Sennheiser HD800 Appreciation Thread - Page 438  

I have always considered cables the "final tweak". For me, I needed a balanced cable and the Q is about as ergonomic a cable there is and very musical & detailed. So win-win for me.

I also believe cables should be used as final tweaks. There's much more potential gain in upgrading the source/amp.

Was listening to preproman's new 800s tonight and noticed they don't sound like they do (so sweet) until you put some power to them. Low level listening sounded thin. But the nicest thing about them were how much better the black paint made them look. The silver make them look more like a helmet. The black looks like a high tech piece of gear that they are. Beautiful.

Listening to Buena Vista Social Club's self titled masterpiece.. ODAC --> LP G109-S --> HD800... and it sounds gorgeous.  Imaging, tonal accuracy, instrument separation, inner detail.. everything effortlessly amalgamates into a beautiful musical experience.

I would actually twist the argument on its head and say cable modification/choice should be the FIRST thing you do - because otherwise you are not accurately *hearing* the HD800s or your source or your amp.  This goes for all cables - power, interconnect, umbilical - not just headphone cables.  Once you have found the most revealing cables you can find (to your years) - and they form a synergy across your entire playback chain - then and only then can you swap components in and out and hear them and judge them and decide which to keep.  I'm sorry but if you're running muddy, smearing, compressing cables from the fanciest amp and source in town into your HD800s, the music you hear is going to be plagued by issues that have NOTHING to do with any of the components and you are going to make inaccurate assumptions and choices about the recording and the entire playback chain.  

 

On the subject of mods, I can only give my most enthusiastic endorsement to Stefan Audio Art's current HD800 modifications, which involve removal of key resonating surfaces within the headphone assembly as well as hard-wiring of their cable directly to the driver.  I'm surprised no one here is talking about the effect of Senn's crappy connectors on the sound of the phones. 

 

I'm interested in the hard-wiring mod.  How to get in contact with Stefan to get a quote?

Edited by sphinxvc - 2/6/13 at 10:45am

Not sure if that was sarcastic but modding components is surely necessary.  I have spent the time to mod mine or had them built/modded for me to my specifications for wiring, transformers, connectors, caps, resistors, tubes, etc.  This is not as hard as it might seem.   Once you've settled on a component it can (almost) always be made better.

 

James at Stefan Audio Art will help you:

 

stefanaudioart@yahoo.com

 

He can explain the various levels of modification.

Moon Black Dragon HD800 cable is great (I think I said this earlier).

It really targets the fatigue factor w/o loosening the bass or fogging things at all as I hear it.

Drew mentions something on his site about how his connections to the phone are better (& I guess it works based on what I hear).

I sure would do this before I mess around with modding the phone itself. At least the cable change is reversible (and you could even return the cable to Drew in the trial period if you don't like it).

Meh; I  guess that for cable nuts, buying a 15$ headphone cable extension is a no-no.

I use one.

 

Thanks, I think that is an interesting point. I have some good power cables, but my interconnects and other cables certainly could be upgraded. That's probably what I'll do next.

 

That seems like a well regarded cable. And it's about half the price of the Cardas Clear cable I was looking at. Has anyone here heard the Cardas Clear cable with the HD 800?

Drew (and other headphone cable specialists) make their cable specifically for headphones. I believe the Cardas ones are the same cable originally designed for ICs and speaker cabling.