[rockphotog]

I am using a iMac Pro + Audirvana + HDV820 (connected with USB cable). I can play up to DSD128 by sending the file to HDV820 directly. (The DSD LED lit up while playing). But I have problems when playing DSD256. The audio will be converted by Audirvana (The DSD LED is dim). The Mac is running on macOS 10.14.6.

I believe DSD128 is a limitation by MacOS, only Win with correct drivers do DSD256 so far.

 

[Murcielagolp640]

I believe DSD128 is a limitation by MacOS, only Win with correct drivers do DSD256 so far.

Yeah, I guess so too. But considering there’re not too many DSD256 in my music library, I am ok with only up to DSD128 so far.

 

[winterhalter]

Yeah, I guess so too. But considering there’re not too many DSD256 in my music library, I am ok with only up to DSD128 so far.

Yeah, no word MQA support or native macOS DSD drivers since being hinted two years ago.
I'm not hopeful at this point.

 

[HigherFidelity]

I'm selling a like-new Sennheiser HDV820 purchased in October of '18 from an authorized Sennheiser dealer for $1500 shipped to CONUS as I've let my HD800S headphones go. In a world with unlimited funds, I'd hang on to this gem indefinitely, but alas, I do not dwell in such a land. Here's a link to my post on the AVExchange subreddit as I've been too busy to post enough to gain selling privileges here (but hopefully that will change soon). You can check my history on Reddit, and I can provide AVExchange references for past sales and trades as requested. Please PM with any questions, and thanks for checking it out!

 

[tungdd]

Hi, my HDV820 with HD800S sounds a bit weird as the bass seems very controlled and precise, however the mid is kinda overwhelmed by the bass, while treble still has some spikes here and there.
I'm using all factory-enable accessories such as power cord and cables, with the exception of the USB cord since it does not come with the HDV 820 packaging. My setup is: PC -> USB type B -> HDV820 -> XLR Cable -> HD800S.
In the control panel of the HDV820 on my PC, I see the setting of the latency rate. Changing it to "minimum latency" seems to clarify things quite a bit, however I also notice that the sample rate seems to be locked at 48000Hz. I'm hearing from Tidal and foobar2000 with lossless .flac files.
What are the best way to optimize my system? Thank you very much.

 

[Murcielagolp640]

Hi, my HDV820 with HD800S sounds a bit weird as the bass seems very controlled and precise, however the mid is kinda overwhelmed by the bass, treble still has some spikes here and there. I'm using all factory-enable accessories such as power cord and cables, with the exception of the USB cord since it does not come with the HDV 820 packaging.
In the control panel of the HDV820 on my PC (my setup is: PC -> USB type B -> HDV820 -> XLR Cable -> HD800S), I see the setting of the latency rate. Changing it to "minimum latency" seems to clarify things quite a bit, however I also notice that the sample rate seems to be locked at 48000Hz. I'm hearing from Tidal and foobar2000 with lossless .flac files.
What are the best way to optimize my system? Thank you very much.

How long did you burn-in your HDV820 and HD800S? I never had the same issue like yours, but I had the HD700 before and it sounded awful pre burn-in, after 20~30 hours of listening, it was better. Maybe you can also interchange amps or headphones to identify which part caused this problem.

 

[tungdd]

How long did you burn-in your HDV820 and HD800S? I never had the same issue like yours, but I had the HD700 before and it sounded awful pre burn-in, after 20~30 hours of listening, it was better. Maybe you can also interchange amps or headphones to identify which part caused this problem.

Probably 40-50 hours maybe. I'm not sure because listening to instrumental music brings great details on mid and treble. It only exhibits such behaviour with music with pronounced bass. I can still clearly hear the mid and treble, it's just that the bass kinda engulfs them.

 

[xenoVa]

Some people said HDV820 is not the ideal amplifier for the HD800 and S. Do you agree ?

 

[flohma]

I have a connection question: I would like to connect my iPhone 11 with the HDV820 through an iPhone stand which has a male USB-A cable (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07QNXDCSB/).

I tried various USB-A to B adapters (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000L10A58/), none of them work: no sound coming through.

Neither do USB-A to USB-A connectors linking a printer cable coming out of the HDV820 to the USB-A to lightning Cable from the phone (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B082D65PVS/) .

Anybody have a recommendation which adapter I'd need to hook up a cable with USB-A to the amplifier? One that works?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[tungdd]

Some people said HDV820 is not the ideal amplifier for the HD800 and S. Do you agree ?

This is largely based on personal taste I think. However, I could confirm that HDV820 sounds much better than iFi iDSD Micro BL. The iFi seems to have a 'ceiling' that the sound can't pass. HDV820 releases it to a whole another level. Still if I could compare with other DAC/Amp at similar price range it would be better.

 

[tungdd]

How long did you burn-in your HDV820 and HD800S? I never had the same issue like yours, but I had the HD700 before and it sounded awful pre burn-in, after 20~30 hours of listening, it was better. Maybe you can also interchange amps or headphones to identify which part caused this problem.

I'm not really sure which is the problem. Changing the sample rate in Windows Settings to 192kHz and the latency to minimum in HDV820's Control Panel seems to clear things quite a bit, however it makes the bass very thin compared to before. From my hearing I suggest that this is probably how the HDV820 + HD800S are intended to sound, since everything is clear and precise. The problem is that I would need another bass-heavy headphones to complement the HD800S, and the Sennheiser line does not seem to have anything like that.

 

[rockphotog]

You need something like this:

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MD821ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter

 

[bazza71]

Hi, can any one help? Had a search but can't seem to find an answer, can you connect an android phone to the 820 and play Tidal? Thanks.

 

[Sennheiser]

There is wide and varying support by the many manufacturers that use Android as their operating system – not all Android smartphones will work. Check to see if your model has OTG support, and you have an OTG adapter with a USB-A port on it, and then it's likely. If you're using an Android DAP, make sure it supports the use as a transport with USB audio out.

 

[bazza71]

There is wide and varying support by the many manufacturers that use Android as their operating system – not all Android smartphones will work. Check to see if your model has OTG support, and you have an OTG adapter with a USB-A port on it, and then it's likely. If you're using an Android DAP, make sure it supports the use as a transport with USB audio out.

Thank you for this. I have a Samsung Note 10 plus which supports OTG, but I'll check.