[purrin]

Quote:

The bigger Head-Fi has gotten, the more "diplomatic" official headphone reviews have gotten as well. (I wonder if this has anything to do with Sennheiser being a featured sponsor.) The sibilance critique is about as damning as a hairline scratch on the Great Wall of China. 

 
I don't think is necessarily the case nor the trend. I used to be much more paranoid here because of my own very open criticisms of many products and even manufacturers. Many fellow Head-Fi'ers had warned me that I was being watched by the admins and that eventually I would be banned. The funny thing is that I've never been threatened with being banned for expressing my criticisms, however harsh or nasty they were (although I'm sure I've irked more than a few Head-Fi'ers when I've poo-poo'ed on their favorite headphones.)
 
You go back to the recent LCD3 thread (and even this one), and we such a much more skeptical attitude and variety of opinions compared to the days of HD800 and LCD2 FOTM.

 

[purrin]

        Quote:

Hopefully those peaks go away with burn in.

I don't believe in "HOPE". It sounds like a catch word that politicians try to sell to voters. I believe in getting off my ass and doing something about things.
 
Besides I've never seen peaks go away over extended use of headphones. If anything, they only tend to get measurably worse. As far as us getting acclimated to those peaks - that's a different story.

 

[Sennhe1ser0fan]

Quote:

        Quote:

I don't believe in "HOPE". It sounds like a catch word that politicians try to sell to voters. I believe in getting off my ass and doing something about things.
 
Besides I've never seen peaks go away over extended use of headphones. If anything, they only tend to get measurably worse. As far as us getting acclimated to those peaks - that's a different story.

At least you tell it like t is.
 

 

[Nick01]

Quote:

I think the pricing strategy will be very interesting and, personally, could cause me to abandon Sennheiser as a customer if the continue down the 800 path.  I've been running some general searches on the HD 650.  It seems that, while $650 is the purported MSRP, the retailers all are gathered at $499 (which seems higher than it was in the past on both ends; perhaps someone can confirm or correct).  I haven't spent enough time to determine if there are price-cutting outliers, but it doesn't look like it.  I wonder if the $499 is the de facto minimum that is being enforced by Senn.  If so, it would appear that its pricing strategy is not unique to the HD 800, and can therefore be expected in the HD700.  Alternatively, what I could see happening would be for the HD 800 to drift back down to its earlier ~$1300 price and the 700 drift down accordingly.  Note that I believe resale price maintenance would still be in play, just not as overt--i.e., retailers "coincidentally" settling on a price exactly $150 below "MSRP."  Since the Leegin decision, this behavior is not necessarily per se violative. 
 
But it still stinks.

Slim chance that will be. Especially in this day and age where every headphone company is trying to outdo each other in climbing up the price ladder.
 

 

[jjmai]

Want

 

[ac500]

Is that the HD700 on the left? Wow that is ugly compared to the HD800 IMO. Not that it matters, since it's all about the sound IMO.
 
Anyway... it sounds like the HD700 is sizing up to have sibilance / peaky treble issues, since literally every impression here has said this, except for Jude's overall very hyped up review (which I'd like to believe blindly, trust me). Quite honestly I don't see myself paying $700 for a headphone with serious flaws like that, especially since I get ear pain from sibilance. I don't mind brightness, as long as it's smooth. Oh well. Maybe the SRH1840 will provide a possible alternate to HD800s then, since it looks like the HD700s are not going to be my style sound-wise.

 

[MuppetFace]

The HD700 and HD800 look similar enough to me to make statements like "the HD700 is really ugly compared to the HD800" seem a bit odd. I can see thinking both are ugly, thinking both are great looking, or slightly preferring the look of one, but the "night and day" difference between the two I'm just not seeing. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder as it goes.
 
Also where are people getting the $700 price from again? It gets mentioned with such assuredness, I was wondering if perhaps there was an actual announcement or something!

 

[Naim.F.C]

Quote:

The HD700 and HD800 look similar enough to me to make statements like "the HD700 is really ugly compared to the HD800" seem a bit odd. I can see thinking both are ugly, thinking both are great looking, or slightly preferring the look of one, but the "night and day" difference between the two I'm just not seeing. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder as it goes.
 
Also where are people getting the $700 price from again? It gets mentioned with such assuredness, I was wondering if perhaps there was an actual announcement or something!

Really? I think they look considerably different, besides the vague shaping of the drivers or immediate driver housing style. But in terms of shape, colours, materials, lines, contours etc, imo they are quite different. One looks like it belongs to Darth Vader and the other the Starship Enterprise.

 

[purrin]

 
Quote:

Anyway... it sounds like the HD700 is sizing up to have sibilance / peaky treble issues, since literally every impression here has said this, except for Jude's overall very hyped up review (which I'd like to believe blindly, trust me). 

Haha! There may be a positive aspect to Jude's constantly positive impressions. Maybe, just maybe people will stop saying "I'm waiting until Jude offers his opinion!"
 

Anyway... it sounds like the HD700 is sizing up to have sibilance / peaky treble issues, since literally every impression here has said this, except for Jude's overall very hyped up review (which I'd like to believe blindly, trust me). Quite honestly I don't see myself paying $700 for a headphone with serious flaws like that, especially since I get ear pain from sibilance. I don't mind brightness, as long as it's smooth. Oh well. Maybe the SRH1840 will provide a possible alternate to HD800s then, since it looks like the HD700s are not going to be my style sound-wise.

The sibilance issue was very hit and miss. Lots of tracks I listened to sounded good. Unfortunately, one of my reference tracks for evaluating equipment Talking Heads - This Must be the Place (from a recent remaster that actually sounds good), the snare drum hits one of those narrow peaks. Let's just say it was not a pleasing experience.

 

[Satellite_6]

Quote:

Really? I think they look considerably different, besides the vague shaping of the drivers or immediate driver housing style. But in terms of shape, colours, materials, lines, contours etc, imo they are quite different. One looks like it belongs to Darth Vader and the other the Starship Enterprise.

Ha. I think you nailed it there.
 
I think they're both ugly in their own unique way.
 

 

[Nick01]

Quote:

The HD700 and HD800 look similar enough to me to make statements like "the HD700 is really ugly compared to the HD800" seem a bit odd. I can see thinking both are ugly, thinking both are great looking, or slightly preferring the look of one, but the "night and day" difference between the two I'm just not seeing. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder as it goes.
 
Also where are people getting the $700 price from again? It gets mentioned with such assuredness, I was wondering if perhaps there was an actual announcement or something!

No no no....the HD800 is very cool looking ... sorta like Autobots, while the HD700 is Decepticon
 

 

[aegid]

The year they release something new is the year I don't bring any CDs with me to CES, haha. Same happened with the HD800 release. And the one I did want to bring with me had its release date on Tuesday (so it was delivered to my house then) and I've been in Vegas since Sunday, sigh.

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

Really? I think they look considerably different, besides the vague shaping of the drivers or immediate driver housing style. But in terms of shape, colours, materials, lines, contours etc, imo they are quite different. One looks like it belongs to Darth Vader and the other the Starship Enterprise.

No one is denying there are differences between the two. To my eyes however they look more similar than different. I see similar shapes, similar dimensions and proportions, a similar color palate and design philosophy at work. Almost as if they were two paintings by the same artist working in the same period or under the same constraints of a particular movement. As for materials... I'm seeing mostly plastics and alcantara.

 

[purrin]

Da Da Da   Dum Da Da   Dum Da Da
 

 

 

 

[MuppetFace]

I always preferred Star Trek. Which one is that supposed to be? The HD700 or 800?