Well I'll say this: it's certainly possible to make an open headphone sound like it's closed. I've heard a few, won't name names. If you take a closed sounding 'open' headphone as a benchmark, its possible to claim that some closed headphones sound open. More generally, I feel sometimes people...

It's hard for me to comment as I haven't hear either, and with a quick search haven't found one site with measurements of both that would demonstrate this to be the case. All I will say is that I have heard claims of 'closed cans that sound open' and closed version of cans sounding the same as...

I'm a big fan of the Mr Speakers closed headphones. The best out there without a doubt. They do not sound open though, hyperbole aside. They sound great, but not open, and not spacious either.

I am still cynical that it will sound the same or measure the same when it comes down to it. If they get it sounding 75% as good, I will be beyond impressed. You appear to be missing the point of the achievement: this is a closed headphone. I'll repeat that as it seems to be lost on some: this...

It makes sense to me. The high end team at Sennheiser have a big R&D budget and its basically their job to experiment and solve problems. Grell said in that Japanese interview he started tinkering with the idea in 2012 (although he broke from it for other projects a few times over the years)...

Unless I'm mistaken, that was the voice of Axell Grell.

Say hello to the ear cup damping:

To clarify, they don’t say it goes into the front chamber, or ear cup. They say it goes into ‘acoustic chambers’, which is what the marketing materials also say. Reflecting them back into the earcup is not revolutionary, most closed back cans vent the back chamber into the ear cup and this is a...

But you understand that the HD800 struggles with bass extension precisely because it is so open?

I would take other people's pronouncements on what is light and what is heavy on bass with a pinch of salt, unless you know what their idea of normal is. Unfortunately the poster said they have never heard the HD800 so we have no idea what this means in comparison to them. In my experience, I...

Well its not a matter of choice is it? We're talking about physics here, ultimately. The movement of air in an acoustic space. Sennheiser didn't intend for there to be a peak in the HD800s treble. They didn't desire it to be missing sub bass. They tried to make the best headphone they could...

It depends. I've never spent that much on headphones, but my speakers cost me around that sort of money and I never regretted it. People routinely spend the same sort of money on a vacation, and that's gone when it's gone. My music gets to sound great forever, and I listen to music every day...

It is indeed personal taste. I was never a fan of the HD800 personally, although I did admire a lot of things about them. Nothing is better at soundstage or separation in the headphone world, I will concede that. The frequency response just isn't realistic to me, particularly in the treble, and...

Yeah I read that, and it sounds very cool. But that is just the back wave. But even if this technique 100% emulates the open-backed approach (which I am cynical about), the HD800 have perforated metal sheets making up the ear cup, so they are 'open-fronted' as well as open-backed. Having a...

I can't imagine how they would sound exactly the same. They are sealed, and the HD800 is about as open as they get. Even the ear cup is open, not just the back. These will almost certainly sound different, but that doesn't mean they won't sound good. In general closed headphones can achieve...

There are cheaper headphones still that many would be happy sticking with for good. Many have bought an HD600 and been happy enough to stop right there. That's not really the point. The point is that if headphone manufacturers feel that they can make something better, and there are people out...

Let's be clear what you mean when you say overpriced? Do you mean that they are selling it for much more than they need to in order to make reasonable returns? Or are you saying that the ambition of manufacturers should be within set parameters to ensure that the end product never hits a...

Depends on how thick the glass is. There are glass bridges that people walk over.

... they are? Sennheiser makes a product at pretty much every price point there is.

This happens with every single expensive headphone release: a bunch of people claim that it is over-priced without any evidence that it is. Something's eventual price is a combination of a number of factors. R&D costs, manufacturing costs, marketing and distribution costs are part of it, and...

On the issue of cables and connectors, the UK Sennheiser product page states that the HD820 comes packaged with: connection cable: ¼” (6.35 mm) stereo jack plug (connected ex works), unbalanced 4.4 mm Pentaconn stereo jack plug, balanced XLR-4 connector, balanced It's not entirely clear what...

Come on, now. Just open a picture of the HD800/S next to one of the HD820. We are looking at a completely redesigned chassis and pads. The driver may be the same, and the headband assembly, but everything else is redesigned. If this was just adding a back on it, which is what some high-end...

There are many more engineering challenges in making closed cans than open, if you want to make them high end. Why glass rather than an opaque plastic back? Looks mostly, although gorilla glass is very dense and hence a very suitable material to reduce vibration. But the damping, from what...

This makes me happy to hear. I am always interested in new high-end closed backs, as they have a lot more utility. It's also a much bigger engineering challenge so am impressed when manufacturers pull it off more than disappointed when they don't. They certainly look gorgeous. Be interesting to...

Interesting product. I have always felt that dynamic IEMs did mids much more naturally, but often had flabbier bass and less natural highs than BA in-ears. This decision makes a lot of sense.