[elwappo99]

  Between WAV and MP3 256vbr all the time, between WAV and 320cbr, it depends on the song/recording
listened to spotify and tidal premium on a friends system, didn't like either, something missing, like you are listening thru a filter.
Easiest to notice differences in sound for me is on HD-800 and SR-009, bad thing is sub par recording really sound like S _ _ _.

 
I'm with you. between flac and a good 320mp3 it's not as blatantly different as I thought it was, and it really depends on the quality of the recording. On really well recorded stuff I can pretty easily pick out flac, but on a lot of garbage recordings, I have a pretty hard time. 
 

  Probably both..haha
 
Can you at least tell the difference between Mp3 vs Flac vs Lossless ?
How about DSD vs 24/96Khz vs 16/44Khz ?
or Spotify premium vs Tidal premium ?
 
It's a curse for me cuz most of the time yes I can ..lol and due to it's higher resolution HD700 is a great tool to analyze these 

 

 
You can hear the difference between Flac and lossless?! 

 
 
There's a great tool in Foobar you can add on and test your ability to differentiate in a blind test. It's a great way to figure out if you're hearing a placebo effect or not. 
 
Way more importantly you'll learn what to focus on when testing and you'll really sharpen your skills.  
 

Just got my new amp to power the HD 700, the Rag.



It is a slight upgrade from my Vali 

. But after I auditioned the Airist Audio amplifier I new I needed a better amp for my HD 700. It will be interesting to compare the two amplifiers. I really liked the soundstage of the Airist but though it was not quite as powerful as one would expect. The Rag on the other hand has way more power on tap but initial impressions of the soundstage is not as wide. But I will reserve final assessment until the Rag has broken in with the HD700.

 


I shudder about hooking up a pair of HD700 to a rag. Isn't the combination too bright? Have you modded the HD700 at all?

 

[samandhi]

  Probably both..haha
 
Can you at least tell the difference between Mp3 vs Flac vs Lossless ?
How about DSD vs 24/96Khz vs 16/44Khz ?
or Spotify premium vs Tidal premium ?
 
It's a curse for me cuz most of the time yes I can ..lol and due to it's higher resolution HD700 is a great tool to analyze these 

 

 
  Flac IS lossless.....

 

[Skyfall]

  Between WAV and MP3 256vbr all the time, between WAV and 320cbr, it depends on the song/recording
listened to spotify and tidal premium on a friends system, didn't like either, something missing, like you are listening thru a filter.
Easiest to notice differences in sound for me is on HD-800 and SR-009, bad thing is sub par recording really sound like S _ _ _.

 
I can hear the difference between any type of Mp%$%^#3 to Flac or lossless wav. Mp3 just sound compressed, the highs are a bit rolled off, lack of air and space ambient, lack of depth but the bass seems bigger. That's what I hear from Spotify.
Tidal is cleaner and more open but it seems a bit brighter especially when listening through Hugo and HD700, didn't enjoy it much either.
Wav vs Flac is very very subtle but if you focus on mostly the bass and on a good non electronic recording/music I can hear that the wav/aiff has more air and low extension down there. 
True, you can only hear the difference on a certain recording mostly analog acoustics not with modern, super compressed electronic music.

 

[DavidA]

   
I can hear the difference between any type of Mp%$%^#3 to Flac or lossless wav. Mp3 just sound compressed, the highs are a bit rolled off, lack of air and space ambient, lack of depth but the bass seems bigger. That's what I hear from Spotify.
Tidal is cleaner and more open but it seems a bit brighter especially when listening through Hugo and HD700, didn't enjoy it much either.
Wav vs Flac is very very subtle but if you focus on mostly the bass and on a good non electronic recording/music I can hear that the wav/aiff has more air and low extension down there. 
True, you can only hear the difference on a certain recording mostly analog acoustics not with modern, super compressed electronic music.

The easiest genre to hear the differences in MP3 and WAV is classical since most good recordings have no compression, with most other genres like pop, rock, and r&b even 256cbr MP3 will pass for me since I couldn't hear any difference when I tried to ABX them with the HD-700 which was the best headphone I had when I was trying to figure out this issue.

 

[Skyfall]

Has anyone compared the new HD800S and HD700 yet ?
I am curious if it would be a meaningful upgrade

 

[grotster]

I'm pretty new to headphone scene although going back about 25 years ago I used to sell mid-range audio equipment just about when Pioneer made stable platter CD players, KEF made the 104/2 and Bang and Olufsen made rotating TV stands that were controlled by remote control and I owned a pair of Sennheiser HD480 classics. Since then and now I took a hiatus to forge a different career and now I find myself back to where I started in the late 80's and early 90's listening to the same music but through much more expensive gear that I have at home because I can now afford it.
 
I picked myself up a Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 100, a Schiit Valhalla 2 and a pair of HD700's. Probably not the wisest choice in phones but it is what it is, my first choice were the NAD HP50's but they hurt my ears and right away I realized I had made a mistake and promptly returned them. The HD700's arrived about 3 days later. I love these headphones, the first thing I did was to swap out the input tubes in the Schiit, I bought a pair of Philips SQ 6922's, they are awesome by the way in the Schiit but everything seemed too laid back and warm. So I did some research and decided to order a pair of Genelax Gold 6922's due to the fact that I was looking for something more lively. I rolled the Genelax tubes in about 2 weeks ago and kept the amp powered on to warm them up.
 
This weekend I had the opportunity to listen to my setup again but unfortunately I wasn't that impressed with the combination of the HD700's, the DAC, Valhalla 2 and Genelax's. I ended up turning the amp off last night (about 24 hours ago) before going to bed feeling pretty disappointed. 
 
Well, tonight I come home to a cold amp, cold cans and a different mind set and all I can say is that this whole system is singing larger than life. I am listening to David Bowie's album Station to Station and it is outstanding. Maybe I need to give the SQ Philips tubes another chance to impress me.
 
As a side note I am also in the market for a closed back pair of cans in the ~500 USD market but i'm not sure which way to go, at least at this point I know I want some kind of neutral sounding phones and have the Oppo PM-3 at the top of the list right now. Any other recommendations out there?
 
All in I love these 700's but I am also in the market for a closed back pair so I can't hear the wife, kids and TV at certain times lol.

 

[grotster]

J.S. Bach Cello Suite #1 comes across beautifully on these 700's. Does anyone know how the Oppo PM-3's might compare? I can't afford a pair of Audeze right now so ~$500 is the tops.

 

[DavidA]

  Has anyone compared the new HD800S and HD700 yet ?
I am curious if it would be a meaningful upgrade

I have heard the HD-800S twice but didn't do side by side compare to HD-700 so don't take this with much weight.
HD-800S has some of what the HD-800 is know for, great sound stage, very detailed, and slightly on the bright side, the biggest difference is the HD-800S has a slightly better low end and has the 6khz peak dropped.  Compared to the HD-700 they are still fairly different and more of a small upgrade with a signature change.

 

[DavidA]

@grotster, I have a lyr2 and use Telefunken CCa's and Siemens Lorenz when I want detailed and clear highs, third choice would be 74/75 Reflector.
 
As for a closed headphone, TH-X00 (fun), DT-1770 (somewhat neutral), and K553 (somewhat neutral)

 

[Rob80b]

  Has anyone compared the new HD800S and HD700 yet ?
I am curious if it would be a meaningful upgrade

Yes and Yes.......I have both on hand.....so just to quote myself.....
 

  ...................
The HD700s are a very good phone but totally different from the 800S which has more air, more detail, bigger sound stage etc..but they still sound like the 800s…… but better IMHO.

Thought I’d sell off my 700s once I got the “S”’s…but no…I now use the “S”s for most of my music listening and switch over to the 700s (not that they're bad for music, far from it) for movies and whatnots…you know greasy popcorn fingers what have you…

 

 

[psonoda]

I'm with you. between flac and a good 320mp3 it's not as blatantly different as I thought it was, and it really depends on the quality of the recording. On really well recorded stuff I can pretty easily pick out flac, but on a lot of garbage recordings, I have a pretty hard time. 

I shudder about hooking up a pair of HD700 to a rag. Isn't the combination too bright? Have you modded the HD700 at all?

Yes I have modded the HD700. I added some internal damping which seemed to tame the treble and somewhat increase the bass level. Maybe one affected the other. I also made a DIY balanced cave from 24 gauge cat 5 cable. 4 conductors per leg so a total of 16 conductors in the whole cable. I am not too happy with the connectors I bought in the that go into the HD 700 and would like some recommendations from the other DIY guys.

 

[Skyfall]

 
Yes and Yes.......I have both on hand.....so just to quote myself.....
 

 

 
Got it. So from your perspective the 700 is still a good all rounder sit back and relax and enjoy the music and everything else while the "Big brotha" is more strict, fierce and discipline..haha
 
 

Yes I have modded the HD700. I added some internal damping which seemed to tame the treble and somewhat increase the bass level. Maybe one affected the other. I also made a DIY balanced cave from 24 gauge cat 5 cable. 4 conductors per leg so a total of 16 conductors in the whole cable. I am not too happy with the connectors I bought in the that go into the HD 700 and would like some recommendations from the other DIY guys.

 
One of my DIY for the 700 is using Eidolic 2.5mm TS. I am pretty happy with it You can get them here:
 
http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/Furutech-Valab-Oyaide-Shure-Denon-diy-headphone-cable-connector/Norne-Audio-Eidolic-2-5-mm-oppo-pm-1-oppo-pm-2-nighthawk-sennheiser-hd700-hd-700-headphone-connector-diy-hifiman-he-400i-400s-he-x-he-1000-he1k
 
or if you want a bigger barrel for you 16 conductors :
 
http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/Furutech-Valab-Oyaide-Shure-Denon-diy-headphone-cable-connector/Eidolic-connector-oppo-pm-1-2-sennheiser-hd-700-nighthawk-hifiman-he-1000-he-1k-he1k-he1000-diy
 

 

[Rob80b]

   
Got it. So from your perspective the 700 is still a good all rounder
 

 

IMHO absolutely…if there wasn’t an 800 “S” …the 700 would still be my …..….

 

[psonoda]

Got it. So from your perspective the 700 is still a good all rounder sit back and relax and enjoy the music and everything else while the "Big brotha" is more strict, fierce and discipline..haha



One of my DIY for the 700 is using Eidolic 2.5mm TS. I am pretty happy with it You can get them here:

http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/Furutech-Valab-Oyaide-Shure-Denon-diy-headphone-cable-connector/Norne-Audio-Eidolic-2-5-mm-oppo-pm-1-oppo-pm-2-nighthawk-sennheiser-hd700-hd-700-headphone-connector-diy-hifiman-he-400i-400s-he-x-he-1000-he1k

or if you want a bigger barrel for you 16 conductors :

http://www.norneaudio.com/litzheim/Furutech-Valab-Oyaide-Shure-Denon-diy-headphone-cable-connector/Eidolic-connector-oppo-pm-1-2-sennheiser-hd-700-nighthawk-hifiman-he-1000-he-1k-he1k-he1000-diy

I already have the larger connector. But I think the barrel hits the side of the HD700 frame. I can't seem to make a solid connection. The left channel falls out from time to time. I will try the smaller connector. Thanks.

 

[DavidA]

Yes I have modded the HD700. I added some internal damping which seemed to tame the treble and somewhat increase the bass level. Maybe one affected the other. I also made a DIY balanced cave from 24 gauge cat 5 cable. 4 conductors per leg so a total of 16 conductors in the whole cable. I am not too happy with the connectors I bought in the that go into the HD 700 and would like some recommendations from the other DIY guys.

While the Eidolic connectors will fit I've found that the correct HD-700 connectors work better, there are 2 types from Luna shops, pretty good connectors and there was one on flea bay that was good but I don't see the merchant listing anymore.
For Luna shops do a search for "HD700"