The (new) HD800 Impressions Thread
Jan 31, 2016 at 4:43 AM Post #21,871 of 28,976
My venus audio HD800 balanced cable keeps falling out — I asked about it and they got back to me saying "[COLOR=231F20]All you need to do is put a very small amount of glue on the inside of the connector. You just need to get a very small amount of resistance for the plug. Preferably hot glue. You only need a very small drop. Like a pin head."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=231F20]Any experience with loose-fitting HD800 connectors? [/COLOR]
Do NOT put glue on them.Tell them to sort it out properly.
 
Jan 31, 2016 at 7:29 AM Post #21,872 of 28,976
  Connectors on my Venus-audio cable are larger than the Stock ones indeed. 

  My venus audio HD800 balanced cable keeps falling out — I asked about it and they got back to me saying "All you need to do is put a very small amount of glue on the inside of the connector. You just need to get a very small amount of resistance for the plug. Preferably hot glue. You only need a very small drop. Like a pin head."
 
Any experience with loose-fitting HD800 connectors? 

Seems you two should talk.
 
I was displeased with the time it took for Venus Audio to build my cable. It was not until I reported the issue to eBay that they had not met their shipment estimate, only then was the cable sent (in 2 days after report, versus 3 weeks of waiting prior). My cable though was the new HiFiMan style. And I will be closely inspecting it.
 
Jan 31, 2016 at 8:35 AM Post #21,873 of 28,976
 
Fancy an XLR balanced cable for the HD800 without spending €300 for Sennheisers?  Cheap skate recipe is as follows requiring about €10 worth of parts, a brave pill, and a little soldering skill. Parts needed are,
 
Neutrik NC4FXX-B Female four pin XLR : http://www.neutrik.com/en/xlr/xx-series/nc4fxx-b
Neutrik NC4MXX-B Male four pin XLR: http://www.neutrik.com/en/xlr/xx-series/nc4mxx-b
 
The stock cable is a very nice design with a two separate cables for the left and right channel, each having a + and - wire wrapped inside an outer shield.  The other two black strings are only rubber to give the cable assembly some strength.  The four of them are all spiral wound together and wrapped in two layers of cloth.
 
1) Take a brave pill and snip off the stock TRS connector with approx. 4" of cable attached.  Peel back the cloth layers on the headphone cable to expose the two cables inside, then carefully strip about half an inch of rubber off each one.  Separate the shield wires that are wrapped around the two inner conductors and twist all the strands together as shown below leaving you will two wires and a shield wire for each channel.
 

 
 
 
2) Disassemble the male four pin XLR socket and slide the strain relief onto the headphone cable. Strip back ~5mm on the Red and White wires and solder the Red onto Pin1: Left +, and the white onto Pin 2: Left – of the XLR socket.  Then Take the Green and White wires and solder the Green onto Pin3: Right +, and the white onto Pin4: Right -.  The two remaining shield wires then connect to the ground solder tab on the XLR connector.  Slide the connector inside its housing and screw the strain relief onto the plug and you’re done, as shown below.  For a final sanity check take a multimeter and using the continuity setting ensure you have a good electrical connection from each of the four pins to the connectors at the headphones, and also confirm that you have no shorts between pins.  The outer bodies of the connectors at the headphones should also have continuity with the XLR outer shell.
 

 
 
 
3) Optional if you want the ability to plug into regular TRS sockets: Disassemble a female four pin XLR connector and slide the strain relief onto the short cable attached to the TRS socket.  Prepare the wiring the same as step 1, and then solder the wires onto the XLR socket using the same pinout as listed in step 2. You will then have a short XLR to TRS adapter as shown below.
 

 
 
 
4) Final pic showing the adapter plugged onto the end of the headphone cable.  The nice thing about this mod is it preserves the correct wiring for use with regular non balanced TRS sockets, and also for balanced XLR sockets using the same cable.
 

 
Very nicely done bro. Informative and useful. Besides... Did you've get any problems with soldering those wires? I know they are silver plated. So... do I need a higher temperature to solder them?
 
Jan 31, 2016 at 9:05 AM Post #21,874 of 28,976
No, they didnt seem any different to me. I use my iron at 450c with Cardas Silver Solder.
 
Jan 31, 2016 at 10:51 AM Post #21,875 of 28,976
My venus audio HD800 balanced cable keeps falling out — I asked about it and they got back to me saying "[COLOR=231F20]All you need to do is put a very small amount of glue on the inside of the connector. You just need to get a very small amount of resistance for the plug. Preferably hot glue. You only need a very small drop. Like a pin head."[/COLOR]

[COLOR=231F20]Any experience with loose-fitting HD800 connectors? [/COLOR]

I have personally seen this issue where the connectors are so loose they fall out. The cause was identified as improperly made connectors. The cable maker investigated and found out that the connectors were copies and not OEM. Once he got REAL Sennheiser connectors the cable worked fine.
I measured the copies and compared them to my stock cable and my Q cable and found that they had a few dimensions off and there was also a critical feature missing entirely. The guys that copied it didn't understand how it was supposed to work and missed the feature completely.
I've seen this happen in other instances where somebody tries to rip off somebody else's designs.

Your vendor needs to fix this. I would not put glue anywhere near my headphones if I were you.
 
Jan 31, 2016 at 3:10 PM Post #21,876 of 28,976
I have personally seen this issue where the connectors are so loose they fall out. The cause was identified as improperly made connectors. The cable maker investigated and found out that the connectors were copies and nit OEM. Once he got REAL Sennheiser connectors the czble worked fine.
I measured the copies and compared them to my stock cable and my Q cable and found that they had a few dimensions off and there was also a critical feature missing entirely. The guys that copied it didn't understand how it was supposed to work and missed the feature ccompletely.
I've seen this happen in other instances where somebody tries to rip off somebody else's designs.

Your vendor need to fix this. I would not put glue any where near my headphones if I were you.

 
Do NOT put glue on them.Tell them to sort it out properly.
 

Ditto, you absolutely should NOT put glue into your headphones, and asking you to do that is lazy and careless on the part of the cable company. They shipped you a faulty cable, it's their responsibility to fix that.
 
Jan 31, 2016 at 4:50 PM Post #21,877 of 28,976
Suprising. I have the same connectors on my Venus Audio cable and no problem whatsoever. 
cool.gif

 
Jan 31, 2016 at 5:00 PM Post #21,878 of 28,976
Suprising. I have the same connectors on my Venus Audio cable and no problem whatsoever. :cool:


I saw too many awkward stories about Venus cables so I went with a different company.

I went to the Arizona meet yesterday and compared my 800's to some other headphones. I tried the hi-fiman X's. They were different enough but I still think I want the HE-6 instead.

The Bottlehead crack with speedball mod is amazing with the HD-800. I recommend everyone try it if they get a chance.

When I jumped in to headphones with the HD-800 Violectric V850/V281 I kind of hit endgame on solid state. The 800's are such an amazing headphone and hearing other headphones this weekend made me appreciate that I have such a great combo and sound. I want to try the 800S but I think I am in a good place with what I have.
 
Feb 1, 2016 at 8:12 AM Post #21,880 of 28,976
The Violectric V281 with the classic HD800 is a great combo. Im listening to the audio fidelity SACD of America "Hearts" album and its just sublime. I have noticed however, that if you have the volume too loud with HD800 sibilant sounds especially "sh" get hard or glassy or irritatingly unnatural. BUT...if I turn the volume down sometimes just half a notch its enough to eliminate the irritation and the sound is natural and extremely pleasant. Just something to keep in mind when using HD800. With classical and instrumental the HD800 is tough to beat at its price.
 
Feb 1, 2016 at 5:29 PM Post #21,882 of 28,976
I auditioned the SPL Phonitor 2 recently with my hd800. Ragnarok and Violectric v281 are contenders also, but no chance to listen to either.

Anyone with impressions to share re: Phonitor 2 VS Ragnarok OR Phonitor 2 vs Violectric?
 
Feb 1, 2016 at 6:10 PM Post #21,883 of 28,976
I auditioned the SPL Phonitor 2 recently with my hd800. Ragnarok and Violectric v281 are contenders also, but no chance to listen to either.

Anyone with impressions to share re: Phonitor 2 VS Ragnarok OR Phonitor 2 vs Violectric?

 
Here is a review of the V281. It also compared it to the Phonitor 2 on the second page: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/authoritative-and-potent-violectric-v281-headphone-amplifier#MJ5b7kTS5yMdFbkQ.97 
 
I held off wanting to review the V281 until after I went to a local meet and had other people try it out...
 
Everyone that had tried it loved it. Especially with the HD800. The amp is amazing and the following is cultlike for all the right reasons. 
 

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