[jonstatt]

   
 
My serial number is 34XXX. I bought my classic December 2014.  Does your 800 have spikes you can hear that bother you at times? Mine does, not so much with instruments but with male and female voices mostly.  Jazz, instrumental soundtracks, acoustic instrument music all sound fantastic.  Add a guest vocalist and fantastic can turn to a sibilant or strident recording. My 800 is modded and I have a Violectric V281 HP amp that helps tame a lot of spiking, but it's still there at times.

 
I have two primary headphones, the HD800 and LCD-3. I use the HD800 for orchestral and the LCD-3 for vocals. So I avoid the problem you are talking about. I am not sure whether what I hear are "spikes", but just a rather bright sound. The LCD-3s produce a fantastic piano timbre though for piano solos. It would be so interesting to A/B compare your spiky looking HD800 with my flat one!

 

[CoLdAsSauLt]

The mojo and HD 800 S isn't good according to my ears. The Chord Hugo sounds much better. Likewise with the HD 650.

The mojo should in my opinion should only be used while travelling.

Can you elaborate please? Too much or lack of something specific?

 

[Jawed]

The sibilance in this video is, for example, too hot on my HD 800 S:


[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj_MkuLNBFA[/VIDEO]


It doesn't rip my head off or anything, but it's clearly completely out of proportion with all of the other sound in the video. It's notable that not just "in-game" sibilants but also those from real people are over the top.

I certainly dislike emphasised sibilance and for me the occasional song where sibilance draws attention to itself is problematic. It's certainly not problematic with every singer or every track.

I've noticed there's quite a lot of variation in the tonality of HD 800 S depending on how I place them with respect to my ear canal. So if I push them as far backwards as they will go then there's much less emphasis of sibilance.

I suppose I should find the graph for my HD 800 S to find out how hot it is according to Sennheiser...

 

[ubs28]

Can you elaborate please? Too much or lack of something specific?

Lack of clarity and sound stage among a few things. The HD 800 S with the Chord Hugo sounds closer to high end desktop DAC + amplifiers that I heard with the HD 800 S.

But pricewise / performance wise, it's very good.

 

[CoLdAsSauLt]

Lack of clarity and sound stage among a few things. The HD 800 S with the Chord Hugo sounds closer to high end desktop DAC + amplifiers that I heard with the HD 800 S.

But pricewise / performance wise, it's very good.

Do you have the same impressions with other high-end DAPs? (As far as Mojo counts as a DAP)

 

[ubs28]

Do you have the same impressions with other high-end DAPs? (As far as Mojo counts as a DAP)

I have no experience with high-end DAP's because I was never impressed with their specs driving my IEM's (too high output impedance). I use the Mojo + iPhone 6S plus. 

 

[dharma]

To Jawed
 
It was just nastily compressed videosound... not connected with hp 'problems'. 'Commercially addictive/provocative' sound for low level stuff (tabs, phones etc).
I looked there all commentaries too and nobody was complaining video sound... actually opposite, some raved about 'nice music'

 

[Jawed]

The emphasis of sibilance in that video is indicative of the emphasis, which is why I posted it. My HD 650 (from 2003) does not emphasise sibilance like this.

The in-game sound has the same problem for my HD 800 S (which is why I know that video of game play will show the problem to other people), so it's not the encode that's causing the problem.

 

[musicbuff]

   
I have two primary headphones, the HD800 and LCD-3. I use the HD800 for orchestral and the LCD-3 for vocals. So I avoid the problem you are talking about. I am not sure whether what I hear are "spikes", but just a rather bright sound. The LCD-3s produce a fantastic piano timbre though for piano solos. It would be so interesting to A/B compare your spiky looking HD800 with my flat one!

I have my LCD-X up for sale (loved the bass but it bled into the mids and highs), just too warm sounding for my taste. Did you post your HD 800 graph? It'd be interesting to look at. Almost sorry I asked for mine, but it confirms what I was hearing. 

 

[jonstatt]

  I have my LCD-X up for sale (loved the bass but it bled into the mids and highs), just too warm sounding for my taste. Did you post your HD 800 graph? It'd be interesting to look at. Almost sorry I asked for mine, but it confirms what I was hearing. 

I did post it earlier. It can be found here http://www.head-fi.org/t/785577/sennheiser-hd800s-unveiled/3045#post_12306901
 
It is very different to yours.

 

[dharma]

The emphasis of sibilance in that video is indicative of the emphasis, which is why I posted it. My HD 650 (from 2003) does not emphasise sibilance like this.

The in-game sound has the same problem for my HD 800 S (which is why I know that video of game play will show the problem to other people), so it's not the encode that's causing the problem.

 
question is not in encoding, but that mostly area from 7-15Khz is oversaturated. Similar 'addictive/provocative' sound is sometimes used in commercials. And bad for gamers, who must tolerate this f..d up sound...

 

[Jawed]

Would you like me to explain again that this is not the recording this is the headphones? The video is an example of the problem, it is not the only instance of the problem. Can you read?

 

[dharma]

Would you like me to explain again that this is not the recording this is the headphones? The video is an example of the problem, it is not the only instance of the problem. Can you read?

 
I can make similarly 'nasty' sibilant 10+ khz sound from normal tracks.. It's the sound chosen by games producers...
If your HD650 is not able not reveal it in this area so what? http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=863&graphID[]=573&graphID[]=853

 

[Jawed]

HD 650 plays the sibilance cleanly. That's the difference. Anyone who is changing from HD 650 should know that HD 800 S is going to make some sibilance a problem. Which is why I posted my experience, since someone asked.

You don't have HD 650 and you don't have HD 800 S, but you insist on telling me what I hear.

 

[SONYES]

 
 
Found a way to upload my graph.  Double spikes: 6 and 10 kHz. Anybody's "S" look like this (I doubt it)? Anyone's classic 800 look like this? Positive note: the bass looks (and sounds) pretty good.

I have two different pairs HD800 sound different from one another older 159XX easy on the ear.
The newer 291XX completely different sound -