Sennheiser HD 700: Officially Unveiled at CES 2012! - Page 176

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Willett 

 

Remember these HD 700 have had zero burning in time and - for comparison - the AKG K701 sounded pretty nasty until they were run in.

Absoluetly ! And I'm aware of that, that's why I'm going to try them once again in few weeks !

But the HD650 are quite new too and they sounded a lot more coherent to my ears.

I see that my earlier reservations about the mids and lower treble are being corroborated somewhat. They just sound uneven and even recessed in places when compared to the HD800. And Sennheiser mids are my favourite of all headphone manufacturers so its doubly disappointing.

several 1st impression not so encouraging for HD700...

Price wise and model wise, the HD700 are supposed to be worse than the HD800. But yeah, the signs are discouraging but I will have to try them meself and see how it fairs.

The hype around this headphone is ridiculous, some of you need to take a step back and lighten up. Sennheiser ain't making an end-all dynamic headphone here, TBH they seem a bit confused with what they want to do with the HD700's.

So far, 3 out of 3 people think that they sound somewhat artificial. 

Did those who gave their impressions on the HD700 at the beginning of this thread mention that at all? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windsor 

More than a few times, they sounded slightly artificial to me.
 

So I take it the delay wasn't for the purposes of re-tuning these to minimize their peakiness? I suppose that was always just wishful thinking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windsor 

Hi guys -
I just spent about an hour with the HD 700, alongside the HD 800, HD 600, and LCD-2 and thought I'd share some of my thoughts.
---

These are great impressions Windsor.  You can tell someone knows what they're talking about when they don't just spew out hype and are able to point out real weaknesses and strengths in a coherent way without getting swayed by the price tags.  Plus I agree with everything you've said about the phones I've experienced. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhythmdevils 

These are great impressions Windsor.  You can tell someone knows what they're talking about when they don't just spew out hype and are able to point out real weaknesses and strengths in a coherent way without getting swayed by the price tags.  Plus I agree with everything you've said about the phones I've experienced. 

Thanks for saying - I do my best to eliminate fluff and speak truth. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windsor 

I just spent about an hour with the HD 700, alongside the HD 800, HD 600, and LCD-2 and thought I'd share some of my thoughts.
The audio chain was: CD -> Musical Fidelity CD player -> Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC/Amp -> headphone.
My thoughts on the HD 800 can be found here.
The HD 700 was a brand new and had maybe 7-8 hours of burn-in. They initially sounded a bit congested but seemed to open up the more I listened with them. In general they are a forward-sounding headphone with prominent treble and great PRaT. They sounded lacking in sub bass but compensated for that (to my ears) by having more mid-upper bass emphasis in a way that reminded me of the HD 25. The mids sounded a little bit 'boxy' but that could have been due to the fact that the HD 700 I tried was practically brand new. The treble had sparkle and a slightly etched, scratchy character to it that sounded bright but not to the point of being fatiguing; again that may get smoother with burn-in. Compared to the neutral-but-slightly-thin-and-treble-centric-in-relation-to-natural-sounding HD 800, the HD 700 held up well but were less clear sounding overall and with a thicker, weightier sonic presentation. More than a few times, they sounded slightly artificial to me.
The LCD-2 rev.2 were darker than natural/neutral (in contrast to the Senns sounding brighter than neutral) and had a lovely smooth character that never got fatiguing. However, I often felt that part of the music was missing due to the LCD-2's limited treble extension. This headphone had the most natural instrumental timbre of all the headphones I listened to.
The HD 600 were the biggest surprise of the bunch for me. Though they had a softer sound and lower level of transient clarity than the other headphones, the frequency balance was the most well-balanced and neutral of all of the above. Instrumental timbres sounded slightly thin but when I relaxed past that the overall listening experience became natural-sounding and quite satisfying. The HD600 just got out of the way and left the music on display - an egoless headphone. :-)
Here's a pic of some of the audio equipment:

Nice seeing you today Windsor.

Since I have pre-ordered mine back in March, and didn't bother trying mine until I get home, I tried the same demo one that Windsor did.

I largely agree with Windsor's view on the HD 700, when compared to the HD 800, the HD 800 provides more details, but that's expected because essentially HD 800 is more expensive than the HD 700. If they are at the level of HD 800, why bother releasing HD 700?

As a couple of people said so here, the mids do sound a bit congested, and the highs are crispy, but they do feel extremely comfortable on my ears (almost on par with the HD 800s).

I have to say I was a bit sad that Sennheiser did this to the mid range, but ...

So I got home and tried my pair on - the mids on my pair do not sound as congested as the demo pair that I tried and in fact, I'm starting to love it. It's DEFINITELY better than the demo pair I tried on this afternoon in the shop. I will burn in further and see if it makes any difference (hopefully it does). The bass is punchy, crisp, and just enough for every song (not too over emphasised like sometimes it does on the LCD-2s) that I put to it. Treble are not as squeaky as it was on the demo pair I tried on in the shop and it just sounded right to my ears.

I don't like the looks. Its like they were made by Martians for Martians.

Hmm, I'm hoping they sound closer to the HD600 than the HD800. These impressions are great, keep em'coming :3

I had a feeling that these were going to be a fail, I mean come on Skylab's review on them initially with the review/prototypes sent out earlier in this thread had him praising how these sounded exceptional at slightly less than the HD800's price and performance. A launch delay for few months and rumour's go that Sennheiser is re-tuning there HD700's because they are not happy with it, when actual reviewers said it was pretty good? I mean come on. For all I know and I'd assume that Sennheiser is just worried that the HD700's might overtake the HD800 territory and hurt there profits.

Thanks to fishbone, davidgotsa and Windsor for the early impressions and effort of you guys actually going to the store and auditioning these, this will definitely save a lot of money for a lot, if not most people that were anticipating for these, I mean "sounds artificial, like a D7000?" Not impressed at all especially at the asking price of $1k. 

Hopefully Sennheiser iron's out these bad characteristics when later revised driver version's come out (like all there other headphones in the past), I know I won't be getting one anytime soon.

@John Willet:

"Remember these HD 700 have had zero burning in time and - for comparison - the AKG K701 sounded pretty nasty until they were run in. 

Burn-in does not eliminate all the negatives of a headphones and just leave the positive's even thousands of hours of burn-in, it does not and is not day and night difference of a lot of user's praise to be. Yeh burn-in does make small subtle changes of the sound from the driver's settling down, but in this case, it does not make an "artificial" sounding HD700 into a glorifying detail revealing lifelike can like the HD800's (bit of emphasism intended). I am disappointed with the HD700's, so this post might be harsh towards some fan's.

/thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcee 

 

Nice seeing you today Windsor.

Nice seeing you too, and glad to read that you're enjoying your new headphones.