[ericpalonen]

Hmmm, @ericpalonen , I won’t even say at what hour of the night I jumped on this survey. I only have one request - whatever you got cooking, please release it faster.

Thank you very much! Get some sleep!!!

I'm also very concerned with how the survey seems to focus more on aesthetics and comfort.

Why? There is an entire forum and many threads that discuss literally everything else.

p.s please make OEM pads for sennheiser headphones (6XX and 8XX series) more readily available...

Working on it

I've completed the survey but agree with others who say an 'Additional comments' field would have been useful

I politely but firmly disagree. That's what this thread is for and is already more useful because we can respond back if we need clarity on a comment. You can't do that in an anonymous survey. That said thanks for completing the survey. We take the feedback seriously.

 

[Ishcabible]

Hello! I am a longtime HD800 user and I... well, I have a lot of things to say.

…

I pretty much agree with this wholeheartedly. I’ve owned the HD800 at least five times over the course of the past ten years and every time I’ve owned it, I realize that what it does well doesn’t necessarily align with my preferences and it ends up being unused. But each time I sell it, a few months later I realize my chain is now different, which may fix it, which never ends up being the case. When the HD800 was released, I viewed it as a sort of “holy grail” to acquire but actually owning it has changed that view. But I’d love to see that change yet again.

However, if what has happened with the HD660S2 is any indication of what future plans for Sennheiser are, I’m concerned. I understand the motive behind moving Fs lower, but it seemed like the driver couldn’t handle it and it ended up sounding like a muddy mess. This would extend to the HD800/HD800S; I’ve tried boosting bass in different ways, just mildly, and the end result always sounded muddy to me. If this is the plan for a theoretical HD800S successor, I’d be cautious about prioritizing bass when it may not be the priority of the intended market.

My experience with adding anything in front of a driver has been mixed: while it usually tames treble, it subjectively has always affected transients as well. I’ve done probably a dozen different mods to my HD800s and my favorite experiments with the HD800 usually ended up being minimally impedant iterations.

Regarding pads, I also agree—my favorite pads were the original (<10k SN) HD800 pads which were thin both in padding and in width. My experience with the newer, wider pads was a much warmer, less “HD800-like” experience that verged on sounding mushy. The thick lower midrange relative to the recessed upper midrange has always been a killer for me. If you could find a way to bring up the upper midrange enough so that they didn’t sound so distant, they may end up being a keeper for me.

 

[headblid]

While I agree with you in principle, many of us have been in this hobby for more than a couple of decades and the expiry date on our hearing is certainly getting closer by the day … ideally, I’d like Sennheiser to release something while we all still can appreciate it

you can't rush art...

 

[ToTo Man]

I politely but firmly disagree. That's what this thread is for and is already more useful because we can respond back if we need clarity on a comment. You can't do that in an anonymous survey. That said thanks for completing the survey. We take the feedback seriously.

If you're genuinely taking onboard the feedback provided by posters in this thread as well as the preference rankings in the survey then that's great. I was worried the thread comments would end up getting lost in the white noise.

PS - I'm genuinely curious whether I'm in a minuscule minority in my desire for a Sennheiser open-back that fits more like an HD600 but sounds more like an HD800? It would be good to know if I am as at least then I could relinquish my hope of such a design ever coming to market!...

 

[gimmeheadroom]

you can't rush art...

 

[Andrew_WOT]

PS - I'm genuinely curious whether I'm in a minuscule minority in my desire for a Sennheiser open-back that fits more like an HD600 but sounds more like an HD800? It would be good to know if I am as at least then I could relinquish my hope of such a design ever coming to market!...

No, definitely not. HD800 are overstyled to the point of loosing practicality. The only headphones that I am always afraid to handle as they look and feel so fragile.

 

[Mattyjm]

Regarding pads, I also agree—my favorite pads were the original (<10k SN) HD800 pads which were thin both in padding and in width.

so there were 2 different styles of pads...

 

[M3NTAL]

Dang - some of these questions are tough to pick a favorite/least favorite. Comfort has always been up at the top for me, but boy do the 800's have their own magic. Great dynamic driver - just wish for more presence in the bass. More punch - I know they have extension, but it is so transparent that it lacks body.

Eric - any trends forming on the survey?

 

[listenerwww]

so there were 2 different styles of pads...

The new pads are different from the pads from 3 years ago, those are the only ones I have available to test but the new ones have a smaller ear opening as well as a slightly thicker amount of padding. Resulting changes to FR are mostly that the midrange gets recessed by 1-2dB between 300-3000Hz on the new pads (likely due to increased driver distance/changing front volume dimensions).

 

[ericpalonen]

HD800 are overstyled to the point of loosing practicality

Aside from a few finish choices virtually every aspect of the chassis/spider/pads/grilles/materials/etc have acoustic merit. That does not mean they cannot be further optimized (we continue to learn and explore), nor does it mean they cannot be improved visually (acoustic performance is the clear front runner for priority, but if you can have both great acoustics and a cool design why not?). Sometimes the acoustic implements look cool simply because, well, they are acoustic implements.

 

[ericpalonen]

Eric - any trends forming on the survey?

Great question. The short answer is yes. I don't see any many surprises except for one. I will give it a few weeks to see if it levels out but don't think it will.

 

[Micu]

The assumption we are not listening to this conversation here in the thread or in general is false. Turn that frown upside down my friend.

Then the motivation is the $50, not the product.

Correct and thx for your in-depth feedback!

No, sorry.

Sorry, this is a hazy oversimplification and not a result we would accept, nor is it a problem we could not solve.

It response to the last comment. It might be an oversimplication, but Arniesb's comment seems to describe what happened with the HD8XX. The HD8XX went for "more bass extension," but in reality the bass extension was improved below the threshold for human hearing. In addition, the upper mids were decreased as well. I'm a big HD800 and HD600 fan, but "more bass" is not the answer.

 

[M3NTAL]

Great question. The short answer is yes. I don't see any many surprises except for one. I will give it a few weeks to see if it levels out but don't think it will.

Tough questions. If they don't fit right, it doesn't matter how they sound - but if they sound excellent, some people seem not to care. Take the Abyss1266 for example. Quite a few others with way too heavy of cups and gimbal/yoke setup that spin too far (or 360) and cause wear and damage to the earcups.

First thing you notice when you put them on is how comfortable they are (IMO) and then you get music going and you realize that they are different from everything you heard before that. Electrostats were good before the HD800 though - the HE60 and HE90 are still well regarded - some people like those better than the HE-1.

 

[Arniesb]

It response to the last comment. It might be an oversimplication, but Arniesb's comment seems to describe what happened with the HD8XX. The HD8XX went for "more bass extension," but in reality the bass extension was improved below the threshold for human hearing. In addition, the upper mids were decreased as well. I'm a big HD800 and HD600 fan, but "more bass" is not the answer.

I did my homework... Tried some bass eq and even little bass increase drown the mids and the sound becomes extremely boring since its so easy to overpower already weak mids.
I have no doubt this was the biggest mistake from them when creating hd820 and drop version of hd800. Balance should be above else in 1st place, headphones are not speakers you cant do everything great.

 

[Trinkle]

Hello, this thread made me create an account , I just had been a visitor so far enjoying all your discussions. I have owned a HD 800S for around 4 years and have loved it and often said that it has been my best purchase ever (note when I bought it, it cost one quarter of the money I had). But here is what I wanted to say. Often in reviews the reviewers mention the HD800s has a wide soundstage but headphones like HE1000Se/Arya/Stax X9000 are attributed with a tall and deeper soundstage with instruments and objects having height and width, whereas with the HD800s it sometimes seems the sounds are coming from points. Now these are subjective terms but the reason I am mentioning this is because even before seeing the reviews I told myself that sometimes the sounds do seem to be coming from specific points in space and I did miss them having some form of body. So this idea just did not come to me after I watched the reviews.
Dan Clark while talking about the Expanse specifically mentioned this effect, mentioning that this is caused by a lack of energy in a specific portion of the frequency response. At 11 minute mark of this video he starts talking about this :
A headphone reviewers say has a big soundstage comparable to the HD800s but still feels natural is the Warwick Bruvara.
Apart from this, I would hope that all the good things of the HD800S are preserved, the fact that it is so comfortable, and does not put any pressure or stress on the ears. I pray the soundstage width is not reduced if possible but I understand the limitations.