[BobG55]

The HD800 truly shines w/the Auralic Taurus mkII in 4 pin xlr balanced mode.  The soundstage is vast & also quite deep w/no sibilance, details galore, tight crisp bass & mids to die for.
This HP absolutely requires a good amplifier.

 

[catspaw]

  The HD800 are very picky; trust me. I went through so many amps and DACs in the 45 ish days I have owned them. One piece of advice I will give you is don't try to save money; you will end up spending more. I kept buying new equipment, each time more expensive than the previous, and I'm back where I started. I wanted a WA22 from the start, but didn't want to spend 2K + 500 ish in tube upgrades. After not being satisfied with other amps, I finally bought one (from a head-fi member). I still haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure it will be awesome.
 
Once combo that I heard was AMAZING is the Yulong A18 and D18; I bought the D18 to go with the WA22 (still waiting for it). I was going to get the combo, but it was on back order. If you buy it as a pair from grantfidelity.com you get like a 50 discount. The total is like 1550 for what a lot of people are saying hangs with combos that cost A LOT more. I think I would have really liked this combo tbh and could have saved some money. 

Thats the most amazing bias and placebo effect inducing mindset Ive seen on Head-fi for awhile...
The HD800 are not that amp picky. The REAL difference does not come from the amp, dac or anything else: It comes from your ears. Everyone hears differently, and some will love the HD800, others wont like its signature and how clean it is.
This is why you should listen to any new audio gear you plan to buy.
I have heard sometimes things that totally freaked me out (like for example the fact that I dont see any audio quality increase from a Hifiman HE-400 and an LCD-2 if you eq the HE-400 to match the Freq response of the LCD-2 and volume match them, or that a Fiio E17 makes 0 improvement over my cowon i9 in terms of audio quality when I listen to the HE-400 on the go. It only adds volume).
 
It is extremely hard to not be biased when you "want" something, no matter for whatever reasons (other people say its great, they look good, they are expensive, etc).

 

[audioboozer]

The HD800 maximum long last input power is 500mW, to reach that output, your amplifier needs to deliver 35 Vpp(peak to peak voltage) to HD800! That means you need an amplifier with at least ±18V(or a single DC voltage above 36V)working voltage. 

 

[qwersddssdds]

Your review is really helpful to me as I currently own WA6 with Sophia Princess 274b and stock drive tubes on.
And the performance of HD800 from this WA6 is very very disappointing as you said, the bass is thin, and what's worse is that the soundstage is narrow and sound are squeezed together.
 
I feel that could need a tremendous improvement with some tubes upgrade to make me feel ok about the WA6.
Your review gives me some confidence, but sorry for my suspicion cause I am new to tube amp and hardly believe 2 tubes could make a significant improvement. Do you think it is really worthy spending hundreds of $ on WA6 upgrade or choosing another amp?
 
Very appreciate for your advice.

 

[Egoquaero]

Hi everybody!
I've just bought the HD800! (still delivery phase though )
Cambridge CXA60 will be the amplifier with DAC integrated (originally bought to drive my pair of Tannoy XT6F) used to drive the headphones for now.
http://www.whathifi.com/cambridge-audio/cxa60/review
 
Music is played by my Macbook Pro 2016 that is digitally connected to the Cambridge using toslink connection (through Behringer UCA202).
1) On a scale from 0 to 100, how much of the Sennheiser HD800 sound quality capabilities I'll be able to unlock/enjoy using my current system?
2) Consider now that I'm able to buy another amp/dac system. What should I pay for a dac/amp system in order to unlock a 95%?
3) How's the Chord Mojo? Is it able to unlock a 90% of HD Sennheiser capabilities?
 
 
Thank you so much for your help, guys!
Have a nice day!
 
Ego