[lucozade]

You could eq the treble frequency down a few db
Quote:

HD800s are painful, literally. I received them 3 days ago. This evening, while listening a bit louder than usual for a couple minutes, my right ear, for the first time ever, got really painful. Enough to have to stop listening immediately and still feel it for several hours. Now that my ear feels better, I'm A/B'ing with my HD595 and I realize just how less fatiguing they are. The HD800 is somehow instantly fatiguing my ears.
 
Would the HD800 produce a lot more pressure? Abusive treble, extreme sound definition? Either way, that musn't be good for our hearing?

 

[Acix]

 
Quote:

yeah,
 
better go with the warmest RCA tubes money can buy and never look back. Or just take the fail-proof approach with the Senn HD650's

I prefer my K702. I don;t like the 650, the 600 are nicer but why to go around if you have the 70X on the market for the last 4 years.

 

[Bilavideo]

 

HD800s are painful, literally. I received them 3 days ago. This evening, while listening a bit louder than usual for a couple minutes, my right ear, for the first time ever, got really painful. Enough to have to stop listening immediately and still feel it for several hours. Now that my ear feels better, I'm A/B'ing with my HD595 and I realize just how less fatiguing they are. The HD800 is somehow instantly fatiguing my ears.
 
Would the HD800 produce a lot more pressure? Abusive treble, extreme sound definition? Either way, that musn't be good for our hearing?

I know exactly what you're talking about.  I've had this experience with both the HD650 and the HD800.  Your sound levels are too high.  The reason they're too high is you're looking for more punch in your bass.  You're unwittingly turning up the volume to get more kick from the bass.  This is turning up the treble with it.  Neither the HD650 nor the HD800 have huge treble spikes but even these headphones can be fatiguing if you turn them up past your comfort level.
 
The reason you're getting no bass is your amp.  The big wide cup design leaks bass.  It takes a decent amp to get that bass, which is never going to have the kick of a PS1000 or a T1 or a closed can.  The HD800 doesn't have a big 100 Hz bass hump.  Its elevated bass is pretty close to flat.  What the HD800 does is give you great extension way down, so the bass is quite neutral and balanced, but its present very low.  You need a decent amp, however, to experience it.
 
Right off an iPod or a portable with no power, the HD800 sounds pretty thin.  If you try to crank your way out of the problem, you'll simply feel fatigued (and end up with an ear-ache).  Macedonian Hero found a portable amp that works wonders.  You should ask MH about it.

 

[tnili]

Buy an SPL Meter from Radio Shack and set the volume from the ear cups to 75-80 decibels using this file:
 
http://www.burninwave.com/download/pinknoise.wav
 
If you feel the need to raise the volume still, the rest of your gear is not up to it or they are not the headphones for you.
 
 
 

 

[Uncle Erik]

Turn it down. I've had similar problems when the HD-800 is cranked, so I turned the knob to the left. One of the best things about the HD-800 is that it performs well at low levels. Give it a try - you don't need to buy anything.

 

[Drumonron]

Bob, you need to give to receive and this is to say that I find this thread quite troll like in it's construct.  I did my part and searched for information about your setup by looking in your profile but, here again, you supply one with nothing.
 
One should give a minutes thought to the title of a thread and to blatantly attacking a headphone with a misleading, misinformed, hostile and argumentative title is wrong.
 
Given what information you've supplied us with here, I say the solution is for you to place the HD800 on the FS Forum and get some Ibuds.
 
Have a good day.

 

[moodyrn]

Here we go again with this trolling stuff. Just because he may not like them doesn't mean he's a troll. So many times when people complain about a certain phone someone comes along and bashes them. Every headphone isn't for everybody. There is nothing troll like in this thread(yet). He has a valid issue. It could be that they need more burn-in, synergy problem, or his ears are just sensitive to these. I and so many others around here am sometimes cautious when it comes to saying anything negative about a fan favorite can because of fear of being flamed(that still doesn't stop me). I've never criticized anyone for posting negative comments about a can I love. The hd800s are good headphones, but just like all others, they are not perfect. Everyone who flame people for saying other wise need to learn to accept that.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

 

I know exactly what you're talking about.  I've had this experience with both the HD650 and the HD800.  Your sound levels are too high.  The reason they're too high is you're looking for more punch in your bass.  You're unwittingly turning up the volume to get more kick from the bass.  This is turning up the treble with it.  Neither the HD650 nor the HD800 have huge treble spikes but even these headphones can be fatiguing if you turn them up past your comfort level.
 
The reason you're getting no bass is your amp.  The big wide cup design leaks bass.  It takes a decent amp to get that bass, which is never going to have the kick of a PS1000 or a T1 or a closed can.  The HD800 doesn't have a big 100 Hz bass hump.  Its elevated bass is pretty close to flat.  What the HD800 does is give you great extension way down, so the bass is quite neutral and balanced, but its present very low.  You need a decent amp, however, to experience it.
 
Right off an iPod or a portable with no power, the HD800 sounds pretty thin.  If you try to crank your way out of the problem, you'll simply feel fatigued (and end up with an ear-ache).  Macedonian Hero found a portable amp that works wonders.  You should ask MH about it.

Bill has pretty much called it. Surprisingly I found the Headroom Micro Amp (not ideal...but it plays much better than its price point) a pretty good amp with the HD800s. I'm using it as part of my new bedside rig (with my 160Gb iPod Classic feeding it) and it (Micro Amp) really surprised me on how good it can sound. It has gobs of power and produces zero listening fatigue. But at the proper volumes.
 
One other thing, the HD800s don't distort until you get to a very, very high volume....anything in that area can be dangerous to you...so be careful.

 

[sonq]

Hi Ford2,
 
It's only logical to advise him to look into his source & amp before putting it up for sale, isn't it?
 
After all, the headphone makes no sound by itself; only pass on what's amplified from the source. Garbage in, garbage out.

 

[Drumonron]

Bob is not actively engaged in his own thread afaics....perhaps he's a sniping troll.
 
I have no problem with people expressing their dislikes for a headphone but is it necessary to go on with a title "HD800s are painful"?
 
He doesn't give any more details throughout the thread regarding the rig that he is using?
I find it all a bit troll like.  He doesn't respond to any postings throughout the thread(to this point).  What was the point of his statement about the HD800s?  He was not approaching his thread in a constructive manner, or am I missing something.
 
Knowing my feelings, why would I suggest anything to him about his source, ICs, Amp, etc?
 
Again, the gripe isn't at his lack of enthusiasm with a headphone, it's at his approach or lack of etiquette.
 
Hope I'm wrong.

 

[K_19]

x2 that Bill has nailed it.  Without a good amp, the bass will be very thin on HD800's at comfortable treble levels.  You raise the volume for the bass, and you'll be severely punished with the sharp treble.  This is why amping is very important here, I've found out first hand lately... by going from WA6 to WA6SE, I've noticed that the bass and lower mids fill out MUCH more at lower volumes (warm tubes and interconnects also helped here), making it very enjoyable with almost all genres.  Now they're never painful or fatiguing either sonically or physically, and is simply just great overall.
 
Oh, and don't be afraid to EQ as a last resort.  All you'll be doing is eq-ing the treble down, so there should be no distortion (that is typically heard with eq-ing up) and the sound should stay fairly balanced and coherent as long as you EQ it carefully.  Experiment with few db's at 10k and 12k levels with a parametric EQ then go from there to whatever you may be comfortable with.

 

[dallan]

 
Quote:

 
 Your sound levels are too high.  The reason they're too high is you're looking for more punch in your bass.  You're unwittingly turning up the volume to get more kick from the bass.  This is turning up the treble with it.  
 

This is exactly what I did when i got mine.  There is definitely a sweet spot for me with them.

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Hi Ford2,
 
It's only logical to advise him to look into his source & amp before putting it up for sale, isn't it?
 
After all, the headphone makes no sound by itself; only pass on what's amplified from the source. Garbage in, garbage out.

Despite what you might read and understand here I can assure you that you can change amps/dacs till the cows come home BUT it will NOT change the basic signature of the phones.
 
Why buy a phone and then go on an endless pursuit of an amp/dac to try and change its sound signature when you can buy one that suits you from the start.
 
And Hi to you to.

 

[Danz03]

 
I agreed, for a pair of phones that cost this much, they should sound perfect or near perfect without any special implementation.

Quote:

Despite what you might read and understand here I can assure you that you can change amps/dacs till the cows come home BUT it will NOT change the basic signature of the phones.
 
Why buy a phone and then go on an endless pursuit of an amp/dac to try and change its sound signature when you can buy one that suits you from the start.
 
And Hi to you to.

 

[dallan]

Quote:

 
I agreed, for a pair of phones that cost this much, they should sound perfect or near perfect without any special implementation.


 

What $1000.+ headphone sounds perfect or nearly perfect without matching the amp or having a good dac?   I want to buy it!