[Dobrescu George]

  As you know, with 2 other Head-Fiers, We has organised a micro-micro-Canjam, with HD800, HD800s, HE1000, TH900 and Dhrama, using TotalDAC and GSX or EC445.
 
I was out of luck since I had a flu this day, so my hears were not at their best...   However:
 
- All 3 of us have not heard any real improvement between HD800 and HD800s. This was disapointing.
- Re the Dhrama, my friend who has a HE1000 prefered by far the Dhrama to the 2 HD800s. He though the Dhrama offer the same tonality & quality than his HE1000 bit still was lacking soundstage. I also Prefer Dhrama to the HD800.   But, I still like my TH900 a lot !
- We tested the HE1000 with the special cable that allow to connect the HE1000 direct to the TotalDACs line out: Sound was VERY  VERY good indeed, to the point that my friend who has the HE1000 will buy a TotalDAC (but before he may try to hear the DAVE). 

I would be very curious in more details of a comparation between th900 and hd800S, as I will be able to hear HD800S, but nowhere to demo th900.

 

[Whazzzup]

Its just how i feel, im not knocking any amp tube or otherwise. Granted a fellow TT owner suggested he liked his ss better than wa5 he owned. but thats him. I have another buddy that swears by tubes. However nothing wrong in SS either. certainly less to consider like warm up etc... 

 

[raybone0566]

A sad tale of woe and user stupidity...

I yanked a driver tube before the caps had discharged - that blew a driver on my HD800 and damaged the amp. Later I put a rubbish 300B tube in it that went bad - cooked the amp. Have some replacement parts on the way from Glenn, then will get a local repair guy on the job. It will get fixed, but will take a while. Really kicking myself for being so stupid :rolleyes:

Sorry to hear that tony. Hope you get that beauty up an running again.

 

[Nicklikesmusic]

Good points Sorrodje!  As an opposite example, I was roaming around the US all last summer. I listened mostly to NAD HP50s which sound great out of my phone. They are also way warmer and a tilted towards the bassier end of the spectrum. When I finally returned to France, and listened to my home rig, I needed a good half hour to readjust my ears to the HD800.


I am surprised you don't hear a wee bit more bass though on the S. I'll concede that I don't hear it on lots of tracks, and maybe sometimes my brain is fooled because the S sounds a smidge warmer and less airy. But on the Kendrick Lamar and other hip hop tracks I played it was pretty damn obvious to me that the S went lower. But maybe it's expectation bias? Dunno.
I really don't know what neutral is. I do know what certain instruments should sound like and their the best I have heard is on the HD800  & HD800 S and the SR009. Admittedly they are all really on the bright side.As you say debate is pointless about that. And it is interesting that labels like 2L are using the HD800 to monitor/mix, so others are reaching a similar conclusion about what headphone renders classical instruments most accurately. 

Hi Shabta I think from memory your HD800 only goes to 3dB on the bottom end frequencies whilst your HD800S goes to 5dB. Many newer HD800 's go to 5dB and Sorrodje possibly has one of these. That possibly could be the reason why both you have conflicting opinions.

 

[Jawed]

I am using my HD800S with my Sony ZX2 and Mojo and so far I am really enjoying the sound. However I would ideally like to get a desktop amp/dac with a balanced output socket and have in mind the Oppo HA-1 or Sennheiser HDVD800 but just wondered if there are any cheaper options out there?

The DAC in HDVD 800 is about as good as the DAC in a PC motherboard from, oh, about 5 years ago. Avoid at all costs.

Balanced is not necessarily better than single-ended. Seriously, do not prioritise balanced over a good DAC/amp that's single ended (Mojo).

In other words, I think there's a high probability you will waste a lot of money buying desktop equipment that sounds worse than Mojo driving your HD 800 S. To better Mojo you need something at the level of Hugo TT.

 

[joshk4]

I have both the mojo and hdvd 800, in my opinion, I find the hd 800 is superb on hdvd 800 and mojo is ok.

 

[vnmslsrbms]

Balanced is not necessarily better than single-ended. Seriously, do not prioritise balanced over a good DAC/amp that's single ended (Mojo).

The only thing I know for sure on Balanced is that it's louder than single ended coming from the same source.  Sometimes I think it sounds better.  Sometimes I just like the connection better.  But yeah for devices with only single ended, it was designed just for that and should sound great as designed.  See the Mcintosh HPA-100.  It's a well designed piece of kit and is only single ended.  

 

[Christer]

Correct. During  the sessions I attended and photographed  at for Morten of 2L he used HD 800. And  he was the one who really introduced me to the HD 800. We even compared my  then Grado GS1000 to several other Sennheisers like 600 and  650,he had plenty of them, and the HD800.  With acess to the live sound of both  chamber orchestra and church  choir ,there was no doubt at all that the HD 800 came clearly closest to how things really  sounded live in the two different churches he recorded in then.
I haven't been in contact with Morten  for a while. But judging from some photos I saw on  the NADAC site. He now uses  a  Horus for his native DXD recordings. At   the sessions I have been to, he was still using a DAD AX24 but  also recording in DXD.
And it also seems he has now also got some  STAX elecrostatic headphones for monitoring.
Cheers Chris currently enjoying my latest DSD download from native DSD.com. 5 wonderful overtures by Dvorak very well recorded by Pentatone in a hall I also know pretty well.

 

[xanlamin]

  As you know, with 2 other Head-Fiers, We has organised a micro-micro-Canjam, with HD800, HD800s, HE1000, TH900 and Dhrama, using TotalDAC and GSX or EC445.
 
I was out of luck since I had a flu this day, so my hears were not at their best...   However:
 
- All 3 of us have not heard any real improvement between HD800 and HD800s. This was disapointing.
- Re the Dhrama, my friend who has a HE1000 prefered by far the Dhrama to the 2 HD800s. He though the Dhrama offer the same tonality & quality than his HE1000 bit still was lacking soundstage. I also Prefer Dhrama to the HD800.   But, I still like my TH900 a lot !
- We tested the HE1000 with the special cable that allow to connect the HE1000 direct to the TotalDACs line out: Sound was VERY  VERY good indeed, to the point that my friend who has the HE1000 will buy a TotalDAC (but before he may try to hear the DAVE). 

 
So out of these TOTL headphones, which one do you enjoy most?

 

[obsidyen]

If you like bass, TH900 is better than HD800, no doubt. EDM, hiphop, Top 40 music sounds much better. I care little for classical, jazz etc. I don't know about HD800S as I haven't heard it, but there's no way it could have the bass of TH900. High quality and present bass is my priority. Thus, I'll get Fostex TH900 MK2. It's an improved version, much like HD800S.
 
http://www.fostex.jp/products/th900mk2/

 

[plakat]

I have both the mojo and hdvd 800, in my opinion, I find the hd 800 is superb on hdvd 800 and mojo is ok.

That was my feeling as well after a short trial with Mojo. Still I like the Mojo very much with the Oriolus in-ear.

 

[magiccabbage]

   
 
- All 3 of us have not heard any real improvement between HD800 and HD800s. This was disappointing.
 

Really - no difference at all? Can you explain further?

 

[Christer]

  If you like bass, TH900 is better than HD800, no doubt. EDM, hiphop, Top 40 music sounds much better. I care little for classical, jazz etc. I don't know about HD800S as I haven't heard it, but there's no way it could have the bass of TH900. High quality and present bass is my priority. Thus, I'll get Fostex TH900 MK2. It's an improved version, much like HD800S.
 
http://www.fostex.jp/products/th900mk2/

Each to his own as the saying goes. But "better" should be in brackets, in this case  because it is simply more pumped up, more exaggerated and not really accurate imo.
No Fostex headphone I have heard can really compete with the HD800 in transparency and accuracy and  in any  true HIFI sense.

 

[obsidyen]

 
Each to his own as the saying goes. But "better" should be in brackets, in this case  because it is simply more pumped up, more exaggerated and not really accurate imo.
No Fostex headphone I have heard can really compete with the HD800 in transparency and accuracy and  in any  true HIFI sense.

I didn't say it competes in transparency and accuracy, even though TH900 is very good at those in my opinion. I said "if you like bass...". TH900 bass is far better, in my opinion for the genres I mentioned. Have you ever heard TH900? It's not a bloated bass cannon. It has present and thunderous bass but only when the recording calls for it. You can EQ it to sound very bassy with no distortion whatsoever, but in its stock form, it only pumps out thunderous bass if the artist intended that. Also it can go to depths HD800 can never go. Again "if you like bass..." and "EDM, hiphop, Top 40 music" are the key words here.

 

[sghound]

  I didn't say it competes in transparency and accuracy, even though TH900 is very good at those in my opinion. I said "if you like bass...". TH900 bass is far better, in my opinion for the genres I mentioned. Have you ever heard TH900? It's not a bloated bass cannon. It has present and thunderous bass but only when the recording calls for it. You can EQ it to sound very bassy with no distortion whatsoever, but in its stock form, it only pumps out thunderous bass if the artist intended that. Also it can go to depths HD800 can never go. Again "if you like bass..." and "EDM, hiphop, Top 40 music" are the key words here.

 
exactly.
 
there are many cans dat are more suited to these genres than hd800.