[levinhatz]

Anyone got any insight on which full sized headphones nowadays are known for their exceptional soundstage reproduction? Not in an exaggerated way, but expansive when the source material calls for it. Such that a good pipe organ recording or live performance sounds the way it should. Cost more or less no object (just curious, hehe), but I'd say excluding anything electrostatic.

I have not kept up with the new arrivals of the past, say, 5-10 years in the headphone world and I see all kinds of products mentioned on these forums that I haven't had a chance to try. Stuff from Focal, ZMF, etc. Last I checked, the Senn HD800 paired with a good tube amp seemed to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of soundstaging.

I did try and do a search through existing threads before posting this. Couldn't find any insights that were very recent.

 

[DeweyCH]

Hifiman Arya has ridiculous soundstage. Focals are mostly all pretty narrow compared to their price-point peers. ZMFs do great - the Verite Closed is the best closed-back for soundstage I've heard, and I'd be shocked if there's something that goes wider. Kennerton's closed-back cans also do a great job on soundstage (Rognir Dynamic and GH40 are the two I've heard).

ZMF's open-backed cans I'd describe as nicely above-average in soundstage. Not Arya/Susvara/HD800 levels, but plenty big to give you the experience.

Susvara has a great soundstage too. I've claimed it's bigger than the Arya, but I didn't have the two at the same time so I couldn't compare side-by-side.

 

[Monsterzero]

AKG K701- kinda amp picky, but a very nice stage
HD800- very wide stage, very revealing, kinda bright and bass light
ZMF Verite open- kinda like the HD800, but with a warm tilt and actual bass

Both the HD800 and ZMFs love OTL tube amps, though to get the best sound from each will require very different tube choices.

 

[Opalius]

Delete

 

[castleofargh]

Anyone got any insight on which full sized headphones nowadays are known for their exceptional soundstage reproduction? Not in an exaggerated way, but expansive when the source material calls for it. Such that a good pipe organ recording or live performance sounds the way it should. Cost more or less no object (just curious, hehe), but I'd say excluding anything electrostatic.

I have not kept up with the new arrivals of the past, say, 5-10 years in the headphone world and I see all kinds of products mentioned on these forums that I haven't had a chance to try. Stuff from Focal, ZMF, etc. Last I checked, the Senn HD800 paired with a good tube amp seemed to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of soundstaging.

I did try and do a search through existing threads before posting this. Couldn't find any insights that were very recent.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/Impulcifer and a pair of binaural mics to record impulses from speakers at your ears.
The "how to" can be discussed here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/recording-impulse-responses-for-speaker-virtualization.890719/

For soundstage(something I would argue isn't a headphone term), feeling like you're using speakers in a room is going to vastly outmatch default headphone sound.

If you're feeling rich, get a Realiser A16 which adds very fluid head tracking.

Both options require that you have an OK speaker system to use for the custom measurements(so squatting a friend's living room for an afternoon to measure his cool sound system is fine too).

 

[Cactopus]

For headphones, HD800S is still in a league of its own. The Arya (pre-Stealth) comes close but offers quite a bit less in width. It paired with EQ or a warm source is perfect if the sound stage is the main thing you are looking for.

 

[the1andonly]

For headphones, HD800S is still in a league of its own. The Arya (pre-Stealth) comes close but offers quite a bit less in width. It paired with EQ or a warm source is perfect if the sound stage is the main thing you are looking for.

LCD-3F soundstage is close to HD800 width, many will mirror this opinion, strangely enough some say it's very small, but it can do both intimate and wide as all hell so I assume that is why.... the front/back soundstage is very limited however so it looses in that respect

I was under the impression the Arya had better overall staging but the Ananda had a bigger soundstage and the biggest between the 3 Arya/Ananda/Sundara

OP probably wants a beyerdynamic like 1990, AKG from the 7 series, or harmonicdyne Zues, if OP goes with DT1990 I suggest he gets ZMF fenestrated sheepskin universal pads, crazy good pad swap.

 

[levinhatz]

LCD-3F soundstage is close to HD800 width, many will mirror this opinion, strangely enough some say it's very small, but it can do both intimate and wide as all hell so I assume that is why.... the front/back soundstage is very limited however so it looses in that respect

I was under the impression the Arya had better overall staging but the Ananda had a bigger soundstage and the biggest between the 3 Arya/Ananda/Sundara

OP probably wants a beyerdynamic like 1990, AKG from the 7 series, or harmonicdyne Zues, if OP goes with DT1990 I suggest he gets ZMF fenestrated sheepskin universal pads, crazy good pad swap.

Thanks, all.

You have given me lots to think about!

 

[sam0227]

Even though I don't like the 800 series, I have to say it gives the best sound stage in all headphones I've ever listened to.

However, I'm not getting a real sound stage experience like listening to a pair of speakers. Everything is still around my head. 800 just makes it a bit further away than others. A pair of cheap studio monitors with proper positioning will have a way better experience if you want to play the game of finger-pointing the instrument.

 

[earmonger]

I like the soundstage on Audio-Technica ATH-R70X, though I haven't heard HD800 to compare it to. They are open-back, ultra-light, comfortable headphones made for long studio use. They go down to 5hz for your 16' bourdon stops on the organ. I have touted them a lot elsewhere and you can find plenty of other very favorable reviews.

If you want to try the AKG K701 -- I haven't, but I was researching them before deciding on the ATH-R70X -- there's a great price here, with 30-day returns:
https://www.thomannmusic.com/akg_k701.htm. I picked the Audio-Technica instead because reviews said they had stronger bass.

 

[ARES 35]

All these previous suggestions here are good, I would suggest the AKG K712 Pros they are a nice pair of headphones with a good large soundstage though they require lots of juice to sound good so using them without an amplifier is not recommended as they scale well with high power sources. Also while not a full-sized headphones but an IEM instead the Audio-Technica CKR9 and ATH-CKR100is had a great 3D like soundstage and imaging not extremely wide but great in depth, height and just natural sounding soundstage overall. It's discontinued so can't buy them anymore which is sad also there's many fake bootleg ones made of them, but for full-size headphones the AKG K712 Pro are good value for money at around 200€ with a pretty big soundstage.

 

[Opalius]

What's really funny is, that the first post asks for a 2000-3000 setup, and here we have people saying, just but 200 euro headphone...

Somehow it makes me feel Sennheiser TOTL headphones are just a bit overpriced...

 

[levinhatz]

What's really funny is, that the first post asks for a 2000-3000 setup, and here we have people saying, just but 200 euro headphone...

Somehow it makes me feel Sennheiser TOTL headphones are just a bit overpriced...

Not necessarily. The question here is just about "soundstage". Happens that I've heard both the AKG K712 and the Senn HD800 before at some point and I can tell you that overall the HD800 bests K712 considerably in most aspects. You may be very happy with the AKGs, they're great in their own right. And not everybody likes the way the HD800s sound.

 

[the1andonly]

What's really funny is, that the first post asks for a 2000-3000 setup, and here we have people saying, just but 200 euro headphone...

Somehow it makes me feel Sennheiser TOTL headphones are just a bit overpriced...

"Not in an exaggerated way, but expansive when the source material calls for it. "

I guess my brain skimmed the HD800 part but this sentence suggests he doesn't want the HD800 because the soundstage is exaggerated, not sure if someone explained that to OP but I figured some reason he knew, but yeah that is why....

Saying the HD800 is overpriced when the cheapest competing headphone with around the same technical performance is like $3k+ probably? wut

 

[Opalius]

Saying the HD800 is overpriced when the cheapest competing headphone with around the same technical performance is like $3k+ probably? wut

To be honest, when it comes to headphones priced at the 1500+ range, I really don’t hear that much difference when it comes to technical abilities.
And I’m not saying they sound the same.

But I must admit, the HD800s does have the widest soundstage I know of, and detailed wise it’s much better than the K712.

Personally if I wanted something that staged wider then what I have, then I wound buy the Beye T2 with a A20 amp in good condition. New drivers can still be bought from Beyedynamic – but that’s just me