RIP Sennheiser?

[jpelg]

^Yes, it's difficult to justify paying $375-400 for a "real" HD650, when the HD6XX is $220 (cable differences aside, especially if audiophiles will have replacement cables anyway), if you're willing deal with shipping delays. The HD660S in the $400-500 range is just confusing to me in comparison.

HD800S is showing a $300 price drop these days, which seems decent. Amazon Prime customers can get HD820's at a discount right now (although I never heard them sound good at the NY CanJam booths I frequented several years in a row (although I suspect it might have at least partially been a very loudly driven Sennheiser DAC/amp).

 

 

[jose]

44 minutes ago, tkam said:

I wonder if the Drop HD58X & HD6XX ended up hurting them?  No doubt they are hugely successful products for Drop but how much did they help Senn's bottom line?  I can't imagine they sold many 580/600/650's after those came out.  

 

I have my doubts .... think that the HD600 / 650 were already very old models and were amortized by Senn. Drop has given them a second youth. They have been in the catalog since the origin of MassDrop and have never disappeared. In fact, Drop continue to sell hundreds. If I´m not mistaken 59.3K for HD58X and 122.3K for HD6XX... that's a lot of headphones for such a minority market.

Although perhaps, the issue of trade margins might be debatable, they still have factories in Ireland or Germany ... while other manufacturers have migrated their production to China.

I already have a lot of headphones, but my favorite after the SR007 is still the "modest" hd600 over other most expensive models.

 

[dsavitsk]

1 minute ago, jose said:

I have my doubts .... think that the HD600 / 650 were already very old models and were amortized by Senn. Drop has given them a second youth

 

Indeed. I suspect Sennheiser was aware of its own financial position before authorizing the drop models. They probably had been neither manufacturing nor selling many of those models for years.

[jose]

They also bet on absolutely insane products with huge costs and low sales ... just to prove that they had the biggest penis. Bad policy if you don't have the money to afford it

PD. Can i say penis? 😁

[Torpedo]

1 hour ago, jose said:

They also bet on absolutely insane products with huge costs and low sales ... just to prove that they had the biggest penis. Bad policy if you don't have the money to afford it

PD. Can i say penis? 😁

NO, you can't say penis, you must say dick.

[catscratch]

Bloody shame. The HD650 is what I use 90% of the time. Would suck for that to go out of production.

Did their earphones sell well? I never thought much of their earphone lineup and I wonder if that's more important right now than full size headphones. Were their noise cancelling headphones good? There was little innovation coming out of them over the last 10 years and the only models I was interested it were the older ones.

I think a smaller, slimmer headphone division focused on the enthusiast and pro market would make sense, because competing with Apple and Beats in the consumer market is gonna be a long shot. Play to your core strengths, and be realistic about the size of your market. Their core strengths are full size headphones, tuning, driver design, and offering value, and those things scream pro/enthusiast to me and not consumer or even luxury. Focal beat them to the luxury market anyway.

[HiWire]

I think their Momentum brand was trying to gain access to mainstream consumers. They made decent inroads with reviewers, but the high prices of the products meant a lot of prospective shoppers were going for cheaper or more "innovative" (flavor of the month) products.

I bought a pair of HD 599 SE to recapture the feel of my first Sennheiser headphones, the HD 320: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/sennheiser-hd-320.21653/

It's not a pair of HD 600 (-1), but it was about 1/4 the price and it's easy to drive with portable players. When I think of Sennheiser, I think of well-engineered, high quality, neutral headphones that are usually lightweight and open design. They're not fashion-driven products, emphasizing function over form.

I also have a pair of HD1 In-Ear (wired) headphones that I use with my phone. Slightly U-shaped frequency response, but in a pleasant way. Sennheiser planned to rebrand them as Momentums but the product never came out and they're becoming more difficult to find as inventory dries up.

Edited February 18, 2021 by HiWire

[Sherwood]

Per https://drop.com/buy/our-most-requested-headphone-launching-2-18-21/talk?

Hey Friends, 

Tomorrow morning at 9am PST, we are releasing the DROP + Sennheiser HD 8XX.  This headphone is the result of hundreds of thousands of community posts and four years of collaboration between the teams at DROP and Sennheiser.  Analyzing discussions around the HD 800S, we saw clear mandates from the community around bass extension and midrange balance. The HD 8XX incorporates two novel changes to accommodate those mandates.  Where the HD 800S uses a single resonator, Sennheiser developed a dual resonator system for the HD 8XX, creating bass extension down to 10hz (+5db @ 10hz vs 800 S) by changing the resonant properties of the housing. Sennheiser’s team, lead by Jermo Koehnke, reached the bass solution pretty quickly, but our goals for the midrange proved demanding... bordering impossible. After significant research, Sennheiser reached a solution; altered acoustic impedance in the transducer's dampening material to smooth the FR from 2.5k to 8k.  This means the transducer in the HD 8XX is unique, it’s a new ring driver. The HD8XX goes live tomorrow at 9am PST with 3000 units available, shipping in November. These 3000 units represent the full production we anticipate for 2021. We’ll make more available if the capacity increases, but this launch is the only guaranteed HD 8XX availability until 2022.  Launch pricing for the HD 8XX is $1100 and you’ll receive $200 worth of drop points (20,000 points) with purchase.  For future units, HD 8XX pricing will increase to $1200+. 

So come by tomorrow morning at 9am PST, pickup your HD8XX, use your drop points to buy a DROP + THX 789 for $99 and enjoy the endgame this November. https://drop.com/buy/drop-sennheiser-hd-8xx-headphones ^ this is the direct link for 9am tomorrow, thanks for your support

[n_maher]

^^^ Wait, so you drop $1100 tomorrow and you might receive some headphones in November that no one has ever heard before and might come from a company that no longer exists?  Where do I sign up?  I guess I missed when DROP became kickstarter but I admittedly have stayed out of all of this.  

[blessingx]

There is risk no doubt, but for all the failed dreams/scamminess of Kickstarter/Indiegogo, has Massdrop/Drop ever had a failed "campaign"? They may, but I hadn't heard. They often put a spin on models for sale elsewhere, so yes you get in cheap now or wait for reviews (mostly suffering only time to receive). And I'd be surprised if there's much doubt this will become something always available in the future instead of just campaigns (when they switched from Massdrop to Drop). Depending on health of Sennheiser of course and as you mentioned. For what it's worth I'm not sure there's been any critical response to any modified Senns sounding worse than the normal versions. I haven't found my 2 HD6XXs or HD58X to be so (and still have 2 HD580s to compare). How many Senns do I have again? 

[jose]

We are talking about a business case about 3M$ (20% for Drop 80% for Senn maybe ¿?). I understand that Senn is interested in this type of request and I guess Drop's are clear that if Senn dies, they'll lose a lot of money. 

Look this;  

"...We’ll make more available if the capacity increases, but this launch is the only guaranteed HD 8XX availability until 2022."

 

 

[Sherwood]

^^^ Wait, so you drop $1100 tomorrow and you might receive some headphones in November that no one has ever heard before and might come from a company that no longer exists?  Where do I sign up?  I guess I missed when DROP became kickstarter but I admittedly have stayed out of all of this.  

I could be mistaken, but I don’t believe anyone pays Drop and receives nothing. Worst case, you either get something you don’t like or you get a late refund when Sennheiser can’t deliver on their end.

Drop’s Sennheiser 6XX series has been an unmitigated success, and their collaborations with AKG and Focal are similarly well-liked, so I’m confident they’ll sell out this run.

I’m interested to see what they turn out, and I’d not be surprised if it was good. I love the HD800, however, and also own an HD58X, so it’s hard for me to be objective.

[tkam]

Drop makes it pretty clear that you can cancel and get a refund at anytime before shipment.  No real risk to end-users here.

Here's their page for this:  https://drop.com/buy/drop-sennheiser-hd-8xx-headphones

The FR graphs are interesting - clearly more bass output and a much less of a roll-off in exchange for the dip at 1.5 khz being more pronounced.

[recstar24]

I'd bite but damn November is a long time from now. 

[blessingx]

I bit. Let's see what all this Sennheiser-hype is all about. All your Senns are belong to me. 

[Torpedo]

If I still were able to listen to headphones for a long time at decent volumes, I'd be so much in. If just only for the pleasure of comparing them to my early series HD800 that have the resonant trap mod installed and sound wonderful.

[Grahame]

Someones thoughts in 4K

 

[HiWire]

Can a pair of Sennheiser HD 800 S be driven well by an amp under $1,000?

I've lost track of how current headphone amps stack up... would pairing it with a piece of Schiit Magni be... Heresy?

[tkam]

Sure they can be driven by most amps pretty easily.  Typically I'd recommend something like an OTL tube amp for them.

[HiWire]

I forgot I have a Schiit Fulla 2 lying around... I'll give it a go if a pair of Senn 8** ever come around, in the name of headphone science.

Edited February 18, 2021 by HiWire

[jpelg]

Or speaker-amp taps.

[purk]

7 hours ago, HiWire said:

Can a pair of Sennheiser HD 800 S be driven well by an amp under $1,000?

I've lost track of how current headphone amps stack up... would pairing it with a piece of Schiit Magni be... Heresy?

ECP amps are awesome with them.  The HD800S sounds good out of my modified Sony NW-ZX507.

[jose]

I really like using the HD800 with the Dynalo Bal ... I think it's a good combination

[mwl168]

I also really like my HD800 with my balanced KG CFA 🙂

[blessingx]

Is this what Senn has been up to? I'm probably playing catch-up. 

"When it comes to gaming audio, few can keep up with EPOS. A joint venture between global audio giants Sennheiser and Demant, this brand brings decades of sonic excellence to the world of gaming. Now, it’s landing on Drop." 

https://drop.com/all-communities/drops/epos-spotlight