interesting. i personally thought the hd800 was too bright to be really that realistic. have you ever heard the he-560?

@coinmaster,
 
I had no time today to get into the city to listen to the latest version of the HE1000 but your impressions vs the HD800 are pretty much in line with my impressions of the prototype from the NY meet. But my listening was not direct comparision, rather listening to the same tracks on my HD800 after getting home.
 
Nice to see someone else having a similar experience and that there might indeed be a good dose of 2XL hype going on here.
It almost felt like being strapped on QVC  

music alchemist said:

   
What I want first and foremost is the most accurate, realistic sound possible. Your thoughts are valuable to me. I'd rather see a critique of a headphone than praise alone. One of my best friends is an HD 800 freak and consistently recommends them to me. (He also likes the SR-009 more.) On the other hand, I know someone who likes the STAX SR-207 more than the HD 800, Abyss, SR-009, etc., and that headphone is far more affordable. If I were to go with the HD 800 instead of the much more expensive headphones, I could get both it and the entry-level STAX without too much trouble. But even then, I would still be curious about the other summit-fi models. XD

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I have yet to hear a pair of headphones that can produce more "realism" than the HD800. I've either owned or demoed the LCD-2, LCD-3, LCD-XC, TH900, T1, and the HD800.
The HD800s lack euphony, you'll be hard pressed to have a huge grin on your face due to that special "something" with the HD800 but IMO the raw sound quality is just unparalleled to anything else I've heard.
I mean, I owned the TH900 for awhile, they had too much bass and the mids were too recessed, but I still had that gaga face every once in awhile do to that "something" that I never get with the HD800.
This is because the HD800s strength is its weakeness. It is like a perfectly flat equalizer. Supreme neutrality and sound and yet, because of that, it really lacks its own personality.

money4me247 said:

  i personally thought the hd800 was too bright to be really that realistic.

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It used to be that when I bought a headphone and thought it was too bright, I got rid of it...but now, I know better and at least intend on equalizing them properly before jumping to conclusions about a headphone's capabilities. I'm not accusing you of that, of course; just saying that's the way I want to do things. Despite the fact that my new Sony MDR-7506 has some nasty peaks in the mids and treble, it sounds surprisingly natural and effortless otherwise and will probably sound like that in all the frequencies once I can EQ it.

coinmaster said:

  I have yet to hear a pair of headphones that can produce more "realism" than the HD800. I've either owned or demoed the LCD-2, LCD-3, LCD-XC, TH900, T1, and the HD800.
The HD800s lack euphony, you'll be hard pressed to have a huge grin on your face due to that special "something" with the HD800 but IMO the raw sound quality is just unparalleled to anything else I've heard.
I mean, I owned the TH900 for awhile, they had too much bass and the mids were too recessed, but I still had that gaga face every once in awhile do to that "something" that I have never gotten with the HD800.
This is because the HD800s strength is its weakeness. It is like a perfectly flat equalizer. Supreme neutrality and sound and yet, because of that, it really lacks its own personality.

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I would be really interested in your thoughts on how the HD 800 compares to electrostatic headphones, if you ever have the opportunity to hear them!

money4me247 said:

  interesting. i personally thought the hd800 was too bright to be really that realistic. have you ever heard the he-560?

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I have not heard the 560, I'm pretty sure I heard people bashing it at the meet though in comparisons .
I've never really had an issue with brightness on the HD800. It also depends on what you use to drive it, I mean, they are SO picky with amps. It's like every amp sounds different. With the right amp the HD800s can actually have some good bass as well.

music alchemist said:

   
It used to be that when I bought a headphone and thought it was too bright, I got rid of it...but now, I know better and at least intend on equalizing them properly before jumping to conclusions about a headphone's capabilities. I'm not accusing you of that, of course; just saying that's the way I want to do things. Despite the fact that my new Sony MDR-7506 has some nasty peaks in the mids and treble, it sounds surprisingly natural and effortless otherwise and will probably sound like that in all the frequencies once I can EQ it.

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i agree that the hd800 are a very capable pair of headphones. i simply just prefer the he-560's presentation and tonality & i personally thought that the he-560 had better bass quality & overall, it sounded more realistic to me. the hd800 seems to be pickier with amplifiers too & i did not want to have to upgrade my current equipment. ymmv of course.

coinmaster said:

  I've never really had an issue with brightness on the HD800. It also depends on what you use to drive it. With the right amp the HD800s can actually have some good bass as well.

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Which reminds me, what's your setup?

coinmaster said:

  I have not heard the 560, I'm pretty sure I heard people bashing it at the meet though in comparisons

.
I've never really had an issue with brightness on the HD800. It also depends on what you use to drive it. With the right amp the HD800s can actually have some good bass as well.

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hahah obviously compared to a well-driven he-6 or he1k, the he-560 will not scale as far. but for the price performance ratio, it's definitely hard to beat.

money4me247 said:

  i agree that the hd800 are a very capable pair of headphones. i simply just prefer the he-560's presentation and tonality & i personally thought that the he-560 had better bass quality & overall, it sounded more realistic to me. the hd800 seems to be pickier with amplifiers too & i did not want to have to upgrade my current equipment. ymmv of course.

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I recently had an idea that as far as I know has never been attempted: a review thread for a collection of headphones after they have all been equalized to have a frequency response as close to neutral as possible! That would be epic.

music alchemist said:

   
I recently had an idea that as far as I know has never been attempted: a review thread for a collection of headphones after they have all been equalized to have a frequency response as close to neutral as possible! That would be epic.

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it would be hilarious if they all ended up sounding exactly the same. i know there are a lot of people over at the science forums that claim things like that.
 
for me, i dunno. it end up being the case. hahah

money4me247 said:

  it would be hilarious if they all ended up sounding exactly the same. i know there are a lot of people over at the science forums that claim things like that.
 
for me, i dunno. it end up being the case. hahah

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Haha. I think even those people would admit that transducers have differences that could never be resolved with EQ.
 
But yeah, it would be hilarious if some of them that were very different in stock form ended up sounding about the same. (I doubt any could ever sound exactly the same, if we're talking about summit-fi headphones with a lot of engineering put into them.)

music alchemist said:

   
Which reminds me, what's your setup?

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I'm using the Little Dot MKVI+which is technically on par with or better than the WA22 but at a $800 price tag (actually less but I forget exactly how much), which is possible due to the lower profit margins in china where it is built.
It also is actually from my understanding more "balanced" than the WA22 since the circuitry in the WA22 is not truly balanced.
I am still only using stock tubes but I was like holy crap there's bass when I plugged my HD800 into the unbalanced end. I'm still using an O2+odac combo for a dac (meaning I'm plugging my MVKI+ into an inferior amp connected to an inferior dac which sounds terrible, I can even hear my cpu doing calculations) which I am vastly upgrading soon and I must make myself some balanced cables.
At this point though even though my inferior source and all the distortion it's causing, that it may be bring the "euphony" I'm looking for.

coinmaster said:

  I'm using the Little Dot MKVI+which is technically on par with or better than the WA22 but at a $800 price tag (actually less but I forget exactly how much), which is possible due to the lower profit margins in china where it is built.
It also is actually from my understanding more "balanced" than the WA22 since the circuitry in the WA22 is not truly balanced.
I am still only using stock tubes but I was like holy crap there's bass when I plugged my HD800 into the unbalanced end. I'm still using an O2+odac combo for a dac (meaning I'm plugging my MVKI+ into an inferior amp connected to an inferior dac which sounds terrible, I can even hear my cpu doing calculations) which I am vastly upgrading soon and I must make myself some balanced cables.
At this point though even though my inferior source and all the distortion it's causing, that it may be bring the "euphony" I'm looking for.

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Hmm. Before tube amps of the euphonic variety, I want to just use a sufficiently powerful solid-state amp with the HD 800, then further tweak everything with EQ.
 
But since I really respect the opinion of my friend who likes the much more affordable SR-207 more, I may not get the HD 800 until later.
 
(I already purchased the JVC HA-SZ2000 for heavy bass, anyway.)

music alchemist said:

   
I recently had an idea that as far as I know has never been attempted: a review thread for a collection of headphones after they have all been equalized to have a frequency response as close to neutral as possible! That would be epic.

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There is an Iphone app called accudio. The developers used a lot of time and expensive equipment to make "as close to perfectly neutral" eqs for each headphone. They have a massive list you can pick from. The sound quality increase when these eqs are activated is astounding. Unfortunately they do not make this software for pc. If you can manage to rid your ipod to connect into your dac using this app...wow. Sadly The latest update ruined compatibility for my ipod4 meaning I'll have to upgrade if I want to use the app again.
The app can almost compensate for using expensive audio equipment. It really is that good.
You can also run eq under different sound sigs from different headphones. The TH900 under the shure 846 sig blew me away. I thought they were totally different headphones, and the actual sound quality improved, such as clarity and transparency, all on just the ipod.
Do not underestimate the power of this app.

music alchemist said:

   
Hmm. Before tube amps of the euphonic variety, I want to just use a sufficiently powerful solid-state amp with the HD 800, then further tweak everything with EQ.
 
But since I really respect the opinion of my friend who likes the much more affordable SR-207 more, I may not get the HD 800 until later.
 
(I already purchased the JVC HA-SZ2000 for heavy bass, anyway.)

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The O2+Odac is "sufficiently powerful". Actually very good for it's price.