Sennheiser HD800S Impressions
Hey all, these are just some quick impressions of the Sennheiser HD800S; I think it's good to get out of my comfort zone every once in a while. Listening was primarily done off of an Audio GD-11.28 through my MacBook Air w/ Audirvana and lossless FLAC files. I know that's probably not the most ideal paring, but the amp was kindly given to me by a local friend, and it's the best I have right now given most of my listening is done with IEMs.
To start with, the tonality of the HD800S is a bit
questionable to say the least. It's a neutral-bright, more analytical tuning, with a strong emphasis on the treble frequencies. I believe the HD800S makes use of a dampener to absorb some of the resonance at around 6kHz that plagued the original HD800. But it's still not enough. The HD800S is a
spiky mo-fo, bordering on dreaded "metallic" territory. Cymbals have excessive crash and there's something of a tizzy-ness to the way a lot of treble instruments decay, leading me to posit that this isn't the only peak at hand. I loathe to imagine what hearing the treble of the HD800 would be like, at least to my ears. And the kicker? The
quality of said treble is actually pretty darn good, exhibiting good texture and incredible detail.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the bass of the HD800S from either a technical or a tonal standpoint. It has no redeeming qualities, sounding - and I dislike using this word, I really do -
blunted. Macro-details are frequently obscured and, on the basis of tonality, the HD800S simply lacks adequate sub-bass presence. EDM does't fly too nicely on this headphone for obvious reasons. Thankfully, we get cut something of a break moving into the midrange. It's thin, yeah, but sounds mostly tonally correct. There are moments where it sounds strangely sibilant - such as on Sawano Hiroyuki's "Cry" at 0:57 when the vocalist Mizuki's voice juts momentarily and on David Nail's "Let It Rain" at 1:07, whenever he drags out certain notes (eg. "meee"). Strangely enough, I can't re-produce these issues on my usual test tracks for sibilance. Perhaps
harsh would be a more apt description, then, and I'm inclined to say this is simply overzealous microdynamic ability. Perhaps you could say this is a product of the HD800S being too revealing for its own good! Never would I have said the same for any IEM I've heard, despite the myriad claims I've read of some IEMs being "unforgiving" of poorly mastered source material.
Likewise, I've oft-held that poor tonality is no excuse for good technicalities. But man, the HD800S is keen on making me eat those words. It is a
stellar technical performer. Layering and resolution are simply on another plane relative to any IEM I've heard (except maybe the LCDi4, but we all know that's a fake IEM

). I've stated in the past that, admittedly, detail retrieval is not something I can force test. Yet, I’ve not heard another headphone that exhibits such a grandiose sense of “innate” detail, and here-in lies the aforementioned microdynamic ability. Take one of my favorite tracks, Sawano Hiroyuki's "Cage". The HD800S easily captures the nuance in the snare drum hit at 0:35 that rings throughout the stage slightly more than its counterparts, and on top of that, displays a slight echo/kickback to the vocalist, Tielle, at 4:24 that I never even knew was on the track. This stuff just
pops at you like the 64 Audio U12t's macrodynamics pop. Speaking of which, while I don't think the HD800S' macrodynamic ability is quite to the level of the Focal Elex I hear a-ways back, particularly in terms of sheer dynamic contrast, it's no slouch.
And of course, who could deny the HD800S’s phenomenal staging and imaging capabilities? Here's the airy, sonic wall-less imaging I miss so much on IEMs; it’s not hard to see why the HD800S is oft-dubbed the king of soundstage. However, I think the HD800S would benefit from more center image diffusal. It characteristically images vocals more in-the-head positionally, and my 64 Audio U12t bests the HD800S here thanks to its 2-5kHz dip. Don't get me wrong: I can "feel" the depth, I'm just inclined to say there's a lack of image incision in this regard. Still, suffice it to say that in just the couple days I've listened to the HD800S so far, it's made quite the impression on me. It's sometimes bothered me when I see such a heavy emphasis placed on the technical performance of a headphone, but...with a little EQ (still figuring out which program to use), I could see myself making an exception for the HD800S. It's no doubt a terrific headphone, albeit one that I think is more geared toward "analyzing" music than it is "enjoying" it.