[rawrster]

It is good in a sense that it keeps getting better as the gear gets better but I do wish sometimes that the gear I had now was as good as it gets. The HE6 is the hardest to drive headphone I've owned. If I already had speakers then it wouldn't be bad since I would just be able to see if those amps would work with the HE6 or not. However since I don't I wanted minimal space since most speaker amps are quite large (there are exceptions of course like those virtue amps among others) I just ended up with the mini X amp I have now. That's probably where I will max out with the HE6 for the next few years at least. 

 

[nigeljames]

I find that both the HD800 and HE6 are very fast with the Master-6, certainly have to issues in that department or in the dynamics of any of my phones.
Sometimes the dynamics are quite scary.
 
ATM I don't find the HD800's are faster although they might seem that way at times due to a leaner tonal balance. I would say though that the HE6's are running balanced with a silver cable which is much better and much faster sounding thans stock, where as the HD800's are currently running single ended via stock cable.
I have balanced Toxic Silver Widow cables ordered for the HE6's, HD800's & LCD2.2's so my perception may change in the near future.

 

[rawrster]

So I ordered a replacement headband pad today. It came out to around $40 shipped. I'm pretty surprised at the costs really as well as when I ordered spare earpads. The prices are lower than what I would have expected although welcomed
 
I guess after a few  years the headband pad and the earpads have to replaced due to flaking.

 

[palmfish]

How much are the earpads?

Also, regarding the HD800 vs. HE-6, its been my experience (HE-400, 500, 5LE) that the HiFiMAN headphones "come alive" only at louder volumes. Is this the case with the HE-6? I listen at lower volumes and find the HD800 very good at all listening levels.

 

[rawrster]

I can't remember how much they were but I think they were around 70 or 80. It's still expensive but less than how much headroom had them priced at. 
 
Actually I just did a quick search in my email and it was 73.27

 

[NightFlight]

Such wisdom!  I have been in the high end industry 3 decades and I have heard this only a handful of times from end users.  For a fact much "perceived break in" is in actuality this factor!  I have seen folks go from one piece of equip to a much brighter one that was reviewed positively and hear them say, "well, it's bright, but it will break in".  Weeks later when I've visited them I've asked "how is it" only to always hear "much better, really nice now".  I then swap in the original, let them listen, then swap in the new, and they say "Oh, that's bright"!

Yes, the ears adjust, and this is a big part of the "break in game" as I call it.  

Certainly, some break in happens, especially with speaker surrounds and spiders, and more so with woofers.  But much of it with other equipment is exaggerated.

Think of putting on sunglasses: everything is colored.  10 minutes later you don't notice the coloration.  Every audio guy thinking he is immune to the aural version of this is in denial.      

HD800s do break in. I broke mine in, in their box for days. Check for 30 seconds every day or so until smooths out. Admitedly my whole chain was breaking in at the time, so the HPs were just part of the break in process.

 

[palmfish]

With tube gear, an argument could be made that they are "breaking in" throughout their entire lifespan. One could also say that every tube (within the same model/production run) will have production variation.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

HD800s do break in. I broke mine in, in their box for days. Check for 30 seconds every day or so until smooths out. Admitedly my whole chain was breaking in at the time, so the HPs were just part of the break in process.

It's just the coué method. Just repeat in your head before sleeping : "Every day, in every way, the more I burn my gear, the more it sounds  better".
I'd swear it's a night and day difference.

 

[BournePerfect]

Quote:

It's just the coué method. Just repeat in your head before sleeping : "Every day, in every way, the more I burn my gear, the more it sounds  better".
I'd swear it's a night and day difference.

 
Because you can't claim 'brain burn in' when he only listens 30 seconds a day?

 Love how the sceptics change the reasoning of their 'logic' to fit their hatred of the fact that other people can sometimes hear things they themselves cannot. Carry on.
 
-Daniel

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

HD800s do break in. I broke mine in, in their box for days. Check for 30 seconds every day or so until smooths out. Admitedly my whole chain was breaking in at the time, so the HPs were just part of the break in process.

My new pair was offensively bright out of the box, nothing like refurbished pair I had before, in fact it was so bad I didn't even bother listening them on that day, just pink noised them overnight and viola, no more screws into ears treble, smooth as a butter.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

My new pair was offensively bright out of the box, nothing like refurbished pair I had before, in fact it was so bad I didn't even bother listening them on that day, just pink noised them overnight and viola, no more screws into ears treble, smooth as a butter.

Great. But you might have just adjusted better the headphone position on head, which impacts to some extent the sound.
So that's still not obvious.

 

[LugBug1]

I do believe in burn in. But the only thing that I can say may have changed with my now 3 week old Senn's, is the soundstage. It does seem to be wider now than it was straight out the box. I know this because I compared my K701's and they were wider at the time. But not now. The HD800's for me have shown the least burn in difference in comparison to pretty much all my other quality hp's that I've bought brand new. Makes me wonder if they do go through some sort of burn in process at the factory.

 

[Solude]

Quote:

Great. But you might have just adjusted better the headphone position on head, which impacts to some extent the sound.

 
Actually one of the strengths of the HD800 is that it doesn't change depending on position.  Within reason obviously.

 

[extrabigmehdi]

Quote:

 
Actually one of the strengths of the HD800 is that it doesn't change depending on position.  Within reason obviously.

It's no too much sensitive, but still enough to take care of headphone position.
If you look at the gray curves from innerfidelity, you see  that  the biggest variations are in the treble region:
 

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

Great. But you might have just adjusted better the headphone position on head, which impacts to some extent the sound.
So that's still not obvious.

The only way to verify that is to have fresh, just out of shrink wrap pair blindly tested against burned in pair.
But why bother, this is not cable, burn in is free and inevitable whether you want it or not, unless you bought them just as a desk decoration.