[SomeGuyDude]

I can say with confidence my sig is the end of my journey into the foreseeable future. I might even sell off part of it. 

 

[62ohm]

Don't know about what my end game setup will be like yet, but the HD800 is very likely going to be my end game cans. I've tried the entire Audez'e & HiFiMan lineup, as well as K812 and have owned the T1 and so far I still yet to find a headphone that I would even consider as a secondary.

 

[whentheclouds]

surprising that a headphone from half a decade ago is still the undisputed choice for many people. compared this to say, a 2014 GPU vs one from 5 years back.i also wonder when we will see a successor to the 800

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Well there's no ceiling on GPU/CPU speed, at least not in the abstract. Games can always increase the resolution and add pixels and hell they can just require more processing power for no good reason. They can add more to the code and make more and more. I think we're hitting kind of a "ceiling" with headphone drivers. You can't get any clearer than the source material. What's going to be next is making them more compact and less tethered to giant desktop rigs for less money. Imagine a day when you can get an LCD-X that can be powered off of a smartphone and fold into a compact carrying case. 

 

[whentheclouds]

good point. on the other hand, the HD800 is still considered technically superior to even today's flagships, which is unheard of in most other fields of hardware/technology. disclaimer: i have no idea what "technical superiority" entails because i don't know how to read specs

 

[DougD]

  surprising that a headphone from half a decade ago is still the undisputed choice for many people. compared this to say, a 2014 GPU vs one from 5 years back.i also wonder when we will see a successor to the 800

 
Could be worse ... we can all be happy our favorite hobby isn't TOTL violins. 

 

[music101]

There's no such thing IMHO.

Every design has inherent tradeoffs:

-Fun v shaped sound signatures are great at low volumes, but can become both strident and boomy at higher volumes.

-Bassy headphones are great for certain types of listening such as for action movie soundtracks, or hip hop, but can sound strangely exaggerated with other genres

-Treble emphasis can bring out detail at low volumes and with older recordings, but can lead to listener fatigue

-Closed headphones provide isolation and allow you to listen at lower volumes, but closed designs create echoes and resonances that are completely absent in open designs

-Open designs are inherently superior to closed, but leak sound and are impractical in any environment with ambient noise.

-Neutral to dark sound signatures minimize listener fatigue but often create a "middle" or "back of the room" type of listening experience which some consider antithetical to headphone listening, which some define by the ability of headphones to reveal details.

 

[Doorbell]

[size=x-small]As crazy as it sounds, the M50's have been the only [/size]consistent[size=x-small] headphone in my collection. I've owned the D2000, HD650, Momentums, SR840 and a bunch of other mid-fi 'phones but I some how always end up going back to the M50. They just sound good to me. I know they aren't perfect by any means but they fit the bill when it comes to sound, construction and comfort for me. [/size]

 

[kman1211]

I have had the chance to hear what I consider the holy grail of headphone. The Sony MDR-R10, particularly the bass-heavy. It sounds more natural and musical than anything I have ever heard with a level of transparency and refinement that no other dynamic headphone I have heard touches.

 

[whentheclouds]

   
Could be worse ... we can all be happy our favorite hobby isn't TOTL violins. 

lol, can you elaborate?
 
 

There's no such thing IMHO..

imo, the technically "perfect" headphone should be able to 100% accurately reproduce the source without any alterations to the sound (entirely flat frequency response? like i said i don't know what a headphone's specs constitutes). whether or not that makes for an appealing headphone is up to the individual's taste. for some reasons this "perfection" isn't yet achieved . don't know much about them but i'd assume the perfect speakers don't exist either

 

[music101]

lol, can you elaborate?
 
 
imo, the technically "perfect" headphone should be able to 100% accurately reproduce the source without any alterations to the sound (entirely flat frequency response? like i said i don't know what a headphone's specs constitutes). whether or not that makes for an appealing headphone is up to the individual's taste. for some reasons this "perfection" isn't yet achieved . don't know much about them but i'd assume the perfect speakers don't exist either

 


The technically perfect female cooks like a world class chef, makes a billion dollars a year (give me 99% as allowance), fetches my slippers, is a nymphomaniac (only with me), is 18 forever, loves the nfl, nba, ufc and pro wrestling more than I do, has memorized basic and advanced stats for every pro league and predicts the ncaa tournament with 100% accuracy. I'm still looking for her.

Anyway, just go to headroom dot com and look at the frequency response curve of any headphone at random. It will be so far removed from "flat" it's laughable.

Then there are endless other intervening variables, such as the distance between the driver and the opening of your ear canal, the volume (treble response is vastly different at low vs moderate volume, say 40 vs 65 dBA), the type of enclosure, the density of the foam cover, open vs closed design, whether felt is used to cover the driver, etc etc etc etc.

There is no such thing as a perfect driver, and the driver is just one part of the equation with a long list of variables created by real world materials and how they interact with one another as well as with the listener.

This is not to mention the use of amps, placebo effect, your actual, measured hearing ability (most dedicated headphone listeners probably have far from perfect hearing -- even by human standards).

Following threads where headphone users tweak headphones endlessly: foam, glue, felt, holes, screwdrivers, drills, cotton, wood cups, new cables, removing felt, blocking holes, is kind of like watching a dog chase it's own tail.

 

[SSandDigital]

  surprising that a headphone from half a decade ago is still the undisputed choice for many people. compared this to say, a 2014 GPU vs one from 5 years back.i also wonder when we will see a successor to the 800

 
Not that surprising considering the tech behind both speakers and headphones haven't changed much in 50 years.  I don't find the newest and fancy boutique speakers sound any better than good vintage speakers that are 30 years old.  I don't find ribbon speakers to be better than the vintage tweeters.
 
The only headphone to me that is dynamic to me that has done anything that could be considered radical is the HD800.  Everything else, including all the headphones I've owned probably aren't likely to be "better" than say the DT150.
 
And lastly, I doubt any of the FOTM dynamic or orthodynamics are as good as the vintage STAX.

 

[music101]

Thank god for the placebo effect! It's the only factor which keeps hi end audio going.

But seriously, there aren't any major technological breakthroughs in the works for either speakers or headphones. We'll see minor refinements (maybe) which offer negligible to zero measurable improvement.

I've never understood why people are willing to pay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars for vibrating paper cones in a box anyway.

 

[ubs28]

  good point. on the other hand, the HD800 is still considered technically superior to even today's flagships, which is unheard of in most other fields of hardware/technology. disclaimer: i have no idea what "technical superiority" entails because i don't know how to read specs

The Shure SE535 measures better than the HD800 in square wave tests which is only a $500 IEM. 
 

 

[gulf1263]

I got the Audeze LCD-XC's, it will be quite a while before I need something more.
Had to completely upgraded my system to take advantage of their sound quality.
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