REVIEW: Sennheiser HD 800 - Page 36

yeah triode12, i know this. tricycle sounded bad though. like skylab said "Flim and the BB's "Tricycle" should sound fantastic on everything". that cd sounds good on bose. something must be wrong. i will start by tomorrow going to the store and requesting to listen to another pair. i will take it from there. the only thing is they will probably not be broken in. for instance, tricycle on the he90 or o2 is drool worthy. like i said i reckon the senns might sound average to some but i doubt they should sound aweful. some people said they werent great untill they got a cable. i feel as though a cable makes a difference but it cannot turn rubbish into gold. i am not saying the senns are by any means rubbish either. just my pair apparently.

music_man

Yeah don't expect too much from a cable swap. My HD800s were very nice before, and are still very nice after fitting a 3rd party cable (only bought as I wanted to go balanced). All this talk about adding hugely expensive cables that "transform" the sound is dubious at best in my opinion. Although of course I only spent a few hundred dollars on my cable, which perhaps isn't enough for the purchase justification psychology to really kick in .

i tried another pair. mine are not defective. same sound. i think maybe the problem is i am underwhelmed by their price tag. i know some people think they the best thing since sliced bread. i am in the camp that they are slightly better than say the k701. as always, diminishing returns. i guess. plus the angled driver may very well not jive properly with my ears.

music_man

now we are talking. i just got the new michael buble cd "crazy love". i now hear what everyone else has said about the hd800! very unfortunately it is on one cd so far. out of the 500 or so i have tried. i pulled out all of michael buble's older cd's. nearly as good but the new one is incredible. i guess you have to feed these things beluga to make them work. it is a shame they cannot work on sub-par recordings. so really, they still are not for me. since most of my tens of thousands of cd's are no where near as good as a michael buble cd.

you might be wondering why i did not hear this with flim and the bb's. well, i tend to use the human voice as a benchmark of playback quality. plus i have heard tricycle and new pants so many times it is not impressive anymore. you know, like once you see a mr. bean episode 100 times it isn't funny anymore. so i missed it on that but it's there.

i will say they outdid the beyers and k701's by a good margin on anything michael buble. on prince,madonna,mj even neil diamond they are easily bettered by much more forgiving headphones. one intresting thing is i thought ofra harnoy "imagine" was very good untill the hd800 ruined it for me. meaning they showed the recordings weakness. they must have mic'd her cello with one mic in omni and the computer(ddd) has digital "dropouts" all over the place. much more enjoyable on the k701,dt880 or even l3000.

what is so great about something that makes everything else fail? i don't get this. actaully i do, all of you that love the hd800 have better recordings than i!

music_man

I tend to find the way music was recorded annoying with the HD-800s, such that a lot of music sounds deficient in the way the microphones were placed. Kind of Blue becomes annoying, because the microphone was too close to the trumpet and sax, so they sound a little harsh. I think you've nailed their "too good" aspect, in that anything wrong at all in the chain is ruthlessly revealed.

Maybe they dont need expensive set ups to shine

Ouch...

Seriously music_man, if the HD-800 do not sound good with the vast
majority of your music, take them back. They may just not be for you.

All I can say that on V-DAC+Novo they sound pretty sweet , these will almost for sure be my next cans (unless T1 is better for me).

well, intrestingly i like them best on the presonus central station. if that works for anyone else the phones are actually affordable! since the amp and dac is so cheap

music_man

interesting, as I find the "So" album silly good on my setup in sacd.

This excerpt from the attached link may explain why this CD sounds good.

Michael Bublé's take on love goes to the top - CNN.com

Does HD800 sound bright with stock cable ?

Sometimes, yes.  I can't listen to Metal with the stock cable, and some very sibilant recordings (Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy Live, Kathleen Edwards) will sound more sibilant with the stock cable than the Warren Audio double helix or Locus-Design Hyperion Cable.  But, with the right amp and music, the HD800 is very good with the stock cable.

 

I haven't been able to compare my new Hyperion cable to the W-A cable yet, but it's a definite improvement to the stock or 1st generation W-A cable.  If I had to guess, I would say it's just as good as the second generation W-A cable which was a cross between the double-helix and the Intercept series (different braiding and insulations).  The L-D cable is good enough that I haven't felt the need to switch back to the W-A cable when using the HD800 with my SE amps (since I'm currently evaluating a Luxman P-1u which is 1/4"only and the W-A cable needs to use a SE adapter).

Edited by HeadphoneAddict - 5/6/10 at 3:32pm

 

The Hd800's renders rock and electronica with surprising authority..even without an amplifier. Thats my impression and personal experience. 

Edited by earerror - 5/6/10 at 3:46pm