[musicman59]

Quote:

Frank I, 
My comment was flippant and not deserving of a serious response.  I just asked because for me it is difficult to make comparison between the HE-6, HD800 and T1.  I am not musically trained, but I love music and have been trying.  If I listen to one of these headphones for an hour or more, at that moment it becomes my favorite.  Some thing seem obvious to me (IMO, with my setup, and with my ear canal shape).  The HE-6 is outstanding with jazz and most vocals, has the best instrument separation, heaviest, and prone to static electricity ear shocking.  The T-1 is my favorite with rock and TV, but has too much sibilance.  It is very comfortable and I can wear it all day.  The HD800 is the most comfortable, excellent with jazz and classical, has the best sound stage, and best instrument spacial placement.  The rest is more difficult for me, decay, frequency response, accurate instrument reproduction, distortion, etc. 

If you have a problem with sibilance on the T1 you most likely will benefit with a reachable job with a good OCC copper cable. When I bought the T1 I had exactly the same problem plus a soundstage that I perceived as compressed in hight. They were not even close to compete against my recalled HD800. I was about to give up on them and sell them. I decided to reachable them with a Zeus OCC Copper cable and all what I consider a fault on them disappeared the sibilance went way (unless it is in the recording) and the soundstage expanded. Now they do sound with a different flavor than the HD800 but the quality of the sound is at par with them. IMO the T1 really got better. 

 

[vcoheda]

^^ just as the HD800 improved with a cardas cable. if you like the core sound of a headphone but want to tweak it slightly, a recabling or even use of different ICs may be the solution. i preferred my HD800 after switching from stock (and then from silver dragon) to cardas cable. i also preferred my LCD2 after switching from copper hero ICs to pure silver ones.

 

[musicman59]

Quote:

^^ just as the HD800 improved with a cardas cable. if you like the core sound of a headphone but want to tweak it slightly, a recabling or even use of different ICs may be the solution. i preferred my HD800 after switching from stock (and then from silver dragon) to cardas cable. i also preferred my LCD2 after switching from copper hero ICs to pure silver ones.

What you are saying totally make sense. I also enjoy more my HD800 with the DHC Complement cable. I think the LCD-2 are a little bit dark to my taste so make sense that silver interconnects help them.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

Quote:

^^ just as the HD800 improved with a cardas cable. if you like the core sound of a headphone but want to tweak it slightly, a recabling or even use of different ICs may be the solution. i preferred my HD800 after switching from stock (and then from silver dragon) to cardas cable. i also preferred my LCD2 after switching from copper hero ICs to pure silver ones.

What you are saying totally make sense. I also enjoy more my HD800 with the DHC Complement cable. I think the LCD-2 are a little bit dark to my taste so make sense that silver interconnects help them.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. I agree with both of you.

 

[raja]

There is definitely an edginess in the upper registers with the HD800 that becomes irritating over time. I'm going to try a 2w tantalum resistor for cathode bias in my tube stage instead of battery bias and see if that smooths the upper mids out somewhat. 
 
-Raja

 

[IPodPJ]

You could try this:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/446585/hd800-modification-thread
 
I still keep my phones this way.

 

[vrln]

When people talk about headphones being amp picky*, it usually means that the headphones have a serious flaw in their sound signature that needs to be coupled with a colored amp that masks that flaw as well as possible. In the HD 800 case (T1 too), the problem is the unnatural treble peak and treble-heavyness in general. So paired with a warm, smooth sounding amp (the tube stereotype), and highs become more bearable and the end result is more enjoyable. The V200 is a fantastic example of a warm, punchy amp that does wonders when paired with the HD 800.
 
In my experience headphones in general have a lot of issues that are native to the platform, and thus colored amps are highly sought after (nothing bad about that though). Perfect neutrality, or neutrality coming close to the speaker world hasn´t been done so far if you ask me (except in the electrostatic world, but dynamics defeat them in soundstage for example). There have been good efforts like the HD 800 and T1 that go over the top, and efforts that miss the neutrality line but in the other way (HD 650 and especially LCD-2). There´s still quite a long way to go, which is one of the reasons the headphone world is so interesting. 
 
* Exception is power hungry headphones

 

[raja]

I've managed to smooth out the impact of the sharp 6~7k response by removing some of the extraneous hf decoupling in the PSU of my DAC/headamp and also changed out the biasing scheme from battery BIAS to choke/tantalum. The result is probably a little higher second harmonic, but the detail is still intact and enjoyable for longer listening sessions.
 
-Raja 

 

[dallan]

Yeah it takes a bit of work to get it perfect. I went thru it all about a year back and finally got it perfect between a good OLT tube amp and other minor tweeks. Haven't had a problem with the peaks since and can listen for hours with no fatigue, and this is from someone so sensative to fatigue that he couldn't listen to HD650s for more than 45 minutes.

 

[vrln]

Quote:

Yeah it takes a bit of work to get it perfect. I went thru it all about a year back and finally got it perfect between a good OLT tube amp and other minor tweeks. Haven't had a problem with the peaks since and can listen for hours with no fatigue, and this is from someone so sensative to fatigue that he couldn't listen to HD650s for more than 45 minutes.

Now that you´ve owned the Zana Deux and the Violectric V200 for quite a while, how would you compare the two with HD 800 in particular? Do you still feel the Violectric is a great choice for the Sennheiser flagship? I´m thinking about rebuying the HD 800 someday, and the Violectric to me seems like a perfect solid state choice to couple it with.

 

[dallan]

Thanks for the reminder, i was meaning to respond to this and forgot.

 
I do still think the Violectric V200 is great with the HD800.  I actually have a/b it against my Lisa lll with the ED8 thinking that they were in the same ballpark but the V200 blew away the Lisa lll with it's external power supply in every way.  Against the Zana Deux it can't really compete.  The Zana Deux was created for high impedance phones by a master(Craig)-at about three times the price of course.  But i will say that when i am going for short listens i use the V200 just because i don't want to warm up the Zana Deux tubes and then turn it off.  The only SS that i have heard that matches better that i remember was a balanced B22.   I have heard the Phoenix but not for a while so I wouldn't know where it stands, audio memory being what it is.  For the money the V200 is a great choice and matches well with the HD800 esp with it's warm tubey signature.  In addition, it drives low impedance phones incredibly well so it gives real flexibility.  It is one of my better buys in audio and i made it for a phone that i didn't even end up buying.

 

[musicman59]

Quote:

Thanks for the reminder, i was meaning to respond to this and forgot.

 
I do still think the Violectric V200 is great with the HD800.  I actually have a/b it against my Lisa lll with the ED8 thinking that they were in the same ballpark but the V200 blew away the Lisa lll with it's external power supply in every way.  Against the Zana Deux it can't really compete.  The Zana Deux was created for high impedance phones by a master(Craig)-at about three times the price of course.  But i will say that when i am going for short listens i use the V200 just because i don't want to warm up the Zana Deux tubes and then turn it off.  The only SS that i have heard that matches better that i remember was a balanced B22.   I have heard the Phoenix but not for a while so I wouldn't know where it stands, audio memory being what it is.  For the money the V200 is a great choice and matches well with the HD800 esp with it's warm tubey signature.  In addition, it drives low impedance phones incredibly well so it gives real flexibility.  It is one of my better buys in audio and i made it for a phone that i didn't even end up buying.

 And it can drive the HE-6 good too!

 

[vcoheda]

looks like rudistor has a new high-end amp.
 

 

 

[Bubu1]

It seems that Headroom amps don't get mentioned very often with the 800's, however I have been enjoying my balanced ultra desktop stack immensely over the last year.  For me, this is a fantastic combination and has quelled any desire for upgrading!!! This combo is outstanding for many genres of music but absolutely sublime for classical.

 

[RTF]

I'll have to keep the Headroom in mind for when I buy a dedicated amp. Right now I'm liking the headphone out on my new Lavry DA11, the clarity and detail are great, but wouldn't mind adding an amp that adds a touch of smoothness and musicality to compliment it. Not sure what that would be though.
Quote:

It seems that Headroom amps don't get mentioned very often with the 800's, however I have been enjoying my balanced ultra desktop stack immensely over the last year.  For me, this is a fantastic combination and has quelled any desire for upgrading!!! This combo is outstanding for many genres of music but absolutely sublime for classical.