[sikki-six]

If you mean the SD mod, Sennheiser invented their Helmholz resonator befor @Sorrodje reengineered it. And other companies raised the price bar long before Sennheiser. Compared to some the HD820 is priced reasonable to be honest. Wait till the dust settles and get it with a good discount. I waited till 2016 to get my first HD800.

"Others did it too" is not a very valid argument. I'm saying, a used pair of HD800 can be found for very good prices and if one wants, modded / EQ'd to taste. (They are the most EQable hp I've found yet.) I could see the prices making more sense if we were talking about new models, but at least the 800S seems to be the 800 with an extra cable, minor mods and a new color. A closed model is a different beast altogether, but they achieved good results (imo) with HD598Cs, with a lowered price even.

If this is sensible pricing to you, then go on and support this crazy trend.

 

[Giraku]

Be careful about buying directly from Sennheiser. I'm currently getting push-back on potentially returning an 800 S I bought to try and if I like to keep. I'm hoping it's just a matter of a representative not doing their job well as I appear to be more on top of their return policy than this rep that literally told me they don't know why I would want to return something I just bought, but I'm getting concerned. There's no reason to put up with this if you live in the US as the norm is a satisfaction-based return policy. Perhaps it's just a bad rep.

I guess you just got a bad rep. I bought 660s from them directly and returned it without any problem. The whole process was very smooth.

 

[gLer]

Haven't heard the HD820 but there's no way the sony can be better than the senns. Ether C Flow might have a shot against HD820.

If you haven’t heard the HD820 how can you be sure it’s ‘better’ than the Sony? I think you’ll find a very vocal group of listeners that like to ‘feel’ and not just hear the bass from their headphones strongly disagreeing with you.

As for the Ether, it’s probably the most dull, lifeless, sterile sounding ‘TOTL’ headphone I’ve heard to date, so it won’t take much for the HD820 to surpass it in my opinion.

 

[pietcux]

Marques Brownlee has a review of these on YouTube. He's not an audiophile, but the visual tour is worth the watch. Dat 8K, yo . I'm SUPER skeptical about the glass enclosure. I feel like it would make them way over-bright, even IF the phones end up with the Veil.

The glass is used to direct the unwanted sound reflection into absorbers. The absorbers don't mind over bright sound I guess. The listener should not hear it.

 

[pietcux]

"Others did it too" is not a very valid argument. I'm saying, a used pair of HD800 can be found for very good prices and if one wants, modded / EQ'd to taste. (They are the most EQable hp I've found yet.) I could see the prices making more sense if we were talking about new models, but at least the 800S seems to be the 800 with an extra cable, minor mods and a new color. A closed model is a different beast altogether, but they achieved good results (imo) with HD598Cs, with a lowered price even.

If this is sensible pricing to you, then go on and support this crazy trend.

I got my HD800 for 600€. Plus new pads , headband cushion and SD mod it was 750€.

 

[pietcux]

Hard to do unless you buy it.

I bought the Z1R too. But not for 2300€, more so for 1320€.

 

[Giraku]

Marques Brownlee has a review of these on YouTube. He's not an audiophile, but the visual tour is worth the watch. Dat 8K, yo . I'm SUPER skeptical about the glass enclosure. I feel like it would make them way over-bright, even IF the phones end up with the Veil.

Well, the glass enclosure does not make them over-bright at all, to my ears. I parted with HD800S as I could not bear with the brightness. But HD820 does not bother me at all in the treble department. As I mentioned in my previous posts, HD820 has smaller sound stage and slightly less resolution/separation compared to HD800/S. But to my ears, HD820 has a very nice balance of all these aspects. To me, the wide stage of HD800/S is a bit artificial and the image is a bit too far away. I want to feel music more intimate and closer. In this sense, my definition of the end game HPs is not all the technicality but rather nice balance to enjoy music.

 

[Beagle]

All I was hoping for with the HD820 was that it would have a similar sound to the HD800 but without the peak in the lower treble area, and to be priced similarly to the HD800. If the price has increased substantially, I would expect HD800 problems fixed and no new ones to be present.

 

[Rchandra]

I can't wait to break the glass and do a shatter mod, if i miss the hd800S and when I'm done ill just glue that ish back up. Open vs closed debate is always gonna be the same. If you want isolation closed is the way to go if you don't care about anyone hearing your Brittney Spears then sound quality on open will always be better.

 

[rpger9756]

I can't wait to break the glass and do a shatter mod, if i miss the hd800S and when I'm done ill just glue that ish back up. Open vs closed debate is always gonna be the same. If you want isolation closed is the way to go if you don't care about anyone hearing your Brittney Spears then sound quality on open will always be better.

Open v Closed isn't really about isolation per se, though that does end up being a benefit. It's more about where you want to feel the sound from. Open makes it feel very present and "in room," whereas closed is more about a "generated" experience. One makes it feel like the band is "there," and the other makes you feel you are there WITH the band. A good set of closed has the same imaging and soundstage as an open, the difference is that one makes you feel you're AT the venue whereas the other feels like the venue has COME to you. There is an argument to be made in terms of realism vs synthesis, but not sound quality or resolving. I imagine a set of HD820's is more about feeling "transported" than it is about feeling "they're there" with you.

 

[jasonyyd]

Open v Closed isn't really about isolation per se, though that does end up being a benefit. It's more about where you want to feel the sound from. Open makes it feel very present and "in room," whereas closed is more about a "generated" experience. One makes it feel like the band is "there," and the other makes you feel you are there WITH the band. A good set of closed has the same imaging and soundstage as an open, the difference is that one makes you feel you're AT the venue whereas the other feels like the venue has COME to you. There is an argument to be made in terms of realism vs synthesis, but not sound quality or resolving. I imagine a set of HD820's is more about feeling "transported" than it is about feeling "they're there" with you.

This is by far the most comprehensive metaphor I have seen(closed back V.S. Open)

Im fairly new to this hobby, but I’m lucky enough to own a pair of hd820 and some other crappy headphones.

After reading your comments, I finally figured out why I prefer hd820 than T1 and HD800 and a way to describe my feeling.

“The HD820 made me feel I’m at the venue but in a much less artificial way than hd800 did( maybe due to the open back of hd800 is too wide of sound stage for me.), not too close neither too far away from the stage.

Thanks !

 

[rpger9756]

This is by far the most comprehensive metaphor I have seen(closed back V.S. Open)

Im fairly new to this hobby, but I’m lucky enough to own a pair of hd820 and some other crappy headphones.

After reading your comments, I finally figured out why I prefer hd820 than T1 and HD800 and a way to describe my feeling.

“The HD820 made me feel I’m at the venue but in a much less artificial way than hd800 did( maybe due to the open back of hd800 is too wide of sound stage for me.), not too close neither too far away from the stage.

Thanks !

Glad to help! I run a lower tier of cans, but from all i know about the HD800's their primary selling factor is just how "wide" they get, and as others have mentioned that can breach into the artificial pretty easily. Glass is highly reflective, especially the plastic-impregnated borosilicate Gorilla glass they use for the enclosing of the HD820. But the HD518/558/598 all use the same driver, but have completely different sound profiles because of the way they manipulate the wave propagation via baffling. Sennheiser is a master at enclosure crafting and many have said that they have leveraged the high reflectivity via the concave shape to direct destructive interference into reductive baffles giving an extraordinarily clean experience, while still preserving the unique imaging and staging profile of the open HD800 predecessors. I'd hazard these are one of the best closed experiences you'll get outside of exotic driver tech like ortho's and 'stats.

 

[up late]

This is by far the most comprehensive metaphor I have seen(closed back V.S. Open)

Im fairly new to this hobby, but I’m lucky enough to own a pair of hd820 and some other crappy headphones.

After reading your comments, I finally figured out why I prefer hd820 than T1 and HD800 and a way to describe my feeling.

“The HD820 made me feel I’m at the venue but in a much less artificial way than hd800 did( maybe due to the open back of hd800 is too wide of sound stage for me.), not too close neither too far away from the stage.

Thanks !

i've been involved in this hobby for some time, which may explain why my reaction to that post was very different to yours

 

[kman1211]

Glad to help! I run a lower tier if cans, but from all i know about the HD800's their primary selling factor is just how "wide" they get, and as others have mentioned that can breach into the artificial pretty easily. Glass is highly reflective, especially the plastic-impregnated borosilicate Gorilla glass they use for the enclosing of the HD820. But the HD518/558/598 all use the same driver, but have completely different sound profiles because of the way they manipulate the wave propagation via baffling. Sennheiser is a master at enclosure crafting and many have said that they have leveraged the high reflectivity via the concave shape to direct destructive interference into reductive baffles giving an extraordinarily clean experience, while still preserving the unique imaging and staging profile of the open HD800 predecessors. I'd hazard these are one of the best closed experiences you'll get outside of exotic driver tech like ortho's and 'stats.

I have to agree with you here, I always found Sennheiser exceptionally good with enclosure design. While there may be better dynamic drivers to be found elsewhere, chances are they won't be implemented as well. Sennheiser is exceptional at creating a balanced whole with their headphones.

 

[480126]

I got my HD800 for 600€. Plus new pads , headband cushion and SD mod it was 750€.

Can you tell me the difference between HD800 and

I bought the Z1R too. But not for 2300€, more so for 1320€.

Can you tell me the difference between HD800 and Z1R? Maybe pm in german! Thanks