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thecrow
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2014
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Like joshk4 I auditioned both the he560 and the hd800. Heavily. I loved the he560 and this gave me a real wow moment when I first heard it and was about to buy it (after listening to it on 2 or 3 different occasions) but then I decided to literally pick up a pair of the hd800s, just in case, and they too had a wow factor.
At that point I wanted to like the hd800 but was thinking I would come back and buy the he560s due to what I then described as musical offerring.
When I went back to the store to try them out again it surprisingly ended up being a somewhat easy decision for me to choose the hd800s. I would have happily bought both if there was a buy one get one free offer but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
For me, I loved the detail/analytical nature of the hd800. And I loved the upper mids and great timbre of the he560s. Two different headphones. The he560s offered as much bass as I would want (ie no more please) and the hd800s offered up to the maximum brightness that I like.
I mostly went with the hd800s because of the detail and openness/soundstage. And the bottom end is present even though not dominant. And I knew if I had bought the he560s I would often wonder, "I wonder what this album would sound like with the hd800s?" I don't have that the other way around.
I have been surprised how good pink floyd sounds with these. The detail from those recordings come across very well. With deep purple, and I do love a lot of my deep purple Mk III (stormbringer, burn), the hd800s do okay but I don't find they dance with those recordings.
Unless you are wanting some real strongly present bottom end/warm headphones then the hd800s should suit your well detailed recordings but your deep purple kind of stuff may need more. From memory, the led Zeppelin rematered stuff sounded pretty decent too.
But I guess later you can always choose your dac and amp to tweak your overall sound.
If detail and soundstage is very much important to you then the hd800s are definitely worth considering. They are analytical but in my opinion stil musical If it isn't as crucial then perhaps the he560, which still has good detail once you remove the hd800s from the equation, are worth looking at for decent detail and a real lively resonating fuller sound. There are some really good extended reviews of the he560 around here. One particular review/thread goes into heaps of detail.
Either way you won't go wrong with either of these.
I guess, thinking off the cuff, the he560s really rock ( with good detail) but the hd800s are something quite special when it comes to well produced music when looking to burrow In to the detail. But as I mentioned the hd800s does have clarity in the bottom end , so I wouldn't consider it bass lite, but the he560s do rock a little harder with sparkling mids and treble and real warm timbre.
Good luck.
