Sennheiser HD800 - need help please :) - Page 3

I thought balanced was a big ++++ ?

You could consider the AudioLab MDAC (balanced out) to V200 (balanced in)

 

or V800 balanced out to V200 balanced in - XLR 3pin male to female cables

should set you back about $250 for a set.

 

Hi Luczamic,

 

according to your question at the beginning:I think the HD800 is a high class headphone. If it is worth its prize? Well i think you´ll have to compare and judge by yourself.

 

The opinions in this forum seems to have a wide range, not only concerning the quality of different headphones. There are some people in this forum who deny a great impact of DACs or amplifiers to the overall performance of a setup. I am also scepticall about a big influence of different amplifiers (with the exception of the excelent crossfied and time delay technology of the SPL) or DACs if they are appropriate in electrical terms (impedance, power) for the given cans. To my opinion the sound transducer and the room have the greatest impact on the soundquality. We happyly exclude the room from the equation, leaving the headphone as the main deterrminant to the overall performance.

So I disagree with most of the posts in this thread.

 

Frege 

How can you possibly consider room acoustics influence with the transducer operating a few cm's from your ear...? :facepalm:

 

 

 

It must be a mental thing. I, for myself, can swear that sound changes in my car once I pull in the garage, even though I know full well that since the windows are closed there's just no way room acoustics of the garage can impact those of the car interior.
 

 

Did you read his entire post before facepalming?  See the bolded.  :facepalm:

 

 

 

 

haha i thought i was the only one.. my headphones tend to sound better in my hall where its more "airy" .. think its a mental thing..

 

 

well.. i think you should go for some flagships if u are willing to spend the money.. ur budget now will not be ur budget in another few months  they always increase.. if u are willing to raise a few hundred more for the HD800 im sure you WILL be willing to raise a few more hundreds for a amp/dac and stuff in a few more months...  :D i have not heard the HD800 but how bad can it sound out of your amp that you would rather listen to your current headphones?!?! and if u start realizing the flaws of the hd650 you will start considering the hd800.. and we are back to "should i buy a hd800?"

LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE! U KNOW U WANT A HD800!!! hahaa 

 

haha just something to think about 

Edited by fir3dp - 12/15/11 at 8:10am

Yeah, that's why one needs to discard certain mental suggestions when doing a critical listen. Pretty much the same as instrument flying, where one must disregard any attitude perceptions coming from the brain and focus on the instrument readouts.

 

 

I think high end is to 90% a mental thing. I have a Burmester 061 CD Player, this is very expensive gear (to my checking account), but i hear no difference between this player and my old creek or NAD cd players (and I think there is no difference). But I love this well grafted player, it is outstanding and I know, if it would be broken in 10 years or so, Burmester will be able to reapair it.  It is the same with expensive mechanical watches, they are not giving the time more precisely than a digital watch for 10 Euros, but some people spend a lot of money for them without saying that this watch gives the time more exactly. But audiophiles often justify their insane investments with "better sound", they betray themselfs in most cases.
 

 

 

 

 

I used to own the HD-650's, I've patented possibly the most accurate electrical signal transducer (audio cable) available, I made my own cables for the 650s, then tried the

AKG-702's which made the 650s sound terrible, dark, undetailed, and I was quite shocked at how much better the AKGs are. So decided to bite the bullet and buy the 800s, had them recabled and compared them to my, my speaker system and the headphones suprisingly lost.

       Point of all this is the 800s are really good the AKG-702s are a few steps behind the 800s and I would be willing to sell my 650 cheap if someone would make me an offer. I have a speaker system made with the 50mm bandor drivers hand made in england, they are as fast as the 56mm drivers in the 800s, I've got a  hand made digital processor from a friend who worked for national semi conductor in advanced audio op amp chip design and stanford research institute, hand made amp, and all internally wired with my wire, I know I'm rambling but my point of reference is pretty good, I could only by a headphone that could be rewired, the 702 use mini xlr, I got my hands on several pair of the 800 connectors before the company selling them stopped.

      A majority of distortion in audio system comes from the cables and I've figured out a way control the nature of a sine wave. My cable has the same effect on AC current, an analog signal and a digital signal.

     I'm sure many of you probably think I'm full of ****, or crazy, but I live in the san francisco area and would consider doing a demo, never did that before in this manner, but I'm tired of all the rhetoric an bad assumptions I read about on these types of forums and the very best you can come up with is usually sitting in your listening room. A simple test of this kind would take all of 30 seconds, yep that's right, 30 seconds, so if you hear things on your favorite test cds never heard before, that's the test, all in the details

I'm just another mad scientist who got lucky,

Your E9 should have plenty of power to drive the HD800. This is a testable proposition with a solid basis, google "Yet Another FiiO Review" and check out the first hit to find out more. I agree with Saintly and Frege in that the headphone plays the greatest role in sound quality. The jump from HD598 to HD800 will bring about a far larger change than the jump to the HD650. Whether the jump will be worth it depends on your palette. I can vouch for the HD800 having some unique strengths and qualities which make it a top shelf headphone.

 

When and if you're ready for a source upgrade, the variety of options will make your head spin. Thankfully we are at a point where there are great options from anywhere near a couple of hundred dollars to however much the market can bear.

My E9 gets no HD800 time. Besides not keeping up with the WA2 sonically, I like the HD800 with tubes, the E9/HD800 combo has a small soundstage which negates one of the HD800s strong features. I like using SS for gaming(no tube warmup/min run time) so I'm hoping the O2 can do the job because the HD800 is a sound-whoring dream.
Just my .02