[Youth]

  Picked mine up this morning here in Auckland. Really excellent service from Meier Audio in Germany.
 
It's going to be a HD800S weekend

 
Any thoughts on how burn in goes for the HD800S?

 
Jan is a great guy, can only recommend Meier Audio as well.
 
Regarding burn-in I personally don't belive in that, other than brain burn-in. Just use them like you usually would 

 

[lofthanza]

I busted it when I busted my tube amp - nothing to do with the modding. I yanked a driver tube before the caps had discharged and generated a very loud BANG through the right channel - wrecking the driver.

damn! what if u had them on ur head??

 

[TonyNewman]

damn! what if u had them on ur head??

 
I did. My right ear was unhappy for about an hour.
 
An incredibly stupid (and expensive) thing to do. Wrecked a pair of HD800, damaged a 4K amp and my right ear.
 
Don't do this at home, folks.

 

[vlach]

My wallet had a massive cardiac arrest from this hobby about 2 years ago. It is now living in hiding in the jungles of Brazil under an assumed name

This is weird - earlier I mentioned that I was getting a steely / glassy treble effect with my planars (Ether C / modded HE6). I came home tonight and started playing about with the gear - Vega DAC filter settings ... etc. Anyway, the treble now sounds fine, and I am 99.99% sure that the settings are back to where exactly where I started from. Either my brain is processing treble differently today from yesterday, or the power down / power up cycle fixed whatever was causing the steely / glassy treble effect. Very strange.

Sometimes the simple act of yawning clears and equalizes our hearing. I find my perception of sound slightly different early mornings compared to late evenings for example.

 

[Whazzzup]

 

My wallet had a massive cardiac arrest from this hobby about 2 years ago. It is now living in hiding in the jungles of Brazil under an assumed name

This is weird - earlier I mentioned that I was getting a steely / glassy treble effect with my planars (Ether C / modded HE6). I came home tonight and started playing about with the gear - Vega DAC filter settings ... etc. Anyway, the treble now sounds fine, and I am 99.99% sure that the settings are back to where exactly where I started from. Either my brain is processing treble differently today from yesterday, or the power down / power up cycle fixed whatever was causing the steely / glassy treble effect. Very strange.

Sometimes the simple act of yawning clears and equalizes our hearing. I find my perception of sound slightly different early mornings compared to late evenings for example.

That is a fact of biology, our ears improve throughout the day, evening listening is better than mornings. The degree is individual.

 

[cartergaz]

Just enjoy the ride!! 

 

[phonomat]

hehe, and what if it answers? 

Then Sennheiser would have every right to call it an earspeaker. Watch out, Stax!

 

[xp9433]

  This is weird - earlier I mentioned that I was getting a steely / glassy treble effect with my planars (Ether C / modded HE6). I came home tonight and started playing about with the gear - Vega DAC filter settings ... etc. Anyway, the treble now sounds fine, and I am 99.99% sure that the settings are back to where exactly where I started from. Either my brain is processing treble differently today from yesterday, or the power down / power up cycle fixed whatever was causing the steely / glassy treble effect. Very strange.

 
What time was it? Seriously. I often get some of my best SQ late at night when I suspect the neighborhood has gone to bed. Perhaps the mains power is cleaner then?

 

[gevorg]

 
This is weird - earlier I mentioned that I was getting a steely / glassy treble effect with my planars (Ether C / modded HE6). I came home tonight and started playing about with the gear - Vega DAC filter settings ... etc. Anyway, the treble now sounds fine, and I am 99.99% sure that the settings are back to where exactly where I started from. Either my brain is processing treble differently today from yesterday, or the power down / power up cycle fixed whatever was causing the steely / glassy treble effect. Very strange.

What time was it? Seriously. I often get some of my best SQ late at night when I suspect the neighborhood has gone to bed. Perhaps the mains power is cleaner then?

Yep, power fluctuations *may* affect audio performance, especially with highly resolving HD800. Checkout isolation transformers if you want day=night SQ.

YMMV.

 

[Whazzzup]

Or power conditioners that provide continuous linear power supply. I dont think the eratic sine wave of non linear delevery is ever better or worse throught a day. Im not sure how it effects audio or video devices, but i use conditioners anyways.

 

[Energy]

TonyNewman: So sorry to hear about the unfortunate accident.
 
Shabta: In your opinion would you say the $100 increase is justified for the HD800S?
In my opinion the sibilant high's in the HD800 is just too much for me at times even with the Anaxilus mod. Sometimes i think upon selling it and oping out to other headphones such as the bulky Audeze or less refined HiFiMAN but this "S" sheds some hope. So in your words you would say the treble is still there (and extended) just without the sharp piecing to the ears correct?

 

[Christer]

 I absolutely agree.If transparency ,accuracy and resolution of complex densely scored acoustic music is your refererence the HD 800  is a clearly and  immediately  audible better headphone than both the 600 and 650, which which imo now should be regarded as good HI FI but not High End  dynamic headphones since HD 800 was introduced.
There are obvious reasons why several classical recording companies that used to have Hd 600 or HD 650s,now monitor via HD 800 and /or Stax electrostatics
I am really keen to hear what improvements the new HD 800S brings over the HD 800.
The HF spike of my HD800 can be  disturbing at times.

 

[Christer]

Hello again shabta,
 Among my recommendations I forgot to mention that  a couple of the very best orchestral  recordings in recent years imo, are the so far two first releases from  live the BSO under their new conductor  Andris Nelsons.
The first release with Wagner's overture to Tannhäuser coupled with Sibelius' 2nd symphony  is a stunner both interpretatively and SQ wise.
The second is an amazingly well recorded and equally well played live  concert of Schostakovich's mighty  10th symphony. Both are available directly from the BSO as  superb sounding 24/96 downloads both in plain stereo and mch.
Not to be missed by anyone who wants to hear a really good orchestra equally well recorded imo.
And compared to some other download sites their pricing is really customer friendly too!

 

[TonyNewman]

The unboxing and some pics - modded HD800 on left, HD800S on right.
 

 
First up I am a big fan the stock HD800 cables from Sennheiser. Utterly non-microphonic and plenty of length. What more do you need?
 
Getting a separate XLR cable is a nice bonus. I like that.
 
My modded HD800 is going away for repair in the next couple of days. Once I get it back I will do some A/B comparisons.
 
Had to plug the HD800S into the 430HA right away and throw some test tracks at it. Please take these comments with a big grain of salt as this is a totally fresh headphone.
 
First impression is that this headphone retains the goodness of the HD800 - a very good thing. Treble is definitely no longer an issue for me - I don't see any need to mod this headphone, while I found modding the HD800 essential. Bass seems a little deeper and punchy, but I would like to wait until my HD800 is repaired and I can A/B before saying much about that.
 
Overall I am very pleased so far. My gut reaction is that the engineers at Sennheiser got it right - fix the treble, tweak the bass, and otherwise leave it the heck alone.
 

 

[truelies]

Just downloaded the manual, my 32*** 800's curve is very similar with the HD800 s's frequency curve. Most likely in later version HD800 and 800s use same thing inside.
 
 
http://en-us.sennheiser.com/global-downloads/file/6263/HD800_HD800S_Manual_12_2015_EN.pdf