Before I get into it, I would like to say that I was able to test drive these puppies for less than five mins, about the same with the HiFi, BD, and the Maestro's. CES was so freakin' crowded that there was a line to try these cans out. Mind you, the way Sennheiser had their booth laid out is that all of their flagship cans are in a smaller booth. From what I can remember, the 800,700,650 where set up on each side, each having their own amp/dac and cd player. That booth was insanely small, say 8x10 and when you have all those high end equipment in close quarters plus six to eight people, that room is gonna get hot, say 85-90 deg hot. As soon as it was my turn to go in, I was instantly uncomfortable because of the heat and b.o. that someone was generating, this affected my listing experience.
At the moment I had my hands on the 700's, the cans felt cheap to me. Main body was made of plastic, relatively lighter than the 800's. I have a huge dome but the cans fitted comfortably. Clapton was playing on the cd player. First word that come to mind was neutral. To put it simply, these cans are a step down in performance compared to the 800's. I pretty much agree with Jude's critique.
Time and presentation was the enemy when I experienced these headphones for the time. I would love to try them again and I would probably give the 700's a favorable review, but for now, I am happy with my 650's
As for the original post, everything still applies
amping? DAC used? Source? genre's listened? Burn in?
