Bilavideo
Caution: Incomplete trades.
- Joined
- Feb 29, 2008
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No, I'm not in the buff, but while I write this, my HD800 is. Unamped, it lacks the full bass response the headphone is capable of. Anemic? Yeah, compared to what it produces when properly amped. But is it still worth listening to? Surprisingly, yes.
The HD800 is fast. The level of detail it churns up from a track is amazing. On the Beatles' All You Need is Love, my HD800 - running straight off my MacBook Pro - picks up some pretty amazing artifacts. Even without a decent amp, you can hear the "clicks and ticks," the barely visible off-mic comments, the accordion, the violin squeaks, the cutoffs when tracks are pulled and just enough bass to follow those bass lines, which are distinct enough to make out as notes and not just regions of boomty-boom-boom. On Aimee Mann's Momentum, there's a crispness, a precise edge to everything that's impressive. I miss the bass which, at this volume, would fill in the presentation and head off the sibilance that sometimes edges into it, but there's a sax riff in the left channel that's nothing less than scrumptious.
Without the bass you get from amping, Chuck Berry's Rock 'n Roll Music can never get loud enough without becoming strident. The vocals, and their prominent mids, are just too high. Clair Marlo's "It's Just the Motion" is clear, if busy. The HF retains a crispness and an airiness that are delectable. At modest volume, the tonal balance is workable, even pleasant. If you push it, to get in that lost bass, the HF is just too much and a combination of sibilance and ear fatigue set in.
It's funny because, unamped, listening to the HD800 is a bit like creeping up upon a sleeping giant. Tomoyasu Hotei's Battle without Honor or Humanity is clearly lacking punch, but amidst its failings are those "oh my God" moments where the mid- and HF detail is astonishing. The overall presentation is too sibilant on something with this much synthetic instrumentation but the timbre of the trumpets or the edge of that guitar picking are hard not to like.
The mellower Reprise from Schindler's List works much better. This piano and orchestral masterpiece is no worse for the wear from the unamped HD800. It has no sugary HF to restrain, or bass lines to crank up. I'm sure it would sound better amped, but it passes the unamped threshold without noticeable scars.
I almost said the same about Billy Joel's Half a Mile Away, whose saxes and trumpets sound fantastic. There's no bass to speak of and the cymbals are too abundant without the bass to even things out. When I play the same track through my PS1000, it suffers from a similar attack of sibilance but the bass thump is much more pronounced. It's punchier but the HD800's attack, when you listen to the rhythm section, is second to none. Even lacking the bass warmth of a good amp, the timbre of those instruments is just awesome.
When listening to the ancient ELO track, Bluebird is Dead, the HD800 delivers, probably because the HF is restrained to begin with. On old ELO (ELO I, ELO II, On The Third Day and Face the Music) the sound is more organic. There's an abundance of natural instruments. The recording sounds a touch above a garage recording. There's no excess sibilance to restrain and the HD800 works wonderfully.
Really old stuff, like High Up in the Sky by Bert Maddison Dance Orchestra (from the 1920s), is a little harder to listen to unamped. Some of those notes, particularly from the clarinets, are either buried or piercing, depending on how you adjust the volume. Some of this stuff would be challenging, even with an amp, but the naked HD800 is not particularly user-friendly with them.
Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is smoother but amid the processed studio sound is the quick realization that listening through an unamped HD800 is like running a race while missing a leg. The HF is wonderful but hollow turning a good thing into something winceable. The soundstage and speed are there, but without the bass, it's a bottomless party out of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo. Cheap Trick's Hot Love is the audio version of a hologram. It sounds awful.
Those who bash the HD800 for its sibilance are half-right. Without decent amping, you're only getting half the picture. Even without the bass, what you get is amazing, but it's still only half the picture. The HF is phenomenal. It's just that, more often than not, the top half is not enough. The more mellow the music - particularly natural, unamped, acoustic stuff - the less a problem there is. Some tracks sound fine unamped. But where the HF threatens to take over without a balance of bass, it's like eating dinner at the vending machines. If your HD800 sounds like the sonic equivalent of a Snicker's bar, you need to shop for an amp.
The HD800 is fast. The level of detail it churns up from a track is amazing. On the Beatles' All You Need is Love, my HD800 - running straight off my MacBook Pro - picks up some pretty amazing artifacts. Even without a decent amp, you can hear the "clicks and ticks," the barely visible off-mic comments, the accordion, the violin squeaks, the cutoffs when tracks are pulled and just enough bass to follow those bass lines, which are distinct enough to make out as notes and not just regions of boomty-boom-boom. On Aimee Mann's Momentum, there's a crispness, a precise edge to everything that's impressive. I miss the bass which, at this volume, would fill in the presentation and head off the sibilance that sometimes edges into it, but there's a sax riff in the left channel that's nothing less than scrumptious.
Without the bass you get from amping, Chuck Berry's Rock 'n Roll Music can never get loud enough without becoming strident. The vocals, and their prominent mids, are just too high. Clair Marlo's "It's Just the Motion" is clear, if busy. The HF retains a crispness and an airiness that are delectable. At modest volume, the tonal balance is workable, even pleasant. If you push it, to get in that lost bass, the HF is just too much and a combination of sibilance and ear fatigue set in.
It's funny because, unamped, listening to the HD800 is a bit like creeping up upon a sleeping giant. Tomoyasu Hotei's Battle without Honor or Humanity is clearly lacking punch, but amidst its failings are those "oh my God" moments where the mid- and HF detail is astonishing. The overall presentation is too sibilant on something with this much synthetic instrumentation but the timbre of the trumpets or the edge of that guitar picking are hard not to like.
The mellower Reprise from Schindler's List works much better. This piano and orchestral masterpiece is no worse for the wear from the unamped HD800. It has no sugary HF to restrain, or bass lines to crank up. I'm sure it would sound better amped, but it passes the unamped threshold without noticeable scars.
I almost said the same about Billy Joel's Half a Mile Away, whose saxes and trumpets sound fantastic. There's no bass to speak of and the cymbals are too abundant without the bass to even things out. When I play the same track through my PS1000, it suffers from a similar attack of sibilance but the bass thump is much more pronounced. It's punchier but the HD800's attack, when you listen to the rhythm section, is second to none. Even lacking the bass warmth of a good amp, the timbre of those instruments is just awesome.
When listening to the ancient ELO track, Bluebird is Dead, the HD800 delivers, probably because the HF is restrained to begin with. On old ELO (ELO I, ELO II, On The Third Day and Face the Music) the sound is more organic. There's an abundance of natural instruments. The recording sounds a touch above a garage recording. There's no excess sibilance to restrain and the HD800 works wonderfully.
Really old stuff, like High Up in the Sky by Bert Maddison Dance Orchestra (from the 1920s), is a little harder to listen to unamped. Some of those notes, particularly from the clarinets, are either buried or piercing, depending on how you adjust the volume. Some of this stuff would be challenging, even with an amp, but the naked HD800 is not particularly user-friendly with them.
Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is smoother but amid the processed studio sound is the quick realization that listening through an unamped HD800 is like running a race while missing a leg. The HF is wonderful but hollow turning a good thing into something winceable. The soundstage and speed are there, but without the bass, it's a bottomless party out of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo. Cheap Trick's Hot Love is the audio version of a hologram. It sounds awful.
Those who bash the HD800 for its sibilance are half-right. Without decent amping, you're only getting half the picture. Even without the bass, what you get is amazing, but it's still only half the picture. The HF is phenomenal. It's just that, more often than not, the top half is not enough. The more mellow the music - particularly natural, unamped, acoustic stuff - the less a problem there is. Some tracks sound fine unamped. But where the HF threatens to take over without a balance of bass, it's like eating dinner at the vending machines. If your HD800 sounds like the sonic equivalent of a Snicker's bar, you need to shop for an amp.
