[ethiopianprince]

I was considering buying a pair of HD800s, especially due to my other headphones being stolen, and was wondering if anyone had experience with the synergy between the 800s and the magni amp. I know its not a high end amp but its not in the budget (and a friend is offering the 800s at a good price as he got LCD-4s for christmas), and if it works well with the 800s then why not use what i already have. Just concerned about this pairing since the 800s have a bad rep for being picky.

 

[Currawong]

Don't know about the Magni, but I have the Vali 2 in for review and it does a great job with the HD800s. It's not a "warm"-sounding tube amp, so it might be a matter of taste whether you like the result or not, as the HD800s can seem a bit thin-sounding for some genres. 

 

[LBailey33]

If you really want the headphones and you are getting a good deal for them I say buy them and enjoy them with your current amp. In the future, if you ever feel the need to upgrade your amp you can, however I personally wouldn't be able to pass up a great deal on some HD800's.

 

[Me x3]

Yeah, they work just fine.
Magni has plenty of power for HD800.
 
HD800 are bright headphones
Magni is a neutralish amplifier. 
 
Neutral Amplifier + Bright Headphone ----------------> Bright Sound
 
If you like that presentation, then can't go wrong.

 

[ethiopianprince]

  Don't know about the Magni, but I have the Vali 2 in for review and it does a great job with the HD800s. It's not a "warm"-sounding tube amp, so it might be a matter of taste whether you like the result or not, as the HD800s can seem a bit thin-sounding for some genres. 

Better to test them out first then i suppose?
 
 

If you really want the headphones and you are getting a good deal for them I say buy them and enjoy them with your current amp. In the future, if you ever feel the need to upgrade your amp you can, however I personally wouldn't be able to pass up a great deal on some HD800's.

Its a significant investment however good a deal haha. Dont want to regret buying them because i cant afford a better amp
 
 

  Yeah, they work just fine.
Magni has plenty of power for HD800.
 
HD800 are bright headphones
Magni is a neutralish amplifier. 
 
Neutral Amplifier + Bright Headphone ----------------> Bright Sound
 
If you like that presentation, then can't go wrong.

For you and everyone else that answered, how are they compared to the LCD-2s by audeze? I had those and loved them, however they were stolen along with almost everything else valuable in what could be the worst christmas gift ever.

 

[Me x3]

  For you and everyone else that answered, how are they compared to the LCD-2s by audeze?

HD800s are significantly lighter on the bass with much more clinical/detailed/unforgiving treble.
Soundstage is definitely bigger.
 
If you loved LCD-2 you might like HD650 much more than HD800. 

 

[Currawong]

Seconded here. The HD800s are totally different. If you liked the LCD-2s, you might not like the HD800s at all. I'd definitely save up and get another pair if I were you.

 

[ethiopianprince]

Haha I already got the 800s off my bud. Not bad at all, amazing soundstage, but it is a bit on the shrill side, even to my insensetive tone deaf ears. As a casual lover of bass though ill probably wait until something more bass-y comes along and Sell these or something haha, not a bad deal for $500 cad though

 

[Rhamnetin]

Yeah the HD 800 ought to sound shrill and thin on the Magni.  Note that your amp is at fault here.  The HD 800 on a proper amp has great, deep bass, but not accentuated.  I don't know the minimum you have to spend for the HD 800 to not sound thin and brittle.  HD 800 owners who use the Bottlehead Crack + Speedball don't seem to complain about thinness.  I don't think Valhalla 2 owners complain either.

 

[ethiopianprince]

  Yeah the HD 800 ought to sound shrill and thin on the Magni.  Note that your amp is at fault here.  The HD 800 on a proper amp has great, deep bass, but not accentuated.  I don't know the minimum you have to spend for the HD 800 to not sound thin and brittle.  HD 800 owners who use the Bottlehead Crack + Speedball don't seem to complain about thinness.  I don't think Valhalla 2 owners complain either.

I'll eventually get something, but for now ill put up with it i suppose haha. Bifrost/Asgard seems like an attractive option, dont really know about other companies though. And still unsure about tubes, heard lots of good and bad things about them.

 

[Rhamnetin]

  I'll eventually get something, but for now ill put up with it i suppose haha. Bifrost/Asgard seems like an attractive option, dont really know about other companies though. And still unsure about tubes, heard lots of good and bad things about them.

 
OTL tube amps are a great matchup for high impedance headphones like the HD 800.  Tubes can avoid shrillness as well, adding some treble roll off.  Solid state amps can do the job too, although I'd go for something better and different than the Asgard (Schiit solid state amps are known to be brighter than some of the competition).  Those who have commented on the Gustard H10 + Sennheiser HD 800 pairing say it's a good matchup, as the H10 is one of the warmer sounding solid state amps apparently.
 
But then again, the HD 800 sounded somewhat thin to me on the $3,000 HeadAmp GS-X Mk2.  At least when compared directly to the Woo Audio WA22.  So personally, I'd never pair the HD 800 with a solid state amp.

 

[Me x3]

  Yeah the HD 800 ought to sound shrill and thin on the Magni.  Note that your amp is at fault here.  The HD 800 on a proper amp has great, deep bass, but not accentuated.  I don't know the minimum you have to spend for the HD 800 to not sound thin and brittle.  HD 800 owners who use the Bottlehead Crack + Speedball don't seem to complain about thinness.  I don't think Valhalla 2 owners complain either.

I don't think the amp is at fault, the Magni is a low output impedance, extremely low distortion, really powerful and dead flat amplifier.
The HD800 is the one that's way too bright around 6kHz.
 
Valhalla 2 is pretty neutral too. A friend of mine still complained about Valhalla 2 and stock HD800 so he went with Anax mod.

 

[Me x3]

  I'll eventually get something, but for now ill put up with it i suppose haha. Bifrost/Asgard seems like an attractive option, dont really know about other companies though. And still unsure about tubes, heard lots of good and bad things about them.

You can start by EQing 6kHz down a bit using a parametric equalizer.
You can try Equalizer APO or get DMGaudio's Equality or Equilibrium (expensive but powerful)

 

[ethiopianprince]

  You can start by EQing 6kHz down a bit using a parametric equalizer.
You can try Equalizer APO or get DMGaudio's Equality or Equilibrium (expensive but powerful)

Will look into decent eq software and see if that helps .
 

   
OTL tube amps are a great matchup for high impedance headphones like the HD 800.  Tubes can avoid shrillness as well, adding some treble roll off.  Solid state amps can do the job too, although I'd go for something better and different than the Asgard (Schiit solid state amps are known to be brighter than some of the competition).  Those who have commented on the Gustard H10 + Sennheiser HD 800 pairing say it's a good matchup, as the H10 is one of the warmer sounding solid state amps apparently.
 
But then again, the HD 800 sounded somewhat thin to me on the $3,000 HeadAmp GS-X Mk2.  At least when compared directly to the Woo Audio WA22.  So personally, I'd never pair the HD 800 with a solid state amp.

But tube amps seem like slightly more work than ss 

. Will look into it if EQs dont work haha, still hesitant on tubes though..