[peanuthead]

Welcome to the club McG!  You made the right choice

 

[grokit]

I agree that 150mW is not a lot of power for these headphones, especially when you are trying to push complex passages with a lot of bass at high volume. This is a perfect recipe for clipping out. The HD 800 seems to want at least 500mW in these situations, more like 1-2 watts optimally. Just my 2¢.

 

[Hennyo]

.

 

[Hennyo]

 
Quote:

 
"The Sennheiser Maximum long-term input power is 500 mW"
 
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD800-Over-Ear-Circum-Aural-Headphone/dp/B001OTZ8DA...

 

[johnjen]

Here is something to ponder.
 
If 150mW is enough for ≈120dB and then you add 20dB of bass boost that equates (roughly) to 100dB of unequalized output elsewhere in the audio spectrum.  Yeah I know this analogy is a bit flakey but it will help to get the idea across.
 
AND bass uses far more current in comparison to higher freqs so it is possible that the power supply is straining under the very low freq current demands.  And as I opined before you could try to lower the bass boost during a mild clipping event to see if the problem changes.  And then try to raise other frequencies to see if the clipping returns (AT THE SAME VOLUME SETTING)  And again this isn't a conclusive test but it might shed some light on the mode of breakup etc.
 
Or you could just reduce the bass boost and live with it…  :thumb
 
JJ
 
 
Quote:

snip
johnjen: I wonder if 150mW is enough at 600 ohms, because that's what my amp provides. That question really can't be answered I guess because I can't really give you a number on the frequencies and volume that produced the distortion, but in any case, I guess some day when I upgrade my amp I'll find out.  
> What EQ curve are you using?  What boost at what frequencies in the bass?
 
It doesn't matter much because I've proven it's not the EQ's fault, but to answer your question: I boost the sub-bass only, below and up to around 40 hz.

Quote:

150mW is plenty of power.  That's good for 119.7dB SPL on Tyll's pair of HD800s and plenty of room for EQ on top of any sane listening level before the amp complains.
 
snip

 
 

 

[Mr Blonde]

If you bass boost any headphone by 20 db, you made definately the wrong decision before your purchase. The difference between 0 and 6 db is already huge.

 

[grokit]

I'm driving my HD 800 with the upgraded 2-watt power tubes on my WA22 and they sound freakin' great, ymmv.
 
I'm not much for calculations with stated specs but I know what I hear

 
edit: These are the tubes I'm using:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue54/woo.htm

 

[purrin]

Quote:

If you bass boost any headphone by 20 db, you made definately the wrong decision before your purchase. The difference between 0 and 6 db is already huge.

20db in the bass? How cow! No wonder the amp is clipping.
 

 

[musicman59]

Quote:

 
Just bought a new pair of HD800s! 
 
Spent a good hour and a half at 32Ohm audio in Portland, Oregon today. I A/B/C'd the Beyer DT-880 (600ohm), The HE-500 and the HD800 (again). The last time I was there I A/B'd the LCD-2 and the HD800.  I had gone in absolutely convinced I was going to buy the LCD-2 , based mostly on the glowing reviews of Headfi members. Although i found many good things about the sound..it was ultimately too dark for me. And the discomfort was startling. I have a small head and the Audeze was way too heavy, hot, and bothersome. That day I listened to "Pretzel logic" by Steely Dan.
 
Putting on the HD800 each time was like a breath of fresh air. It was light, and airy compared to the LCD-2.
 
Today I listened to the "Talking Heads 77" album. I dismissed the Beyer DT-880 600Ohm right away. It was just too trebly without enough lower end definition. The choice between the HD800 and the Hifiman HE-500 was much harder. I really liked them both for different reasons.
 
The HE-500 was warm of neutral with good high end with a bit of bass slam thrown in. Very musical and listenable. Also it was more comfortable by far than the LCD-2. The HD800 was once again super comfortable and light. It basically disappeared on my head. Ultimately the HD800 won the day for me.
 
Why?
 
Several reasons.
 
First...the soundstage. The HE-500 crowded the entire band into my head. The HD800 freed them to play all around me. 
 
Second - Excitement. The HD800's were far more exciting to listen to. They presented the music to me in ways that allowed me to hear things I had never heard before. A cymbal hit here, a guitar lick there, etc. The music sparkled and demanded to be listened to. On the HE-500 the music was all there...and it sounded great..really great..but it was the same Talking Heads I had always heard..just presented very nicely, thank you.
 
Third...bass. I have discovered that I am not a bass head. I love bass in speakers and tweak my computer speakers' sub woofer all the time. But I have found i don't like bass slamming right upside my ear! The HE-500 had a bit of bass slam to them. The HD800 had almost no bass slam at all. The bass was definitely there but bass heads, I would imagine, would never be satisfied.
 
Fourth..comfort. No contest here. The HE-500, while comfortable enough..was heavier and warmer (physically) than the HD-800. 
 
Finally...purpose. My purpose in buying headphones is to listen to old songs (and new ones) and hear them in new ways. Most of the time I listen to music on my cheap logitech 5.1 computer speakers through my Asus Sandy bridge's motherboard's onboard sound card. No problem. That's my multitasking mode. When I put on headphones I plan to focus my attention on the music. The HD800s will give me the most satisfying experience I believe.
 
The next step was to buy an amp and a dac. They happened to have a demo Woo Audio WA2. They hooked me up to it and I listened to it for a while. While it wasn't as nice as their super expensive preamp and amp setup it was close enough. It was a little dusty and they gave me a good price cause it was a demo.  Done.
 
They had a Pop Pulse PCM1796 MKII DAC also.
Ken and Caleb at 32Ohm were both very helpful in the decision making process. 
Tomorrow I'll hook it all up. The only thing I might do is to upgrade the tubes on the WA2 for $100 or more in the future.
 

Congrats for your purchase. I love my HD800. 
If you believe in aftermarket cables (which many not) I would recommend you to change the SPC stock cable for a good OCC copper cable. It will help improve the bass, reduce the slight brightness and make the soundstage more holographic. I have used both the Aphroditecu29.com Zeus and also the DHC Complement with great success. The performance of both to me is basically the same. I end up keeping the Zeus because of ergonomics (the Complement is big and heavy IMO) and price (the Zeus was less than half). Another upgrade I did was replacing the little tiny SPC wire that goes from the connector to the driver inside the HD800. Some people has gone all the way to hardwire the headphones eliminating the connectors but I won't go that way if you want to keep the flexibility to roll cables. What I did was to asked Robert (Aphroditecu29.com) to replace the tiny wire with the same wire used in the Zeus cable and keep the connectors for flexibility. This change further improved the clarity of the sound and the 3D presentation of the sound stage.
 
That's my experience with the HD800. To me they are the best open dynamic headphones and in the top 4 of any headphones in production regardless. The other 3 for me are HE-6 (properly powered), W3000ANV (closed) and SR-009 (specially with the RSA A10 Thunderbolt amp.)
 
 

 

[ac500]

I never said 20db, someone else did. I'm not sure exactly how much of a boost it is because the sliders aren't labeled.

 

[Saintly]

Quote:

I never said 20db, someone else did. I'm not sure exactly how much of a boost it is because the sliders aren't labeled.

No offence, but that sounds like a crap EQ.  How are you so sure that the EQ has absolutely nothing to do with the problem?

 

[ac500]

The hilarious part is that EQ programs I've downloaded that had dB markings tended to suffer severe problems, the least of which being that lack of a feature to prevent clipping. This EQ automatically normalizes so no clipping occurs, and I've never been able to do anything on this EQ that makes the sound quality worse at all. It's the EQ built into my sound card, and although the software isn't the best, it's the only global EQ I have... and it just turns out that it works great.
 
>  How are you so sure that the EQ has absolutely nothing to do with the problem?

 ​

As I already explained several times, the distortion DOES NOT EXIST... until... the amplifier volume is turned beyond a certain point. Keep in mind I'm NOT saying the distortion is too quiet to hear until I turn my amp up, I'm saying it does not exist at all until I turn my amp up really high. This proves that the distortion / clipping / crackling is coming either from my amp or from the HD800. I don't understand why this is so hard to understand.​

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

The hilarious part is that EQ programs I've downloaded that had dB markings tended to suffer severe problems, the least of which being that lack of a feature to prevent clipping. This EQ automatically normalizes so no clipping occurs, and I've never been able to do anything on this EQ that makes the sound quality worse at all. It's the EQ built into my sound card, and although the software isn't the best, it's the only global EQ I have... and it just turns out that it works great.
 
>  How are you so sure that the EQ has absolutely nothing to do with the problem?

 ​

As I already explained several times, the distortion DOES NOT EXIST... until... the amplifier volume is turned beyond a certain point. Keep in mind I'm NOT saying the distortion is too quiet to hear until I turn my amp up, I'm saying it does not exist at all until I turn my amp up really high. This proves that the distortion / clipping / crackling is coming either from my amp or from the HD800. I don't understand why this is so hard to understand.​

hm, if i turn up electri-q in the bass and i play a song with a lot of bass from 20hz - 50hz  there is severe distortion with my k701. But this only happens in wasapi mode, if i use ds mode there is no distortion. Using DS mode has way less bass, with wasapi i get alot of bass and creates distortion with the eq.
 
 

 

[satanigatan]

So anyone have any albums to recommend for the HD-800.
 
I mean, as I said I love listening to all genres of music on these. And I know which genres the HD-800 do the best. I was just wondering if anyone has had any albums that MUST be heard on these. If that makes sense...
 
Basically albums you've heard on these that sounded jaw dropping.

 

[TT600R]

Quote:

So anyone have any albums to recommend for the HD-800.
 
I mean, as I said I love listening to all genres of music on these. And I know which genres the HD-800 do the best. I was just wondering if anyone has had any albums that MUST be heard on these. If that makes sense...
 
Basically albums you've heard on these that sounded jaw dropping.

Try the Best Audiophile Voices VII
Eva Cassidy performing "True Colors" is simply amazing.Haven't heared it on a HD800 but on my HD650 it is allready  jaw dropping

.