[pearljam50000]

Is there any other headphones that "disappears" like the HD800?

 

[punit]

  Is there any other headphones that "disappears" like the HD800?

If by "disappears" you mean comfortable, then TH 900 IMO.

 

[pearljam50000]

What I meant is, are there any other headphones that are as transparent sounding , that you feel you are listening to the sound itself and not sound that comes from headphones/speakers.
^_^
Sorry for my bad English.

If by "disappears" you mean comfortable, then TH 900 IMO.

 

[knowhatimean]

What I meant is, are there any other headphones that are as transparent sounding , that you feel you are listening to the sound itself and not sound that comes from headphones/speakers.
^_^
Sorry for my bad English.

If by "disappears" you mean comfortable, then TH 900 IMO.

Your English is just fine. I keep forgetting how hard this concept is to explain to countless numbers of people may have never
heard the difference between just hearing the information that is coming from a musical recording & not hearing the additional
sound that is not even on the recording but coming from some resonance or vibration from the actual headphone .
 
The reason is pretty simple, many type of recordings don't have a lot of low level sound that indicates were the musician were sitting, or standing, or if the music was recorded in a huge space, or it was a studio recording where they've done all they can to eliminate any clue if they making the recording inside a telephone booth or a Circus tent. For the most part it's not that important how transparent sounding any equipment is unless the music being listened to was recorded so you can hear these things.
 
When you listen to music that was recorded so you can hear these details, they will be extremely hard to hear this low level information if what you are listen through is generating its own low level noise that you're hearing at the same time as the music.
Just because you may not be able to detect the difference between  what is actually part of the music & "sound" that is not
does not mean they are 1& the same.
 
Transparent is really only an individual measurement that we apply to how we think something is. Its about as defineable as the
"Truth" is (In other words its open to as far as your interpretation of it goes).

 

[pearljam50000]

Excellent post 

 

[ruthieandjohn]

I finally received my Sennheiser HD 800 Certificate with Individual Diffuse-Field Frequency Response!  This is from the headphone I bought last July.
 
Wasn't a big deal, so  I didn't pursue it vigorously, but apparently I confused things by requesting it once with the date I received the HD 800, and another time with the date I purchased the HD 800, 3 weeks earlier.  I had gotten my HD 800 not from Sennheiser directly, but from Colorware, an authorized distributor, so that I could have it (and the amp I bought at the same time) custom colored in tasteful racing red and glossy black!
 

 
I continue to be delighted in this combination after nine months, and indeed I have moved it from my PC "listen while you work" station to my easy-chair family-room "listen and nothing else" station, where it now sits with my Grado PS1000 and Grado HPA-1 amp.
 
I've never found a weakness in the bass or a brightness in the treble as some have, and a look at my frequency response curve shows me that the curve is at its highest at the lowest frequency!  Its slope even suggests it is strong at lower frequencies than the 100 Hz that the plot ends with.
 

 
It will be most interesting over the long term, with the Sennheiser top-of-line with matched amp alongside the Grado top-of-line with its matched amp, how I compare the two.  The main reason that I moved the Sennheiser is that I so thoroughly enjoy the PS1000 and listen to it so much more than the Sennheiser that I think it had more to do with the setting than sonic differences (I spend more time in the easy chair listening situation than listening while doing PC things).

 

[maibuN]

The "lowest frequency" where the bass rolls of is not on the chart as is only goes until 100 Hz or maybe 80 Hz. The HD800 is a good headphone however is is indeed bright and (very) bass light. But I think that has nothing to do with de frequency chart alone because it doesn't react to eq. Even with some bass eq the bass still has no "body". Does somebody have an explanation for that? Perhaps the bad square wave response or the extremely open design?

 

[knowhatimean]

Seeing how this is an "Impressions" thread I think I'll leave some as to how what I'm listening to at this moment !
 
I'm listening to a recording that I had gotten a long time as a London "Blue Back" FFSS LP that was included as 1 of the CD included in the "Decca Sound" CD Box Set
that I'd ripped (like most of my library) to a portable HD using dBPoweramp to rip it , then imported the rip into JRiver Media Center 19 to change the bit rate to 24bit / 176.4 khz & add crossfeed to the files
 
(I've had 1 of the people who'd written the upsampling algoriths that JRMC uses try to debate the purpose of my doing this processing as not being sucessful at giving me a better recording
than what I started with; I think he misunderstood what I was after was only to take away the popular music remastering filtering done on Orchestral mastertapes that had no shortage of resolution on them other than the fact they were "dumbed down" to fit the Redbook standard of 16bit/44.1khz; After successfully processing a few hundred rips with this extra work, I gave up worrying about
whether or not I was creating "empty bits"(You're going to love this) My Metrum Hex NOS DAC loves these files. Upsampling does appear to work as a pre-DAC process with the Hex it just processes these files as being whatever the computer says the files now are. (I don't believe everything people tell me about Computer Audio, unless I just misinterpret what I hear)
 
I haven't said squat about how much depth & inner detail (along with the width which is the given that everyone hears no matter what they listen to)i'm hearing. It is the ability to hear the depth though that"Humanizes" the sound of the HD800s though. I'm listening to, I believe, the Tchaikovsky Violin Cto, & without the ability to hear the cross dialogue of the Violinist & various individual instruments & instrument choirs within the Orchestra you can't really appreciate this instrumental writing  along with the complementary or contrapunctal(sp) melodies that are going on along with the main themes as greatly if the timing of the start & decay of the individual notes aren't somewhat distinct. That is a helluva a lot going on & I'm able to hear a very considerable amount of this
musical experience through the HD800s. Yeah, I think I may have to buy some more music this weekend !
 
Enjoy
-steve

 

[lovethatsound]

The "lowest frequency" where the bass rolls of is not on the chart as is only goes until 100 Hz or maybe 80 Hz. The HD800 is a good headphone however is is indeed bright and (very) bass light. But I think that has nothing to do with de frequency chart alone because it doesn't react to eq. Even with some bass eq the bass still has no "body". Does somebody have an explanation for that? Perhaps the bad square wave response or the extremely open design?

There's nothing wrong with the hd800 bass.l use the hd800 with the hdvd800 amp and senn balance cable and the Chord Hugo as the Dac and no matter what sort of music i throw at it,it all sounds fantastic, if theirs bass in the recording you'll hear it.maybe it's you're dac or amp that's bass light. The hd800s are 1 of the best headphones ive ever heard.

 

[maibuN]

I tried the hd800 with different amps: matrix m stage, ifi idsd micro, meier audio corda symphony, bryston bha-1, violectric v200, bmc puredac, hdvd800, to be honest it always sounds like an hd800. I don't understand that "black magic" of amps making the hd800 so much better. I think it is a matter of fact that hd800 is bright and bass light, this is not necessarily bad as I like it anyhow.

 

[skeptic]

  The "lowest frequency" where the bass rolls of is not on the chart as is only goes until 100 Hz or maybe 80 Hz. The HD800 is a good headphone however is is indeed bright and (very) bass light. But I think that has nothing to do with de frequency chart alone because it doesn't react to eq. Even with some bass eq the bass still has no "body". Does somebody have an explanation for that? Perhaps the bad square wave response or the extremely open design?

 
What dac and amp are you running?  This has not been my experience with hd800's at all, except maybe for the handful of occasions I tried to run them out of my o2.  With my main rig, deep bass hits hard, full and fast, when called for, whether listening to acoustic string bass, pipe organ, or (for youthful nostalgia) 2pac's All Eyez on Me.  As I hear them, hd800's have more deep bass, but less mid-bass hump, than my hd650's and substantially more deep bass than my former AD's.  If you want a premium can with more deep bass, you probably need to look to Audeze's, but I'd experiment with alternate amps before you go that route and abandon the fantastic sound stage, comfort and detail that hd800's offer. 

 

[maibuN]

See my post above.
 
Regarding the bass audeze headphones are way better than hd800 but they are very uncomfortable with rather small and congested soundstage.

 

[knowhatimean]

  The "lowest frequency" where the bass rolls of is not on the chart as is only goes until 100 Hz or maybe 80 Hz. The HD800 is a good headphone however is is indeed bright and (very) bass light. But I think that has nothing to do with de frequency chart alone because it doesn't react to eq. Even with some bass eq the bass still has no "body". Does somebody have an explanation for that? Perhaps the bad square wave response or the extremely open design?

Yes, I think what ever amp you're using isn't up to the task of driving these 300ohm headphones !
 
I'm not running a balance amp but my Burson Soloist is somewhat of a voltage beast ! The brightness factor will change
some also once you fix the amp problem (I was a bit surprised that you haven't seen some treble improvement yet, but I guess
some brightness can be associated to whether the 800s are being driven well enough also )

 

[pearljam50000]

At what frequency does the HD800's bass start to roll off?
Quote:

  The "lowest frequency" where the bass rolls of is not on the chart as is only goes until 100 Hz or maybe 80 Hz. The HD800 is a good headphone however is is indeed bright and (very) bass light. But I think that has nothing to do with de frequency chart alone because it doesn't react to eq. Even with some bass eq the bass still has no "body". Does somebody have an explanation for that? Perhaps the bad square wave response or the extremely open design?

 

[ubs28]

  I tried the hd800 with different amps: matrix m stage, ifi idsd micro, meier audio corda symphony, bryston bha-1, violectric v200, bmc puredac, hdvd800, to be honest it always sounds like an hd800. I don't understand that "black magic" of amps making the hd800 so much better. I think it is a matter of fact that hd800 is bright and bass light, this is not necessarily bad as I like it anyhow.

It's not a matter of fact, it's your opinion. The HD800 has got excellent bass and treble extension, you won't find many headphones that has the bass, mids and treble extension in such a linear fashion.