[Moochibond]

  Maybe sibilance is what I am hearing and I'm just doing a poor job of describing it. It's kind of this "un-naturesness." Do you have any songs with very clear and obvious examples of sibilance that I can compare to?

One of the tracks you originally referred to "Closer To Fine by Indigo Girls" has many many clear and obvious examples of sibilance.
 
Sibilance - e.g. when a word with the letter S is sung there can be this prolonged ssssssssssssss sound. It can be quite sharp/bright/piercing to the ear.
 
Here is a YouTube video covering the topic:
 

 

[uncletim]

I'm looking for something transportable that may work well with my HD800, would have to work 110v/220v. according to Nhat if not into his $2K+ amp the only one he would recommend is the Schiit Mjolnir.  I want to hear his amp next time in Vietnam. 
 
I'll see what comes up at canjam next week.
 
Nhat's amp:
 

 

[henrypham2]

I am the only one having this amp right now dude . I have tried all schiit products but i think its not suit with my hd800 . Honestly i wanted to sell my hd800 so many times until i heard nhat's amp . I dont know how to explain in detail , just come vietnam and hear my amp )

 

[Galm]

  For a year before I had my Amphions, I loved my HD 800. Now I cannot stand the 6k peak at all. I was aware of it before, but I think I had gotten used to it. However, now when I am switching between monitors and headphones daily, it's simply not enough time to get used to it. It's painfully made obvious in stock form. I resorted to using Sonarworks for the past 2+ months. I'm still not fully satisfied. There's something really abnormal about that resonance. I mostly reach for the HD 598 now.
 
Anyone here compare the SuperDupont with the stock and Sonarworks (either stock or with SuperDupont)?

My HD800 "journey" sounds like it may have been similar goal wise to you.  I loved the soundstage and clarity, but thought they were way way too bright.
 
The SDR definitely helped.  Brings the sibilance like 90%+ down to HD800S levels (without the stupid bass distortion too).
 
I also wanted a more V-Shaped or reference sound though and the stock bass is weak.  I ended up getting Woo WA7 Fireflies which are a pretty sexy looking tube amp.  I used CBS Hytron 5814a (red label or white label not blue) tubes which brought a lot more bass thump (confirmed with blind testing by me and my friend) and in turn makes the treble a little more tame.
 
Lastly, I just picked up a Cayin iDac-6.  It's freakin awesome for what I want.  It makes the sound much smoother, and adds more bass in tube mode, or keeps it precise in ss mode.  Overall, it made the HD800s have way more bass thump, it's not lacking anymore.
 
So Tidal -> iDac-6 (Tube mode) -> WA7 Fireflies -> HD800SDRs = Exactly what I wanted.  More bass, smoother, and more musical.  While still being super clear and open.

 

[uncletim]

I am the only one having this amp right now dude . I have tried all schiit products but i think its not suit with my hd800 . Honestly i wanted to sell my hd800 so many times until i heard nhat's amp . I dont know how to explain in detail , just come vietnam and hear my amp )

I'll be back before my visa expires in Sept, looking forward to hearing it.

 

[chimney189]

EDIT: not worth my time.

 

[Galm]

 

The HD800s are extremely sensitive.
 
Like I posted above, the sound changed significantly based on my setup.  It sounds like a different headphone compared to when I first got it and used a Chord Mojo.

 

[silentmoon]

  My HD800 "journey" sounds like it may have been similar goal wise to you.  I loved the soundstage and clarity, but thought they were way way too bright.
 
The SDR definitely helped.  Brings the sibilance like 90%+ down to HD800S levels (without the stupid bass distortion too).
 
I also wanted a more V-Shaped or reference sound though and the stock bass is weak.  I ended up getting Woo WA7 Fireflies which are a pretty sexy looking tube amp.  I used CBS Hytron 5814a (red label or white label not blue) tubes which brought a lot more bass thump (confirmed with blind testing by me and my friend) and in turn makes the treble a little more tame.
 
Lastly, I just picked up a Cayin iDac-6.  It's freakin awesome for what I want.  It makes the sound much smoother, and adds more bass in tube mode, or keeps it precise in ss mode.  Overall, it made the HD800s have way more bass thump, it's not lacking anymore.
 
So Tidal -> iDac-6 (Tube mode) -> WA7 Fireflies -> HD800SDRs = Exactly what I wanted.  More bass, smoother, and more musical.  While still being super clear and open.

Have an eye on changing the 6c45 tube as well, the only 6c45 that i can recommend are the good-old-time 6c45 of Soviet Union circa 1970-1980, they have excellent electronic characteristic and no vaccuum problem when running in high temperature like the EH6c45 gold-pin, which are sold for 100$ bucks. Remember to buy them as matched pair, 6c45 was designed with 3% tolerance :| 

Kết quả tìm kproblem, find them on Eba

 

[Galm]

  Have an eye on changing the 6c45 tube as well, the only 6c45 that i can recommend are the good-old-time 6c45 of Soviet Union circa 1970-1980, they have excellent electronic characteristic and no vaccuum problem when running in high temperature like the EH6c45 gold-pin, which are sold for 100$ bucks. Remember to buy them as matched pair, 6c45 was designed with 3% tolerance :| 

Kết quả tìm kproblem, find them on Eba

The WA7 Gold pin tubes made the bass anemic on the HD800s, they were awful...  AFAIK people haven't used much besides the gold pins and the stock Sovteks.  
 
The power supply which is 12AU7 is what people are changing.
 
I got matched pairs of from what I can tell extremely rare CBS Hytrons 5814a military graded tubes.  They have a yellow marking on top that I've never seen anywhere else for that model.  They are a clear improvement over the stock tubes.  The WA7 owners lounge loves em, and if you want warm, I'd say they're the best from the dozen or so that have been discussed over there.

 

[johnjen]

So I just obtained a 2nd pair of 800's and these are a recent build with a s/n in the low 40K numbers.
My original 800's have a s/n in the 5K range.
 
I have noticed a few mechanical parts have been re-designed, nothing major that I can see, but there are a few 'refinements'.
 
The most noteable is to the driver capsule solder attachment points.
It's not a huge deal but the re-design looks a bit more robust, which I see as a good thing.
 
And other than changes to a few pieces of hardware (screws and coupling plates etc.) there isn't much of a difference between the old and the new 800's, at least as far as I can see.
 
But I did mod the stock cable where I noticed that it too has been slightly changed from the original cable.
And as a result the newer cable is a little easier to work with but man those strands of silver wire are tiny (0.07mm = 41 AWG), as in WAY less than a human hair, which makes for very small gauge conductors (0.3mm = 29 AWG).
 
This alone tells me why so many report improvements using aftermarket cables.
Just the increase in conductor gauge alone will result in noticeable changes.
 
Although I do see why they chose to use this approach with small gauge silver wire along with the rest of the wiring in use.
I see it as one of 2 distinctly different approaches that can be used to 'control' the drivers.
 
And now the fun begins as I mod this new pair. 

 
JJ

 

[Sennheiser]

:blink:

The Sennheiser poster did not write laughable, they wrote: "Smyth Research and Creative Labs' efforts are laudable"

Laudable meaning: (of an action, idea, or aim) deserving praise and commendation.

You can buy your HD800S now 

[size=small] [/size]

Yes, thanks for pointing out the definition!

Oh my, my bad!!!  Sorry about that. 

My bad too, I wasn't sure what you were referring to at first! To be fair, I don't usually say or hear "laudable" in daily conversion, I probably would have heard it the other way too.

Headphone Surround Processing and the HD800 are a match made in heaven, DEFINITELY recommend experiencing it! Expect Sennheiser to continue pursue this area too!

 

[randyb]

I'm excited and looking forward to the 800(S) and Smyth Realiser. Realy sorry about misreading the word. My excuse is that I'm old

 

[Sinter]

I've had my HD800's for a little over a year now and have always had a love/hate relationship with them. I use them with a Sennheiser HDVA 600 amp balanced output and a Multibit Bifrost. I love listening with them to well recorded music of all kinds but hate using them with the inverse. I've tried most of the mods but found the results to be at best very subtle. I gave Sonarworks a go but thought it to be too heavy handed in the higher frequencies even with tweaking. To me the biggest downside of using any headphone is how sibilant sounds seem to be emphasized and the HD800 is no different in that regard. Perhaps that's the price to pay for otherwise almost unbelievable reproduction. Has anyone else tried using Toneboosters Sibalance de-esser plugin to tame both sibilance and to a much lesser extent the brightness? I've found it to be much less intrusive than other de-essers and with conservative settings seems to target sibilance without obvious artifacts and sound degradation. The biggest downside that I've noticed thus far is a few dB reduction in some high frequency sounds in brick walled recordings. Any thoughts?

 

•  

 

[Galm]

  I've had my HD800's for a little over a year now and have always had a love/hate relationship with them. I use them with a Sennheiser HDVA 600 amp balanced output and a Multibit Bifrost. I love listening with them to well recorded music of all kinds but hate using them with the inverse. I've tried most of the mods but found the results to be at best very subtle. I gave Sonarworks a go but thought it to be too heavy handed in the higher frequencies even with tweaking. To me the biggest downside of using any headphone is how sibilant sounds seem to be emphasized and the HD800 is no different in that regard. Perhaps that's the price to pay for otherwise almost unbelievable reproduction. Has anyone else tried using Toneboosters Sibalance de-esser plugin to tame both sibilance and to a much lesser extent the brightness? I've found it to be much less intrusive than other de-essers and with conservative settings seems to target sibilance without obvious artifacts and sound degradation. The biggest downside that I've noticed thus far is a few dB reduction in some high frequency sounds in brick walled recordings. Any thoughts?

 

•  

Have you done the SDR mod?  I would strongly recommend doing that first.  It really helps bring down the sibilance.  
 
For my set up I then found going with a warmer tube and and dac pretty much got rid of any annoying treble, made them much better with other genres.
 
Im using an iDac-6 and WA7 Fireflies with stock amp tubes and CBS Hytron 5814a red label (not blue) PSU tubes.

 

[Bucake]

Howdy!
 
Is there any known EU-based address that fixes HD800 cables?
 
 
..because my stock HD800 cable is finished.
I can guarantee that I have practically treated these headphones like a lil' baby. Carefully, calmly, and no silly stuff.
Couldn't tell you why or how it happened, but the cable* started splitting a while back, and it just got a little bit worse every day. (*Rubber part, left side.)
Eventually, the sound started to cut out periodically, and now it's barely working anymore. And so.. it's finished.
 
Unfortunately I don't have the skill or gear to fix this cable myself, so I am looking for alternatives.
And I can't see myself change headphones, so I have no choice but to get this fixed, or get a new cable.
 
 
Would appreciate suggestions,
cheers!