Try them with hifiman cable as to see it yourself and get an idea ( instead of completely plug the connector - the one which doesnt make full contact - just plug it halfway . Some hifiman cables will eventually make contact that way-not fixed contact but..you can get an idea ..)
. Shoutout to people like Boodi, Stasta, Arturro13 and Sonic Defender for their great reviews and contribution to this Onkyo A800 thread. Of course, big shoutout to Protoss for creating this legendary thread and recommending the Onkyo A800 to me. Where ever you are at Protoss, just know you are a legend.
not recommend that since it will only connect the sound part but not the ground part. will affect the wire in long run
..hardly occurring.. ) I adviced him to use it for a test on his own , and an half-plugged cable won't even stay in place easily ..
it would service both a800 users and want to be users .
The above quote is my 1st impression of the Onkyo A800. No other headphones ranging from $-$$$$ has ever given me this 1st impression ever. The closest I ever gotten to this 1st impression was my first audiophile headphone, the Sennheiser HD600. So, you can label me as a nutjob because I definitely got a few screws loose for spending $$$$ on getting to the Onkyo A800 to new heights. But that 1st impression is what made me crazy enough to go all in on the Onkyo A800.
Headphones. No matter what I plug into, every headphone clarity sound too freaking good it's shocking. Even my traveling headphone the Mezes 99 Classics sounds really good and clear on this setup. That is why I think the Onkyo A800 clarity is really good because my setup allows me to take the Onkyo A800 level all the way to the heavens. It took me 5 months to gather all this equipment and it was worth every second and dollar to achieve this. This satisfaction feels so good, I do not think I can recapture the feeling I am having ever again.
). Definitely a viable option. Luckiy, my headphones came like-new with the original cable in practically new condition. It's weird one, but it's actually totally fine. I think I'll put this on my To Do down the road.
@Xerath , regarding your comment on my post : no one said to use it "for the long run" ..
besides any damage that you mentioned (
but this is stating the obvious
not sure what was a reason for your comment
It's a little early, but I will go ahead and make this post. I will probably not monitor this thread or this forum in general anymore since I finally reach satisfaction with this hobby. Time to not worry about anything else and just enjoy listening to music
Welp, I guess it’s finally my turn to post my review of the Onkyo A800. I had about 5 months with these headphones. During that time, picked up a couple of headphones like the Caldera Kingwood and the D8000 Final Pro LE, and 3 other headphones if you have been keeping up with my post in headfi. Out of all those headphones, I still believe that the Onkyo A800 is the best in my opinion. I had a 5 months journey of experiencing and finding the right pieces of equipment for Onkyo A800. Here I am, 5 months journey finally complete. With this current setup, I think it is really hard to beat with the Onkyo A800. There is always bigger fish in the sea, but for under $10K MSRP for each piece of equipment (not total), this is the setup for the Onkyo A800. I think the most important piece is the DAC/AMP for the Onkyo A800. The Mojo Audio Mystique Evo DAC really brings the details to the Onkyo A800 without sounding too analytical and more analogue like presenting a more “realistic” presentation of the music. The Allnic HPA-5000XL amp drives the Onkyo A800 to its full potential, taming the Onkyo A800 powerful bass, and while retaining a black background and driving the headphone with minimal distortion. The only distortion needed is the tube distortion to add more body and texture to the music boosting the “realism” in the music. You can learn more about the Allnic HPA-5000XL tube amp and Allnic tube amp in general with the video below:
Why I Chose The $400 Onkyo A800 As My End Game Headphone:
I love the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee headphone, it is a timeless classic headphone. I could try to get 1 more amp to drive the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee to its max potential, but I have 2 reasons that are holding me back. 1 is that the Allnic HPA-5000XL does a very good job already driving that headphone on a great level of sound quality. 2 is that my Onkyo A800 to me is the endgame for people that love the older Sennheiser headphones. The Onkyo A800 to me is the modern take on the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee and OG HD600 where vocals are the main star for those headphones, the smooth treble and the midrange is something to die for. The Onkyo A800 has all that but added more overall bass range (sub-bass and bass) to its sound signature. Because the Onkyo A800 covers pretty much everything across the board from the low-frequency range of bass to the high-frequency range in treble, it feels like I am not missing out on anything in my music. It hits the lowest frequency for the electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and cellos covering all of their range while at the same time still being able to make the violin sings when it needs to.
No other headphones have bested the Onkyo A800 when it comes to percussion instruments, bass guitars, and acoustic guitars. Every time I hear the boom bah bah boom bah bah boom from the snare and bass drums, it really gives me that punch and kicks to it on the Onkyo A800 (it might be thanks to the Onkyo covering the bass range well). The bass on the Onkyo A800 has some weight, physical rumble, and the bass is very powerful. Even though it has all this powerful bass, you can still be able to make the vocals (especially male) truly shine for the Onkyo A800 with the right gears. It truly has great synergy for any genre of music even if there are no vocals or isn’t bass-heavy. The only issue is that the sub-bass can get really crazy with the Onkyo A800 where it will overpower the rest of the music. That is where the Allnic HPA-5000XL comes in. My Allnic HPA-5000XL controls the sub-bass and bass, making the sub-bass have less decay there (less rumble), while still retaining a fantastic clean powerful bass sound that doesn’t bleed too much into the music, letting the midrange and vocals shine more.
Bass with the Onkyo A800 + Allnic HPA-5000XL is clean. For bass, I really like the Onkyo A800 > ATH L3000 > D8K Pro LE on the Allnic HPA-5000XL. The Onyko A800 covers everything in bass from sub-bass to bass. The Onkyo has that visceral sub-bass for the physical part of the music and still has a clean bass sound. I used the song Dove by Cymande and I was just jamming the whole time. Let me quote a fellow Redditor on how clean a bass guitar should be, “No rattle, no fret buzz, no compression twang, no distortion, no extra notes ringing, no amp hiss, and no hum.” That was really clean and I am not sure if any other amp could get cleaner than the Allnic HPA-5000XL at least under the 10K mark. For Rap songs with clean bass, I use Break the Bank by Schoolboy Q. As expected, the bass in that song was clean, not muddy at all, just very clean as it should be. Subbass rumble was tamer in the Allnic HPA-5000XL and didn’t really overpower the music. The Allnic HPA-5000XL had a nice balance of sub-bass rumble while making sure the songs have a nice amount of clarity. I use the song Brambleton by Pusha T. Sub-bass had more rumble in the B22 amp, but it muddied up the music and can overpower the rest of the songs. That is why I found the Allnic HPA-5000XL perfect for my favorite headphone Onyko A800. The Onkyo A800 actually has a good level of clarity. The Onyko A800 clarity will get overpowered if you cannot tame the bass. The Allnic HPA-5000XL tames the bass with added benefits. The soundstage on the Onkyo A800 and the Allnic HPA-5000XL is good enough. The Onkyo A800 has a more intimate soundstage, but it’s real dependant on the recording. The Onkyo A800 could easily achieve a more 3D soundstage with the Allnic HPA-5000XL. I’m glad I actually chose right on the first high-level tube on taming the Onkyo A800, only had to spend a big 1 time on my perfect amp for my Onkyo A800.
I want to say because of the amazing bass range of the Onkyo A800 and the Allnic HPA-5000XL tube distortion, male and female vocals have more weight and texture to them making them feel more organic instead of lifeless. It doesn’t have that clarity like the Audeze LCD-5 studio-quality vocals, but the Onkyo A800 added texture and weight makes the vocals feel and sound more alive. I think that’s also thanks to the Onkyo A800 sub-bass since that is the more physical part of the music and I can actually feel the sounds in my ears, but correct me if I’m wrong there (not confident on that one).
As mentioned earlier in this thread, Onyko collaborated with Gibson when they tune the A800. You can tell because acoustic instruments in general sound very special with the A800. Piano on the song Spirited Away, film score: One Summer Day, the Onkyo A800 captures the piano sound beauty almost too perfectly to the point where tears were swelling up near my eyes. It’s also nostalgia, but I will give credit to the Onkyo A800 on that one. Then playing the song Piano Man by Billy Joel, even though I want to talk about the other frequency range like midrange and treble, the bass range is very important in music in my opinion. The reverb of the piano in the song Piano Man really gives the piano more character and the melody on it is just love. Let’s not forgot to talk about the acoustic guitar. With the song Roundabout by Yes, an acoustic guitar will echo in your ears at the beginning of the song. Then about 45 seconds into the song mixture of the bass and acoustic guitar play together. Even with all the other noise joining in, you can easily hear the acoustic guitar in your left ear being played intimately to you still providing great imaging. When listening to the drums, I got to listen to the song Give it Away by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Those snare drums reverb really hit and are impactful within the first seconds of the song. Again, I’m just praising the Onkyo A800 ability to replicate the instrument reverbs nicely. To me, the reverb is that special magic in the music to help give the instruments/vocals more character in sounding in a more realistic setting like in a room with acoustic reverb rather than them playing in a dry room.
Of course, Onkyo collaborating with Gibson, I gotta talk about the electric instruments! This is where Onkyo and Gibson nailed the sound of electric instruments and is the main reason why the Onkyo A800 is my favorite headphone of all time. For the electric bass, no other headphones come near the Onkyo A800. For electric guitar, the Onkyo A800 will always rank high on your list as electric guitar because they explode with these headphones in a good way. The only headphones that I think can match the Onkyo A800 for electric guitar are the king of rock headphones, the ATH-L3000 (hint, that is why the Onkyo A800 and ATH-L3000 are my favorite 2 headphones of all time). The song of choice I choose to test out the electric guitar and electric bass is From Now On by BAND-MAID (Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, and Drums). The song “From Now On” is purely instrumental with no vocals so I can truly focus on the instruments. A first couple of seconds into the song “From Now On”, the first thing you hear is 3 instruments, the Rhythm Guitar, Bass, and Drums playing at the same time. The rhythm guitar with that thick, destructive crunch guitar sound. While the bass and drums make sure to slam your ears making sure they got your full attention. Following up is the bright and clean crunchy guitar sound from the leading guitar riffs. The Onkyo unique music presentation let me lose myself in the music and just take me on a journey through these sick guitar riffs. Throughout most of the song, the lead guitarist is showing you why she is the star of the show. From 0:40 - 1:33, my adrenaline is rising with each passing note getting me even more hype by the passing second. I am just holding my breath, forgetting to breathe, because I am so entranced with her guitar sound. Then, I finally came back to my senses and remember to breathe around 1:33 when hearing the drums snap me out of the leading guitar spell. The bass maintains that ferocious growl in the song, making sure I get that visceral punch throughout the music. Then at 2:27 - 2:47, the bass is the main star of the show. The tone on that bass sound really digs deep into your soul making sure you remember her solo. That bass melody really grabs your attention leaving you in awe. Then for the rest of the song, head banger after head banger. The entire song From Now On by BAND-MAID is an experience and I highly recommend you give it a listen if you like the electric guitar and rock in general. What makes it an almost perfect experience is using the Onkyo A800 to listen to that song. I feel like other headphones compare to the Onyko A800, they are boring and lack excitement to me. The Onkyo A800 brings that musical energy with it making you want to stand up to every song and just move along with the music.
Even though clarity is not a strong point of the Onkyo A800, people will say it has a really good amount of clarity for its price range ($400). I think if the price is not a factor, probably won’t beat any of today’s TOTL in clarity. But the clarity is about $1500 for dynamic headphones in today’s market of headphones if I have to put a price on it and if you are able to tame the sub-bass range. And if you have my current setup, the veil is pretty paper thin. If you remove that paper-thin veil, then you got the D8K Pro LE. Yeah, the difference isn’t too far off in terms of clarity, but little differences matter a lot in this hobby, so not too far off actually means miles away in this hobby. I think too much clarity is a turn-off to me like classic rock genres when looking for that creamy sound. I personally think the Onkyo A800 has a perfect amount of clarity for me to enjoy all genres, even the oldies. I think part of the reason the clarity and details are still really good on the Onkyo A800 with my setup is probably because of the Mystique Evo DAC and the NS1 streamer. Without it, clarity will be very veiled because of the overpowering bass. But I think the Onkyo A800 makes up for clarity with excellent timbre on almost everything making the instruments have more character and the way it makes music more engaging with its physical sub-bass.
Overall, the Onkyo A800 is my favorite headphone of all time due to its good balance tuning to let me enjoy any genre and media while still balancing a good amount of energy and fun in music and still retaining a good amount of technicality and clarity. Honestly, the Mystique EVO DAC really helps strengthen and maximize the Onkyo A800 positive traits of being an organic and musical headphone while still revealing a good amount of details in the music. Even though the Onkyo A800 is very easy to drive at 32 ohms, it is very picky on the source due to its very powerful bass range that can muddy up the rest of the music. The 32 ohms is a double edge sword, it’s easy to drive, but a lot of tube amps will make a lot of unwanted noises to the Onkyo A800 due to it being a sensitive headphone. With a powerful tube amp, you will be hearing hums and unwanted noise due to the Onkyo A800 being really sensitive. You will need a tube amp that will be able to drive basically iems with a black background. Also gotta find a DAC/AMP that won’t color the music too much while keeping a low distortion. Still need tubes to have more control on the bass and tube distortion is a must for me just because it gives the music a little more realism to me with the added body and texture to the music. I really think the Mojo Audio Mystique Evo is a match made in Heaven due to both bringing “realism” with their weighty notes and powerful bass. Both the Mystique Evo and Onkyo A800 combo truly deliver you that “analogue sound”. You will probably not find new details in your music, but you will find a uniquely refreshing experience with the Onkyo A800.
So the perfect combo for me is Roon Rock server and EMM NS1 streamer (No unwanted PC noises. Help retain a black background and clean signal, which helps hugely with clarity and imaging) > Mojo Audio Mystique Evo DAC (Boost the Onkyo A800 positive traits of being analogue sounding and organic with lots of details) > Allnic HPA-5000XL (Help drive the Onkyo A800 to its max potential with minimal added distortion and still retain a black background. The only added distortion is the tubes for a more musical sound of added body and texture to the music. I like the way a legendary writer MON describes it in his crap list, definitely a more raw, pure sound from its source. It only season (like a food seasoning) the music lightly instead of changing the music source sound drastically.) > Onkyo A800 using Caldera Thin Pads (the pads add more details while retaining a good amount of bass) with copper wires (sounds more organic than silver) / sometimes silver wires for the Cayin N7 DAP for more added details and bass.
Appreciate it the praise. I’m was curious with the pads Xerath posted earlier in the thread by Vesper Audio and they provided the options below. Pretty excited to try their pads with the Onkyo A800 and ATH-L3000:I applaud the enthusiastic review.
I tried the original A2000X earpads and they were not very good. There is not much that comes close to the original A800 pads in terms of distance between ear and driver and sealing. I am currently trying phone art (fo.q) (round stickers) for a little while, it seems to reduce the resonance.
オリジナルと同じように製品を取り付けることができ、細かい部分の材料を指定できることは非常に魅力的です.
Yeah, I really do like that part with the double adhesive rings and their unique options. I ordered 2 Onkyo A800 pads from them. My order was:
It's a little early, but I will go ahead and make this post. I will probably not monitor this thread or this forum in general anymore since I finally reach satisfaction with this hobby. Time to not worry about anything else and just enjoy listening to music
Welp, I guess it’s finally my turn to post my review of the Onkyo A800. I had about 5 months with these headphones. During that time, picked up a couple of headphones like the Caldera Kingwood and the D8000 Final Pro LE, and 3 other headphones if you have been keeping up with my post in headfi. Out of all those headphones, I still believe that the Onkyo A800 is the best in my opinion. I had a 5 months journey of experiencing and finding the right pieces of equipment for Onkyo A800. Here I am, 5 months journey finally complete. With this current setup, I think it is really hard to beat with the Onkyo A800. There is always bigger fish in the sea, but for under $10K MSRP for each piece of equipment (not total), this is the setup for the Onkyo A800. I think the most important piece is the DAC/AMP for the Onkyo A800. The Mojo Audio Mystique Evo DAC really brings the details to the Onkyo A800 without sounding too analytical and more analogue like presenting a more “realistic” presentation of the music. The Allnic HPA-5000XL amp drives the Onkyo A800 to its full potential, taming the Onkyo A800 powerful bass, and while retaining a black background and driving the headphone with minimal distortion. The only distortion needed is the tube distortion to add more body and texture to the music boosting the “realism” in the music. You can learn more about the Allnic HPA-5000XL tube amp and Allnic tube amp in general with the video below:
Why I Chose The $400 Onkyo A800 As My End Game Headphone:
I love the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee headphone, it is a timeless classic headphone. I could try to get 1 more amp to drive the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee to its max potential, but I have 2 reasons that are holding me back. 1 is that the Allnic HPA-5000XL does a very good job already driving that headphone on a great level of sound quality. 2 is that my Onkyo A800 to me is the endgame for people that love the older Sennheiser headphones. The Onkyo A800 to me is the modern take on the Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee and OG HD600 where vocals are the main star for those headphones, the smooth treble and the midrange is something to die for. The Onkyo A800 has all that but added more overall bass range (sub-bass and bass) to its sound signature. Because the Onkyo A800 covers pretty much everything across the board from the low-frequency range of bass to the high-frequency range in treble, it feels like I am not missing out on anything in my music. It hits the lowest frequency for the electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and cellos covering all of their range while at the same time still being able to make the violin sings when it needs to.
No other headphones have bested the Onkyo A800 when it comes to percussion instruments, bass guitars, and acoustic guitars. Every time I hear the boom bah bah boom bah bah boom from the snare and bass drums, it really gives me that punch and kicks to it on the Onkyo A800 (it might be thanks to the Onkyo covering the bass range well). The bass on the Onkyo A800 has some weight, physical rumble, and the bass is very powerful. Even though it has all this powerful bass, you can still be able to make the vocals (especially male) truly shine for the Onkyo A800 with the right gears. It truly has great synergy for any genre of music even if there are no vocals or isn’t bass-heavy. The only issue is that the sub-bass can get really crazy with the Onkyo A800 where it will overpower the rest of the music. That is where the Allnic HPA-5000XL comes in. My Allnic HPA-5000XL controls the sub-bass and bass, making the sub-bass have less decay there (less rumble), while still retaining a fantastic clean powerful bass sound that doesn’t bleed too much into the music, letting the midrange and vocals shine more.
Bass with the Onkyo A800 + Allnic HPA-5000XL is clean. For bass, I really like the Onkyo A800 > ATH L3000 > D8K Pro LE on the Allnic HPA-5000XL. The Onyko A800 covers everything in bass from sub-bass to bass. The Onkyo has that visceral sub-bass for the physical part of the music and still has a clean bass sound. I used the song Dove by Cymande and I was just jamming the whole time. Let me quote a fellow Redditor on how clean a bass guitar should be, “No rattle, no fret buzz, no compression twang, no distortion, no extra notes ringing, no amp hiss, and no hum.” That was really clean and I am not sure if any other amp could get cleaner than the Allnic HPA-5000XL at least under the 10K mark. For Rap songs with clean bass, I use Break the Bank by Schoolboy Q. As expected, the bass in that song was clean, not muddy at all, just very clean as it should be. Subbass rumble was tamer in the Allnic HPA-5000XL and didn’t really overpower the music. The Allnic HPA-5000XL had a nice balance of sub-bass rumble while making sure the songs have a nice amount of clarity. I use the song Brambleton by Pusha T. Sub-bass had more rumble in the B22 amp, but it muddied up the music and can overpower the rest of the songs. That is why I found the Allnic HPA-5000XL perfect for my favorite headphone Onyko A800. The Onkyo A800 actually has a good level of clarity. The Onyko A800 clarity will get overpowered if you cannot tame the bass. The Allnic HPA-5000XL tames the bass with added benefits. The soundstage on the Onkyo A800 and the Allnic HPA-5000XL is good enough. The Onkyo A800 has a more intimate soundstage, but it’s real dependant on the recording. The Onkyo A800 could easily achieve a more 3D soundstage with the Allnic HPA-5000XL. I’m glad I actually chose right on the first high-level tube on taming the Onkyo A800, only had to spend a big 1 time on my perfect amp for my Onkyo A800.
I want to say because of the amazing bass range of the Onkyo A800 and the Allnic HPA-5000XL tube distortion, male and female vocals have more weight and texture to them making them feel more organic instead of lifeless. It doesn’t have that clarity like the Audeze LCD-5 studio-quality vocals, but the Onkyo A800 added texture and weight makes the vocals feel and sound more alive. I think that’s also thanks to the Onkyo A800 sub-bass since that is the more physical part of the music and I can actually feel the sounds in my ears, but correct me if I’m wrong there (not confident on that one).
As mentioned earlier in this thread, Onyko collaborated with Gibson when they tune the A800. You can tell because acoustic instruments in general sound very special with the A800. Piano on the song Spirited Away, film score: One Summer Day, the Onkyo A800 captures the piano sound beauty almost too perfectly to the point where tears were swelling up near my eyes. It’s also nostalgia, but I will give credit to the Onkyo A800 on that one. Then playing the song Piano Man by Billy Joel, even though I want to talk about the other frequency range like midrange and treble, the bass range is very important in music in my opinion. The reverb of the piano in the song Piano Man really gives the piano more character and the melody on it is just love. Let’s not forgot to talk about the acoustic guitar. With the song Roundabout by Yes, an acoustic guitar will echo in your ears at the beginning of the song. Then about 45 seconds into the song mixture of the bass and acoustic guitar play together. Even with all the other noise joining in, you can easily hear the acoustic guitar in your left ear being played intimately to you still providing great imaging. When listening to the drums, I got to listen to the song Give it Away by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Those snare drums reverb really hit and are impactful within the first seconds of the song. Again, I’m just praising the Onkyo A800 ability to replicate the instrument reverbs nicely. To me, the reverb is that special magic in the music to help give the instruments/vocals more character in sounding in a more realistic setting like in a room with acoustic reverb rather than them playing in a dry room.
Of course, Onkyo collaborating with Gibson, I gotta talk about the electric instruments! This is where Onkyo and Gibson nailed the sound of electric instruments and is the main reason why the Onkyo A800 is my favorite headphone of all time. For the electric bass, no other headphones come near the Onkyo A800. For electric guitar, the Onkyo A800 will always rank high on your list as electric guitar because they explode with these headphones in a good way. The only headphones that I think can match the Onkyo A800 for electric guitar are the king of rock headphones, the ATH-L3000 (hint, that is why the Onkyo A800 and ATH-L3000 are my favorite 2 headphones of all time). The song of choice I choose to test out the electric guitar and electric bass is From Now On by BAND-MAID (Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, and Drums). The song “From Now On” is purely instrumental with no vocals so I can truly focus on the instruments. A first couple of seconds into the song “From Now On”, the first thing you hear is 3 instruments, the Rhythm Guitar, Bass, and Drums playing at the same time. The rhythm guitar with that thick, destructive crunch guitar sound. While the bass and drums make sure to slam your ears making sure they got your full attention. Following up is the bright and clean crunchy guitar sound from the leading guitar riffs. The Onkyo unique music presentation let me lose myself in the music and just take me on a journey through these sick guitar riffs. Throughout most of the song, the lead guitarist is showing you why she is the star of the show. From 0:40 - 1:33, my adrenaline is rising with each passing note getting me even more hype by the passing second. I am just holding my breath, forgetting to breathe, because I am so entranced with her guitar sound. Then, I finally came back to my senses and remember to breathe around 1:33 when hearing the drums snap me out of the leading guitar spell. The bass maintains that ferocious growl in the song, making sure I get that visceral punch throughout the music. Then at 2:27 - 2:47, the bass is the main star of the show. The tone on that bass sound really digs deep into your soul making sure you remember her solo. That bass melody really grabs your attention leaving you in awe. Then for the rest of the song, head banger after head banger. The entire song From Now On by BAND-MAID is an experience and I highly recommend you give it a listen if you like the electric guitar and rock in general. What makes it an almost perfect experience is using the Onkyo A800 to listen to that song. I feel like other headphones compare to the Onyko A800, they are boring and lack excitement to me. The Onkyo A800 brings that musical energy with it making you want to stand up to every song and just move along with the music.
Even though clarity is not a strong point of the Onkyo A800, people will say it has a really good amount of clarity for its price range ($400). I think if the price is not a factor, probably won’t beat any of today’s TOTL in clarity. But the clarity is about $1500 for dynamic headphones in today’s market of headphones if I have to put a price on it and if you are able to tame the sub-bass range. And if you have my current setup, the veil is pretty paper thin. If you remove that paper-thin veil, then you got the D8K Pro LE. Yeah, the difference isn’t too far off in terms of clarity, but little differences matter a lot in this hobby, so not too far off actually means miles away in this hobby. I think too much clarity is a turn-off to me like classic rock genres when looking for that creamy sound. I personally think the Onkyo A800 has a perfect amount of clarity for me to enjoy all genres, even the oldies. I think part of the reason the clarity and details are still really good on the Onkyo A800 with my setup is probably because of the Mystique Evo DAC and the NS1 streamer. Without it, clarity will be very veiled because of the overpowering bass. But I think the Onkyo A800 makes up for clarity with excellent timbre on almost everything making the instruments have more character and the way it makes music more engaging with its physical sub-bass.
Overall, the Onkyo A800 is my favorite headphone of all time due to its good balance tuning to let me enjoy any genre and media while still balancing a good amount of energy and fun in music and still retaining a good amount of technicality and clarity. Honestly, the Mystique EVO DAC really helps strengthen and maximize the Onkyo A800 positive traits of being an organic and musical headphone while still revealing a good amount of details in the music. Even though the Onkyo A800 is very easy to drive at 32 ohms, it is very picky on the source due to its very powerful bass range that can muddy up the rest of the music. The 32 ohms is a double edge sword, it’s easy to drive, but a lot of tube amps will make a lot of unwanted noises to the Onkyo A800 due to it being a sensitive headphone. With a powerful tube amp, you will be hearing hums and unwanted noise due to the Onkyo A800 being really sensitive. You will need a tube amp that will be able to drive basically iems with a black background. Also gotta find a DAC/AMP that won’t color the music too much while keeping a low distortion. Still need tubes to have more control on the bass and tube distortion is a must for me just because it gives the music a little more realism to me with the added body and texture to the music. I really think the Mojo Audio Mystique Evo is a match made in Heaven due to both bringing “realism” with their weighty notes and powerful bass. Both the Mystique Evo and Onkyo A800 combo truly deliver you that “analogue sound”. You will probably not find new details in your music, but you will find a uniquely refreshing experience with the Onkyo A800.
So the perfect combo for me is Roon Rock server and EMM NS1 streamer (No unwanted PC noises. Help retain a black background and clean signal, which helps hugely with clarity and imaging) > Mojo Audio Mystique Evo DAC (Boost the Onkyo A800 positive traits of being analogue sounding and organic with lots of details) > Allnic HPA-5000XL (Help drive the Onkyo A800 to its max potential with minimal added distortion and still retain a black background. The only added distortion is the tubes for a more musical sound of added body and texture to the music. I like the way a legendary writer MON describes it in his crap list, definitely a more raw, pure sound from its source. It only season (like a food seasoning) the music lightly instead of changing the music source sound drastically.) > Onkyo A800 using Caldera Thin Pads (the pads add more details while retaining a good amount of bass) with copper wires (sounds more organic than silver) / sometimes silver wires for the Cayin N7 DAP for more added details and bass.
. Through sheer curiosity, after using the Supratek Cabernet DHT on my speaker setup, just did some quick connecting to the Allnic HPA-5000XL. Then proceeded to connect my Onkyo A800, turn the volume up and press play… I am glad I moved on from headphones, because the Onkyo A800 is truly 1 of a kind. And this 1 of a kind headphone will always be my favorite experience in headphones. The Onkyo A800 is already known for its natural timbre and it’s ability to replicate the artist tone. We all know that. But imagine, with the power of 45 tubes and just any 45 tubes, but the EML 45 Mesh Tubes and what you know with the Onkyo A800 natural timbre and it’s ability to replicate the artist tone, the just DOUBLE IT! Oh my god, it sounded so real, it just feel so unreal. Does that make sense? I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What I thought I knew about acoustic/electric guitar, vocals, snare drums, and bass guitars, the 45 tubes + Onkyo A800 will give you a reminder of this is what it’s suppose to sound like. It’s just so authentic and natural, it actually spoil me with my other headphones. Onkyo A800 and speakers is all I need. I knew the 45 tubes was going to be good, but I didn’t think it would be this good. It’s so shocking how magical the 45 tubes are in the midrange and how crazy good voices sound on these. Not to mention clarity gets another buff and clarity on my setup right now is just too insane, I think anything will sound clear on my setup. Bass hasn’t been affected negatively, I believe I got a good buff on it as well as I feel the bass tighten up a bit thanks to the Supratek Cabernet DHT. It could be all placebo, I’ll still take it because I am one happy camper. The Supratek Cabernet DHT + Allnic HPA-5000XL + Onkyo A800 is a fantastic combo. Supratek Cabernet DHT preamp for its magical 45 tubes and huge buff in timbre, Allnic HPA-5000XL for the minimum distortion thanks to its all nickel core transformer for a more clean sound output, but still has a little more musical sauce with its tubes, and then the Onkyo A800 being the main star of the show with its one of kind experience that you will not find in any other headphone with its natural sounding beauty. 
Onkyo A800
You convinced me to get into 45 Tubes now. Ill look around and see.
45 tubes are really nice, I am really glad I never gave up trying to get them into my system. The EML 45 Mesh Tubes in a DHT Preamp is pretty special compare to the other 45 tubes and 45 tube amps, but also pretty picky on what amp it can shine on. You probably already have some midrange goodness with the 300B tubes, but the 45 tubes other “magical” feature is with female vocals. I also use this chart below and if it shines on female vocals, it will shine on things like the violin. I haven’t tried 300B tubes yet in my DHT preamp, but I will when I get used to the sound signature in my system. What I heard in the street was both 300B tubes and 45 tubes got that magical midrange goodness, but the 300B is more “lush” while the 45 tubes is more “resolute” and detail. Another plus side is on the 45 tubes produces low wattage, so I still got a black background even if I am using like 15 tubes (13 technically) with the Onkyo A800 LOL. It honestly might be thanks to the Supratek DHT preamp as well since the gain knob help me use this preamp with sensitive speakers. Honestly, the EML 45 Mesh tubes in the Supratek Cabernet DHT is giving these digital music files a soul. I think I finally understood what it means for a music to come alive.You convinced me to get into 45 Tubes now. Ill look around and see.
