The (new) HD800 Appreciation Thread - Page 34

I finally ordered a pair of HD 800's this weekend.

Ive sampled them several times over the past two years and thought they sounded bright and thin. Went to a meet a few weeks ago and listened to them side by side with my D7000's on my system (Squeezbox Touch > Carver Receiver) and absolutely fell in love with them. Compared to my Denons, the HD 800 had better detail and clarity, richer midrange with zero bloat (my pet peave), and held its own in the bass department.

Im really looking forward to spending some time getting to know them.

 

bleh (Click to show)

On another note, my HD800's should be arriving tomorrow. Quite excited to find out

if I like 'em this go 'round.

Edited by paradoxper - 3/3/13 at 9:41pm

Does anyone listen to LPs with these phones? I have a feeling that the LP warmth would be sooo nice with them. I am just speculating here -- I am all digital -- but anyone who has an LP set up, please share you experience. What's in your signal path? How does it sound in general? How does it compare to you digi set up?

Well, if vinyl flac rips count, then yes . And they do sound pretty amazing.

 

IMO, the HD800 handles vinyl the same way it handles digital -- good recordings (and clean LP copies) sound razor-sharp and fantastic, while bad recordings (and noisy LP copies) can be nearly unlistenable at times.

 

I really like the tactile elements of playing LPs -- cleaning the records, flipping to side 2, the covers, etc. -- but I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to preferring one format or another from a sound quality standpoint. I'd therefore recommend going with quality. If you're going to take the time to source great-sounding vinyl to play on a decent rig (say, Rega RP3 or above), then you'll most definitely enjoy it with your HD800 rig.

Cool. Are you using the same upstream gear as your last go round?

No. And either it made the difference or I believe something changed. It's rockin' as in LCD-3 toe tappin' good.

 

I'll be getting a couple loaner DACs and trying out the NAD M51 (again) and an Metrum Octave to see

if Gungnir leaves early or stays until statement.

 

I take back everything I ever said about HD800's not having impact or visceral qualities, they're pretty much LCD-3's

but with better everything..

He's coming around!

I'm surely eating crow and lovin' it!

 

L.O.L. Glad you're enjoying them. I'll eat my hat if you find no significant improvement in the M51 over the Gungnir. Especially with the HD800 at the end of the chain.

 

Wow, really looking forward to your thoughts on this.

 

Not that I don't trust olor1n's ears ( or his LED sensitive eyes  ), just good to hear more thoughts on where da' Gung sits in the scheme of things.

 

Cheers,

 

R

I don't think there are many here who've directly compared the Gungnir to the M51 John. Fwiw, there's myself, dleblanc343, prepoman, Loevhagen, and paradoxper. Para stands alone in his previous assessment, but I'd be more surprised if he maintains that stance with the HD800 at the end of the chain.

 

Ta Jon.

 

I've missed some of the other guys thoughts re M51 v. da' Gung. Will have to go and rummage around the advanced search function.

 

Dayam, there are sooooo many interesting DACs around, up to the $2k mark, these days. Plus what may come out in next 6 - 12 months.

NONE of them have enough outputs for me. Will have to look into a switch box. I need 5 outputs (1 bal, 4 x S/E).

 

I'm really doing long term research into a possible future DAC upgrade. Probably won't bite until I hear what the Schiit Statement is capable of.

Have been pretty happy with my Schiit gear so far.

 

R

 

 

"Dayam"...  I like that

 

So very true.  Lots of competition.  I have the Master 7 coming in a week or so.  If you're willing to spend up to 2K IMO the PWD2 is hard to beat at the 2K mark.  Note:  the MSRP is 4K I would not spend 4K for it.  You can get it sub 2.5k new all day on the street.  

 

While I really like the m51 there a few I might like better.  The Anedio D2 for one.  

So.. can we say current HD 800 is a bass BEAST then? . 

And I think it could scale higher 

Edited by myc - 3/5/13 at 6:01am