The HDMI decoding is a nice feature. I've got a Macbook Pro that has an HDMI-out. Can use that port instead of having to take up a USB port (or use a hub).

Interesting. I mean, we'll see if this holds true in a decade or two.

Curious about the elastic bands they're using. I had the AKG K712s, and the elastics were a bit too loose on those. Additionally, I find elastic bands to be a bit of a time bomb - failure is all but guaranteed after a certain period of time. Might be a decade or two, might even be longer, but...

True. I don't fiddle with volume too often, but not having to use the volume buttons or slider on your phone would be nice for the rare occasion that I do need to.

The new updates seem fairly minor, with battery life being the biggest improvement IMO. Find My for the case is nice as well, but finding my APPs was never a problem for me. I was hoping there'd be some sort of special-sauce lossless connection as well, but that's not a real possibility until...

Got the ZMF pilot pads today for the HD800S. Very comfortable, but I suspect there might be a hotspot. Not quite sure. Has anyone compared the pilot pads to the co-pilot pads?

Just bought a set of the Aegis cable for my HD800S. The plastic sleeving on the stock cables basically tore apart, and I could see the internal wiring. The Aegis replaced those because I wanted a braided cable that looked good and wasn't godawfully long. The cable took a bit over two weeks to...

Is the max sampling rate still 32bit/96k or something else? You can use Audio Midi Setup (type that into Spotlight to open) to check.

There is no lossless playback via Bluetooth, no matter what. Even the proprietary stuff that Sony uses (APTX-HD) isn't actually lossless. The only way to get lossless playback wirelessly is to use wi-fi (aka Airplay).

So I bought a replacement headband pad from Soundspares, in the UK. Shipping to Canada was surprisingly cheap - having anything to do with Europe is usually expensive as hell, but not this time. Turns out, Sennheiser doesn't have any in stock, so ordering direct from them is a no-go. What in the...

Yeah, it's apparently a common problem. Nobody's making aftermarket headband pads either.

For those of you who needed to replace the headband pads, how long did your original headband last? Mine are getting thin along the edges and there's black material flaking off. I got my HD800s in 2016, used, from another head-fier who bought them in late 2015.

So during silence, when ANC was turned on, there was a buzzing/crackling sound occasionally on one side (it switched back and forth between left and right). A lot of people reported this. The new firmware fixed this problem. As to your second question, my best explanation for the old sound was...

Just updated to the 2D15 firmware. ANC isn't noisy anymore (compared to 2C54). Transparency mode isn't hissy anymore. Overall sound is more balanced, with a very slight boost in the mids so that it's either a shallow U-shape or a very very slight W-shape (the mid hump is very shallow if it even...