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A few days ago I had the chance to compare the brand new Sennheiser HD 700 alongside the HD 800, HD 600, and the Audez'e LCD-2, and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts:
The audio chain in use was: CD -> Musical Fidelity CD player -> Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC/Amp -> headphone
My thoughts on the HD 800 can be found here and my thoughts on the LCD-2 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:
The audio chain in use was: CD -> Musical Fidelity CD player -> Resonessence Labs Invicta DAC/Amp -> headphone
My thoughts on the HD 800 can be found here and my thoughts on the LCD-2 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:
