jdandy
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2011
- Posts
- 164
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- 29
Holy mackerel. The new Sennheiser HD800 headphones sound incredible. The new headphone was my Christmas gift to myself. Evidently I was not as naughty this past year as I originally thought. .
This new Sennheiser HD800 is like no other headphone I have ever experienced. The way the 56mm transducers are angled in front of the ear, similar to how speakers in a room would be, the sound stage is created very much with the same auditory sensation as listening to speakers. With my previous Sennheiser HD600 and the HD580 before that, both developed a different mental image more centralized in your head. The Sennheiser HD800 develops a wide and deep sound stage that seems to be coming from the front rather than strictly side to side. It creates a sense of space I have not experienced before with a headphone. The overall frequency range sounds rich and full from bottom to top. Bass is articulate and robust without the artificial boomy bump in the 60 to 150 Hz range that is often designed into headphones to make them sound like they go deeper than they actually do. My sense is the lower frequency range is well balanced with the midrange. They are neither bass shy nor bass heavy. Just right in my opinion. The midrange is airy, highly resolved, offering a clear window into the performance. The top frequency range is open and crystal clean. Cymbals ring beautifully, piano is full range and glorious in its range and dynamics. In addition, the comfort factor is very high. The HD800 is not a feather weight headphone at 330-grams, but despite the heft it's weight is easily distributed across the headband and the ultra soft and large ear cups. My ears are bigger than most (all the better to hear you with Little Red Riding Hood) and I am pleased they fit entirely inside the ear cups without touching any part of the inside edges. This headphone can be worn for hours without a hint of fatique. The disappear, leaving you directly connected to the music. Truly amazing.
The quality of construction, the fit and finish and the performance level of the HD800 is well worth its price tag. In my opinion, the Sennheiser HD800 is a premium headphone in all aspects. They are hand built at the Sennheiser headquarters in Germany and have the attention to detail the Germans are well known for. And finally Sennheiser delivered a headphone cable worthy of a premium headphone. It is four conductor silver plated oxygen free copper, individually insulated and then sheathed in a soft woven material jacket that is reinforced with Kevlar. Touching the cable or moving it while wearing the headphone does not transmit any noise into the headphone. The headphone connectors are a locking type and the 1/4 inch stereo phone plug is substantial. It is not the kind that has a mini stereo plug inserted in it as part of its offering so there are no additional contact points in the signal path to degrade its performance. This is a true high quality stereo 1/4 inch phone jack. Kudos to Sennheiser for this excellent improvement in headphone cabling.
My headphone rig is the Musical Fidelity X-Can V8P tube headphone amplifier with Gold Lions tubes installed, the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2, and the Oppo BDP83 used as a transport. It is connected to the DAC2 with a Wireworld Starlight 6 digital cable. Then there is the new Sennheiser HD800 headphone. This is an amzing sounding headphone rig by any measure.
I initially made the decision to purchase the Sennheiser HD700 headphone but when it got down to pulling the trigger my mouse pointer just slipped over to the HD800 and wouldn't move. I caved and clicked. Why not go with their premium design. The rest is history. The headphone has been on my head for the past three hours and it sounds fabulous. No doubt it will improve with a hundred hours or more of break-in, but right out of the box the Sennheiser HD800 is an absolute joy to hear.
This new Sennheiser HD800 is like no other headphone I have ever experienced. The way the 56mm transducers are angled in front of the ear, similar to how speakers in a room would be, the sound stage is created very much with the same auditory sensation as listening to speakers. With my previous Sennheiser HD600 and the HD580 before that, both developed a different mental image more centralized in your head. The Sennheiser HD800 develops a wide and deep sound stage that seems to be coming from the front rather than strictly side to side. It creates a sense of space I have not experienced before with a headphone. The overall frequency range sounds rich and full from bottom to top. Bass is articulate and robust without the artificial boomy bump in the 60 to 150 Hz range that is often designed into headphones to make them sound like they go deeper than they actually do. My sense is the lower frequency range is well balanced with the midrange. They are neither bass shy nor bass heavy. Just right in my opinion. The midrange is airy, highly resolved, offering a clear window into the performance. The top frequency range is open and crystal clean. Cymbals ring beautifully, piano is full range and glorious in its range and dynamics. In addition, the comfort factor is very high. The HD800 is not a feather weight headphone at 330-grams, but despite the heft it's weight is easily distributed across the headband and the ultra soft and large ear cups. My ears are bigger than most (all the better to hear you with Little Red Riding Hood) and I am pleased they fit entirely inside the ear cups without touching any part of the inside edges. This headphone can be worn for hours without a hint of fatique. The disappear, leaving you directly connected to the music. Truly amazing.
The quality of construction, the fit and finish and the performance level of the HD800 is well worth its price tag. In my opinion, the Sennheiser HD800 is a premium headphone in all aspects. They are hand built at the Sennheiser headquarters in Germany and have the attention to detail the Germans are well known for. And finally Sennheiser delivered a headphone cable worthy of a premium headphone. It is four conductor silver plated oxygen free copper, individually insulated and then sheathed in a soft woven material jacket that is reinforced with Kevlar. Touching the cable or moving it while wearing the headphone does not transmit any noise into the headphone. The headphone connectors are a locking type and the 1/4 inch stereo phone plug is substantial. It is not the kind that has a mini stereo plug inserted in it as part of its offering so there are no additional contact points in the signal path to degrade its performance. This is a true high quality stereo 1/4 inch phone jack. Kudos to Sennheiser for this excellent improvement in headphone cabling.
My headphone rig is the Musical Fidelity X-Can V8P tube headphone amplifier with Gold Lions tubes installed, the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2, and the Oppo BDP83 used as a transport. It is connected to the DAC2 with a Wireworld Starlight 6 digital cable. Then there is the new Sennheiser HD800 headphone. This is an amzing sounding headphone rig by any measure.
I initially made the decision to purchase the Sennheiser HD700 headphone but when it got down to pulling the trigger my mouse pointer just slipped over to the HD800 and wouldn't move. I caved and clicked. Why not go with their premium design. The rest is history. The headphone has been on my head for the past three hours and it sounds fabulous. No doubt it will improve with a hundred hours or more of break-in, but right out of the box the Sennheiser HD800 is an absolute joy to hear.
