[HiFiHawaii808]

Guys if you listen to 800S on a good speaker amp with a tube pre please do it. I am listening right now on ref5SE into X350.8 and oh man. Its truly mind blowing. It puts my upgraded elekit tu8600S and audio gd he9 to shame. The level of resolution, huge stage, beautiful tone and incredible dynamics. I am rediscovering all my music. I just can't believe how much 800S can scale!

I agree about the scalability of the HD800S.

My set up is Bluesound Node 2i > Chord Mscaler > Chord Hugo TT2 > Ampsandsound Rockwell tube amp and really turns the HD800S into a great TOTL all arounder.

 

[IZONE]

To be honest as someone who followed the whole drama of 2nd order distortions from the beginning of the HD800S birth and Tyll's original review and Jude's rebutting of this claim. I don't hear it and it's a non-issue for me. I think Jude pretty much disproved this by using better measurement rigs and after talking with Sennheiser. To be fair to Tyll I believe he said it was just a theory only and that he cannot confirm it. This theory started spreading like urban legend and people quote it like it's a fact which it is not

 

[shabta]

To be honest as someone who followed the whole drama of 2nd order distortions from the beginning of the HD800S birth and Tyll's original review and Jude's rebutting of this claim. I don't hear it and it's a non-issue for me. I think Jude pretty much disproved this by using better measurement rigs and after talking with Sennheiser. To be fair to Tyll I believe he said it was just a theory only and that he cannot confirm it. This theory started spreading like urban legend and people quote it like it's a fact which it is not

It's been measured across different rigs on different sets of HD800S's. I've seen measurements as recently as 2018. Jude's measurements seem to be the outlier.

It's pretty easy to hear it for yourself. If you raise the bass, using eq, a few db, you start to hear the bass on the HD800S sounds more distorted than on the OG HD800. Nothing in Jude's measurement accounts for that, yet numerous other measurements do provide an explanation. If you are into eqing the HD800 series, it's definitely better to use the HD800, especially after modding. I have both, so I oughta know . Anyway, I agree that you won't hear the bass distortion (as distortion) without eq.

In any case they are both a great set of cans.

 

[Nostoi]

I am having *major* issues trying to remove a Furutech plug from my HD800s with the hope of cable rolling. I know removing the cables on the HD800s isn't a breeze - the stock cable was already tricky - but holy sh&t, this is basically immovable. Anyone ever unplugged a Furutech connector from the cup? Any tips? At this rate, it would be less hassle to buy a new pair of HD800s....

Because I know many of you would have been concerned , I'm happy to announce that the cable has now been removed. Shout out to the good folks at LifeLike in Vienna. We are blessed in Vienna to be *literally* drowning in high-end audio stores, and they are one of the best.

Anyone want an as new Furutech iHP-35Hx cable, drop me a line. It's a fantastic SE cable, but I'm moving to balanced for portable use. Cheers.

 

[Nostoi]

Doing some listening to my HD800S’s out of my newly acquired Luxman P-750u. This just may be the best I’ve heard them.

Sorry to "necropost" (or whatever it's called), but which Arctic variant is that? Looks majestic with your silver Chord and Luxman gear.

 

[Slim1970]

Sorry to "necropost" (or whatever it's called), but which Arctic variant is that? Looks majestic with your silver Chord and Luxman gear.

It is the Arctic Cables Signum+. It was a very warm sounding silver cable that let the HD800S’s be themselves. Funny thing is I have none of that gear any longer outside of the HMS and OPTO-DX. Even the Susvara’s and HEKse’s in the background have been replaced.

 

[smodtactical]

Guys I need your help. As I mentioned previous I am blown away by the sound of the pass/arc combo with 800S. It is a huge step above my elekit tu8600S and HE9. The only issue is this stack is noisy and generates too much heat.

The guys on the sonic visions discord recommend upgrading the tu8600S with better 300b tubes (maybe elrog) and upgrading caps and maybe getting a passive preamp.

Any thoughts on a headphone chain I could build that wouldnt be so hot and noisy but would be as good sonically ?

 

[Nostoi]

It is the Arctic Cables Signum+. It was a very warm sounding silver cable that let the HD800S’s be themselves. Funny thing is I have none of that gear any longer outside of the HMS and OPTO-DX. Even the Susvara’s and HEKse’s in the background have been replaced.

Thanks, I was thinking it was the Signum+. No temptation to get another pair of HD800S?

 

[Slim1970]

Thanks, I was thinking it was the Signum+. No temptation to get another pair of HD800S?

I think about picking up another set quite a bit actually, but I haven’t acted on it yet. I have a bunch of headphones in my rotation and it’s hard finding time to get to them all. I’m thinking about cutting down. We’ll see……..

 

[smodtactical]

Anyone using a ZMF pilot pad or thicker headband cover ?

 

[alpha80]

To be honest as someone who followed the whole drama of 2nd order distortions from the beginning of the HD800S birth and Tyll's original review and Jude's rebutting of this claim. I don't hear it and it's a non-issue for me. I think Jude pretty much disproved this by using better measurement rigs and after talking with Sennheiser. To be fair to Tyll I believe he said it was just a theory only and that he cannot confirm it. This theory started spreading like urban legend and people quote it like it's a fact which it is not

Tyll is an honest man, and offered a spectacular service to the headphone community.

What he said about the HD600, HD800s, K812 and many other headphones are all solid opinions, and his theories are also of sound mind and reasoning.

There is definitely more harmonic distortion on the 800s, and it makes it a more “pleasing” “musical” sounding headphone than the OG 800, for many, except those who power the OG800 with a very harmonic tube amp lol

What many layman don’t understand is that NATURE is chock full of 2nd and 3rd order harmonic distortion…. So when we see a live concert, listen to speakers in any room which isn’t fully treated, or jam/practice with a band in any untreated space, that space is perpetually loaded with infinitely more 2nd & 3rd order harmonic distortion, than any incomplete acoustic design in headphones could ever generate.

So while there is VALUE to certain professionals to use tools with as close to zero harmonic distortion as possible (other than what we add deliberately with devices like Empirical Labs Full Analogue Tape Saturation Optimzer, etc)

There is also extreme VALUE to hobbyists looking for the most “pleasant”, “musical”, “natural”, “soulful”, “full” sound signature, so much that many use TUBE amps, which by their very nature add significant amounts of 2nd and 3rd order Harmonic distortion to whatever music signal they process.

It’s shocking to see some who spends thousands of dollars on tube amps and then speak negatively on harmonic distortion.

Harmonic distortion is exactly what they’re spending money on to avoid “clinical” “dry” “soulless” “unnatural” sound.

I blame the use of the word “distortion” in describing the harmonics. Since the very word “distortion” in lay vernacular has a connotation totally different than “harmony” lol

 

[Brahmsian]

Should we read anything into the fact that the 800S has been out of stock at the Sennheiser website for some time?

 

[alpha80]

^Normally, yes.

But given today’s climate of both legit&fauxmented supply chain issues, I don’t think it means all the things it used to.

 

[ferraro25]

Since I was close to literally being burned by my RAAL SR1a (they started heating up out of nowhere - luckily I did not have them on my head at the time), I had completely given up on ever using them again and this led to me "downgrading" back to the HD 800 S. Actually, I was surprised at how muddy the HD 800 S sounded and was disappointed by the balance of its treble, so I started out just using the DT 1990 Pro with an EQ to neutralize that horrendous-to-the-point-that-I-cannot-take-someone's-opinion-on-treble-seriously-if-they-don't-think-it-is-a-major-issue ~7.9KHz spike. This sounded very good - more enjoyable than the SR1a without a bass extension EQ, definitely - but, I still was wanting to use the HD 800 S due to remembering how comfortable they are on my head.

I then rediscovered AutoEQ thanks to a video by Crinacle. I remember trying it out on a few headphones maybe ~3 years ago, and not being satisfied with the results - at the time, targeting Harman tuning seemed only to make headphones less clear-sounding, which is my primary concern. To me, if a headphone does not sound clear, it isn't HiFi. This time has been different, though: using the oratory1990 EQ of the HD 800 S (Harman Over Ear 2018 target) in Equalizer APO makes the HD 800 S sound "correct." It is very clear without being super lean, has no glaring peaks or dips, and is capable of sub-30 Hz (I can just turn up the "bass" dial on my RME ADI-2 DAC FS if I want more). I don't currently feel the need to get something "better" than this, and the SR1a only amounts to a very expensive "lesson learned" - I won't be buying any future ribbon-based headphones, nor electrostatics (would rather not risk being shocked, either -- I have a Stax SRS-2020 Basic System II, and that Massdrop x Koss electrostat, btw).

 

[smodtactical]

Update on my comparisons. Today I tried a new combination. 12ax7 mullard and 12au7 RCA clear tops (all NOS tubes) in the elekit tu8600. This combination is amazing. The soundstage opens up but the mullard brings a beautiful tone. Elekit is catching up to the big stack.

The final step now is 300B upgrade. I am leaning towards Elrogs (over WE300B reissue). I think this may take the elekit to stack level and maybe even beyond.