

 

If the source material is sub-standard, it should sound sub-standard, and vice versa.

 

It seems that a lot of the criticism of a sound system is misplaced and should be directed at the source material.

[Dusty Chalk]

Unless a majority of your source material (because of one's taste in music) is inferior, in which case accommodations should be made.  And even so, there's always compromises -- does one go for the flattest frequency response, or the least THD?  I listen to a lot of "busy" music, so ...what's it called -- intermodulation distortion?  ...is pretty important to me.

[tkam]

I think personal taste/preferences plays into this more than anything.  The HD-800 have very low distortion across the entire range compared to most "dynamic" phones.  I think that lack of distortion is such a different sound for some folks that it just turns them off immediately.  

[tin ear]

Maybe I like distortion.

[wink]

 

Unless a majority of your source material (because of one's taste in music) is inferior, in which case accommodations should be made.

 

... and so they should.

In saying that one shouldn't be under the delusion that the whole set-up is high fidelity.

 

Enjoy it for what it's worth, but remember what it is.

 

At the moment, my most used headphones are:- Sennheiser HD600, AKG K702 and Beyerdynamic DT531.

 

I specifically use these because I can listen to them and not be distracted and drawn into critical listening. I just want to hear what's there in broad brush strokes.

 

If I want to pore over the "Mona Lisa" I pull out the HD800 ot the SR007 Mk11.    Horses for courses.

Edited December 23, 2013 by wink

[grawk]

And maybe the style of distortion present in most transducers offsets the flaws in most methods of reproduction.  If the source material isn't perfect (and none of it is) then having perfect reproduction of that isn't ideal.  If the flaws of one help the other, and vice versa, then that can only be a good thing, unless you're trying to analyze those flaws.  

[tin ear]

Descriptions from those who haven't connected with the HD800 often refer to a certain sterile and distant presentation, that treble peak and lean bass. I think I'm also one of those people, and my source material tends to be pretty well recorded stuff.

[wink]

There's also the problem that some who haven't heard a live orchestra/band have no real point of reference to guage what it should sound like.

 

Hearing recorded material through cheap coloured headphones/speakers will set that as the standard of what things should sound like.

 

I have a nephew who is a Beatles nut and he used to listen to his CDs through a cheap piece of musical furniture.

One day he came over and I demonstrated some of my headphone collection for him.

He remarked that the music on my system sounded very different to what he thought it should sound like.

I told him to bring one of his Beatles CDs nex time he came over.

He showed up with a Beatles CD, and I let him hear it through the HD800s and the expression on his face was priceless.

He checked to see that the right CD was playing because he could hardly recognise the songs with the extra dynamic range and detail.

The next time i saw him he said that he took the CD to a friend's place so that he could hear it on his friend's father's hi-fi setup because he couldn't believe the difference he had heard between his system and mine.

He said that this friend's father's system sounded a lot more like mine than his.

Eventually I got him a pair of reasonable speakers which transformed his low-fi unit into something more realistic and within his budget.

 

The takeaway lesson here is that some peoply think that what they have is realistic, and it is only when they hear another system which is substantially better do they realise how deficient their present system is.

Whether they are prepared to shell out for something better is a different matter.

[tin ear]

I doubt that anecdote is relevant here.