GuyDebord
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
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This is an extension of opinions I recently posted in the high-end forum. I felt it was interesting to share my views on the HD800 in the general forum, where everyone hangs out.
I just sold my HD800's to a friend, after having them for almost a month. At the beginning, I remember being very excited about them, after so much hype in this forum and magazines all over the world, claims of superiority against the K1000's the O2's, the R10's, Q010's.... I kept thinking this are going to be simply amazing, I want to fall in love with them, I want to like them. What follows are a series of chronological impressions about them until the catharsis.
The first impression, the looks.
The box opening ceremony was exciting until I held them in my hands... I had just spent €1000, The built was impressive, in this regard they would make Germany proud, however I expected a bit more quality in the materials, especially in regards to the silver painted plastic and the velour like earcups. Now, as a professional designer, I can say that these are mechanically very well designed and executed, but the aesthetic side of it is bad, the fake space cadet / futuristic look is simply not coherent and very exaggerated to the level of grotesque, It is the perfect example of an over-designed object. I remember writing once that they looked like a power ranger headset from toys r us. But hey, looks dont matter if the sound is good, right? so I tried to forget about their ugliness and continued with what I bought them for, to reproduce music...
The first play
I connected them to my Lehmann BCL, I decided to use this amp first as there were many people in the industry claiming that Sennheiser used this amp to voice the HD800's. The Lehmann BCL is famous for its accuracy, neutrality and truthfulness to the source, I was expecting the HD800's to be on the warm side, since most of the analytical cans I had owned had never paired well with the Lehmann.
The first track I played was "trying time" from the album "Duplex Ride" by Sidsel Endresen and Bugge Wesseltoft, the track demonstrates female voice, rhythmic bass and spatial instrumental detail, and so I expected to be moved by emotions, everytime I play this track with the 007A's I cant help to move and twist, Im obliged to close my eyes and just listen, but with the hd800's, I was obliged to open my eyes wide, it was as if music was being played in a white shiny metal laboratory for its analysis, where it was being dissected and inspected for imperfections and spectral colorations, sucking the soul of a musical performance for the sake of perfection.
By now many of you might be thinking that simply the HD800's needed many hours of burn in right? Well thats what I also thought, and so I played them continuously for a week and a half, before I made any other observations.
After the burn
After little success with the Lehmann BCL, I tried the HD800's with a graham slee solo srg, spl phonitor, 2 costume tube amps and the Leben CS300x, none of this combinations made me feel excited about the HD800's. Actually, after the burn, the Lehmann did pretty well, especially against the Solo... The best combination was with the Phonitor, but not good enough to win me over. Every time I listened to them is as if the sounds were fabricated, artificially rendered into extreme detail but non-involving, plus that grainess, I always know they are on my head, my brain works to hard to distinguish the detail and I can never forget about them. They are always there, and that bothered me.
IMO the HD800's simply were not at the level of the K1000 and O2's. I understand now, that Sennheiser's marketing and the hype built around the HD800's has been successful in over-inflating the perceptions of many headfiers, psycho-marketing is a powerful tool.... Dont get me wrong, The HD800's are very good HP's, no question, they certainly leave the hd6xx's in the dust, but they have calculative, clinical and sterile soul which I have never related to music. HD800 defenders, please dont give me the "neutrality" defense, laboratory measured neutrality is very different than neutrality in a real musical performance... I care for the later.
This headphones are an excellent example of the difference between hifi'ity and musicality, the hd800 try on precision makes them measurement instruments rather than musical instruments, for some this might be the goal, for me, I just want the headphones to disappear as much as they can and until now the 007's are the best I know that can achieve this.
A final note
Again, and to be clear, I think this headphones are very good, among the top in current production dynamic HP's, but by no means I consider them among the very best, in this regard, I wouldnt choose them over the K1000's, O2's, HE90's, 4070's, HE60's, R10's, L3000's....and among the dynamics in current production, well, I still prefer some a bit more, but we need these companies to step up, isnt technology supposed to get better with time? Only STAX has managed to advance in this logic (and even some might refute this, O2mk1 vs O2mk2), what about the rest?
I just sold my HD800's to a friend, after having them for almost a month. At the beginning, I remember being very excited about them, after so much hype in this forum and magazines all over the world, claims of superiority against the K1000's the O2's, the R10's, Q010's.... I kept thinking this are going to be simply amazing, I want to fall in love with them, I want to like them. What follows are a series of chronological impressions about them until the catharsis.
The first impression, the looks.
The box opening ceremony was exciting until I held them in my hands... I had just spent €1000, The built was impressive, in this regard they would make Germany proud, however I expected a bit more quality in the materials, especially in regards to the silver painted plastic and the velour like earcups. Now, as a professional designer, I can say that these are mechanically very well designed and executed, but the aesthetic side of it is bad, the fake space cadet / futuristic look is simply not coherent and very exaggerated to the level of grotesque, It is the perfect example of an over-designed object. I remember writing once that they looked like a power ranger headset from toys r us. But hey, looks dont matter if the sound is good, right? so I tried to forget about their ugliness and continued with what I bought them for, to reproduce music...
The first play
I connected them to my Lehmann BCL, I decided to use this amp first as there were many people in the industry claiming that Sennheiser used this amp to voice the HD800's. The Lehmann BCL is famous for its accuracy, neutrality and truthfulness to the source, I was expecting the HD800's to be on the warm side, since most of the analytical cans I had owned had never paired well with the Lehmann.
The first track I played was "trying time" from the album "Duplex Ride" by Sidsel Endresen and Bugge Wesseltoft, the track demonstrates female voice, rhythmic bass and spatial instrumental detail, and so I expected to be moved by emotions, everytime I play this track with the 007A's I cant help to move and twist, Im obliged to close my eyes and just listen, but with the hd800's, I was obliged to open my eyes wide, it was as if music was being played in a white shiny metal laboratory for its analysis, where it was being dissected and inspected for imperfections and spectral colorations, sucking the soul of a musical performance for the sake of perfection.
By now many of you might be thinking that simply the HD800's needed many hours of burn in right? Well thats what I also thought, and so I played them continuously for a week and a half, before I made any other observations.
After the burn
After little success with the Lehmann BCL, I tried the HD800's with a graham slee solo srg, spl phonitor, 2 costume tube amps and the Leben CS300x, none of this combinations made me feel excited about the HD800's. Actually, after the burn, the Lehmann did pretty well, especially against the Solo... The best combination was with the Phonitor, but not good enough to win me over. Every time I listened to them is as if the sounds were fabricated, artificially rendered into extreme detail but non-involving, plus that grainess, I always know they are on my head, my brain works to hard to distinguish the detail and I can never forget about them. They are always there, and that bothered me.
IMO the HD800's simply were not at the level of the K1000 and O2's. I understand now, that Sennheiser's marketing and the hype built around the HD800's has been successful in over-inflating the perceptions of many headfiers, psycho-marketing is a powerful tool.... Dont get me wrong, The HD800's are very good HP's, no question, they certainly leave the hd6xx's in the dust, but they have calculative, clinical and sterile soul which I have never related to music. HD800 defenders, please dont give me the "neutrality" defense, laboratory measured neutrality is very different than neutrality in a real musical performance... I care for the later.
This headphones are an excellent example of the difference between hifi'ity and musicality, the hd800 try on precision makes them measurement instruments rather than musical instruments, for some this might be the goal, for me, I just want the headphones to disappear as much as they can and until now the 007's are the best I know that can achieve this.
A final note
Again, and to be clear, I think this headphones are very good, among the top in current production dynamic HP's, but by no means I consider them among the very best, in this regard, I wouldnt choose them over the K1000's, O2's, HE90's, 4070's, HE60's, R10's, L3000's....and among the dynamics in current production, well, I still prefer some a bit more, but we need these companies to step up, isnt technology supposed to get better with time? Only STAX has managed to advance in this logic (and even some might refute this, O2mk1 vs O2mk2), what about the rest?
