Also, speaking of "bringin in an HD800," a good friend of mine (
@kilspeed111) brought in his newly-bought used HD800 to his school, amped by an ALO portable amp or something. He says he's wowed at least 20 people, with responses varying from "Not worth the price" to "I'd buy it if I have the cash" to blown-away looks on their faces.
TIL the HD800 must really be the world's greatest headphone.
The mighty kilspeed has been summoned from the death, the night is dark, a storm is coming..
Just kidding.
Yes, indeed, I took my HD800 with ALO RXmkII amp to school with me (including the hd800 box, must keep these beauties scratch free).
Usually, people don't give a damn if I bring my equipment, just a select few. I've brought multiple headphones with me, including the sennheiser hd650, philips fidelio x2, mrspeakers mad dog (I bring these on a daily basis), a beats pro detox, a beats studio and an akg k240, over the course of time. Only a select few showed interest. This time it was slightly different. I took a second backpack to put the hd800 box in, and off I went to school. This Tuesday nobody seemed interested, except a few making fun because I had "such a big headset". I didn't bother explaining, and since it leaked so bad, I planned not taking the hd800 with me again. I had informed a friend (who owns a beats studio, but is actually interested in high quality audio) that I brought it with me, but as his phone was dead the entire day, he didn't see it until it was too late. He asked if I wanted to take it with me again on Thursday, I said "sure, it's a slight hassle but I like sharing this experience with my friends". Happy that someone was interested, I took it with me to school Thursday. He listened it (through his smartphone and laptop, with some pink floyd) and said he absolutely loved it. I said that if he wanted to hear what the HD800 could really do, he should stop by my house sometime, as this is maybe a mere 20% of what it could really do.
I went to the classroom, and our classroom is huge. It has about 70 to 80 people in it. It's more just a room with chairs and tables pointed at all directions, than a classroom. Anyway, I just put the backpack with the hd800 in it next to me, not willing to take it out as it leaked so bad anyway. My teacher saw that I brought 2 backpacks, and "hd800 crafted for perfection" was visible. So he asked what it was. I took it out, and told him that it's a high end headphone. He took it out the box, and started looking at it. he asked me what it costed. "1200 euros MSPR sir.". And he quickly laid it down again. Someone in my class said "well that's a step up from this crappy 40 euros turtle beach xbox headset!", and my teacher said "Oh but turtle beach is amazing! You don't need anything else than that, they're the best!". I offered him to listen to the hd800 (To get all the 7.1 nonsense out of his head), but he declined. Trying to work on some Photoshop, I forgot that the hd800 was on the desk (in the beautiful display case, with the seal next to it), and people started to ask about it. I connected it to the macbook (with the ALO RXmkII) and did the audiocheck binaural knock test. Some people were amazed right away, some got slightly scared (one almost threw the headphone on the ground), and some said "Are you ******** with me?! There's nothing playing!". I said "don't you hear the knocking?". Yeah, who's doing that? It's the headphone.. And then were amazed. I made sure to tell everyone I did NOT use any special software, and it was just a simply '1 driver on each side, no 7.1 bullschiit' headphone. Some stayed to talk about it, some just went back to work. Some also wanted to listen some music, so I started playing some FLAC "wish you were here" by Pink Floyd for them. What really amazed me, was that everyone seemed to enjoy it. Now, my class is very mixed. Some people are rockers, some hip hopers, some purely listen hard style.. You get the idea. I'm sure that if you would play Pink Floyd through a regular headphone, most of them would've laughed and said the music sucked. For the ones that wanted to talk about it for a bit, I explained that they need amplification to sound good, and that if you really wanted the best out of them, you needed an "extern sound card" (I know this is not exactly true, but it's easier to explain, I was talking about a DAC obviously). I also found out, that the ones saying that I "wasted my money", were also the ones not willing to try the headphone. As if they were jealous or something. I find it childish that you judge something without trying, oh well.
Then another teacher came, he asked me why I spend so much money on headphones (not as an offensive question or anything, he was genuinely interested). I told him that in my life, I've been let down by a lot of people, but music has never let me down. Music was always there to support me, no matter what I was going through. Music was there when I was feeling good, and when I felt down. Music can bond people, music is a language everyone understands. Music can express feelings that a thousand words can't. Next he asked me "If they were as good as Beats earbuds". I explained him that I owned a beats studio and beats pro detox myself, but never heard the beats IEMs, but that Beats as an overall brand wasn't up to the price you had to pay, and that a pair of 25 euro xiaomi pistons would come very close to the quality of a beats solo HD, which used to be 180 euros. He didn't seemed to be interested in the sound of the HD800 itself, as he didn't ask to try it (and he's the one that always asks stuff very directly).
The first teacher returned, and complimented that the box was very well made. He saw the booklet, and asked if he could take a peek in it. I said sure, go ahead. I don't think he understood much of what was inside it, as it's mostly technical audiophile terms. At the same time, a third teacher (Yeah, we have quite a few teachers for us) came in, who I had a small talk with on Wednesday, telling him that I spend 710 euro's for a used headphone with a 1.2k euro MSPR. He saw that I had it with me, and was like "Alright, alright, I really must take a listen!". Not knowing he was into audio, I handed him the HD800, and did the binaural test knock test. Instantly he had a smile on his face, he loved it. He asked if I would play some music for him, and with that I showed him the very limited library I had on my hard drive, 2 Pink Floyd albums, a poorly mastered metallica album, and some Linkin Park. He wanted to hear the Metallica, and after already 20 seconds commented that you could hear how poorly mastered the album was (I didn't tell him that it was poorly mastered in the first place). So he decided he wanted to listen to some Pink Floyd. I played Wish you were here for him, and he seemed to go full audio Nirvana. Closed eyes, huge smile. I've never seen someone enjoying music THAT much. After a few minutes, he put it down, and said he just had to go for a bit, to look after some pupils. After 10 minutes, he came back, and told me he used to work for a radio station, that he played electric guitar and drums, and was REALLY into audio. I thought this was cool. He also said that buying the headphone (hd800) was an excellent investment, and that he would eat ramen for a whole month just to be able to afford it. He explained what he liked about it, the instrument separation, the soundstage, it was perfect he said. He asked what I was amping it with, so I showed him the ALO, and a picture of my home setup (Schiit modi + asgard2). Well, he knew how it worked. Trying to find out how much he actually knew, I took the booklet and showed him the frequency response, which caused another "Wow". He did understand that the frequency response was showing how neutral it was. We talked for a bit, and I also mentioned my Mad Dog after a while (which was hiding behind the macbook all this time). I explained that the mad dog was a modded headphone. He saw the 'Fostex' on the headband, and said he knew the brand. Right as he wanted to try the mad dog, the bell rang, off to home!
It was a really cool experience to see this many people enjoy music, and see everyone's reaction. I really didn't expect that many people to be willing to try it (Over 20 people for sure), but of course, when something is expensive, people love to try it. I didn't expect so many people to also like it, as the hd800 isn't bass heavy at all, and most people in my class think that lots of bass and mud = quality. They use stuff like Beats, Bose and Razer. Oh well, if they're happy with it, who am I to tell them they're wrong?
Edit: I totally forgot to add a part about a dude in my class, who is mad at me because I pointed out that his Beats Pros are fake. He bought them from his friend, who said they were bought from an authorised retailer. Anyway, as people kept coming to see what was going on with "the big headset in the way too luxurious box", he said that it was impossible that a 1200 euro headphone would sound better than a 400 euro pair, you just bought it to act high and mighty with it! (obviously, talking about his beats pros as if they were geniune). I said: of course you do, Sennheiser wouldn't sell junk.
Some people that were next to me who just tried it, backed me up, saying that his Beats were schiit (Here in NL, Beats turned into a brand that makes you look like an idiot, it's like a bandwagon effect because if you ask why they are bad, they can't tell you.). I said "Well you know I own a beats pro too right? The Detox limited edition. This is a whole different kind of quality." I offered to him to take a listen, but he just walked away. He seemed jealous, but I understand him. He was walking around with his beats pros every single day, he was proud of them, and I ruined that for him. I also offered to take my detox with me, so he can compare them, and call up his friend that he scammed him. But he also declined that, he said he didn't wanted to know it. I kind of feel bad for him, if I had tons of money to blow, I would've given him my detox.
