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The Sennheiser HD 800: The First Listen, The First Review
Jan 8, 2009 at 9:11 PM Post #332 of 5,928
Looks like it will go for retail for the most part. Big price considering the economy these days, but if it's the best, it's still much cheaper than the L3000, HP-2, R10 and HE-90...
 
Jan 8, 2009 at 9:18 PM Post #334 of 5,928
Wow! Seems almost surreal. Very exciting!
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Jan 8, 2009 at 9:25 PM Post #336 of 5,928
you lot must have "more money than senns"
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Jan 8, 2009 at 9:29 PM Post #338 of 5,928
Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes, technically it's *almost* the same. But the expectable sonic result is quite a bit diffrerent. With dome drivers, the dome is the main producer of sound waves, the roll/donut mainly has the role of a suspension (at least with speakers). With ring radiators, the rolls themselves are the acoustically active components. And as it seems, this design allows for better transient control. With speakers it also involves the disadvantage of worse sound dispersion -- whereas I don't see a clear drawback with headphones.
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Right, but if you look at the design of any modern headphone driver - or even a really old one like a Koss HV/1 - it's clear that the roll is an important radiator surface on all microphone-dome style dynamic headphone drivers.

Only the inner 2/3rds of the roll really does any work. So lets be generous and say the hole in the middle of the HD800 driver is 20mm. That means we have an 18mm ring to work with, and only 12mm of it is really moving a lot of air on bass notes. I think this may turn out to be a 'polite' headphone.

Which isn't bad. I have plenty of those.

Tweeter manufacturers work hard to keep the surface of a dome driver in line, but in order for it to be light, you can't get as crazy with the surface geometry as you see on the roll of a K500 or an HD800. Some have gone as far as to use beryllium domes.

If you look at a K1000 driver you can clearly see what sennheiser was deriding as a 'duofoil' attempt at stiffening a dome. The driver membrane is actually two membranes quilted together - presumably by heat-fusing it or gluing it. Ask any K1000 or K701/702 owner if it works.

The ring radiator is another way of solving the problem, which comes with some other tradeoffs. I anxiously awate multiple impressions of how much bass slam this driver has.
 
Jan 8, 2009 at 9:42 PM Post #339 of 5,928
I sure hope it's not a polite sounding headphone. The HD600/650 were great for awhile but became very boring very fast for my tastes. I was hoping Senn would go in a different direction... guess we'll see.
 
Jan 8, 2009 at 9:45 PM Post #340 of 5,928
On the upside, sennheiser was honest enough to give us frequency response numbers for both +/-10db and +/-3db, so if those numbers aren't pure fiction it might turn out to have pretty good extension and texture.
 
Jan 8, 2009 at 9:56 PM Post #343 of 5,928
Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif
On the upside, sennheiser was honest enough to give us frequency response numbers for both +/-10db and +/-3db, so if those numbers aren't pure fiction it might turn out to have pretty good extension and texture.


Yup, +/- 3db from 14hz to 44khz is unbelievable...
 
Jan 8, 2009 at 10:04 PM Post #345 of 5,928
Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddy Flycatcher /img/forum/go_quote.gif
When I asked "How much will that be in Euro´s" I meant how much Euro´s will we have to pay over here in Europe. The Sennheiser ie8 cost about twic as much in the US as it does in Europe..so HD800 $1400 (in The USA) but perhaps (squeezes hands hopefully together) €700 (in EU)??
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Not to burst your bubble, but according to that T3 article:

"Sennheiser has announced the new HD 800 headphones at this year's CES expo. At a staggering £999.99 per pair, you can probably tell that Sennheiser thinks that the sound quality is pretty special."
 
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