January 1st 2014
Initial impressions
http://www.headfonia.com/ls-take-on-the-sennheiser-hd700/
First off "Happy New Year"
Took awhile but my HD700s finally showed up yesterday, a cursory listen (5-6 hrs) mirrored more or less yours and Mike’s impressions.
As mentioned above I’m using a Bryston BCD-1 as source balanced to a BHA-1 for amplification, so no hiss, hum, you name it just a jet black back-round allowing every little nuance to come through unscathed.
What was great was that instead of jumping through numerous tidbits of audio nirvana and being swept into audiophile neurosis I actually got immersed and “almost” listened to each disc in its entirety.
Started off by burning the 700's in with Underworld's "Dark and Long" and then Kraftwerk's Live "Minimum-Maximum" and kept them on repeat until I closed my shop at the end of the day.
Finally getting a chance to chill out I sat down with Brian Eno's "Another Day on Earth", George Crumb "An Idyl for the Misbegotten", Leslie Fiest's "The Reminder" and Dave Hollands “Prime Directive”.
The Senn signature was there but different, the HD580/600 are great phones and have stood the test of time but the HD700s appear to have brought everything up to date. Clarity was one word that came to mind but what I was mostly impressed by and just to quote you, “I would even dare to say the HD700 is speaker like in a way, it’s a dangerous statement, I know, but they sound so open and clear it’s amazing. “
My biggest caveat with the Senn 600 series was that even though imaging layering was great, the central image quite often was produced larger than life and disproportionate to what I consider a proper sound stage, therefore more convex in nature, my AKG K701s do the opposite and produce a staging that is way too concave.
The HD700s IMHO nailed it, producing the best natural staging, width and depth that I’ve gotten out of a pair phones and somewhat reminiscing my Dynaudio Special 25s speakers, that also applies to tonality and voicing, therefore neutral.
But to sum up without sounding too pretentious I’d say the HD700 is very “audiophile like”, at least from what I have experienced so far, in that they do not overlay any specific sonic signature of their own to the recording unlike my AKGs, Grados and other Senns, so basically very chameleon in nature.
Follow Up
Well my initial impressions and after a few days still stand and they have actually appeared to improve on my original observations.
Listening to Kathleen Battle’s “Grace” album was a treat and just to quote the opening liner notes
” Kathleen Battle’s voice is like a diamond—pure, clear, radiant, and beautiful….” What more can I say.
Switching back to my HD580/600s confirmed my observations with regards to staging, with the 700s Kathleen Battle was centered with excellent depth and space around the accompanying instrumentation so that I perceived more of a 3 dimensional person, where as with the 580/600s it felt like the microphone was maybe 3 feet in front of her and the orchestra pushed back, which I know is not the case; again the HD700s giving me more of that speaker presentation for which I was looking for and less of what I’m accustomed to with headphones.
Next I concentrated on bass and percussion music as I listened through Bill Laswell’s “Hear no Evil”, “Percussion Music”(“Ionisation” (Edgar Varese) and “Fantasy Variations” (Michael Colgrass) conducted by Charles Wuorinen and then Massive Attack’s “Mezzanine”. From tympani to kettle drums to synthesized bass the HD700s out performed all my other phones producing the desired pressure and extension and with direct comparison to my Dynaudio Special 25s augmented with a Velodyne SPL1500R sub/SMS-1 there was IMHO little wanting.
For those wanting more bass, all I can say is that you’ve stopped listening to the music and are looking for something else but not the truth and a real re-production (at least as far as this hobby goes) of the performance.
Should also mention that Bill Laswell’s recording “Hear no Evil” had smoothness and liquid presentation with excellent layering.
Finishing off with the Borodin String Quartet playing “Debussy-String Quartet in G Minor & Ravel-String Quartet in F Major on EMI, one’s treated with a sense of depth and uniformity with superb interplay between the musicians.
Overall I was again impressed with the congruity of tone from top to bottom and once more the speaker-like presentation, well done.
Not to mention the HD700s appear very well made and nice form factor, too bad they didn't throw in the balanced cable.
Robert
Ps. Just a word about pricing, not too sure why but Sennheiser Canada has never followed suit with Senn US, those with short term memory may be surprised to know that the HD600 were priced here at $699 and the HD580s at $549.00
Working in the industry at the time I got my first HD580s ten years ago my dealer costs were still $349.00, needless to say I bought them on line from the US for a much reduced price and even still today that trend continues, the HD700 are still listed at their original offering $1000-$1199 along with most of their line up.
So the current price of $649 in the US for the HD700 in my eyes, retrospectively speaking, makes them quite the bargain.
IMHO the 700s are everything the 650’s should have been, the HD600 were/are very well balanced phones and I was expecting something special with the 650s, but in the end I felt it was really only Sennheiser’s answer to the boom of Home Theatre at the time, with the augmentation and proliferation of the use of sub-woofers.
We got bass but at a cost of losing what made the 600s special, congruity of tone.
Impressions after almost 8 months, August 24th
Well maybe it’s just me but the HD700s have proved themselves over and over again as one of the most satisfying phones I’ve owned with all types of genres.
I’ve now forfeited most of my headphone collection, Hd580/600s, Grado SR325is, AKG K701s, K501s and the 240DFs, the HD700s filling the gap. Along the way I also purchased a new pair of HD800s but after week even with all their technical superiority they failed to engage me musically so off they went back to the supplier.
I still needed a second set of phones so just took the plunge on the AKG K712s, hey I was AKG supporter for as long as I can remember, their sound signature has dramatically transformed compared to my original K701s, being darker, warmer, smaller sound stage and now come very close to my HD580/600s but with a lot more bass, ironically this is all due to the implementation of the thicker, deeper memory foam ear cushions, which I confirmed just by swapping out the pads on the K701s.
But again the HD700s proved themselves as a better phone, percussion having better attack and decay, superior focused imaging over the K712s allowing one to hear deeper into the mix, overall better clarity from top to bottom, both phones are very good but the HD700s just give you more. I’ve read the Annies ( again with slightly different pads) retain some of the previous AKG K7xx openess but with the bass and may be a better contender with the HD700s.
Eventually I”ll most likely get around to the Audezes and Hifimans but for me Sennheiser have indeed produced a wonderful head-set and am always at a loss to hear otherwise.