Just to report, I finally gave up on my HD800s I bought 2 years ago ( sold them a while back because I thought the highs were too aggressive and fatiguing about two thirds of the time, serial #11XXX I think) and got a new pair serial # 153XX and on initial testing sounds definitely less stinging/piercing/tipped up in the highs, and as a bonus the bass seems more transparent and there is more of it.
Now they sound crisp and extended, but not painful, and just barely annoying on a few tracks, say 15% of the time. These are not 650s or 600s, but they are now fine I'd say right out of the box.
I actually think the highs are about the same as my LCD3s, which were recently RMA'd to Audeze for new transducers. Now it is a close contest between the Senns and the Audezes.
So something has really changed for the better. Just using the stock cord on the Senns, which seems fine. (Using a Q-cable on the LCD3s, much more coherent and focused w/o changing the frequency response than the Audeze stock cord, which I don't like.)