[OICWUTUDIDTHAR]

To people having hiss problems in windows, change your shared bit rate to 24 192 under the properties of the hdvd800 in the sound control panel.

 

[wisemanja]

Quote:

Jeff
 
I copied it and forwarded to the Sennheiser USA contact I have and I know the Sennheiser guys here follow this thread but the ones in Germany dont answer my PM. They just ignore them. Perhaps Sennheiser should address this problem from Germany. I suggest everyone havoing an issue send them back to the dealers for Sennheiser to fix them. My two were perfect. I had no issue with the demo or he one I bought. In any event I copied the thread and forwarded to my contact.

 
Thanks Frank! This could benefit a lot of folks.
 
Did you by any chance try the TOSlink test by sending a 24/96 or higher track to the HDVD800? I think that is a given "won't work" since someone at Sennheiser actually did document the limitation in the Instruction manual. As a result, in spite of the maximum rate being advertised as 24/192 everywhere, the fact that the real 24/88.2 max is documented the in manual you get with the product sorta makes the issue moot.
 
For me, the jury is stil out on the USB 24/192. If I send tracks like this to my HDVD800 through iTunes directly configuring the rates via the midi application, They sound fine. If I send them through BitPerfect, I get extreme hiss in some cases but not all. However, AlanHell was also reporting a high noise floor on the 24/192 tracks and he doesn't appear to use BitPerfect. I have a suspicion that this problem might be a combination of the higher bit rates plus the USB transfer mode being used. If your software doesn't happen select the transfer mode that creates the problem (e.g., iTunes native), obviously the DAC is gonna seem fine. Otherwise, you are sending data to the DAC in a way it may not be able to handle.
 
Since I've not solidly determined that the problem is in the DAC's digital interfaces with the ability to reproduce it reliably, it makes no sense sending the unit back yet.
 
Do we know anything yet about the native sample rate used for conversion in the HDVD800? I know of some DACs that first up-sample everything to 384+ and then convert it. Others will actually down convert 192 samples to lesser rates in order to convert in their DAC thus eliminating the benefits of even having high bit rate tracks in the first place.
 
- Jeff

 

[Frank I]

I hav enot used the dac for anything else but itunes and concerts on my IMAC. I sue the Oppo BDP 105 and 95 for the majority od music sessions. I listen to itunes very seldmom except for my gym sessions. I will be reviewing the dac  as part of the overall amplifier but I have not had any isseus with my IMAC and the Dac.  I only have  a MAC for usage so I dont have any high resolution files. i will be buying audirvana  P,lus to streamline DSD files on the Oppo.  The HDVD800 will not support DSD.

 

[AlanHell]

To people having hiss problems in windows, change your shared bit rate to 24 192 under the properties of the hdvd800 in the sound control panel.

Did that, not seem to be helping the issue.
My feeling is telling me there is some hardware limitation there......

I have to confirm with sennheiser. Wish they release more data on the dac chip, so I can just read the data sheet

 

[AlanHell]

I hav enot used the dac for anything else but itunes and concerts on my IMAC. I sue the Oppo BDP 105 and 95 for the majority od music sessions. I listen to itunes very seldmom except for my gym sessions. I will be reviewing the dac  as part of the overall amplifier but I have not had any isseus with my IMAC and the Dac.  I only have  a MAC for usage so I dont have any high resolution files. i will be buying audirvana  P,lus to streamline DSD files on the Oppo.  The HDVD800 will not support DSD.

Well,this product hit me hard. It sounds really good, yet has so many issues with the DAC. I try to use my dac1 on it, but the onboard dac is doing some magic to make me smell more.

Damn sennheiser

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

Well,this product hit me hard. It sounds really good, yet has so many issues with the DAC. I try to use my dac1 on it, but the onboard dac is doing some magic to make me smell more.

Damn sennheiser

send it back

 

[OICWUTUDIDTHAR]

Quote:

send it back

 
This.
 
You really shouldn't be having so many problems with the dac in such an expensive product. I'm sure Sennheiser will have no problem replacing or repairing it for free.

 

[vo_obgyn]

Quote:

Well I've had my HDVD800 for over a month now and have no 'buyer's regret' and I'd go as far as to say I'm pleased with the purchase. Sound is just phenomenal with my HD800's. Running Audioirvana on my MBPR with ALAC /  FLAC Files is giving incredible sound.

 
The above has been my experience, as well, so far with the product. 
 
As I mentioned earlier, the USB audio implementation sounds superb at least to my ears and with my current set-up using FLAC files:
 
MacBook Pro 15 Retina > Pure Music > WireWorld Ultraviolet USB Cable > HDVD800 > HD800
 
No problems with the unit at all. The HDVD800 looks and sounds great, IMHO.
 
BTW, the HDVD800 sounds great with a balanced-cabled HD600 and the single ended-cabled Momentum headphones.

 

[GSARider]

Here's my set up in my study at home...just got a new piece of video equipment and wanted to do a brief test...

 
 

 

[AlanHell]

This.

You really shouldn't be having so many problems with the dac in such an expensive product. I'm sure Sennheiser will have no problem replacing or repairing it for free.

Again, I believe it is hardware limitation, not hardware defects. From the optical input, you can already see. I will wait till I got confirmation from sennheiser. I have 2 year to figure out the problem anyway.

 

[OICWUTUDIDTHAR]

Does anyone know if there is a USB driver available to download from sennheiser? Or is the only driver available on the disk.

 

[BlancoTheBull]

I have a very weird question (for most of you).

I'm really thinking of buying a HDVD800 and HD800.
But I use my current headphone alot of the time for movie/series and gaming (about +60%, -40% for music).
Does anybody know how good (or bad) they are for gaming and multimedia?
I only have 8 days to decide if I keep them or not when I choose to buy them.
So I try to get as much info as possible before the actual purchase.
Thanks alot for the person able to answer my question .

 

[OICWUTUDIDTHAR]

Quote:

I have a very weird question (for most of you).

I'm really thinking of buying a HDVD800 and HD800.
But I use my current headphone alot of the time for movie/series and gaming (about +60%, -40% for music).
Does anybody know how good (or bad) they are for gaming and multimedia?
I only have 8 days to decide if I keep them or not when I choose to buy them.
So I try to get as much info as possible before the actual purchase.
Thanks alot for the person able to answer my question .

 
 
Good audio is good audio, so yes they are great for multimedia.

 

[TheManko]

Quote:

I'm really thinking of buying a HDVD800 and HD800.
But I use my current headphone alot of the time for movie/series and gaming (about +60%, -40% for music).
Does anybody know how good (or bad) they are for gaming and multimedia?

My usage is similar, in that I play a lot of games and watch movies/tv shows with my HDVD 800 and HD 800. The only problem I can think of is that action films generally don't sound very good when mixed down from 5.1/7.1 to headphones. Action scenes tend to sound a bit flat (depending on the movie) and the bass seems weaker than it should be compared to when you've got a subwoofer. Dialogue scenes, music and ambient sound all sound great, but action doesn't sound like it should.
 
Games on the other hand sound fantastic with the HD 800. This is of course highly dependent on the games you play, but any recent game should sound sublime. I play quite a lot of games, and all the big titles I've played this year like Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Metro Last Light & The Last of Us have without any reservations been great experiences with the HDVD 800 & HD 800.

 

[wisemanja]

Quote:

 
This.
 
You really shouldn't be having so many problems with the dac in such an expensive product. I'm sure Sennheiser will have no problem replacing or repairing it for free.

 
Well, I'm not so sure that there are "so many problems". The two cosmetic issues(at least on my unit) are really minor and will likely be corrected in manufacturing over time. The two functional issues are just at the limits of the digital input speeds (i.e., 1: optical speeds are not over 24/88.2 KHz and 2: USB speeds at 24/192 KHz may not be available when connected to certain sources). My guess is that most people using the HDVD800 will likely use those capabilities only rarely if ever.
 
With those givens, in my humble opinion, this is still a really great DAC/amp combo. Being a single piece with DAC, amp, and power supply all enclosed, it is really easy to move around as you need it. My unit is just starting to open up from burn-in, and it is enough already that I am able to see more clearly engineering problems/artifacts in the actual recordings that I'm listening to now. Some of my recordings have grain in women's voices. A lot of systems kind of smear that grain a bit so that it disappears. When I first got the HDVD800, the initial congestion on the unit did the same and I could not hear that grain. Now as the congestion is disappearing, the grain on those recordings is starting to show up.
 
Not that I WANT to hear the graininess, but rather the DAC/amp combo no longer hides what is in the actual recording. This is great and as it should be.
 
But it's also my dilemma. I was planning on occasionally using it in 24/96 KHz+ TOSlink speeds. I was also going to us it for some hi-rex 24/192 KHz tracks I have as well. Both of these capabilities were advertised everywhere (including Sennheiser's own web site) as existing in the product, but after buying the product at a premium price, you discover that they aren't (at least not completely) there. Frustrating.
 
So I'd rather hang onto it for the time being and see what Sennheiser has to say about it. I'll just have to configure things to down-sample all of my Hi-rez tracks
 
- Jeff