[wnmnkh]

Acix, as I said earlier, you won't find that much improvement from K701 to HD800 regarding neutrality.

 

[Edwood]

The HD800's do not perform like speakers when it comes to soundstage and imaging, not by a long shot. While their soundstage is a big improvement over their predecessor, the HD650, it's the not the best imaging in headphones I've heard. Very good, though. Definitely better than most headphones.

However, the tonality and frequency response are the closest to real life that I've heard in headphones. They would make perfect monitors for mastering classical music in that regard, but I'm not familiar with mastering classical music, if soundstage and imaging come into play for mastering recordings, the HD800 (or any headphone for that matter) would not be the optimal choice.

While headphones would be better suited to on the go and location monitoring, the HD800's open nature makes them a very poor choice for that type of monitoring. In the end, speakers are still necessary.

 

[Acix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wnmnkh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Acix, as I said earlier, you won't find that much improvement from K701 to HD800 regarding neutrality.

Just curiosity...it's about time Sennheiser will have a modern natural headphone model, that can be use in the studio. Still 300 Ohms it's a little off for most of the musicians that have sound cards and mixers.

 

[wnmnkh]

It is not all about impedence. If your setup is enough to drive K701, then you will have no problem driving HD800.

Due to very low sensitivity K701 is one of hardest to drive.

 

[343 Grenadier]

I'm well aware this thread is ancient history, but every now and again someone probably reads it when reading up on the HD800s, so for the benefit of "posterity," I'll chime in with my own unprofessional impressions and opinions. I use K702s, which are slightly modified, rebranded K701s, and recently I tested Beyerdynamic T70Ps and T90s at a local store which sells them. I wasn't expecting too much of a difference but I was surprised to find that they're without a doubt clearer-sounding across the board. I haven't had the pleasure of listening to HD800s myself but most experienced reviewers who have been all over the top end of headphones consider them clearer than anything else they've heard, even the Stax flagships and, yes, the T90's big brother, the T1. Yes, they complain about the artificial sound from time to time so there's reason not to use them for mixing purposes since they're not COMPLETELY flat, but let's not mislead people. They're no doubt exceptional headphones for most uses and if they're even as clear as the Beyers I've heard, I can't imagine you could go far WRONG with them for mixing purposes, especially if you tweak them first. Not to mention what I've read also suggests the AKG headphones are...treble-biased, so they're not flat, either. I'm not a studio worker, I've just listened to these things, so no, I don't have the experience or credentials to make definitive calls but I think this thread a little biased in favor of great but nowhere near top-quality headphones based on my own experiences.

So sorry if I'm offending anyone but I felt someone needed to say this here and nobody did. Keep an open mind, folks.

 

[Ivan Makarov]

David

I think that the HD800 is not suitable for monitoring.
These headphones are very suitable for watching movies.
For monitoring, I use the Beyerdynamic DT770

http://piccy.info/view3/11469509/23a8d7003412fd18eb103c9d7c220007/