[Solarium]

Finally bit and went for that WA7 deal on massdrop. Can't wait to listen to how it sounds with the 700, along with my 650.

 

[Evshrug]

Finally bit and went for that WA7 deal on massdrop. Can't wait to listen to how it sounds with the 700, along with my 650.

Wait WHAT? Aaaah damn, self restraint...

 

[Solarium]

Wait WHAT? Aaaah damn, self restraint...

I have none

 

[pietcux]

I got my HD 700 in mint condition but from short after the release. So if Sennheiser made changes over time, mine should sound like the original version. I was late buying them because of the extremly negative comments of one very noisy individual here on HeadFi. But the wait saved me a lot cash, so what. I had the chance to listen to them in a big media retail store and was impressed enough after some seconds that I bought them the same night from Ebay.

 

[elwappo99]

 

   
SSSSHHHhhhhhh. People don't like hearing that 

 
I agree though. There was a big "rush" in the $1000 - $2000 area when the LCD-2 and HD800 came out. Seems too many people would find price point as an indicator of performance, rather than SQ. I think the HD800 and T1 especially aren't worth their asking price.

I see you have the hd700 and the matrix m-stage, could you comment on how those two pair up ?
Thanks

 
I actually didn't try this combo. Decided to let the m-stage sit on and give it a few days of listening. Compared to the O2 and Burson Soloist SL
 
Overall: Good sounding. Still maintains that great sense of space and clarity of the instruments. Enjoyable to listen to. More lifelike and mellow than the O2. A closer sound stage, almost as good at the O2, a step down from the Soloist. Treble definitely gets rolled off a bit which makes it easier to listen to vs. the Soloist and O2 (treble tilted and neutral, respectively). Overall, it's pretty similar to the O2, with a tad less heat on the treble, and a bit more bass. The Soloist SL really matches well with the HD700 though. The imaging is really on point, but at the cost of a hotter treble. 
 
Sorry busy irl, so spouting off random thoughts. Let me know how I can clarify. 

 

[Click]

  I don't get where all this talk of HF spikes for the HD700 came from, either Sennheiser did some finr tuning in later releases, or my hearing is just crap. I A/B'ed it with the HD800 and seriously, the HD700 is all about warmth. My HD800 and K812 has some nice highs, not bright at all and with such high treble, one tends to hear a fair bit of detail. They are quite unlike the AD2000 which, to my ears anyway, are pretty bright, almost to the point of being intolerable......almost. It creates a sense of detail as well, but somehow, it doesn't quite sound right to me. Quite fatiguing to listen to for extended period, but no such issue with the HD800 (can't comment about the AKG K812 yet as I've only just acquired it).
 
When you audition the HD700, just keep an open mind and try it with a couple of source setups and see if it suits you. I tried the HD700 on my Lyr + Fostex HPA4 stack and found it to be dark actually, using the HPA4 alone (it's an amp/dac combo after all) brought helped bring out some highs, but certainly not to the point where it's bright, not even close. BTW, pretty new at this, so if I use the wrong word to describe a sound......my bad.

I got my HD 700 in mint condition but from short after the release. So if Sennheiser made changes over time, mine should sound like the original version. I was late buying them because of the extremly negative comments of one very noisy individual here on HeadFi. But the wait saved me a lot cash, so what. I had the chance to listen to them in a big media retail store and was impressed enough after some seconds that I bought them the same night from Ebay.

 
Most of the HD700 bashing resulted from this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/614011/sennheiser-hd700-review
 
It's a cabal of snobbish, self-righteous head-fi'ers who like to hype specific brands and products they like, while also destroying products they feel are inferior, flawed, and/or overpriced. Just gotta be careful not to take reviews around here too seriously, both positive and negative. 
 
Yes, the HD700 does have treble spikes, but a good tube amp will tame the spikes. If it really bothers people that much, you can EQ it a bit further, but most purists think that EQ'ing shows that a headphone or IEM is inherently flawed (I just think it tailors a headphone/IEM to our personal preference). Even with just a Vali powering the HD700, I don't hear the treble spikes unless the source file is crap. That's why I mainly use the HD700 for gaming, movies, and FLAC. I don't use it for streaming music or lesser-quality recordings. They make great recordings sound great and bad recordings sound bad.  

 

[ADD]

  Hi  ADD
 
Prior to owning the HD700 I had been using the HD580/600 for 10 years and my initial impressions were the same, then I got it, extended listening revealed so many positive attributes that the HD700 had over the 580/600s, detail, clarity, staging and of course that extra octave…. especially with classical music …and most music ......IMHO Sennheiser’s R&D did an excellent job.
After a few months with both on hand it became obvious that the HD580/600s were indeed dated in their overall performance, still a satisfying listen but in direct comparison obviously lacking in overall dynamics and excitement and the HD580/600s were sold.
Still….having been in this hobby for 40 plus years I understand the allure of the HD580/600s, they are less demanding, better maybe for long listening sessions, more polite overall shall we say… than the HD700s.

Hi Rob,
 
I had a chance to spend a few weeks in 2013 with an HD600 against my PXC300 (my favourite headphone of the last 6 years). This is in my main headphone system that currently comprises of a Rega Apollo-R CD player, Musical Fidelity HPA1 headphone amp and with an Audioquest Yosemite interconnect in between. I was expecting the HD600 to be significantly better for classical but was quite taken back to find the opposite (especially since my memories of the much older HD580 were so positive). The main differences that swayed it for me were that the PXC300 was incredibly "fast" (almost electrostatic-like) whereas the HD600 felt lethargic. A bit like comparing an old BMW S14 twin cam engine with mechanical throttle versus a typical modern day engine with drive by wire ECU controlled throttle. It just felt disconnected and relatively incoherent. But of course the PXC300 relies on the noise cancelling circuit for the correct frequency response so the HD600 was technically more "pure" in other respects since it is obviously passive.
 
I spent three weeks and countless hours trying to sway myself around to the "better and superior" HD600 but just couldn't do it - the PXC300 just felt much more natural and much closer to what I hear when listening to music live.
 
I then auditioned the HD700 and HD800 and as I say the comparison wasn't completely fair because I did not use my own source, amplification or interconnect in this case. But I still distinctly remember my clear impression that the HD800 was basically an improved sounding PXC300 but without the liability of having the noise cancelling circuit. And the HD700 was a bit worse than the PXC300 but at least as much "faster" and clearer than the HD600.
 
Anyway, sometimes I just wonder whether my hearing / brain is just completely stuffed up compared to everyone else's. No one else here likes any of the stuff I like and I don't care much for a lot the stuff others like. So since my opinion is in such a tiny minority I tend to feel there is something seriously wrong with me. In any event I am looking forward to hearing some fairly expensive phones hopefully this month. In the worst case scenario, if I still can't find anything better apart from the HD800 (which worries me anyway because of the huge size, weight and my significant neck problems), I might have to consider upgrading my amplification instead. One remarkable thing about my PXC300 is that even the tinniest change / upgrade to the system is very easy to notice. For example, cable changes, changes to dithering algorithms, mains cables,etc are very obvious and they have always scaled with any equipment upgrades remarkably well.

 

[Solarium]

Were there any revisions of the 700? The recently bought 700 from amazon from 1/16 seem to have less fatigue on the trebles than the one I bought "new in a box" from another member who bought the item around the end of November 2014.Or could that be from the break-in period I've had with the amazon 700, for approximately 50 hours?

 

[BobFiggins]

Mine is 504,xxx. Treble is pretty bright. Sounds perfect on a tube amp (SinglePower MPX3), but with the Schiit Fulla I have to EQ it. I'm guessing on a better solid state amp it probably wouldn't be so bad, but still up there.

 

[D4NGER BIRD]

Mine too is a 504,XXX. When I run it straight through say an iPod or iPhone, it doesn't sound bright, but it sounds... less full. I usually listen through my Mcintosh Integrated, probably not the best head amp, but it sounds great and on some tracks I even tick up the 10k band on the 5 band equalizer to open up the top end. I don't find them bright at all. One caveat, I've been listening to and loving my Grado RS1i for a few years now, so I may be desensitized to harsh treble, at least according to some opinions here. I have a Crack on the way, I hope it's a good match for the HD700.

 

[Solarium]

When were the 504's made?

 

[Fred Hi-Res]

  Hi Rob,
 
I had a chance to spend a few weeks in 2013 with an HD600 against my PXC300 (my favourite headphone of the last 6 years). This is in my main headphone system that currently comprises of a Rega Apollo-R CD player, Musical Fidelity HPA1 headphone amp and with an Audioquest Yosemite interconnect in between. I was expecting the HD600 to be significantly better for classical but was quite taken back to find the opposite (especially since my memories of the much older HD580 were so positive). The main differences that swayed it for me were that the PXC300 was incredibly "fast" (almost electrostatic-like) whereas the HD600 felt lethargic. A bit like comparing an old BMW S14 twin cam engine with mechanical throttle versus a typical modern day engine with drive by wire ECU controlled throttle. It just felt disconnected and relatively incoherent. But of course the PXC300 relies on the noise cancelling circuit for the correct frequency response so the HD600 was technically more "pure" in other respects since it is obviously passive.
 
I spent three weeks and countless hours trying to sway myself around to the "better and superior" HD600 but just couldn't do it - the PXC300 just felt much more natural and much closer to what I hear when listening to music live.
 
I then auditioned the HD700 and HD800 and as I say the comparison wasn't completely fair because I did not use my own source, amplification or interconnect in this case. But I still distinctly remember my clear impression that the HD800 was basically an improved sounding PXC300 but without the liability of having the noise cancelling circuit. And the HD700 was a bit worse than the PXC300 but at least as much "faster" and clearer than the HD600.
 
Anyway, sometimes I just wonder whether my hearing / brain is just completely stuffed up compared to everyone else's. No one else here likes any of the stuff I like and I don't care much for a lot the stuff others like. So since my opinion is in such a tiny minority I tend to feel there is something seriously wrong with me. In any event I am looking forward to hearing some fairly expensive phones hopefully this month. In the worst case scenario, if I still can't find anything better apart from the HD800 (which worries me anyway because of the huge size, weight and my significant neck problems), I might have to consider upgrading my amplification instead. One remarkable thing about my PXC300 is that even the tinniest change / upgrade to the system is very easy to notice. For example, cable changes, changes to dithering algorithms, mains cables,etc are very obvious and they have always scaled with any equipment upgrades remarkably well.

 
A word of advice, get yourself an aftermarket cable for the HD600, it will completely transform the HP. I was myself sceptical about the effect, but saying it's dramatic, if an understatement, all those comments about removing the veil couldn't be further from the truth. Once I plugged in a 4-pin balanced Moon Audio Blue Dragon, I was listening to something completely different from before. Now my HD 600 is a good complement to my HD700, which is my favourite HP for classical music. If that doesn't help, have a doctor check your hearing as the PXC300 is so far from the recabled HD600 that a comparison is not even relevant. On the other hand, after market cables for the HD700 has clearly less of an effect. I got the MA Black dragon and it did have the desired effect, slightly less pronounced treble and a bit fuller low frequencies. Just my 2c

 

[Rob80b]

 
Hi Rob,
 
I had a chance to spend a few weeks in 2013 with an HD600 against my PXC300 (my favourite headphone of the last 6 years). This is in my main headphone system that currently comprises of a Rega Apollo-R CD player, Musical Fidelity HPA1 headphone amp and with an Audioquest Yosemite interconnect in between. I was expecting the HD600 to be significantly better for classical but was quite taken back to find the opposite (especially since my memories of the much older HD580 were so positive). .................................................

Hi ADD
 
I’m not familiar with the PXC300, but if I understand correctly are a smaller noise cancelling headphone, and as you’re aware radically different from the HD580/600 and the HD700s.
Maybe you are just super fine tuned to their overall sound, psychoacoustics is fairly powerful and cannot be ignored and it may just be a matter of retraining, but if it’s not broken ….why fix it.
Sennheiser have always produced very good headphones, even my first pair of Senns, the HD414 that I bought back in 1975 still sound pretty good,

 
but the HD700s IMHO have come a long way with regards to headphone performance.
What makes the HD700s successful for me is, is not so much the tonality, I think they succeeded with that eons ago, the HD6XX series have stood the test of time…but it’s the linear staging and layering. Most headphone manufactures just place a driver on each ear and be done with it, think Grado, but IMHO Senn’s R&D have succeeded more so than others with the HD700s design, being more like properly placed speakers, for some like myself …obvious & appreciated…for others not so obvious nor important to their listening enjoyment.

 

[Rob80b]

   
A word of advice, get yourself an aftermarket cable for the HD600, it will completely transform the HP. I was myself sceptical about the effect, but saying it's dramatic, if an understatement, all those comments about removing the veil couldn't be further from the truth. Once I plugged in a 4-pin balanced Moon Audio Blue Dragon, I was listening to something completely different from before. ...................

Hi Fred
 
I believe what you are affronted by is the additional 3dB gain or even 6dBs with balanced source and balanced headphone amp… which the 300 ohm HD6xx series will greatly appreciate.
Not to dismiss what you are hearing but one thing to keep in mind is that not all amps are created equal and some may indeed have better performance from the balanced output with regards to impedance and available current, my Bryston BHA-1 has equal performance from both single ended and balanced and it’s just a matter of adjusting the gain as I discovered using single and balanced cables with my HD580/600s, AKG K501/701s and my HD700s.

 

[Fred Hi-Res]

I seriously doubt the additional gain and slew rate of a balanced output alone have this effect. I always doubted that the cable could "lift the veil" of the HD600, but now I know exactly what I've read people on this forum talk of for years. It's truly a revelation of what the these cans are capable of and I'm really happy I finally pulled the trigger and got a serious cable. I'm using a Violectric V281 amp that has virtually "unlimited" gain SE or balanced. However, the HD600 is nowhere near the performance of the HD700. Now that the HD800 is unavailable for purchase from the Sennheiser website I hope that means there is an updated version of that HP soon to be released. The current HD800, with a bit more oomph in the bass and a slightly more gentle treble is my dream can. A blend of the super analytical HD800 and the subwoofer like bass of the LCD3 would be nice, then I can finally end my search for the ultimate HP .