MY EARLY IMPRESSIONS WITH THE ONKYO A800
***Intro***
I respect Protoss. Every thread Protoss create has always been a satisfying read. From the 300B tubes thread to the Audio Technica The Master of Wood thread, we now have the Onkyo A800 Master Class thread. I was extremely curious about the Onkyo A800 after reading this thread and the original Onkyo A800 thread. I was lucky enough to find one in sale in the Classifieds thread. Instantly bought it the first minute I saw it went on sale. I was a little worried when I saw "modded cable", but I remember looking at previous Reddit threads of people complaining how their Onkyo A800 cable got destroyed and they can't find a replacement cable. So, I contacted the seller Xerath, ask some questions, and I completed some purchases. By the way, Xerath is a really cool seller, would recommend buying from him. Xerath also sells really unique looking headphones that even have some cool mods.
Before I go back to the story, I want to warn the audience about my taste in music. I am a huge weeb and a video game nerd. So that means I listen to mostly Jmusic and Video Games Ochrastras. I do listen to other genres as well like Classical Music and pretty much any song before the 2000s. The non-Jmusic and Classical music I tested the Onkyo A800 on was Carlos Santana (Abraxas), Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin IV), Grateful Dead (American Beauty), Michael Jackson (Off The Wall. I also to listened to Beat it, Thriller, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, and Black and White because I wanted to), and Daryl Hall and John Oates (Big Bam Boom). If I am not using my DAP, they are all sourced via Qobuz. Since I won't be going too deep into details in the story on how it sounds I will probably give my quick impression here. I honestly don't think I found any new details with the music I listen to. I kinda expected that since I already listen to the same songs for quite a while with already good technical headphones. What I did find is a whole new experience. Something I never experience before with any other headphones. Every album I start feels so fresh and new even though I have been listening to them for years. I honestly don't know why they sound so fresh and new, but I think it might be because the Onkyo A800 just does everything excellently, not well, excellently. So throwing any album at the Onkyo A800 no matter what genre it is was such a euphoric experience for me. I will probably talk about my impression summary with the Onkyo A800 in the last paragraph. So, you can skip to the last paragraph if you want. The meat of this early impression post is just going to be about me remembering my reactions on the Onkyo A800.
***Day 1 Impression***
Ok, back to the story, I completed the purchase from Xerath and the Onkyo A800 finally last Thursday, November 10th evening. Super excited, I unbox the headphones. I plug the Onkyo A800 into my nearest source, which was my DAP (Lotoo Paw Gold Touch). I was pretty tired, so I just continue playing the song I was listening to on my way home. When the music started playing, I think my first reaction was screaming, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT". I don't remember what the first song was because I was so shocked at how it sounded, but I think it was Tori no Uta the Roselia version. I remember reading a couple of reviews before getting the Onkyo A800, but I was still not prepared for what the Onkyo A800 could deliver. I never thought an open headphone can have so much authority and power in its bass and yet the music still remains clear and detailed. I checked the EQ and I was like, "oh the EQ was still on, that's why". I turned off the EQ and... it still got producing this powerful, yet beautiful sound. I was freaking out. It's probably not an exaggeration to say that I lost my mind. To a professional critique, they would probably say this is good and this headphone a nod of approval. I, a guy who is typically easily impressed, was losing my mind. I was really excited. I haven't felt this excited about a headphone since my first good headphone, the Sennheiser HD600. I texted everybody I knew, telling them I finally found it. I finally found the "Perfect Headphone". I wanted everyone to know about the Onkyo A800. After I told everybody about the Onkyo A800, I boot up my computer and tube amp and continue my listening session there. I noticed the bass got weaker when I switch from my DAP (Lotoo Paw Gold Touch) to my tube amp (Cayin HA-3A). The Onkyo A800 did lose a little bass, but I feel the vocals have gotten way clearer on the tube amp. So I spent the rest of my Thursday evening listening to music in a dark room with nothing but my computer screen lit up.
***Day 2 Impression***
Unfortunately, I have gotten a lot weaker and my body felt fatigued. I was probably feeling the after-effect of getting too excited using the Onkyo A800 and the adrenaline probably left my body. I also slept like 3 hours. I push through, got ready for work, and brought the Onkyo A800 and my DAP with me so I can share the love of the Onkyo A800 with my coworkers. First thing in the morning, I gather everyone to listen to the Onkyo A800. I set up Qobuz on my phone, use the DAP as a DAC/AMP, and connected the Onkyo A800 to the DAP. I gave everyone a short background story about the Onkyo A800 and let everyone try their favorite songs. My coworkers didn't give me too much detail, but I saw their facial expressions and they were smiling. When I saw them smile, I started to smile myself. The artists my coworkers were listening to were people like 2CELLOS, Sam Cooke And The Soul Stirrers, Jenny And The Mexicats, Steely Dan, and Arvo Pärt. The coworker that was listening to this particular piece, "Arvo Pärt: Te Deum", started tearing up. When I saw that, it can of made my entire day. I went home and went straight to bed. Didn't really get any of my own impression in day 2, but I got a lot of people's opinions on the Onkyo A800 and everyone really liked it.
***Day 3 Impression***
Had a full night's worth of sleep and felt like a new person. Did some errands in the morning and got back home by evening. Felt like listening to some Anime OST, like a little of Hiroyuki Sawano Kill la Kill OST, a little of Evan Call Violet Evergarden OST, a little of Go Shiina Demon Slayer OST, and a little of Kenichiro Suehiro Re:Zero OST. When I head the Re:Zero OST, it reminded me of the live symphony I went to earlier this month. I played the piece "Night in the Garden of Spain" and man that was amazing. I tried to remember how it was compared to the live performance I went to. Obviously, the live performance was better, but man... that felt like I had my own personal theater for a minute there. I want to listen to more classical music on the Onkyo A800. I will probably try Pastoral next since I have the DSD files for that. I saved that thought for next weekend and continue listening to more Anime OST. I continued with Dream Songs: The Essential Joe Hisaishi and that was wonderful trip. For the rest of the night, I wanted to relax to some Tsukihime Remake OST (I warned you I was a huge weeb, I like listening to Anime OST). While I was listening to music for the rest of the night, someone link to the newest John Wick 3 trailer. I pause my music didn't think too much of it and played the trailer. When the trailer played, I screamed, "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW". That is when I realized the Onkyo A800 is not only amazing for music, but its amazing for watching movies and medias on it as well. Watching that 2-3 minute trailer of John Wick blew my mind. That was the 2nd time when the Onkyo A800 made me lose my mind. It felt like I was at the old movie theater. When I heard that "bwooooommm" I knew I had to try some form of media with the Onkyo A800.
***Day 4 Impression***
The next day, I had no errands so I could start the day using the Onkyo A800. I wanted to try to form of media, but wasn't in a mood to watch a movie. I love playing visual novels, specifically psychological horror visual novel. I booted up Chaos;Head and when I finally got to a scene of Takumi talking... it didn't blow my mind, but I was very impressed. It felt like the voices had a strong impression and presence to them. Like I could really hear the emotions from the Voice Actors themselves. That ate up my entire Sunday. I remember I wanted to write a early impression at least.
***Closing***
The reason why I wanted to get an early impression out of the way and not wait a month like I always like to do is that my first impression of the Onkyo A800 has been special. It's been an emotional rollercoaster already with the headphone. I have a short-term memory and I didn't want to forget how I truly felt when I put on the Onkyo A800. The Onkyo A800 is addictive, seductive, and most importantly fun. The Onkyo is the most fun headphone I have ever used in my life. For headphones, I typically like to use headphones for music only and use speakers for everything else. That is not the case for the Onkyo A800. I think you can use the Onkyo A800 for anything and get a great experience from it. The Onkyo A800 may not be a master of one, but it is truly a jack of all trades. I can see why Protoss called the Onkyo A800 a "MASTER CLASS" headphone. You can throw any task to the Onkyo A800 and it will perform that task at a phenomenal level. I hope the Onkyo A800 will become well known in the headphone industry and we can have a successor headphone. It's very sad that the Onkyo A800 has left the world without a successor headphone. Somebody out there gotta make the sequel. I heard Pioneer is the same company as Onkyo, but I doubt any of their headphones will be on the same level as the A800. I will still give them a chance in the future.
Pro:
- Every sound it produces sounds lifelike and natural. Especially acoustics, vocals, and strings (at least to my ear)
- Good with every genre and maybe media. (Only genre I never really tested on is dubstep and I don't listen to dubstep or know anyone that listens to dubstep).
- The sounds sound thick, not thin and cold ( it might be my source though)
- Easy to drive, you can drive to basically anything. I tested on a Android phone (Sony Xperia 1 iii) and it can play the headphone fine at max volume.
- Scale very well with source. The better your equipment, the more the A800 will soar.
Con:
- Not very comfortable at the start, but you will get used to it
- Cable is too unique and it's hard to replace
- Discontinued. If it breaks, then you will be awoken from this euphoric dream
Regarding pads, it had the Ineedkit pads on it when I received the A800. I didn't like it because it was too loose for me. I swap out the pads for Yaxi pads because the sealing is better. I want to try more pads out in the future but for now it's Yaxi pads.
There is a lot I did not talk about, but it's only technically 3 days. Like I said earlier, I wanted to at least write this before I forgot my first reaction toward these headphones. I didn't even talk about the modded cable. I asked Xerath about them, but Xerath told me that he asked his friend to do it for him. So it's most likely a homemade mod and not being sold anywhere. When I remove the mod and try plugging the cables directly, I couldn't hear anything on the right side. When I plugged the mod back in, the headphone worked as normal with any cable you use. Because this is probably a homemade mod, I am going to take extra care of it because I don't have the original cable. I really got lucky coming across this mod. Since this headphone is really rare and discontinued, I'll probably want to use it lightly until I get my hands on a second one. If this headphone breaks on me, I might shed some tears. Someone, please make a successor headphone for the Onkyo A800 please. And please make it at least under $1000 when you do.
My Source:
Mobile iPhone 13 Pro Max Qobuz > DAP (Lotoo Paw Gold Touch) > Onkyo A800 or just DAP (Lotoo Paw Gold Touch) > Onkyo A800
Home Foobar> Musician Audio Pegasus R2R > Cayin HA-3A (with NOS Tubes) > Onkyo A800
Very impressive, I usually compare with my compilation of a800+mojo vs mhp1000+mha100 ..open back and closed back are all way with differences directions no matter ….pop…jazz they’re sound / black grand/ vocals dynamic etc will giving you a variety of choice to enjoy the same sound .. but my flavour are alway A800 no matter with Mojo or MHA !
