[pctazhp]

  With their somewhat objective point of view they are still quite engaging…..what I continually find interesting is the portrayal of space, depending on  the recording it’s not so much the width of the soundscape but the depth behind the layering.
For example…as good as the HD650s are swapping over to the 800S I have the sensation of stepping out of the recording booth with a direct feed to actually standing in the hall or venue. Yes the sound source is less intimate and distant but the presentation IMHO is more true to the space, not everyone’s cup of tea as singer X is not whispering in your ear, the staging of the 800s is much closer to that of a speaker set-up unless you like your speakers next to your ears (actually did that quite often in the 60s 

lol)

This is just my personal experience. With my Valhalla2 (which for me doesn't hold a candle to my Elise) the S can sound a little analytic as opposed to musical. With the Elise it is truly magical, and seems very true in most instances to the particular recording venue of what I'm listening to.
 
I know what you mean about near-field listening from the 60s

 

[Tentacles]

  Hello! quick question for the owners of the HD 800S
I have a fostex hp a4  Dac/Amp Combo... but only use the Dac (amazing little dac) and pair it with a Objective 2 Amplifier (discrete amp).   Do you guys think my current set up will be enough to run the HD 800s WELL?   I currently have hd 650s and they sound great with my setup.
 
I am tempted to drop 1600$ on the cans but dont want to drop another 1000+ on headphone amp and dac...     
 
 
or would it be a waste of money if im not willing to spend more on a higher end more powerful amp/dac?
 
 
thanks in advance 

 
I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm starting to be somewhat convinced that fancy amps and DACs are mostly a waste of money. I've gone back to plugging my headphones directly into my MacBook, since I can't tell the difference between when I'm using other things in the signal chain and when I'm not, and it leaves my desk less cluttered.
 
They're great sounding headphones.

 

[nephilim32]

The W4S Recovery is a reclocker for the USB path,  It adds Femto clock and really smooths and opens up the digital signal.  Sounds much more analog, Getting rid of any kind of digital glare.  Pretty amazing inexpensive product.  It does similar things as the Jitterbug just at a much higher level.  The Remedy is a reclocker for Coax and Optical signal path.  It is more expensive than the Recovery, but it does a fantastic job on Redbook CDs.  It also adds Femto clock and up-samples the CDs to 96 KHz.  Makes Redbooks sound perform as good as their high resolution counterparts.

If your source sounds better the HD800S can reproduce it.  I find the HD800S are very revealing of lower quality sources, so these Wyred 4 Sound units really improve the headphones through improving the source.

I'm really considering adding the (audio remedy) to my sound chain. I haven't experienced any jitter yet with using my ARCAM IrDAC, however I know that is not the point. Clock oscillators in DAC's expensive or not, need a back up.
I imagine my CDs being more easily digestible from my player to my DAC with the remedy. Some sources carry a very strong digital weight if you will, and I think most DAC's struggle to clean that up so I'd be really curious to hear my cd sources getting some added care with in a 24/96k up sample setting.
Thanks randy. Great post. This reclocker has me very interested.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I'm really considering adding the (audio remedy) to my sound chain. I haven't experienced any jitter yet with using my ARCAM IrDAC, however I know that is not the point. Clock oscillators in DAC's expensive or not, need a back up.

I imagine my CDs being more easily digestible from my player to my DAC with the remedy. Some sources carry a very strong digital weight if you will, and I think most DAC's struggle to clean that up so I'd be really curious to hear my cd sources getting some added care with in a 24/96k up sample setting.
Thanks randy. Great post. This reclocker has me very interested.

What evidence do you have for this? Do you think people can actually hear the differences in clocks? Extremely unlikely. So you have heard a DAC struggling with heavy digitization? What does this sound like? Not trying to be an ass, but these types of claims are almost sensational and sensational claims need solid evidence.

 

[Randy Myers]

Well I have both the Remedy and the Recovery.  Both make a big difference, and both have won numerous awards.  At one point I was exchanging emails with Jason, CEO from NuPrime when I owned their DAC-10 H.  He was under the same impression as you, and also like you, had no experience with either.  He wanted me to experiment for him, with and without the Remedy.  I gave it several back and forth tests over a couple days.  It was an enormous difference.  The Remedy made a big difference.  Jason appreciated me running the tests he asked for and reporting back.

 

[wormcycle]

That's pretty typical: I did not hear any jitter, but Recovery and Remedy helped a lot. Yes , they changed the sound signature and you like it better this way, particularly after spending all this money. And they won numerous awards.....etc etc

 

[Whazzzup]

Audio quest jitterbug also works. Did a few A/B improved depth, took edge off the notes a bit not as hollow, also has reduced the occasional jitter. So looks like these things work, formento clock aside in my case. FYI this is with audio quest diamond usb into chord Hugo TT. I actually noticed even more improvement into my HPA8 via oyaide 5S continental 

 

[Sonic Defender]

Oh well, I was hoping that for once there was some actual evidence beyond the subjective, obviously that isn't the case. Anyway, I'll leave this contentious topic alone as it will get into the sound science realm and take the thread off-topic.

 

[Whazzzup]

  Oh well, I was hoping that for once there was some actual evidence beyond the subjective, obviously that isn't the case. Anyway, I'll leave this contentious topic alone as it will get into the sound science realm and take the thread off-topic.

Before you go all I can communicate is what I hear. The rest of it is up to you. By the way its a cheap option in canada 65$ well worth it

 

[Randy Myers]

It is so typical.  People slamming a product without ever even trying it.  I go for purity in sound and do not have the budget to throw money away.  If an improvement can be gotten for a reasonable amount I am willing to try it.  Maybe research a little, read some reviews, actually try something knowing you can return it if you don't like it before you slam it.
 
These are designed by EJ Sarmento; he is considered one of the young genius audio designers.  There are tons of reviews... maybe research just a little tiny bit would be one suggestion...

 

[nephilim32]

Oh well, I was hoping that for once there was some actual evidence beyond the subjective, obviously that isn't the case. Anyway, I'll leave this contentious topic alone as it will get into the sound science realm and take the thread off-topic.

Hi there. I'm not making any claims. I'm merely trying to ensure a well timed signal or great transmission pick up with in a timed clock pathway. Lots of problems can occur during D/A conversion. Jitter of course, is only one of them. I'm taking a precaution. Haven't tried the (audio remedy) yet and I'm not saying it works. However, due to my feelings and research of D/A conversion I do want to try it.

Here. Watch this review. This guy is very legit.
https://youtu.be/ElYNSRzULyg

 

[DavidA]

Getting a little of topic here, think it should be move to a thread that deals with these USB devices

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Getting a little of topic here, think it should be move to a thread that deals with these USB devices

Absolutely, there is an entire forum for Cables, power and tweaks and that would be a great place for such discussions. It is funny how those who are into objective data are told to go to the sound science forum, but those that like to discuss such tweaks are never asked to go to the actual forum for them? So back to the HD800S now?

 

[Jawed]

I think when one is contemplating spending nearly as much money on a gadget to go with your DAC as the DAC itself cost, there's something horribly wrong.

Unfortunately finding a low cost DAC that makes such expensive gadgets unnecessary is really hard. It's a real shame.

In many cases it might be preferable to use a high-quality optical fibre to connect a DAC to a computer, which solves the isolation problem that USB requires, and results in a really good sound. USB is much more convenient though and allows higher sampling rates (if you have such music).

When I bought my Hugo TT, the built-in galvanic isolation was a reassuring factor: "hey I don't need to use a Remedy!". I eventually added the combination of Tripplite USB cable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008VOPCGY

and Jitterbug:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YTA78FW

and it's made music more enjoyable: it sounds more open, treble edginess disappeared, sibilant spikiness disappeared and the flow and dynamics of music are much better. So even an expensive DAC with very good galvanic isolation on USB can benefit from gadgets. Luckily these two things are really cheap. Other people have reported that more expensive gadgets such as the Remedy don't improve the USB connection for my DAC, so I'm happy to leave it there.

In the end the DAC you own defines how much money you will likely have to spend on gadgets to solve USB's electrical problems. It might be better to buy a DAC that has less trouble with USB's electrical problems. But they tend to be expensive (e.g. Chord 2Qute).

 

[Randy Myers]

You are 100% right, the Remedy, which is on the expensive side for "gadgets" does nothing for the USB signal path.  It works on Coax and Optical.  The Recovery, which is considerably less expensive works on the USB path.
 
If you are going done the S/PDIF route you are much better off using Coax rather than Optical.  There are a ton of technical documents on this including Benchmarks very very in depth manual.  EJ Sarmento also told me this directly.
 
As to technical reason for these gadgets I would direct you to several of the in depth reviews or even Wyred 4 Sound website that does go a little into it.  As to anti-jitter I would say go no further than Benchmark who get as deep into tech as any place you want to go.  Their system is called UltraLock3.  They have tons of White Papers written on the subject on their website and their 71 page all English manual goes extremely deep into the tech aspects of digital sound.  This of course is after the signal gets to the DAC, but items like the JitterBug, Recovery, and Remedy are to get the full signal to the DAC.  There are many many papers written on this subject.  I might suggest some research in this area if you are interested.   As a computer engineer I also thought it is just 1's and 0's... but with digital sound there is so much more to it than that.

Why this relates back to the HD800S and why these few posts of the 379 pages in this thread are speaking of this is because the Sennheiser HD800S headphones are the most revealing headphones I have ever heard that show issues with the sound source more so than others I have used.  So getting the sound source the best that you can is utterly imperative to get the best from these amazing headphones.
 
Granted I do not have the amount of experience as many on this forum with various headphones.  In fact I am basing this opinion on owning just four high end headphones.  My current top of the line Sennheiser and my other current headphones top of the line from KEF.  the other two are Audeze and McIntosh that I owned within the previous year.