[Justin_Time]

Good afternoon, mr. Justin.



You are right. It is of course more of a cloth that encases the middle of the headphone driver. If it were foam there that would be trouble! Lol! Anyhow, I've looked into it and at the moment I just don't have the heart to do it. I just can't. I love what I have set up right now, and I feel anymore added 'warmth' to my sound chain will colour or mess with the overall integrity and character that my 800's have. I kind of feel like this 'mod' would somehow make 1000 Germans cry in unison at the Sennheiser factory if they all were to find out what I had done. Lol.



I really feel my DAC negates the need to do something like this. I tried listening with no DAC in my sound chain and it was way too bright and crispy on the highs especially.



Great DACS absolutely rule. Save you some added stress and tinkering methinks.

Talk soon my friend. Thanks for your input.

 


That cloth is what I called the grill cloth. It is a very transparent material sonically and is there only to keep the dust out. Once you pull that out, it becomes immediately clear what you need to do.

The Anaxilus modification is the easiest of all the mods for top headphones and is not scary at all once you get started. And, no, I do not think you will have a single German screaming at you because all you do is taking the nasty sibilance and hardness out of the sound. This is by far the most effective way of improving--not fundamentally changing--the sound of the HD-800. It is more effective and far less expensive than changing DACs and amps.

You can do it!

 

[knowhatimean]

I believe that Sennheiser calls this piece of "material" the"micro-mesh screen" & if your impression is that it only there to cover
up the driver (think of the "grilles" on loudspeaker; but some of those actually do affect the sound) & do ...well...nothing except
what I've already said !
 
When you apply the "Anax" mods (& others) you are actually just "voicing" them. Sennheiser wanted these headphones to sound
"Exciting" to anyone who will be using them. The closer you get to using the HD800s with similarly priced equipment,the more the
"boost" Sennheiser gave them (through minimal damping & a few headphone design features to "add resonance" to whatever you're listening to) makes itself "evident".(Why someone who wouldn't be listening to fairly "good" equipment already, would spend $1500 on a set of headphones is beyond me !!!)
 
The funny thing is the "return" that you can get from attempting to mod the HD800 can be "far" greater than what most people would care to believe. What cracks me up is the willingness of people to  change equipment that they were happy with before they were using the 800s.
 
 
Why would you assume the "Message" is at fault for the inability of the "Messenger" to deliver it more accurately. A lot of people
have it backwards in what they attempt to "fix" first. (Let's see: I have $10 - $12K of equipment in front of these headphones, but things are still not where I want them. I know I'll make equipment changes before I try to see I can get the headphones to co-operate with everything else) I know better !!
 
~steve

 

[62ohm]

 

[knowhatimean]

 

So , I have to ask.... Isn't that what we all do every time we view any of these threads ?
 
 I guess after almost 1200 pages "Redundancy" is bound to happen when some of us  hang around for awhile !. (Do we have a "Selfie"
Icon that I could insert here ?)
 
(& I think I may have posted this exact same posting several pages back? ;

)

 

[icebear]

...  
Why would you assume the "Message" is at fault for the inability of the "Messenger" to deliver it more accurately. A lot of people
have it backwards in what they attempt to "fix" first.
~steve

 
... or maybe the messenger just isn't polite and tells it like it is.
Pure truth, plain and simple, no decoration, no fluffy stuff. There are always two sides to a coin

 

[maibuN]

   
... or maybe the messenger just isn't polite and tells it like it is.
Pure truth, plain and simple, no decoration, no fluffy stuff. There are always two sides to a coin

Maybe, but if you don't know the message in detail you can't know if it's pure truth. And what if your messages are all painful? Do you like to have pain while listening music? Or do you only want to pick some good messages and ignore the others?

 

[knowhatimean]

 

...  
Why would you assume the "Message" is at fault for the inability of the "Messenger" to deliver it more accurately. A lot of people
have it backwards in what they attempt to "fix" first.
~steve

 
... or maybe the messenger just isn't polite and tells it like it is.
Pure truth, plain and simple, no decoration, no fluffy stuff. There are always two sides to a coin

Nah !!! Sennheiser's truth is actually additive of what you're hearing on recordings, but in many music genres these additions aren't
problematic "additions" as they're not heard.
 
I know what sounds are likely to come from Orchestral instruments being played & how they're likely to "excite" the space they
were recorded in. Trust me when I say there is a lot of resonance that is interfering with what was recorded, but it only matters
if it masking "ambient" information, that you know is there !
 
There may be be two sides to a coin,but one of those sides may not be as up to par as the other
 
~steve

 

[icebear]

 
Maybe, but if you don't know the message in detail you can't know if it's pure truth. And what if your messages are all painful? Do you like to have pain while listening music? Or do you only want to pick some good messages and ignore the others?

 
With my music preference I am quite OK with the message that the HD800 is telling me. If it's painful, I don't want to listen to it of course

  Nah !!! Sennheiser's truth is actually additive of what you're hearing on recordings, but in many music genres these additions aren't
problematic "additions" as they're not heard.
 
I know what sounds are likely to come from Orchestral instruments being played & how they're likely to "excite" the space they
were recorded in. Trust me when I say there is a lot of resonance that is interfering with what was recorded, but it only matters
if it masking "ambient" information, that you know is there !
 
There may be be two sides to a coin,but one of those sides may not be as up to par as the other
 
~steve

 
I visit concerts quite often (last night: Keith Jarrett, Carnegie Hall) and I do compare what I hear at home to these live events.
For me it's close enough to forget about the equipment and being captivated by the musical performance.

 

[pearljam50000]

The HD800 is just for people who can handle the truth....

 

[preproman]

   
 
I visit concerts quite often (last night: Keith Jarrett, Carnegie Hall) 

 
Sounds like my kind of concert..
 

 

[roguegeek]

The HD800 is just for people who can handle the truth....

I like this. 

 

[deuter]

I have an opportunity to buy a HD800 in low serial numbers, 600 and there abouts in the serial number. Was wondering whether they are sonically inferior to the newer ones.
Heard that they were bass light, is that the case?

 

[knowhatimean]

 

 

  Nah !!! Sennheiser's truth is actually additive of what you're hearing on recordings, but in many music genres these additions aren't
problematic "additions" as they're not heard.
 
I know what sounds are likely to come from Orchestral instruments being played & how they're likely to "excite" the space they
were recorded in. Trust me when I say there is a lot of resonance that is interfering with what was recorded, but it only matters
if it masking "ambient" information, that you know is there !
 
There may be be two sides to a coin,but one of those sides may not be as up to par as the other
 
~steve

 
I visit concerts quite often (last night: Keith Jarrett, Carnegie Hall) and I do compare what I hear at home to these live events.
For me it's close enough to forget about the equipment and being captivated by the musical performance.

What would lead you to believe that I would have any doubt that the HD800s aren't capable of this ? That not what I was referring to.
 
It really isn't any big deal for these headphones to capture "close enough" . The HD800s will do a remarkably good job of capturing a live full Orchestral performance, but with this much of an increase in the amount of "Dynamic" information (& how much of this information your entire playback information is able to resolve) there will be some "headphone induced" noise generated that you will recognize as not being the harmonics from the instruments being played so you really can't notice the micro-dynamics of when one note stops & softer played notes begin.
 
I know this from a "comparative" basis as I "can" now distinguish these "micro-dynamics" after getting rid of these resonances that were present from my "stock" HD800s. I have several hundred recordings that I listen to from hard drive that now go quite a bit further than "close enough" for me. I can't tell you how often something happens on a recording that distracts me enough to think it came from another room in my house or from outside !
 
Getting small scale music to sound like this isn't really that difficult through good equipment. To get this kind of response through
any kind of equipment on extremely dynamically dense large scale music is ridiculously difficult so most people don't even strive
to get to this level. With what I can get from the HD800s "now" you won't see me talking about the HE-6 (I no longer use anymore)
 
(I hadn't even considered people talking about the HD800s "prettifiying" music) As it turns out the HD800s are capable of amazing
performance , (Once you bannish their insufficient "voicing" for "my music genre of choice)
 
(I'm listening to a  Decca recording (that Mobile Fidelity later mastered a "Super Disc" from) of Lorin Maazel conducting The Cleveland Orchestra in a recording of Respighi's "Pines of Rome & Feste Romane" that is just sounding tremendous) (It's rare
when I'm not being captivated by the musical performance through my HD800s(& He, he, he the "$12K" of equipment feeding them)

 

[icebear]

Originally Posted by knowhatimean /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
... there will be some "headphone induced" noise generated that you will recognize as not being the harmonics from the instruments being played so you really can't notice the micro-dynamics of when one note stops & softer played notes begin. [1]
 
I know this from a "comparative" basis as I "can" now distinguish these "micro-dynamics" after getting rid of these resonances that were present from my "stock" HD800s. I have several hundred recordings that I listen to from hard drive that now go quite a bit further than "close enough" for me. I can't tell you how often something happens on a recording that distracts me enough to think it came from another room in my house or from outside ![2]
...  
(I'm listening to a  Decca recording (that Mobile Fidelity later mastered a "Super Disc" from) of Lorin Maazel conducting The Cleveland Orchestra in a recording of Respighi's "Pines of Rome & Feste Romane" that is just sounding tremendous) ..[3]

 
In general I had a hard time understanding what you were trying to tell ... I don't know what you mean

at least not exactely.
 
[1] I have no problem hearing individual notes played in parallel decaying and intensifying e.g. Gould's Beethoven concerts.
     What's the problem ... I am not sure what you are talking about ?
 
[2] Yes, I had that effect a couple of times, too but I have a stock HD800
 
[3] I recommend Fritz Rainer, Chicago S.O. Living Stereo SACD editions, amoung them also the Respighi
 
And just to clarify "my close enough" might be different from your "close enough"

 
And of course, enjoy your modified HD800

 

[deuter]

I have an opportunity to buy a HD800 in low serial numbers, 600 and there abouts in the serial number. Was wondering whether they are sonically inferior to the newer ones.
Heard that they were bass light, is that the case?

I should say the serial number is low 9000s