[CaptainFantastic]

Not talking about free repair/replacement. As elira mentioned, you can't even pay them to service/repair your product.

Especially since Sennheiser will have long disposed of their consumer headphones division and by then whoever will have bought will have butchered it beyond recognition rendering it 0% fit to service any audiophile "old" models.

 

[NickedWicked]

Yeah this seems like a warranty + tax nightmare for anyone outside the US, no bueno. Give me a heads up when you decide to release a similar model through regular retailers, thanks!

 

[moriez]

Priceless

 

[tdl2024]

Isn’t it standard for products outside of warranty, from any company, to lose free repair and replacements?

Am I missing something with your criticism?

The issue isn't that repair won't be free outside warranty...it's that Drop literally said "Senn. wants nothing to do with this" and "Nah, we (Drop) don't offer repairs after warranty".

I was all set to order one this morning, but when neither company can be bothered to offer any form of support long term I don't feel it's worth the risk. Between that, the lack of balanced cable, the long wait, then unknown as far as tuning it's a tough sell...esp when after you buy a cable you're already at at least $1300 (ie. what you can pay for an 800s today).

If I decide to still get an 8XX series HP I'll just go with the 800s (which I imagine Sennheiser would prefer anyway) since I'd be more comfortable with the support after sales with them than Drop.

Sennheiser, if you're open to feedback I'd suggest working out long term support of this. You'll sell a lot more that way.

 

[Kris_S]

I personally think that Drop and @Sennheiser dropped the ball on this one.

- Silver finish would have looked nicer then the plain black. I personally like the look of the HD800 over the HD800S
- That blue ring on each earcup looks awful and out of place.
- Wait time is long, 9 months.
- Looking at the FR graph the tuning changes seems to be minor 3dB increase at 20Hz, and minor adjustments in the treble region.
- No balanced cable.
- $1100-1200 price because of R&D needed to develop a new resonator system.
- 3.5mm mono jacks would have been better then the ODU connectors.

A HD8XX based of the HD800 with a SDR mod factory installed, or a HD8XX based of the HD800S at $800-900 would have been a better product imo.

 

[jwbrent]

I personally think that Drop and @Sennheiser dropped the ball on this one.

- Silver finish would have looked nicer then the plain black. I personally like the look of the HD800 over the HD800S
- That blue ring on each earcup looks awful and out of place.
- Wait time is long, 9 months.
- Looking at the FR graph the tuning changes seems to be minor 3dB increase at 20Hz, and minor adjustments in the treble region.
- No balanced cable.
- $1100-1200 price because of R&D needed to develop a dual resonator.
- 3.5mm mono jacks would have been better then the ODU connectors.

A HD8XX based of the HD800 with a with a SDR mod factory installed, or a HD8XX based of the HD800S at $800-900 would have been a better product imo.

I agree on the blue ring, doesn’t do anything for me.

 

[jfoxvol]

I think this is a great idea and it sounds like a promising product. I owned an HD800S and it did certain things incredibly well. However, I sold it for the same reasons they're putting this puppy out. Still less bass than I liked, and a bit wonky up top sometimes. I don't care if it comes with a balanced cable or not. I can just buy an aftermarket one on the cheap if I want. I'm sure they were 1) shooting for a certain price point 2) knew that folks like myself needed to use this puppy with a softer kinda tube amp and figured SE might be the preferred for many. I hope it sells well and we see more of them next year (assuming it doesn't sound like a$$, which I'm hopeful it won't).

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I want to review this, ASAP.

 

[askeladden]

I kinda feel that this product is being bashed in an inorganic way. Seeing posts that are almost verbatim on reddit, here and on (mass)drop.
Being conspiratorial minded i would not be surprised if at least some of the negative posts are from shills working on behalf of competing brands.
Either way i look forward to having my baby in 9 months.

 

[MattTCG]

I want to review this, ASAP.

And I would love for you to. I need to get some trusted ears on this headphone before I'd even consider it.

 

[thefitz]

Very exciting - happily preordered! I'd love to see these measurements against something like an Arya. Might look hotter up top, but the bottom might balance it out and the lack of big spikes are likely to fatigue me less.

And thank you for posting the FR measurements as an image in the post, as opposed to stuck in a 45 minute video somewhere. That's some sociopathic crap right there

 

[Mark Up]

Nice they added a bit below 40 hz, but honestly, just tuning down the high mid to treble also would cause the bass region, in contrast, to seem higher (if they also slightly reduce mids if needed). They missed a chance to voice this more like the HD58X (EQ wise, of course, it's a lower end headphone). That one remains my favorite affordable Sennheiser open backs, having that layered, amazing midrange, with flatter high mids and better treble and bass extension than the HD650 / XX, HD600, HD660s. Slight sub bass boosting and adding more treble to the 800, that is often criticized as too bright, just doesn't make any sense.

 

[AlwaysForward]

By the time this ships, they’ll have announced the 900 lol

 

[purk]

By the time this ships, they’ll have announced the 900 lol

And I will be most excited by that news!

 

[FastAndClean]

Interesting curve. Looks like a warmer sounding phone but it will at least be an interesting listen. That is a serious bump in output where the ear is most sensitive in the upper mids 2k to 4k. So in practice may not sound as warm as the significantly better bass extension and drop in output from 1k to 2k might seem to indicate.

As always listening will really tell the tale.

Quite interested in this one.

nothing warmer about that graph, it has more upper mids and treble, a little bit more sub bass but under 40hz, no warmth from that