[candc07]

I recently took a visit to one of my local audio stores where I had a chance to demo some Sennheiser HD800's. These were hooked up to a peachtree nova playing pandora through a Sonos player. I listened to some classical, smooth jazz and classic rock. The detail was there, but there seemed to be something missing. I tried to figure out why it sounds as if all the music is coming from the other side of a large hall. I even tried them with my s:flo2 with the same result. It actually surprised me though that the s:flo2 was able to drive them to a decent volume with just a slight clipping during quick bass drums. The bass was a bit lacking but not with out some extension.
I did bring along my modded grado 225i (vented drivers, felt damping) and was surprised that I enjoyed the sound of these to the $1500 senns. The music felt as if I were right next to the instruments. This is the second time I have demoed the HD800 with grados and the grados come out on top. Last time it was the RS1i. Are my ears broken?
The HD800 reminded me of the AKG k702. I was not moved by those either.
Has any one else had an experience like this or is there just something wrong with my ears? Thanks.

 

[dallan]

Your ears aren't broken, they are used to the Grados.

 

[rawrster]

or you should stop demoing the HD800 and pick something else

 

[ickle97116084]

Ive only ever heard lower end headphones such as the HD595 and HD555 and Grado SR60/80i (I own the Goldring DR150) and to my ears the HD595 was more fun. The HD800 was dull and lacked any passion. Sorry I am not great at describing what I hear just know what I like! The HD800 was being driven by a Graham Slee Novo which I thought was not powerful enough to deliver the full sound but from what you have said I concur the HD800 is not as fun as the Grados or lower end Sennheisers.
 
Glad to know I am not the only person blinded by the high price tag yet underwhelming sound from these monsters.

 

[Zephyron]

Its not so much the price or quality of the headphones in the end IMO.

Rather, its the sound that you seek, the sound signature that you enjoy to hear the most that matters.
(e.g, I enjoyed what to me was a well done, mids centric sound of the PL50 than the darker neutral sound coming from the more expensive Klipsch Custom 3)
 
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, their ears aren't yours =)

 

[candc07]

Thanks every one, no more demoing the HD800 for me. I will stick with my grados.

 

[supersleuth]

Grados are addictive. I've experienced that myself in trying to replace my SR80s with technically "superior" cans. The Grados won.

 

[JxK]

Quote:

Grados are addictive. I've experienced that myself in trying to replace my SR80s with technically "superior" cans. The Grados won.

I know what you mean. My m50s are hands town technically superior to my sr60s. But the sr60 have such a fun, enjoyable sound that they still get a fair bit of head time. I'd say they get 20-30% of my at home listening.

 

[dan1son]

While I think you simply prefer the Grados, using Pandora as a source to demo high end audio devices seems odd.  Pandora is (if I recall) a 128kbps mp3 encode, which literally removes the high end and some of the low end from recordings.  It's not ideal, in fact it's quite poor.  I'm not a "FLAC OR FLIGHT" kind of guy and use mp3 files for my own use, but I'd definitely stay clear of anything less than LAME -V0 when demoing something. 
 
You can search around for the net for spectrum analysis on mp3 files to see what I mean.  A lot of information is removed... especially on low bitrate files used for streaming. 

 

[JxK]

^As always, it depends. I agree that pandora is not an ideal method to demo headphones. But for the vast majority of portable use, V2 mp3 is more than adequate, taking in the fact that some outside noise still leaks in and you're not paying 100% attention to your music. For demoing, V0 mp3 is perfect. Even at home, using my m50 studio monitor headphones in a quiet room, there are only a tiny handful of songs where I was able to correctly ABX V0 from FLAC. And that's how it should be.
 
As an aside, low bitrate mp3s don't take out the high end. It's some sort of weird myth that got started around here. It's actually more akin to making swiss cheese out of a recording.

 
As a secondary aside, for certain poorly recorded records and tracks, especially when listening with very revealing headphones, you may find yourself actually preferring the low bitrate file just because it hides some of those errors.

 

[candc07]

I agree with pandora not being ideal its just that i forgot my cd case in my car and i did not park close.  i did have my S:flo2 with me with flac and 320k mp3s on me and used that for a few.  It did sound better than pandora and i was surprised it was able to drive the HD800's without much trouble. still enjoyed the grados more so i will stick with those for a while.

 

[dan1son]

Quote:

^As always, it depends. I agree that pandora is not an ideal method to demo headphones. But for the vast majority of portable use, V2 mp3 is more than adequate, taking in the fact that some outside noise still leaks in and you're not paying 100% attention to your music. For demoing, V0 mp3 is perfect. Even at home, using my m50 studio monitor headphones in a quiet room, there are only a tiny handful of songs where I was able to correctly ABX V0 from FLAC. And that's how it should be.
 
As an aside, low bitrate mp3s don't take out the high end. It's some sort of weird myth that got started around here. It's actually more akin to making swiss cheese out of a recording.

Sure V2, V0 whatever... I'd just use beyond pandora if I was looking at buying something.  I've gone through the same procedure you have and came to the same conclusions.  I encode at V0 because I find it the ideal spot for my use.  Primarily at a computer, secondarily in a car, and thirdly portable.
 
I disagree on the top being chunked out.  I've done my own analysis with audacity on different file types and my own listening (I can hear up to around 20k still) and that's definitely one of the major changes.  Yes it also makes swiss cheese out of it   almost literally.  The other strange thing about MP3 is that it was developed around recordings from the early 90s which were far less compressed (from a signal ratio perspective) than the ones now and it handles those far better than the current squished to the top pop recordings.

 

[ZARIM]

I think HD800 are one of few HPs, those need dadicated AMPs, power and good synergy to shows there best.