[mbwilson111]

Look what arrived last Sunday! Very happy with them. I bought the purple glass head especially with these in mind. Love it. Arrived on Wednesday. £23...about the same as a good headphone case wold have cost for these.

 

[peter123]

Look what arrived last Sunday! Very happy with them. I bought the purple glass head especially with these in mind. Love it. Arrived on Wednesday. £23...about the same as a good headphone case wold have cost for these.

Congratulations! Those are one of my absolute favorite headphones.

 

[mbwilson111]

Congratulations! Those are one of my absolute favorite headphones.

This does not surprise me. I think they may have dethroned my Amiron as my favorite open headphone.

Amazon UK had them as an open box... probably a return... maybe someone in here? No new stock available. I did not get a deal like you did though. We never do in the UK. So, I have no idea how much burn in they may have had.

 

[Sonic Defender]

This does not surprise me. I think they may have dethroned my Amiron as my favorite open headphone.

Amazon UK had them as an open box... probably a return... maybe someone in here? No new stock available. I did not get a deal like you did though. We never do in the UK. So, I have no idea how much burn in they may have had.

Yes, the A800 is a wonderful headphone and for the price that you can get it for, hard not to really think it is one of the better values out there. I also really like the styling and comfort, and the build quality feels pretty darn premium and robust. Glad that others are also enjoying this what I consider to be a hidden gem.

 

[mbwilson111]

Yes, the A800 is a wonderful headphone and for the price that you can get it for, hard not to really think it is one of the better values out there. I also really like the styling and comfort, and the build quality feels pretty darn premium and robust. Glad that others are also enjoying this what I consider to be a hidden gem.

I had to pay £246 which I thought was a lot for open box. New was £319 but there have been none in stock for ages... been looking off and on for a few months. So when this one turned up I just had to do it.

At first I thought they were uncomfortable because of the clamp. I cannot stand clamp. Because the heaadband is metal and no wires go through it, I went ahead and stretched it fairly agressively...a little at a time. Now it is perfect and it sits on the glass stand with the adjustment set for how I wear it. Than cable though... you can see in the photo that I do not need that length to reach my amp which is just under the left side of my monitor. I was sitting in my computer chair when I took the photo. I do have a way to manage excess cable at my desk. I will probably take a photo of that soon. Losing the light now.

So far I have only used them with my desktop setup. I have a small tube amp(fed by daps) in the living room next to my comfy spot. I will try that soon. Also straight out of dap... but that cable...

 

[Sonic Defender]

I had to pay £246 which I thought was a lot for open box. New was £319 but there have been none in stock for ages... been looking off and on for a few months. So when this one turned up I just had to do it.

At first I thought they were uncomfortable because of the clamp. I cannot stand clamp. Because the heaadband is metal and no wires go through it, I went ahead and stretched it fairly agressively...a little at a time. Now it is perfect and it sits on the glass stand with the adjustment set for how I wear it. Than cable though... you can see in the photo that I do not need that length to reach my amp which is just under the left side of my monitor. I was sitting in my computer chair when I took the photo. I do have a way to manage excess cable at my desk. I will probably take a photo of that soon. Losing the light now.

So far I have only used them with my desktop setup. I have a small tube amp(fed by daps) in the living room next to my comfy spot. I will try that soon. Also straight out of dap... but that cable...

Yes, the cable might be a pain, and it was too long for me as well, but ultimately I would rather have too much cable as opposed to too little cable. The fact that it is flat also makes bunching it up and using something to tie the excess length up with a viable option. It would be nice if there was at least a shorter cable available for it, but all things being considered, at least for me, the cable is viable if less than ideal. What do you think of the flat cable style by the way? I tend to like it.

 

[mbwilson111]

What do you think of the flat cable style by the way? I tend to like it.

Looks cool... I like how I have it arranged in front of the stand. I often listen to music through my daps as I do things around the house. At least a couple of my daps should power these but I don't know where I would keep all that cable... around my neck? lol

Pretty sure it would be possible to get aftermarket inexpensive shorter cables for these. I have not had time to check out some that I already have around the house.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Prompted by a 1-day 25% off coupon on ebay, I ordered the A800s last month. They arrived 4 days ago. I've burned them in about 50 hrs (1/3 of my usual 150 hrs), but just listened to them for a couple hrs. It's a typical "good news/bad news" thing:

Good news:

• The design is oddly attractive. They certainly don't look derivative or like other headphones
• The cable is also oddly attractive, and seems to work well
• This is an open-back design, and the result is more open soundstaging and better channel separation than one usually gets with closed designs
• Bass is rather good for an open-back. One doesn't have to strain to hear it; bass instruments have weight & presence on this headphone

Bad news:

• I find the sound to be peaky/a little bright in the upper midrange (other than that, it's pretty well voiced/relatively flat). But for a treble averse person like me, that's a flaw that I can't "un-hear," and it's annoying
• Bizarrely, when I tried to cable swap (with the Elear's 3M SE cable), only one channel worked

The velour earpads are comfortable enough, but they're also an obvious target for pad-rolling, given the association of velour w/relatively elevated treble & recessed bass compared to pleather/leather. And believe it or not, you can pad-roll this headphone, despite the odd, proprietary pad-locking mechanism. Here's how you do it:

1. Grasp each earpad around its circumference and rotate firmly counter-clockwise. Each pad should come off quite easily
2. What's left is an earcup the likes of which I've never encounted. The bass of the earcup is articulated to some degree (it freely rotates clockwise & counterclockwise while still attached the the main earcup), and even tilts a little bit in all directions
3. But it looks nothing like a conventional earcup. There is no groove to put the backflap of an earpad into.
4. However, one can put on any earpads that are at least 100mm in circumference--so long as they have a relatively wide backflap
5. Just stretch the backflap completely around the articulating earpad base (carefully)--and it works.

The ideal pads to start with are my Brainwavz 100mm round pleathers: they're a little deeper than the stock pads (ideal); have the perfect circumference; and have a substantial & stretchy back-flap. But...I loaned them to a pal. So just to do a "proof of concept," I put on a pair of Brainwavz angled leather pads. These are strongly angled, with a much deeper back wall vs front wall. That's not ideal sonically, but at least I proved the pads actually go on the A800s.

What did it sound like? Well, the entire bass range is elevated north of neutral--not a bad sound, but a bit "over the top." And that peak in the upper midrange is greatly reduced, though still there. Comfort is greatly increased; soundstaging somewhat improved; and the sound is overall somewhat more spacious. All in all, a successful initial experiment.

When I get my Brainwavz rounds back, I'll try those. I expect these non-angled pleather pads (somewhat deeper than stock velours) will have a positive & less bass-enhancing effect on sound (to be continued).

 

[lyrean]

The ideal pads to start with are my Brainwavz 100mm round pleathers: they're a little deeper than the stock pads (ideal); have the perfect circumference; and have a substantial & stretchy back-flap. But...I loaned them to a pal. So just to do a "proof of concept," I put on a pair of Brainwavz angled leather pads. These are strongly angled, with a much deeper back wall vs front wall. That's not ideal sonically, but at least I proved the pads actually go on the A800s.

Do you mean these pads: https://www.brainwavzaudio.com/coll...pads-round-protein-pu-leather-various-colours ?

I would also be interested in swapping pads as the original ones are not so comfortable.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Those are the ones...100mm round earpads.

BTW, if you like the basic frequency range/tonality of the A800 "as is," then you probably should get the 100% velour version of these round pads. But if you're interested in toning down the upper midrange peak a bit, and maybe also bumping up the bass a bit, then you might want to opt for either the hybrid rounds--or for the most sonic alteration, the round pleathers.

 

[peter123]

For people considering buying new (shorter) cable for the A800 I tried it with the one pole cables from the Meze Classic yesterday and it does only give sound on one side. This means that a new cable would have to be two pole like the original one (or the Beyerdynamic T1/T5p for example) to get stereo sound, which is of course nice

I've seen these cables for less than $18 on ebay (1,2 m version) so it's available for cheap which is good news.

 

[Pharmaboy]

For people considering buying new (shorter) cable for the A800 I tried it with the one pole cables from the Meze Classic yesterday and it does only give sound on one side. This means that a new cable would have to be two pole like the original one (or the Beyerdynamic T1/T5p for example) to get stereo sound, which is of course nice

I've seen these cables for less than $18 on ebay (1,2 m version) so it's available for cheap which is good news.

my ignorance is really showing here...can you explain the difference between a 1-pole vs 2-pole cable?

related question: if I don't sell the A800 first (I tend to buy & sell pretty quickly)--would this headphone be retro-fittable w/a balanced cable?

 

[peter123]

my ignorance is really showing here...can you explain the difference between a 1-pole vs 2-pole cable?

related question: if I don't sell the A800 first (I tend to buy & sell pretty quickly)--would this headphone be retro-fittable w/a balanced cable?

Because a picture says more than a thousand words

Yes, they can be used with a balanced cable (all headphones with separate connections to each cup can if I'm not mistaken).

 

[waynes world]

Congratulations! Those are one of my absolute favorite headphones.

This does not surprise me. I think they may have dethroned my Amiron as my favorite open headphone.

Amazon UK had them as an open box... probably a return... maybe someone in here? No new stock available. I did not get a deal like you did though. We never do in the UK. So, I have no idea how much burn in they may have had.

I have managed to successfully keep my headphone lust in check for quite a while now. And then mbwilson leads me astray over to this thread. Lust on!

 

[mbwilson111]

I have managed to successfully keep my headphone lust in check for quite a while now. And then mbwilson leads me astray over to this thread. Lust on!

You can resist. You know you can. ....or can you?