[.Sup]

I'm having mixed feelings on the stock cable.  Part of me really likes it.  It's aesthetically as nice as any aftermarket, feels nice, and IMO if you're running with an EQ, sounds as good as any aftermarket.  Senn finally shook the curse of the horrible stock cables on this one.

On the other hand, maybe it's just because I'm spoiled by the ergonomic flexibility and light weight of the Q on my HE-6, but this thing is completely unmanageable.  It knots like crazy, won't hold shape when I try to ravel it for hanging it all on my Woo stand, and the thing springs around like it's made of rubber or silicone....probably because it appears to actually be jacketed in rubber or silicone and wrapped with a wire....

I got my aftermarket cable not long ago just for ergonomic reasons. Like you said the stock cable just doesn't listen - if I want to roll it around something then it I should be able to do it. The new cable rolls around a toothpick and is much lighter. Plus I wanted longer distance between y-split and headphone connectors, the stock one was choking me at times.

 

[Gamerzhell]

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According to 6 Moons-it's actually a 36awg cord/wire...yeah I definitely thing a thicker gauge could really help at that point!

 
Not sure if this is entirely correct. The wire seems to be around 28-30 ga on the outside but there's some plastic stuff inside so probably 32 effective.
 
It's definitely not as thick as the K701s stock cable which is probably 28.

 

[dallan]

Now that is thick headphone cable.....
 

 

[TwoEars]

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Now that is thick headphone cable.....
 

 
Holy cow!
 
Looks like someone wired his mains to the HD800s - lol.

 

[CEE TEE]

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No doubt overkill, but my infrequent desire for additional heft and body has been solved. Zana Deux (as preamp) feeding a Beta 22 and the HD800 thumps like an incensed gorilla. 

Good, good-I have the chance to try EC Super 7 into a particleman14 B22 build.
 
Might be a couple of weeks until I can listen, but this could give me a sense of the combination/power/sound potential... 

 

[trentino]

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That's an interesting and timely post as you'll see when you read on below. Before that I'll just say that I'm curious about the W3000ANV's - the person I bought my HD 800 from sold them in favour of a warmer-sounding headphone and was purchasing the W3000ANV around the time of the HD 800 sale.
 
I've recently been finding listening with the HD 800 to be a bit fatiguing again and have been experiencing more ringing in my ears than normal after using the HD 800 a lot in the past few weeks, even at my low-level listening volumes of ~70-75 db. Yesterday I had the insight to resort to something I did a while back but haven't done for a while - EQ. 
 
Armed with my HD 800's frequency response graph and a parametric EQ, I EQ'd my HD 800 to a flat response and the result is much, much easier on my hearing than the stock HD 800 sound. All the piercing highs are gone and there is more bass, and so far I'm finding the overall sound of the EQ'd HD 800 to be a more enjoyably visceral experience in relation to the stock HD 800. I'm finding that I can still using the EQ'd HD 800 use to peer into the smallest details of recordings but I have no compulsion to do so. To me this leads to more listening enjoyment than with the stock HD 800. It doesn't sound treble centric like before; it now sounds more cohesive and very well-balanced. As I now listen to the instrumental rock of Pelican as I type this, I'm satisfied and not wanting for anything else sonically. It's all there.
 
I don't think I want to expose my ears to the levels of treble revealed by the stock HD 800 again. As revealing as it is, to me it seems to be create more pain/fatigue than I want to experience.

 
Pelican ey, nice taste in music
Nice to hear the HD800 can sound good with that music genre, although somewhat eq'd.

 

[Ryujen]

Quote:

I've recently been finding listening with the HD 800 to be a bit fatiguing again and have been experiencing more ringing in my ears than normal after using the HD 800 a lot in the past few weeks, even at my low-level listening volumes of ~70-75 db. Yesterday I had the insight to resort to something I did a while back but haven't done for a while - EQ. 
 
Armed with my HD 800's frequency response graph and a parametric EQ, I EQ'd my HD 800 to a flat response and the result is much, much easier on my hearing than the stock HD 800 sound. All the piercing highs are gone and there is more bass, and so far I'm finding the overall sound of the EQ'd HD 800 to be a more enjoyably visceral experience in relation to the stock HD 800. I'm finding that I can still using the EQ'd HD 800 use to peer into the smallest details of recordings but I have no compulsion to do so. To me this leads to more listening enjoyment than with the stock HD 800. It doesn't sound treble centric like before; it now sounds more cohesive and very well-balanced. As I now listen to the instrumental rock of Pelican as I type this, I'm satisfied and not wanting for anything else sonically. It's all there.
 
I don't think I want to expose my ears to the levels of treble revealed by the stock HD 800 again. As revealing as it is, to me it seems to be create more pain/fatigue than I want to experience.

Yikes! I listen comfortably at ~60db and consider my low level to be ~50db

. And yes eq does wonders for the HD800 (even after being Anax modded). I tend to use my parametric eq only with poorly mastered recordings though. Then again, my anax modded HD800 out of the Continental isn't  as fatiguing as they used to be.

 

[mafiamike]

Hello folks, I first went to this forum for gaming headphones (MLE thread) and I purchased a few cans. I still game out when I get a chance but I am beginning to listen to music more in my spare time. I recently purchased HD800's and my wife thought I was crazy for spending such a large amount of money just for headphones. I never tried the senn's line but I got my chance when I was in Edmonton this past weekend so I bought them. I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and I been listening to tunes for a few days now(15hrs or so). I am not that great at posting reviews but I must say these phones are very clear and detailed. They have just have the perfect amount of bass for me and are comfortable for long hrs of use. I am very pleased to be a senn's owner and I look forward to hearing comments to further improve my existing setup. Thanks

 

[IEMCrazy]

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Not sure if this is entirely correct. The wire seems to be around 28-30 ga on the outside but there's some plastic stuff inside so probably 32 effective.
 
It's definitely not as thick as the K701s stock cable which is probably 28.

 
Yikes!  I thought the K70x cable was the thinnest headphone cable ever made...the HD800 cable looks beefy on the outside.  Kind of sad that it's so thin inside.
 
I take it back, the Sennheiser tradition for crummy cables remains unbroken.  They just made this one look and feel better

 
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Holy cow!
 
Looks like someone wired his mains to the HD800s - lol.

 
No kidding...that looks painful!

 

[musicman59]

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Yikes!  I thought the K70x cable was the thinnest headphone cable ever made...the HD800 cable looks beefy on the outside.  Kind of sad that it's so thin inside.
 
I take it back, the Sennheiser tradition for crummy cables remains unbroken.  They just made this one look and feel better

 
 
No kidding...that looks painful!

That is why I even got the tiny wire that connects internally the connector to the driver replaced too.

 

[IEMCrazy]

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That is why I even got the tiny wire that connects internally the connector to the driver replaced too.

 
Heh, I'm familiar with those hairline wires from HD650.  I'm not bold enough to worry about the last 1/4" of wire, but the 9ft of invisible wire preceeding it...that I may do something about

 

[MelvinV]

I understand the importance of a quality cable but I'm a bit skeptical if there is any noticeable difference between an aftermarket cable and the stock one.
It's extremely hard/impossible to find a place where I can 'test' cables, even finding a HD800 dealer was a bit of trouble imo.
Does anyone know where I can find some graphs? Or has this never been proved anyway?

 

[IEMCrazy]

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I understand the importance of a quality cable but I'm a bit skeptical if there is any noticeable difference between an aftermarket cable and the stock one.
It's extremely hard/impossible to find a place where I can 'test' cables, even finding a HD800 dealer was a bit of trouble imo.
Does anyone know where I can find some graphs? Or has this never been proved anyway?

 
Cable unbelievers will point out there's never been serious graphs proving it.  Cable believers will tell you that the wrong things are being measured by the unbelievers. 
 
Personally, I can hear the difference though it depends on the headphone.  HD650 is highly responsive to cable changes.  HE-400 showed a very slight change in the presentation of treble but nowhere else.  HE-6 showed very little change at all.  Similar cleaning up of some treble as HE-400 but to an even lesser degree.  For HD650 the cable thing is significantly sonically worth it, for the other two sonically it's almost irrelevant to me (it's different but not in a significant way.)  HD800...it's a Senn dynamic and it seems Seen may have, if the above is true, made the same error they made with HD650: Going cheap and using too thin a gauge of cable.  Even if you don't believe in magic cable geometry and the improvement in noise rejection, loss etc.....using too thin a gauge to carry all frequencies at a given current/voltage at a given distance without distortion or loss would indeed be measurable.   I suspect that's what was wrong with the 650 cables too...the gauge. 
 
The thing that takes me out if the wire is so thin, though is the huge hefty jacketing it's packed into to make it look and feel like a high quality cable (and, yes, to make it rugged for studio/stage use.)
 
Though the point of my initial posting was purely ergonomic in nature.  The silicone jacketed stock cable just doesn't do what I want it to do when I want it to do it

  It makes the Moon Dragon cables look well behaved!

 

[Shahrose]

To answer the question. Yes, the HD800 is responsive to cable changes, especially when switching materials (stock is SPC). However, I wouldn't worry about cables until I spent a good deal of time and money on my source and amp. The stock doesn't sound bad IMO; there are just better cables out there.

 

[IEMCrazy]

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To answer the question. Yes, the HD800 is responsive to cable changes, especially when switching materials (stock is SPC). However, I wouldn't worry about cables until I spent a good deal of time and money on my source and amp. The stock doesn't sound bad IMO; there are just better cables out there.

 
A universal truth for all cans

 
In my case, my source is endgame, amp...I've shuffled around for a few ideas....the PM6004 actually sounds great but it has a serious problem that is either a defect or a design flaw....very very quiet passages (-40dB or less) of classical recordings especially with soft wind instruments there's a bit of "extreme grain" or crackle sound that detracts from the music.  It seems to only occur on HD800.  It happened on HE-6 if I forced the signal level really low via the EQ, but never if at normal signal level.  On D5k and HE-400 it wont' do the noise.  And I discovered with HD800 on a recording that doesn't have signal levels that low, if I drop the input voltage to a certain range the noise occurs, but if I raise the signal level above or below that range it's fine.  I suspect a combination of the input signal level combined with the high gain, low input sensitivity, and just the right vgain when used with HD800 on the pre section is creating the problem.  Ugh. It's a shame, it's otherwise a very nice sounding amp for HD800!  
 
I'm thinking of avoiding tubes, just grabing a Mjolnir given the positive response from other HD800/MJ users and calling it a day

  I'm EQ'ing so I don't need my amp to color anything favorably...I'll create my own coloration.  Darn you, sphinx, for getting me to buy your headphones and thus another amp!

 
I bet HD800 would sound fantastic on my MM7025, and with the HE-Adapter would probably even work....but I'm hesitant feeding HD800 to such extreme power potential, even if it's well controlled.