[Moonhead]

My Superlux ha3d has more than enough volts for HD800, maybe if it had and enormous Price tag People Would be persuaded to get one.
Sad but true.

 

[christian u]

I have one and for the price it is a fine amp and very handy. However if I turn the volume down to a very low level it favours the right channel and it is a bit harsh compared to my Avenson. But it can amp up 3 power hungry HPs with no problem and runs on 2 AA's for that price it is a bargain.

 

[joespride]

re the HD800 so revealing that they allow one to hear changes in cables ?  I have never been big on the cable end of things and always felt like they were at best a final tuning tool
 
I have been using a Walmart surge protector, with stock power cords and Mediabridge (amazon) cheapo inner connects, I bought a Moon Blue dragon inner connect and a pair of signal  cables power cords as well as a OneAc power conditioner
 
Swapping out the cables and installing the power conditioner seems to have added some weight to the sound sig, Bass seems to have tightened up with greater impact
 
I am not trying to add to the cable debate, (Believe or not is of no consequence to me) I am asking if 
 
Do Others find the HD800 so revealing that it is telling of changes in the chain like cables, power conditioner, etc...?

 

[rawrster]

That depends who you ask

 

[koiloco]

  That depends who you ask

+1.  
If you can honestly hear the difference, by all means go for it.  Don't just pretend you do afterwards to justify your decision like quite a few ppl in audio hobbies.

 

[shultzee]

  re the HD800 so revealing that they allow one to hear changes in cables ?  I have never been big on the cable end of things and always felt like they were at best a final tuning tool
 
I have been using a Walmart surge protector, with stock power cords and Mediabridge (amazon) cheapo inner connects, I bought a Moon Blue dragon inner connect and a pair of signal  cables power cords as well as a OneAc power conditioner
 
Swapping out the cables and installing the power conditioner seems to have added some weight to the sound sig, Bass seems to have tightened up with greater impact
 
I am not trying to add to the cable debate, (Believe or not is of no consequence to me) I am asking if 
 
Do Others find the HD800 so revealing that it is telling of changes in the chain like cables, power conditioner, etc...?

I have purchased some high end power cords and interconects and I can't really say for sure I heard a difference.   However going from SE to balanced certainly makes a difference albeit for a different reason.

 

[johnjen]

re the HD800 so revealing that they allow one to hear changes in cables ?  I have never been big on the cable end of things and always felt like they were at best a final tuning tool

I have been using a Walmart surge protector, with stock power cords and Mediabridge (amazon) cheapo inner connects, I bought a Moon Blue dragon inner connect and a pair of signal  cables power cords as well as a OneAc power conditioner

Swapping out the cables and installing the power conditioner seems to have added some weight to the sound sig, Bass seems to have tightened up with greater impact

I am not trying to add to the cable debate, (Believe or not is of no consequence to me) I am asking if 

Do Others find the HD800 so revealing that it is telling of changes in the chain like cables, power conditioner, etc...?

In my experience, yes cables and other ancillary gear can make a difference.
Sometimes the difference is not 'better'.
Case in point I auditioned an all silver (5K$) ac power cable.
ALL of my bass from 100Hz down just vanished and completely went away, like I threw a notch filter at the bottom end.

What I have learned is, sometimes in a system there are one or more MAJOR what I call "choke point(s)", that are so detrimental to the overall SQ that until they are addressed other changes may not be perceived as better, nor worse.

My OMG moment was when I replaced, for the 4th time, the duplex receptacle with an audio 'tweeko' unit.
My jaw dropped, went thunk on the desk, and I just shook my head as I soothed my chin.
This wasn't the last time I needed to tend to my chin…
This opened up a whole new avenue of research and experimentation, which I have continued to this very day.

That's the thing about tweaks, you shouldn't stop trying, NOR assuming that this or that didn't help, because UNTIL any and all major choke points are ameliorated they will obscure all of the subtle changes (good or bad) that result.
And until your jaw drops on the desk you'll not know what a 'choke point' is, nor that it was even there.

And lastly YES the 800's WILL reveal subtle changes assuming the rest of the SYSTEM, as I put it, 'gets out of its own way'.
800's will present to your ears, with precision and finesse, everything fed them.

IOW they will scale like a muth'a.
They aren't a major choke point, but that isn't to say they can't be tweaked as well.

As the SYSTEM improves (by SYSTEM I mean not just the amps, dacs, HP's etc. but the wires and everything they plug into as well, even vibration control (or lack there of)), the ability to hear an ever greater degree of subtle cues, harmonics, room acoustic contributions, etc. etc. will increase.

IOW as the system gets 'better' more and more of the hidden or obscured inner details will become evermore so apparent, assuming the rest of the gear scales well with itself.

Sometimes some systems sound reasonably good without any further tweaking.
This can then become a source of frustration as changes are made in order to make it 'better', which only serve to highlight its inherent deficiencies, because the SYSTEMS choke points worked in a complimentary way to hide or obscure its' deficiencies.

This is where the oft quoted saying comes into play,
"Sorry about your wallet".

JJ

 

[koiloco]

^  More pwr to you...

 

[Nicklikesmusic]

  re the HD800 so revealing that they allow one to hear changes in cables ?  I have never been big on the cable end of things and always felt like they were at best a final tuning tool
 
I have been using a Walmart surge protector, with stock power cords and Mediabridge (amazon) cheapo inner connects, I bought a Moon Blue dragon inner connect and a pair of signal  cables power cords as well as a OneAc power conditioner
 
Swapping out the cables and installing the power conditioner seems to have added some weight to the sound sig, Bass seems to have tightened up with greater impact
 
I am not trying to add to the cable debate, (Believe or not is of no consequence to me) I am asking if 
 
Do Others find the HD800 so revealing that it is telling of changes in the chain like cables, power conditioner, etc...?

Two days ago I ordered a pair of cheap ($35AUD) Audioquest Tower RCA 0.6m leads and they have just arrived. I wanted to test between the analogue out and in of my Rega Apollo and Schitt Valhalla 2 combo. Compared to some $10 JB Hifi non branded 2m interconnects, here are my subjective impressions..... What first struck me with the Audioquest Tower is that they had a soft fat bass which softened the impact of certain drums i.e. they had no leading edge. I felt that the cheap RCA's had a touch more detail and sounded drier more holographic. Then I just basically swapped cables for the next hour playing the same song over and over. Then something happened, the newer cable's bass became tighter. I still couldn't pick a winner- they were just subtly different. Then I started really enjoying the newer cable like I didn't want to stop listening to the song, they were a little darker and easier to listen to. Is this all in my head - maybe..The difference is really slight but for ME its there. To put a number on it - if the difference between Rega Apollo and Z Series Walkman as a source is 200 then the difference between these cables is 5. This is because I can only detect a slight change in bass weight in the cables but the slight bass weight makes it more enjoyable for me.

 

[SearchOfSub]

cables do make a difference. I wouldn't have spent around $1,000 in all cables added together for my stereo setup if it didnt. Powercord and speaker cables makes most difference. Audioquest and kimber cables are good.

 

[fuzzybaffy]

Kimber kable had an exhibit in a recent Socal show, where they had two of the same headphones (Sony MDR-Z7), one without a Kimber kable, and one with, so we could do switcharoos and A/B them with ease. I definitely heard a difference - the Kimber kabled one had better treble. 
 
Maybe it was just in my imagination or not, but it definitely made me a believer in cables. At least Kimber ones. 

 

[Nicklikesmusic]

  Kimber kable had an exhibit in a recent Socal show, where they had two of the same headphones (Sony MDR-Z7), one without a Kimber kable, and one with, so we could do switcharoos and A/B them with ease. I definitely heard a difference - the Kimber kabled one had better treble. 
 
Maybe it was just in my imagination or not, but it definitely made me a believer in cables. At least Kimber ones. 

Well I kept listening to that Audioquest RCA cable for over 5 hours straight yesterday. I actually lost complete track of time just 'wanting one more listen to just one more track'. At the end of the listening session my ears still wanted more. There is added bottom end as before except there is now a very slightly better level of detail in the top that I can hear because I think a little bit of harshness has been removed. I used to think the slight edginess was detail. The wakeup call for me was when listening to Radiohead Kid A. There is a track with a tambourine in the background. For the first time ever for me it sounded like a tambourine should. Then I noticed how vocals sounded like the vocalist wasn't super close to the mic. The soundstage has changed slightly. Imagine placing a goldfish bowl on your head that represents the soundstage of the 2m unbranded cables. The front stage was curved to the point where the vocalist was always further away than sounds appearing in the left and right fields. Now the soundstage represents a box on your head where sound from the left, centre and right all appear to be in line with each other (hope this makes sense). So the soundstage now better represents what happens in a real room with speakers (with an infinite number of tiny speakers) and was believable to me. Consequently my brain could relax and I was transfixed for hours. An analogy could be this..Remember when those 3D prints were being sold in shops? You could stare at those prints and if you were in the right mood/ relaxed your eyes the 3D model would 'pop out'. Well thats what happened to me last night in an audio sense. When that happens as we all know we are just in awe and cannot put those headphones down. 
 
My system has now been played for 50 hours so very possibly the change could also be attributed to the valve amp being more burnt in. In any case when I listen to the system now I can use the words 'fast, organic, liquid detail' to describe what I am hearing instead of 'fast, edgy, resolving'. My other cables will be arriving soon (issue with old stored belongings as I have lived in six countries) and I am looking forward to more tweaks and comparisons. Anyway, enough of my ranting Happy Listening!

 

[xp9433]

.... Even though it was 'only' single ended. I took the ifi - idsd and my HD800's on vacation for 10 days. What a great sounding pair. The ifi - idsd drives the hd800's with authority. Plenty of Bass and great mids and soundstage and wonderful buzz words are all built in. The real treat is the treble. There's gobs of it, but this must be the 'smooth treble' everyone talks about. I do not get fatigued with this kit. I will take the ifi-idsd over my Bifrost uber / Lyr2 setup. So in my opinion the ifi-idsd pairs very well with hd800's and could serve as your only dac/amp and not feel like you are missing out on high-end.

H1FiAdd1cted: Yes the micro iDSD is a perfect match for the HD 800 love them since a year.\

 
Interesting. I am going to buy an HD800 after playing around with EQ on my current headphones (following Bob Katz's feedback on the Innerfidelity Site) and realising I could get the HD800s to better match my listening preferences. On previous audition I loved the HD800's openess and detail but missed some weight and warmth in the lower octaves. With the Audeze LCDX I preferred the lower octaves but missed what the HD800 could deliver, so did not purchase either.
 
I have the iDSD Micro and took it with me on holiday, returned today. Reading and relaxing system: (Samsung Note3 [Upsampling Onkyo HF player] > [Regen - when power available] > iDSD Micro > headphones). First time I have used it in this combination, and I agree the sound was surprising good.
 
That the iDSD works well with the HD800 is a bonus!
 
Thanks for the feedback.
 
Frank

 

[joespride]

   
Interesting. I am going to buy an HD800 after playing around with EQ on my current headphones (following Bob Katz's feedback on the Innerfidelity Site) and realising I could get the HD800s to better match my listening preferences. On previous audition I loved the HD800's openess and detail but missed some weight and warmth in the lower octaves. With the Audeze LCDX I preferred the lower octaves but missed what the HD800 could deliver, so did not purchase either.
 
I have the iDSD Micro and took it with me on holiday, returned today. Reading and relaxing system: (Samsung Note3 [Upsampling Onkyo HF player] > [Regen - when power available] > iDSD Micro > headphones). First time I have used it in this combination, and I agree the sound was surprising good.
 
That the iDSD works well with the HD800 is a bonus!
 
Thanks for the feedback.
 
Frank

Can you supply a link for the Katz EQ information

 

[kapanak]

  Can you supply a link for the Katz EQ information

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/big-sound-2015-participant-report-bob-katz
 
Scroll down.