The Sennheiser HD 800: The First Listen, The First Review - Page 37

I think your comment re: e-stats only reiterates mine.

Regarding a dedicated amp, it has been my experience that even the best headphones can be made to sound great, or even downright sucky, depending on the amplification used. I think this accounts for more differences of opinion than even personal preferences in sound.

Do you disagree that the resultant sound from any speaker driver couldn't be optimized for the better with specifically engineered amplification? I question how "limited" this dealer network is going to be. Both Amazon & J&R has them on their website for preorder, albeit at MSRP. Early adopters will bear the brunt of that, but I'll bet that discounts will be easily available shortly after their debut.

Still, my comment was intended to show the fact that the price window of $1000-1500 matches Head-Fi's hi-end tipping point. If deals are had at the lower-end of that, so much the better, right? To me, there are cost-no-object products that demonstrate the bleeding edge of technology that can be developed today, and then there are the more sellable products that benefit from trickle-down.

The Orpheus system was more the former, and deserves the label "statement" product, imo. It remains to be seen whether the HD800 is or not. I'm just asking the question. However, your definition of "statement" product is well-taken.

Yes, from the stand point that I don't necessarily want the option of alternate amplification taken out of the equation for me. Does everyone agree that the HEV90 is the best amp for the HE90s? Does everyone buy active speakers? To take the point further why not just build a CD player into the equation then too since it would be truly best (by your definition) if all of the components were engineered concurrently. I don't mean to sound overly sarcastic but the best sound that I've experienced has not come from completely integrated systems where all components were provided by one source/manufacturer.

In my opinion everyone has talents and I'd prefer it if the speaker (or headphone) guys stuck to headphones and left the rest of the chain to the respective experts.

That is always the "Catch-22". Still, a dedicated amp that the originating engineers develop simultaneously & believe allows the driver to sound best, truly makes a "statement" (ie. "statement product") from the manufacturer. Sennheiser is a big enough company to have (or hire, or consult) expertise in both areas.

Having such a dedicated amp from the manufacturer can be made using non-proprietary connections as to not preclude interchangable components for those listeners who disagree with said engineers. You always have the option.

thx

i am downloading

After reading all the comments here, my expectations are set so high that when I do listen to them, they probably won't sounds as good as I thought. I've never listened to any Sennheiser phones, but would like to. I think I would appreciate the 800's more after owning the 600's perhaps.

I've only read about 60% of the threads here, but does anyone who has listened to them have a negative about the phones?

Buahahahahhahhhhah! I love it.

The greatest headphone of all time, now equipped with blessed baby jesus earpads.

What? From the entire three people here that have had the opportunity? No, not yet.

They are far too new for anyone to have formed a negative opinion on them. No one even owns one yet.

As you can see by the amount of 'Headphoneus Supremi" here, some of which are renound for thier excentricity, if they say the 800's will blow you away!!!
They WILL!! although they may have thier favorites, I've never met (read) a better group of unbiased reviewers. It's the reason I first came here from the Headroom site. I always respected thier unbiased thorough reviews.

If I may be so bold:
My hunch is that the HD800 is going to be a mix between the HD650 and the HE60.

You may want to look in the Headphone forums. There is an alternate thread.

Well, the good news is that these headphones are silver, not gold looking like Jude's pictures show.
Looking at them on Tyll's head, they look good.

Careful, almost anything looks good next to my ugly mug.

As you can tell by my # of posts, I'm still new here and learning. I have been very impressed by the reviews and detailed comments of the 'Headphoneus Supremi' and I don't doubt them one bit.

My other hobby is digital SLRs and every nine months when a new model comes out everyone jumps on the bandwagon and says its the greatest thing and the BEST SLR ever invented, but in just a short time later they are referred to as mediocre or crap. I noticed headphones and audio equipment seem to be more immune to these type of comments since the product lines seem to refresh longer, but I didn't know if this is the case here. I'm not trying to be rude or disrespectful, just want to make sure the 'newness' isn't influencing people's opinions.

I think it's far too early to make any conclusions about the HD800. Once someone directly compares it to a high-end electrostatic for a few days, then we can get some better answers.

I'm assuming Jude and Tyll's impressions / comparisons were based on memory. I doubt there is anyone who can properly compare headphones by memory, even if the comparison were made an hour between listening to the headphones.

I've been tricked too many times by memory to be too enthusiastic about the HD800.

Brilliant price point by Senn at $1400. Leaves the HD600/650 territory clear of any peer threat. Creates an aspiration point which is far out but more attainable than electrostatics. They seem to have adopted the Sony concept of angling the cups and 'floating' the drivers as in the SA5000 and F1. It will do well.