[Shahrose]

Quote:

It's strange, 2 years ago, you'd see threads dropping the HD800 to second tier TOTL.( See rankings like Skylab, David Mahler, even Steve Guttenburg). It's a renaissance of the HD800.

 
Personally? I don't consider atleast two of those reliable appraisers of SQ. Chalk it up to differing preferences.
 
The HD800s were my favourite from day 1. I was sure people weren't hearing them at their full potential. That and some overzealous Audez'e fans who absolutely overwhelmed every comparison thread with declarative statements of the company's dominance over all. It was a disservice to the community for so few strongly opinionated folks to be so vocal IMO, as it threw off public perception of SQ. For a time, I even saw comparison threads being locked by Audez'e supporting mods/admins at the first sign of an HD800 "victory"...it went too far.
 
Anyways, with time, more had the opportunity to compare long term or revisit the Senns after too hastily dismissing them...we're now seeing the results of that.

 

[olor1n]

Quote:

I rather not.  The most agressive dampened and fastest decaying headphone in the world wouldn't satisfy me unless it had an adequate musicality to it that fit my liking.  HD800 sounds good, but at the end of the day I'm in it to enjoy the music, and the HD800 sounds thin 9 times out of 10 for me.

 
What was the extent of your experience with the HD800? By most standards here my gear is barely adequate for this headphone but this thin sounding HD800 is yet to rear its head. 9 times out of 10? What sort of music do you listen to?

 

[slwiser]

To me the HD800 is whatever you through at it up stream; music, cables, Dac, file type or whatever.  It is simply revealing in its nature to a very large extent and does not hide anything.  I enjoy my Lavry DA10 feeding my SPL Phonitor to which my HD800s are plugged into using FLAC files streamed into my Squeezebox Touch. 

 

[Baxide]

The HD800 is the most demanding headphone I have ever come across when it comes to choice of headphone driver. That includes built in or stand alone headamp. Even the K701 is not as hard to drive. That had been the most difficult headphones to drive for years until the HD800 showed up. 
It has taken headamp designers some time to come to grips with the HD800, which is why we are now able to enjoy and appreciate its abilities.
 

 

[MayaTlab]

Quote:

The HD800 is the most demanding headphone I have ever come across when it comes to choice of headphone driver. That includes built in or stand alone headamp. Even the K701 is not as hard to drive. That had been the most difficult headphones to drive for years until the HD800 showed up. 
It has taken headamp designers some time to come to grips with the HD800, which is why we are now able to enjoy and appreciate its abilities.
 

 
I don't think it's more difficult to drive than a pair of HD650. It's just that its upper midrange aggressiveness / grain needs to be tamed, but I think that's more a question of headphone design than amp matching. The HD800 just isn't a perfect headphone (as all headphones are) and all this talk of amp matching is mostly down to "how can the upper midrange aggressiveness / glare / grain / thinness / metallic timbre / forwardness / etc. (whatever your feelings are) can be corrected by amps / DAC / cables / software matching. But it would have been much easier if it didn't have that annoying characteristic in the first place.
That's the same thing as the HD650 "loose" bass for example. It's not that hard to drive, but it's harder to find the right combination 

 

[Frank I]

I am listening the last couple of day on the V200 with the balanced Oppo BDP95 and the Norse OCC cable and  this is an outstanding combination for the hD800 for people interested in a solid state alternative. The Norse cable is also a step up over the stock and highly recommended and will be available for sale this summer according to Trevor.

 

[John Willett]

Quote:

How do we define quality of sound?

 
Listen to a musical instrument live  - the recording that gets closest to the real thing is the best.
 
However - lots of people don't like "real" and prefer warmth, colour, etc...
 
When it comes down to listening for pleasure - what you personally prefer is the "best" to you.
 
In absolute terms - the best is what gets closest to the real thing.

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

 
Listen to a musical instrument live  - the recording that gets closest to the real thing is the best.
 
However - lots of people don't like "real" and prefer warmth, colour, etc...
 
When it comes down to listening for pleasure - what you personally prefer is the "best" to you.
 
In absolute terms - the best is what gets closest to the real thing.

What if you were listening to crappy £100 instruments live? 
 
Yes you want your headphone to sound like real life, but in real life what sounds better £5000 violin or £20,000 violin? £3000 piano or £40,000 piano? Even real life instruments have a subjective quality.

 

[dukeskd]

It all depends on the quality of the recording and mastering..

 

[TMRaven]

Quote:

 
What was the extent of your experience with the HD800? By most standards here my gear is barely adequate for this headphone but this thin sounding HD800 is yet to rear its head. 9 times out of 10? What sort of music do you listen to?

 
The typical stuff.  Lady Gaga, Kesha, Justin Bieber.

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

 
The typical stuff.  Lady Gaga, Kesha, Justin Bieber.

is that a joke?

 

[John Willett]

Quote:

What if you were listening to crappy £100 instruments live? 
 
Yes you want your headphone to sound like real life, but in real life what sounds better £5000 violin or £20,000 violin? £3000 piano or £40,000 piano? Even real life instruments have a subjective quality.

 
The best headphones would make it sound as it is, coloured headphones would change the sound, but not necessarily make it "better".
 
£20k for a violin or £40k for a piano is not very expensive.  A friend has a violin costing hundreds of thousands and a new Steinway concert grand is over £100k.
 
 
 
Quote:

It all depends on the quality of the recording and mastering..

 
Of course - it depends on the musician, the room, the choice of microphones, where they are placed, etc., etc., etc...

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

 
The best headphones would make it sound as it is, coloured headphones would change the sound, but not necessarily make it "better".
 
£20k for a violin or £40k for a piano is not very expensive.  A friend has a violin costing hundreds of thousands and a new Steinway concert grand is over £100k.
 
 
 
 
Of course - it depends on the musician, the room, the choice of microphones, where they are placed, etc., etc., etc...

but of course the driver has the capability to add to any frequency which makes it possible to make a £1000 violin sound like a £20,000 violin.

 

[Windsor]

I'm now listening to the HD 800 with a single-ended Black Dragon cable (thank you, R) and I'm quite impressed. Compared to the stock HD 800 cable, the Black Dragon has tamed the HD 800's treble and beefed up the bass; recordings are now sounding slightly warmer but not to the point of being muddy. Listening to The Nightfly by Donald Fagen sounds more laid back and less in your face and much more easy on the ears than with the stock cable with no audible loss of fidelity at time of writing.
 
What a welcome audio chain component the Black Dragon is so far; I look forward to more sonic explorations!
 
Update (1 hour later): music with the Black Dragon cable/HD 800 is sounding great. Rock music is rocking and transient details are still in abundance. I'll probably try this setup without the anaxilus mod and see how that sounds. Fun!
 
Update (~3.5 hours later): I removed the Anaxilus mod and am utterly amazed at what I'm hearing! There's now a more realistic weight and timbre to instruments and crystal clear treble without seeming fatiguing. The Black Dragon cable is like a tone control for the HD 800 (without the distortion) that retains the sonic clarity of the stock-cabled HD 800 and reduces the brightness to a more "natural" setting. I'm honestly currently experiencing what is probably the highest quality headphone experience I've yet had. Wow indeed! 

 

[anetode]

It has taken headamp designers some time to come to grips with the HD800, which is why we are now able to enjoy and appreciate its abilities.

Many engineers lost sleep over it, some lost their minds. Rumor has it that Jan Meier went catatonic after first hearing it, he laid in bed for weeks and kept mumbling something about impedance and crossfeed.

Even now I feel guilty listening to my HD800s knowing that the sound I enjoy comes at the expense of so much suffering