The (new) HD800 Impressions Thread

[bagwell359]

If Sennheiser was open to such innovators who made rather extreme efforts (more than me, to use the more difficult routes) such as SAA or JAR800, rather than being influenced by others who were responsible for the HD8XX debacle, we would have truly had a better headphones today, instead of different 800 variants which are debatably not any improvement.

From my experience, the 800S driver produces more lower harmonics for its fuller sound..this is not actually better.
Also I found the driver membrane to be of a different material and it's max excursion creates a crackle, where as the older units were tougher.
I have reversed an 800S to an 800 but it's still not the same
I also believe they may have made it thinner and stiffer to mitigate the harmonics. Just my guess, but anyways, IMO the 8XX driver is literally the worst driver version made.
I still prefer the 800 driver as it produces the cleanest sound, but that is still a preference choice.
.

No question the S gets a few Hz lower and few db lowder in the bass at the cost of smudgier/higher Q bass. Pity.

 

[Fegefeuer]

I got 3 JARs by now, living in Europe and I survived to tell you about it. I will never give them up.

You can all sit here and ponder about the price, availability and waiting times while wasting away with mediocre, flawed headphones that come and go. Yes, I also have some of those headphones that lose their value at 1% per second.

Making JARs is in no way profitable for the time it takes to build them. Every unit is an individual piece tuned to the pairs inherent qualities and weaknesses and to the buyer's preference. It takes a lot of hours to finetune them.

Many people charge 70€/hour a minimum to build something for you. If it had to be profitable per hour he would stop making these as his degree allows for a far better time/money ratio.

It's a true labour of love with a high attention to detail and respect to by now legendary truly tested headphones.

Find a HD 600, HD 650 or HD 800 in good shape, send it in, do something else instead of waiting.

You will not regret it.
We all sunk in money for nothing, but here it's well invested.

 

[paradoxper]

I got 3 JARs by now, living in Europe and I survived to tell you about it. I will never give them up.

You can all sit here and ponder about the price, availability and waiting times while wasting away with mediocre, flawed headphones that come and go. Yes, I also have some of those headphones that lose their value at 1% per second.

Making JARs is in no way profitable for the time it takes to build them. Every unit is an individual piece tuned to the pairs inherent qualities and weaknesses and to the buyer's preference. It takes a lot of hours to finetune them.

Many people charge 70€/hour a minimum to build something for you. If it had to be profitable per hour he would stop making these as his degree allows for a far better time/money ratio.

It's a true labour of love with a high attention to detail and respect to by now legendary truly tested headphones.

Find a HD 600, HD 650 or HD 800 in good shape, send it in, do something else instead of waiting.

You will not regret it.
We all sunk in money for nothing, but here it's well invested.

Crazy horse. Awesome.

 

[tamleo]

I got 3 JARs by now, living in Europe and I survived to tell you about it. I will never give them up.

You can all sit here and ponder about the price, availability and waiting times while wasting away with mediocre, flawed headphones that come and go. Yes, I also have some of those headphones that lose their value at 1% per second.

Making JARs is in no way profitable for the time it takes to build them. Every unit is an individual piece tuned to the pairs inherent qualities and weaknesses and to the buyer's preference. It takes a lot of hours to finetune them.

Many people charge 70€/hour a minimum to build something for you. If it had to be profitable per hour he would stop making these as his degree allows for a far better time/money ratio.

It's a true labour of love with a high attention to detail and respect to by now legendary truly tested headphones.

Find a HD 600, HD 650 or HD 800 in good shape, send it in, do something else instead of waiting.

You will not regret it.
We all sunk in money for nothing, but here it's well invested.

I saw some posts in sbaf and thought the jar800s got things better here but lost others there. Are they that good and completely better headphones compared to stock versions? Can you please review your jar800 a little more? Thanks

 

[tamleo]

If Sennheiser was open to such innovators who made rather extreme efforts (more than me, to use the more difficult routes) such as SAA or JAR800, rather than being influenced by others who were responsible for the HD8XX debacle, we would have truly had a better headphones today, instead of different 800 variants which are debatably not any improvement.

From my experience, the 800S driver produces more lower harmonics for its fuller sound..this is not actually better.
Also I found the driver membrane to be of a different material and it's max excursion creates a crackle, where as the older units were tougher.
I have reversed an 800S to an 800 but it's still not the same
I also believe they may have made it thinner and stiffer to mitigate the harmonics. Just my guess, but anyways, IMO the 8XX driver is literally the worst driver version made.
I still prefer the 800 driver as it produces the cleanest sound, but that is still a preference choice.
.

The hd800S from 2021 onwards has a different fr graph and a different yokes design. They now actually have shallower and smaller dip in the mids that brings them closer to the Harman ideal fr line Imo I think many reach to tube amps for little euphonic harmonics so it’s not a very bad idea from Sennheiser but I agree the new S version is not better at everything compared to the discontinued one ( price, openess, rightness ..)

 

[Kiats]

Enjoying the H800S with the lovely Luxury & Precison EA4 10th Anniversary (which puts out 7.5W) line out from the P6Pro 10th Anniversary Gold.

 

[jamesjames]

The hd800S from 2021 onwards has a different fr graph and a different yokes design. They now actually have shallower and smaller dip in the mids that brings them closer to the Harman ideal fr line Imo I think many reach to tube amps for little euphonic harmonics so it’s not a very bad idea from Sennheiser but I agree the new S version is not better at everything compared to the discontinued one ( price, openess, rightness ..)

I've followed the development of the HD800 line since its inception. It certainly has evolved significantly since the early HD800 - which I loved. I think we're most definitely in the realm of personal taste here - but I've been a little surprised over the years to find that I come around on each occasion to the latest incarnation (I think I've owned most if not all). The pattern seems predictable in my case - on first hearing the new model or 'revision' is a little unsettling - the balance is different - something lost, something gained. Generally, I prefer the older version for some time, before coming around to the update. That's continued for me, and I now use a recent model HD800S made in Ireland. To my ear, it's the best yet - but I flip-flopped in typical fashion before coming around. I've not departed from my general preference for diffuse field tuning and preference for phones that present good recordings of acoustic instruments in a convincing fashion. To my ear the current collection of engineering compromises seems better than what's come before (which I continue to think was always pretty good ...). When I have a hankering for the bite and insight of the first HD800 I now turn to my ADX5000 - which I feel continues to develop that earlier, more 'intense' tradition.

 

[Reactcore]

Enjoying the H800S with the lovely Luxury & Precison EA4 10th Anniversary (which puts out 7.5W) line out from the P6Pro 10th Anniversary Gold.

Thats some beefy portable

I see youre still on stock cable, try an upgrade (silver/ braided) cable and leather cushions..
Youll be supprised what the 800 capable of

 

[Kiats]

Thats some beefy portable

I see youre still on stock cable, try an upgrade (silver/ braided) cable and leather cushions..
Youll be supprised what the 800 capable of

yeah. I actually have silver cable for the OG HD800. and leather cushions too. So this is an alternative set up.

Yes it is a beefy transportable set up. And the nutube implementation is excellent.

 

[Puroplatino]

I got 3 JARs by now, living in Europe and I survived to tell you about it. I will never give them up.

You can all sit here and ponder about the price, availability and waiting times while wasting away with mediocre, flawed headphones that come and go. Yes, I also have some of those headphones that lose their value at 1% per second.

Making JARs is in no way profitable for the time it takes to build them. Every unit is an individual piece tuned to the pairs inherent qualities and weaknesses and to the buyer's preference. It takes a lot of hours to finetune them.

Many people charge 70€/hour a minimum to build something for you. If it had to be profitable per hour he would stop making these as his degree allows for a far better time/money ratio.

It's a true labour of love with a high attention to detail and respect to by now legendary truly tested headphones.

Find a HD 600, HD 650 or HD 800 in good shape, send it in, do something else instead of waiting.

You will not regret it.
We all sunk in money for nothing, but here it's well invested.

Where can I send my 800’s for this upgrade?

 

[Fegefeuer]

Go to the website of Jupiter Audio Research and then scroll down under contact.

 

[K3cT]

I saw some posts in sbaf and thought the jar800s got things better here but lost others there. Are they that good and completely better headphones compared to stock versions? Can you please review your jar800 a little more? Thanks

In terms of tuning JAR is still closely similar to the base model so it's not like you send in an HD600 and then the sound becomes like the HD800.

The procedure definitely tackled some of the biggest shortcomings of base HD800: the diffuse soundstage / imaging, the recessed mids, anemic bass and the resonance around the 6k area.

I wrote some impressions about my own JAR800 here which hopefully you find it helpful. Since then I've made some changes in my system and no longer found the peak problematic. With a gentle bass lift on Equalizer APO now these JAR800 are my most well balanced and natural headphones in my arsenal.

I still will caution that JAR is not for everyone , owing to the cost, time and effort of hunting the donor base model involved.

 

[Maxx134]

In terms of tuning JAR is still closely similar to the base model so it's not like you send in an HD600 and then the sound becomes like the HD800.

I have pretty much just done the opposite with my HD800
I have posted a summary about it here.

 

[JamieMcC]

Been trying out the Naim Nait 50 (25 watts speaker amp) in my system and tonight am listening with my hd800. The Nait 50 has a 1.5W discreet headphone amp built in. Its surprising good for a built in offering my normal listen is with either Chord Dave - Elekit TU-8900 (300B) or Bottlehead Mainline for comparison.