[Xenophon]

Many thanks for your extensive reply, much appreciated.  I've more or less come to the same conclusion, took a break from head-fi the past months, had a cool beer instead of the marketing kool-aid served liberally.  Still have the V800/V200 stack which is good but as you say, a tiny bit coloured.  It's sitting in my apartment in Brussels and I use it with my HD-800.  In the office I use my ODAC/O2 and it performs very nicely with the HE-500 (incidentally the best bang/buck cans I own, I keep them on my desk  because I'd tear my hair out if the HD-800 got nicked).
 
With a recording I know I can identify it vs the Vio, but only because I know the Vio's colour and only consistently with known recordings.
 
The one thing for which I need more power is the HE-6, for that I built an F5-clone.  Basically a low-powered speaker amp with a quiet background.  Cost me  1K to build, mostly because I went wild&crazy with the enclosure.
 
This hobby needs some more objectivity and (I'll utter the forbidden evil words) double blind testing. I participated in a couple of tests in the 'sound science' forum (regarding sampling frequency and codecs) and predictably, the result was that above a very mundane level, nobody can consistently pick the 'best' quality. 
 
Building electronics is a hobby of mine, I had the opportunity to open up some very highly rated tube amps that sell for huge bucks.  Once you get the nice enclosure off, it's astounding to see how lousy some of them are designed/built.  In some cases the 'glorious, vibrant sound' is the outcome of a high score on the crappy-built-o-meter, with resulting non-linear operation.

 

[Naim.F.C]

Many thanks for your extensive reply, much appreciated.  I've more or less come to the same conclusion, took a break from head-fi the past months, had a cool beer instead of the marketing kool-aid served liberally.  Still have the V800/V200 stack which is good but as you say, a tiny bit coloured.  It's sitting in my apartment in Brussels and I use it with my HD-800.  In the office I use my ODAC/O2 and it performs very nicely with the HE-500 (incidentally the best bang/buck cans I own, I keep them on my desk  because I'd tear my hair out if the HD-800 got nicked).

With a recording I know I can identify it vs the Vio, but only because I know the Vio's colour and only consistently with known recordings.

The one thing for which I need more power is the HE-6, for that I built an F5-clone.  Basically a low-powered speaker amp with a quiet background.  Cost me  1K to build, mostly because I went wild&crazy with the enclosure.

This hobby needs some more objectivity and (I'll utter the forbidden evil words) double blind testing. I participated in a couple of tests in the 'sound science' forum (regarding sampling frequency and codecs) and predictably, the result was that above a very mundane level, nobody can consistently pick the 'best' quality. 

Building electronics is a hobby of mine, I had the opportunity to open up some very highly rated tube amps that sell for huge bucks.  Once you get the nice enclosure off, it's astounding to see how lousy some of them are designed/built.  In some cases the 'glorious, vibrant sound' is the outcome of a high score on the crappy-built-o-meter, with resulting non-linear operation.

No worries Xenophon, and likewise, appreciate the insightful response. Absolutely agree with you on all points.

 

[upstateguy]

 

Many thanks for your extensive reply, much appreciated.  I've more or less come to the same conclusion, took a break from head-fi the past months, had a cool beer instead of the marketing kool-aid served liberally.  Still have the V800/V200 stack which is good but as you say, a tiny bit coloured.  It's sitting in my apartment in Brussels and I use it with my HD-800.  In the office I use my ODAC/O2 and it performs very nicely with the HE-500 (incidentally the best bang/buck cans I own, I keep them on my desk  because I'd tear my hair out if the HD-800 got nicked).

With a recording I know I can identify it vs the Vio, but only because I know the Vio's colour and only consistently with known recordings.

The one thing for which I need more power is the HE-6, for that I built an F5-clone.  Basically a low-powered speaker amp with a quiet background.  Cost me  1K to build, mostly because I went wild&crazy with the enclosure.

This hobby needs some more objectivity and (I'll utter the forbidden evil words) double blind testing. I participated in a couple of tests in the 'sound science' forum (regarding sampling frequency and codecs) and predictably, the result was that above a very mundane level, nobody can consistently pick the 'best' quality. 

Building electronics is a hobby of mine, I had the opportunity to open up some very highly rated tube amps that sell for huge bucks.  Once you get the nice enclosure off, it's astounding to see how lousy some of them are designed/built.  In some cases the 'glorious, vibrant sound' is the outcome of a high score on the crappy-built-o-meter, with resulting non-linear operation.

No worries Xenophon, and likewise, appreciate the insightful response. Absolutely agree with you on all points.

I agree with you guys.

 

[Naim.F.C]

So my HD800's arrived earlier today, been back and fourthing (whilst trying to get my work done lol) all morning. In all honesty, my impressions haven't really changed since the first time I owned and compared them both. I guess that speaks towards Sennheiser's quality control, that despite this unit being 20,000 odd builds later, it still has the same characteristics, at least based on the notes from my last comparison, years ago. Either that or I just happened to chance across a similar set.
 
Of course, the main difference today is that the T1's are almost half the price of the HD800's (at least here in the UK), but still completely comparable in terms of sonic performance and quality. Preference between the two I'd imagine will be completely subjective based on one's own personal tastes, and the kind of music you listen to. Neither is perfect mind, as no headphone will be. Still, the price difference between these two headphones is pretty brazen when you think about it. The cost of high end headphones and equipment in general has been getting stupid lately, somehow it's been reined in with Beyerdynamic, which I massively commend them for. 
 
Will go in to more detail regarding sonic comparisons later.