[headr]

[Quote removed by mod]

I understand the headphone is expensive. I understand it may render many of your HD 800 and HD 800 S obsolete in surpassing it as a headphone product. You may also prefer your HD 800 anyway. A lot of people have bought into "only open headphones matter" dogma and, like any trailblazing company does, Sennheiser has shattered those expectations.

Not many of us have heard one yet, it's not even in the final production form yet. There is a lot to be excited about here.

If the headphone is too expensive for you, move on to a cheaper one. I don't see the Focal Utopia thread polluted by so many people who never heard the headphone before immediately dismissing it.

For the record I don't even like the Focal Utopia headphone, but I can appreciate that Focal is bringing a new TOTL option to the marketplace that some people enjoy immensely.

[Insult to other members removed]

 

[god-bluff]

On the other hand with the enthusiasm you show you HAVE heard it.

Please share your impressions to silence the cynics

 

[amartignano]

Very true. Plus, we all know Tyll prefers a warm sound signature. So bass light to him could be slightly north of neutral to most.

Given Tyll preferences, his CES impressions suggest that it can be the "perfect sounding" headphone for me, despite being closed. Nevertheless, the price is too hot..

 

[Witcher]

As an owner of a couple of flagships, I for one am very excited to hear this and see if it's warrant digging into the funds for. It'll be great to be able to have a closed version of the HD800S which I can leave in office for the noisier days. Sadly I love the Z1R too much to leave in office alone.

 

[GoodBoy]

The scary thing is, what if this thing really does justify it's price?

All we know for now Sennheiser is trying to convince people that slightly different tuning, added glass and different pads are worth 800$ more compared to HD800S. Everything else is speculation. As for the sound signature I don't expect bass heavy cans from a company that's just not known for that, especially in their high-end tier, so yes I believe in Tyll's hearing. HD800S are bass light, HD820 probably gonna have a touch more perhaps better textured bass.

A lot of people have bought into "only open headphones matter" dogma and, like any trailblazing company does, Sennheiser has shattered those expectations.

Agree for example I always preffered closed-backs no matter what. I don't know opens just don't do it for me, you have to listen to them in absolute distraction-free environment, and I don't have time nor places for that. Closed ones provide more immersive enjoyable experience even at the cost of soundstage.

 

[Beagle]

I highly doubt it. I don't think it is going to be even close to Focal Clear ($1500) in terms of sound fidelity.

I assume you just bought the Focal Clear?

 

[AppleheadMay]

I assume you just bought the Focal Clear?

LoL. Nice one!

A lot of “impressions” here about a pair of phones that aren’t even released. As usual. 38 pages and counting.

 

[Naim.F.C]

[Mod edit: quote on deleted post removed. Personal attacks removed]

These are valid complaints just as much your own excitement is equally valid.

There's nothing immature about complaining about pricing either, in fact I'd argue being frugal or particular about value proposition is in fact a rather mature and grown up trait, and certainly worthy of discussion.

Regarding pricing in comparison to say the Utopia, talk about missing context. Firstly, lots of people did and do complain about the value proposition of those headphones, but beyond that, the HD820 is not an apples to apples comparison. The key differentiator here is that the HD820 is essentially based off of the HD800, a headphone that launched at half the price.

In the context of value proposition, Sennheiser are essentially charging people double, for something that is barely different. An iterative tweak much less a headphone with an entirely new and costly manufacturering design, mould, process etc. A huge bulk of this headphone is essentially the same as a much older design, and if anything, by using a similar design and by virtue mass producing more from parts from this similar process, if anything Sennheiser might be saving money. Generally the greater the mass of production of a particular mould, chassis, part etc, the cheaper the process becomes on an individual part by part basis.

Also, outside of the usual forum flavour of the month hype, I can't see these new headphones outright being better than the older headphones. My prediction, without having even heard them, is that they will essentially be a slightly warmer, more bass emphasised version of the HD800 and HD800S, so if that's something that might appeal to you, then yes, they might be better. If however you prefer outright clarity, air, soundstage and a more revealing, less warm presentation, my guess is you'll still prefer the HD800/HD800S.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

[Mod edit: quote on deleted post removed. Personal attacks removed]

These are valid complaints just as much your own excitement is equally valid.

There's nothing immature about complaining about pricing either, in fact I'd argue being frugal or particular about value proposition is in fact a rather mature and grown up trait, and certainly worthy of discussion.

Regarding pricing in comparison to say the Utopia, talk about missing context. Firstly, lots of people did and do complain about the value proposition of those headphones, but beyond that, the HD820 is not an apples to apples comparison. The key differentiator here is that the HD820 is essentially based off of the HD800, a headphone that launched at half the price.

In the context of value proposition, Sennheiser are essentially charging people double, for something that is barely different. An iterative tweak much less a headphone with an entirely new and costly manufacturering design, mould, process etc. A huge bulk of this headphone is essentially the same as a much older design, and if anything, by using a similar design and by virtue mass producing more from parts from this similar process, if anything Sennheiser might be saving money. Generally the greater the mass of production of a particular mould, chassis, part etc, the cheaper the process becomes on an individual part by part basis.

Also, outside of the usual forum flavour of the month hype, I can't see these new headphones outright being better than the older headphones. My prediction, without having even heard them, is that they will essentially be a slightly warmer, more bass emphasised version of the HD800 and HD800S, so if that's something that might appeal to you, then yes, they might be better. If however you prefer outright clarity, air, soundstage and a more revealing, less warm presentation, my guess is you'll still prefer the HD800/HD800S.

You just summed up all of Sennheiser’s R&D and choice of a price point without having EVER heard them or held them in your hands! That’s ridiculous and should be dismissed. Are you a Sennheiser engineer? Didn’t think so. On the other hand, there’s NOTHING hypocritical about being excited for a new release. That could all change if they’re released and don’t live up to the hype, but that hasn’t happened yet. But you and others like you keep trying to dismiss them and call them too expensive BEFORE they have been released in their final form. It’s not constructive or helpful to be so negative when all you have is speculation and assumptions.

 

[Naim.F.C]

You just summed up all of Sennheiser’s R&D and choice of a price point without having EVER heard them or held them in your hands! That’s ridiculous and should be dismissed. Are you a Sennheiser engineer? Didn’t think so. On the other hand, there’s NOTHING hypocritical about being excited for a new release. That could all change if they’re released and don’t live up to the hype, but that hasn’t happened yet. But you and others like you keep trying to dismiss them and call them too expensive BEFORE they have been released in their final form. It’s not constructive or helpful to be so negative when all you have is speculation and assumptions.

I have multiple businesses of my own that partly deal with manufacturing. It takes little more than some basic level analysis, common sense or comprehension to see that a bulk of this new product is using the same chassis and parts as previous models. If you want to believe that these minor tweaks and updates are akin to justifying double the price at the same previous mark up, I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[AppleheadMay]

You just summed up all of Sennheiser’s R&D and choice of a price point without having EVER heard them or held them in your hands! That’s ridiculous and should be dismissed. Are you a Sennheiser engineer? Didn’t think so. On the other hand, there’s NOTHING hypocritical about being excited for a new release. That could all change if they’re released and don’t live up to the hype, but that hasn’t happened yet. But you and others like you keep trying to dismiss them and call them too expensive BEFORE they have been released in their final form. It’s not constructive or helpful to be so negative when all you have is speculation and assumptions.

And the usual hype is constructive?
I bought a pair headphones or two based on hype here only to realise they were utter crap. Didn't care much, just sold them off but it made me aware of the kind of BS people like to post here without even hearing a pair of phones be it hyping them or trashing them.
But I can imagine quite a few people having had high expectations about a pair of phones and having lost a lot of money because of these hypes.

And no, I'm not talking about the HD820 here. I really like Senns phones and will buy these as soon as the price drops like a brick as usual. Amazon and a few more local sites here like Stassen or Thomann are good at that.
As @Naim.F.C said, this is just a tweak of an existing pair of phones that is very cost effective for a manufacturer so pricing it a firm amount higher than the phones they are based on is following the current thread in Headphone world of ripping the customer off. Not as badly as Focal but still.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

And the usual hype is constructive?
I bought a pair headphones or two based on hype here only to realise they were utter crap. Didn't care much, just sold them off but it made me aware of the kind of BS people like to post here without even hearing a pair of phones be it hyping them or trashing them.
But I can imagine quite a few people having had high expectations about a pair of phones and having lost a lot of money because of these hypes.

And no, I'm not talking about the HD820 here. I really like Senns phones and will buy these as soon as the price drops like a brick as usual. Amazon and a few more local sites here like Stassen or Thomann are good at that.
As @Naim.F.C said, this is just a tweak of an existing pair of phones that is very cost effective for a manufacturer so pricing it a firm amount higher than the phones they are based on is following the current thread in Headphone world of ripping the customer off. Not as badly as Focal but still.

Hey I get it. I was totally unimpressed with the Utopia. But the difference is I waited to hear actual reviews before I decided to try it. I didn’t preorder before it launched. Hype before a launch is par for the course. But endless streams of hate on its engineering and sound BEFORE its been heard doesn’t make any sense to me.

 

[nc8000]

As far as I’m aware nobody here knows what it cost Sennheiser to research and develop this phone nor does anybody know what it costs to produce or how many they would expect to sell at varying pricepoints. Only thing we can be reasonably certain about is that Sennheiser has priced it to make money unless it totally bombs and nobody want to buy it. All else is baseless speculation and nobody has heard the actual selling product so nobody will know what it ends up being.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

As far as I’m aware nobody here knows what it cost Sennheiser to research and develop this phone nor does anybody know what it costs to produce or how many they would expect to sell at varying pricepoints. Only thing we can be reasonably certain about is that Sennheiser has priced it to make money unless it totally bombs and nobody want to buy it. All else is baseless speculation and nobody has heard the actual selling product so nobody will know what it ends up being.

Thank you sir.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Hey I get it. I was totally unimpressed with the Utopia. But the difference is I waited to hear actual reviews before I decided to try it. I didn’t preorder before it launched. Hype before a launch is par for the course. But endless streams of hate on its engineering and sound BEFORE its been heard doesn’t make any sense to me.

I never bought the Utopias, as posted a few times on these forums I had them on loan for a weekend from a very nice dealer in the Netherlands (they usually don't do that here, this is not the US). I thought they were very good with a sound pretty similar to the Pioneer SEM-1 while the Pioneer being slightly better in most areas. Hence why I find the price of the Utopia over the top, apart for 4k for a pair of phones being way too in my book, no matter what some other folks seem to think about that.

I haven't got any problems with Senn though, their HD58X-6XX lines are tremendous value for their SQ, they can safely be called firmly underpiced. I would call their HD8XX series priced right except for the new HD820 now because of the lower manufacturing costs that can safely be assumed. But hey, let's not forget that's MSRP and the price that they will initially be available at on the Senn website. Prices at dealers will be lower not that long after realese like we usually see with Senn and some other manufacturers. So all in all the price will become "more right" in a while.

And over the top prices? Senn guilty of that?
Mwah, depends. 30K I believe for the new Orpheus system? Badly over the top of course but there a lot of R&D and manufacturers costs went in and it isn't supposed to be for everyone, it's meant to be a very limited piece of ultimate statement from Senn. No idea how they sound though which is probably best.
But compared to the Gold Dr. Bling Utopias for 100K the Orpheus is very affordable. I mean, those Utopias as the same as the 4K ones, just pimped up with a lot of bad taste. Another reason for me not to consider Focal as a brand I want to buy.