[Maxx134]

This is what Sennheiser should have made, and called it the HD800G:




Then ELIMINATE the stupid stock bottleneck connector,
And INCREASE the internal wiring guage...

Hardwire them or at least standardize with a mini XLR,
and fix the peak resonance problem,
Not just the bass.

At least there makin some progress..
Maybe the Sennheiser Giant has finnaly awoken and we will see more..
Those drivers deserve to be in more models.

 

[MattTCG]

My excitement over this announcement is running just as high as anyone's. Of course I'm hoping for a price that is both reasonable and affordable. But, only time will tell and then each of can decide if the price is reasonable and affordable for them. 
 
Remember that Sennheiser was founded in 1945. How many of these other companies producing totl headphones have been around even 10 years? My point is that Sennheiser know what they are doing and they will price this product fairly. 
 
My only issue is the included cable. Many of us will have to stretch to reach whatever price Sennheiser publishes for the 800s. A bundled cable will only add to the cost. Also, there will be many who don't have a balanced amp to use with the cable. Then there will also be many who already have a balanced third party cable or would prefer one over the bundled cable. I don't mind eating Ramen when it comes to my headphone addiction but I don't like to eat it for a cable that I want or need. Look at how many stock "unused" hd800 cables show up every week here. Imagine how many stock "unused" balanced cables there would be from 800s sales. Just my 2c. 

 

[jbarrentine]

Any company charging hundreds of dollars for a cable (or more) should be embarrassed. 

 

[GearMe]

Any company charging hundreds of dollars for a cable (or more) should be embarrassed. 

Yep...was just about to say this but you beat me to it. Need more coffee!!

 

[nicdub]

I like what Sennheiser is doing here.  Making a true flagship headphone better instead of releasing a new $3,999 headphone that only few can afford (you know who I'm talking about).  Not that the HD800s is cheap enough for everyone to buy, as it is obviously going to be quite expensive, and would certainly push me to limits of what I am willing to spend on a headphone.  But the problem I have with this hobby is always thinking the next thing being released is going to be better: better treble, deeper bass, wider soundstage.  Subjectively, this does not always translate to more enjoyment, but rather leads to unhappiness with your current gear.  The HD800 is a true end-game headphone, and if it is improved upon, and priced similar to the original, it seems like a no-brainer.  I'm also interested to see if the changes they make will result in the headphone being less picky with gear, etc.

 

[GearMe]

Get your red hot HD800's.

Audiolab is closed on Sundays but opens tomorrow at 10am -- Road Trip!!!



Sorry...couldn't resist. Yeah, of course I clicked the link. It goes to a HiFiMan RE300a; oh the irony.

 

[up late]

I had only a short hour to enjoy the fujiya-avic festival this fall but I was blessed: anakchan and I got to spend 20-25min talking to Axel Grell, who is actually the father of the HD800 and HD580/6x0 series among other things. That was just awesome!

We could talk about the hd800s tuning and he repeated pretty much the words from the video (response was made a bit flatter and extended at both ends of the spectrum).

When discussing the diy mods that were done to the hd800, he actually mentioned sennheiser tried to reproduce them to see what the enthusiast were raving about. Actually, you'd be amazed how much open he was and clearly listening to the pulse of the crowd (following head-fi in particular). For the felt mod, it turns out sennheiser felt this was kind of ruining their efforts to make a resolving transducers with too much attenuation of the highs and also affecting staging because of the dissymetric absorption in the earcup.

The hd800s tuning is not your typical diy trick apparently. Axel mentionned about a tuned absorber for specific frequencies (helmholtz resonator for those who know a bit about acoustics). That was, they might have addressed the 6khz peak without killing of the upper treble (they managed to extend the highs actually).

Unfortunately, I ran out of time to try the hd800s (would be hard to comment without familiar source and music anyhow) so I will let others comment on the actual sound attributes.

We also had some conversation in regards to the manufacturing of the electrodes for the new orpheus, I will post that in the other thread I guess. That was pretty cool conversation!

The good news is that Axel seems to be back to headphone R&D even though his official role is more in marketing as I understand. He was for instance involved for both the new orpheus and hd800s projects, so a great news I think (I still think the HD800 was one of if not the most innovative phone to be released in the past decade). We briefly talked about the moderate success of the hd700, and I have a feeling Axel will get involved in its successor and/or evolution (note: he did not say he was working on hd700 successor, that's my take from the conversation).

Cheers,
Arnaud

thanks for posting this. hopefully it will shut the naysayers up who are already claiming that the hd800s is nothing more than a hd800 with a diy adapted mod and a new coat of paint.

sennheiser has a proven track record of extensive r&d and quality assurance for its products. i wish I could say the same for some of the newer players in the headphone market.

 

[whirlwind]

  My excitement over this announcement is running just as high as anyone's. Of course I'm hoping for a price that is both reasonable and affordable. But, only time will tell and then each of can decide if the price is reasonable and affordable for them. 
 
Remember that Sennheiser was founded in 1945. How many of these other companies producing totl headphones have been around even 10 years? My point is that Sennheiser know what they are doing and they will price this product fairly. 
 
My only issue is the included cable. Many of us will have to stretch to reach whatever price Sennheiser publishes for the 800s. A bundled cable will only add to the cost. Also, there will be many who don't have a balanced amp to use with the cable. Then there will also be many who already have a balanced third party cable or would prefer one over the bundled cable. I don't mind eating Ramen when it comes to my headphone addiction but I don't like to eat it for a cable that I want or need. Look at how many stock "unused" hd800 cables show up every week here. Imagine how many stock "unused" balanced cables there would be from 800s sales. Just my 2c. 

I agree, Matt.
 
It would be nice if the balanced cable was an option and not part of the package

 

[Jozurr]

  My excitement over this announcement is running just as high as anyone's. Of course I'm hoping for a price that is both reasonable and affordable. But, only time will tell and then each of can decide if the price is reasonable and affordable for them. 
 
Remember that Sennheiser was founded in 1945. How many of these other companies producing totl headphones have been around even 10 years? My point is that Sennheiser know what they are doing and they will price this product fairly. 
 
My only issue is the included cable. Many of us will have to stretch to reach whatever price Sennheiser publishes for the 800s. A bundled cable will only add to the cost. Also, there will be many who don't have a balanced amp to use with the cable. Then there will also be many who already have a balanced third party cable or would prefer one over the bundled cable. I don't mind eating Ramen when it comes to my headphone addiction but I don't like to eat it for a cable that I want or need. Look at how many stock "unused" hd800 cables show up every week here. Imagine how many stock "unused" balanced cables there would be from 800s sales. Just my 2c. 

 
The whole cable thing only looks bad because the HE800 comes without the balanced cable. I agree, that the customers shouldn't be forced to buy them, unless they're offering a significant cut on the cable price (there's no way to tell that's the case). However, comparatively for example, the HE-1000 come with three cables, and only their balanced cable is priced at $200 

 . Yes two wrong's don't make a right and if they've chosen to go this way looking at competitors, they shouldn't have.

 

[Youth]

If they choose to include the balanced cable in the package which leads to an increased price they're gonna loose one customer right here.

 

[ubs28]

Positioning for a new dynamic flagship if you ask me. Senn has history of continuing dethroned flagships and I expect same will happen here. HD800 could command a hefty price premium at launch because it was clearly streets ahead technology wise. Now the market is more competitive than ever, so HD800 price probably needs to come off 20-25% to exist alongside other old and new flagships. So launch the bundle at a slight discount to 800+balanced cable and reduce 800 by 10 or 15%. Then when the new flagship is launced drop the cable to reposition the S as well.

What competition? The HE-1000 costs 3000 euro and the SR-009 isn't cheap either.

Sennheiser can actually increase the price rather than cutting the price of the HD 800.

The HD800 will be priced the same while the HD800S will probably be priced at 2000 euro in my opinion.

 

[Beagle]

  I'm not sure I understand Sennheiser's communication strategy for the HD-800S. They issue no press realse or any specific information but they allow the owner and founder of Head-Fi to post a quasi-announment with little technical information that causes 21+ pages of speculation. Very strange. 

 
How else are they going to be able to determine the price hike? Add $1 for every post.....

 

  Exactly. This is the reason many companies do not talk about forthcoming products and have official product launches. Rumors about the HD-800S have spread beyond Head-Fi and the tenor of those conversations are negative because people assume the "acoustical absorber" is nothing more than a blatant copy of the Analixus modification and no other technical changes were made. And yes, Sennheiser's is very obviously reading every comment in this thread. 

 
In that case, we should all indicate that we won't buy it if it costs more than $1200 US....

 

[shabta]

   
 
 
In that case, we should all indicate that we won't buy it if it costs more than $1200 US....

 +1

 

[mrip541]

   
How else are they going to be able to determine the price hike? Add $1 for every post.....

 
 
In that case, we should all indicate that we won't buy it if it costs more than $1200 US....

 
$1200? Won't buy if over $49.99

 

[jfoxvol]

I would buy if price overall lowered.  I already have a lot of nice headphones. A few of them do what the HD800 can do pretty darn well.  I can't do the treble peak this thing is known for though.  It's been out long enough.  They're finally realizing this.  Do what Beyerdynamic did with their T1.  They came out with a 2nd Gen, lowered the price, and vastly improved performance in areas in which it was previously lacking.  They wanted to stay relevant.  I dunno.  I'm just whining a bit.  I'm ticked that certain companies come out with a new flagship and double the dat gum price at 4 grand.  No way.  No how.  Hard pass.  If Senn is smart here, they have a chance to bring in a lot of people like me who've been on the fence.