[Gamerphile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif How did you get your hands on the HD800?

Nope i didn't - still the same spare cable... I would surely have told you so if did.. As far as I know I get it when the first people do - no tricks there.

 

[spacemanspliff]

Ya'll got another month? lol

Well, once they're here, it will be nice.

lmk when they drop to $600 on the fs ok?

 

[boomy3555]

Ho can you say this about the HD800's:

"They feature the biggest neodymium magnets of any dynamic headphone and a new doughnut shaped diaphragm tilted to replicate the way sound enters your ears from floorstanding speakers. The result is a sound that rivals any others on test here. The first and only time we stood with jaw agape at the quality and transparency of the music we were listening to.

The special awareness they afford the listener is mind-boggling - were it not for the giant enclosures you'd barely know you're listening through headphones, so open are they. Clarity, detail, power and depth pour across the entire soundstage without hesitation."

And them choose an RS1 over it. I think they just couldn't get past the "Size" of them. How many times idid they mention the size?

 

[pabbi1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gamerphile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nope i didn't - still the same spare cable... I would surely have told you so if did.. As far as I know I get it when the first people do - no tricks there.

How much for the cable?

Can you share with us if you will be offering dual xlr terminated cables, or are you helping Senn develop this offering?

 

[subtle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by madmax7 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The "Voice" cable is ridiculously dumb.

Went ahead and made the appropriate corrections there for you.

 

[Lil' Knight]

AFAIK, there are at least 2 head-fiers here pre-ordered the Voice. Would be interested to see their impressions.

 

[vcoheda]

the "voice" cable sounds interesting. i've spoken to some people about it and would definitely like to hear the cable with the HD800.

 

[wnmnkh]

But I can be sure that it won't be 2x better than HD800 with stock cable....
And wonder if anything can be changed since stock is already quite good and expensive (we are talking about 260$ cable)

 

[Yikes]

Judes write up after the mini meet really make me more anxious to give the HD-800's a serious audition.

As far as the so called comparison review from AV review goes, it's possibly one of the worst comparison reviews i've ever read. They should not have included the HD-800's at all. Then they say "but from first impressions they're as good as headphones get" and yet the RS-1i's are declared the winner.

1st the OBH-21SE is a total piece of crap, and there is no mention as to which CD player or Turntable was used as the source for all of the other headphones. So we have no way of knowing if they are even close to the surprisingly good grace DAC. The Grace amp is not even close to SOTA, but it's MUCH better than the abysmal Creek.

I'm the furthest thing from a Sennheiser fanboy but even I think that review was grossly unfair and biased.

And I'm afraid that if the 800's are even close to as good as Jude feels that they are that I'll end up owning a pair. maybe I should resign myself to the fact. I knew I was doomed when my tax refund worked out to exactly $1400

 

[shellylh]

I thought about not going to CanJam because of difficulty of getting gear to/from So Cal. Then I thought, oh wait, I will just go and leave my gear in Texas! Yeah, it is a little selfish but there is no way that I am going to ship gear any more than I have to (seeing what FedEx workers do to packages). I could carry on the GS-1/Stello/laptop and a couple pairs of cans but I am not sure it would be worth it (given all the other great gear that will be there) since it will surely be duplicated by many others. Now, your gear is a different story. I guess a rolling meet is in order.

So, yeah, I am not going big but at least I am going. Plus I have too many ff miles.

Back to complaining that not one pair of HD800's has yet to enter the great state of Texas (that I know of)!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's actually ~179 miles, but it's principle... since I'm not really that shallow. Just waffling on CanJam, or not, and how to ship all the gear if I fly. Maybe the Texas contingent should make it a rolling party - except we'd never make it past El Paso. But, given enough power, we'd have quite a bit of written impressions by the time we got there - especially debating road vibration effects on the sound... Go big, or go home. but, yes, buying the miles is the easy path. So, What is the problem now, if _late_ May is accurate?

 

[Bostonears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wnmnkh /img/forum/go_quote.gif But I can be sure that it won't be 2x better than HD800 with stock cable.... And wonder if anything can be changed since stock is already quite good and expensive (we are talking about 260$ cable)

Of course the Voice cable won't be 2x better than the stock cable. We're way past the point of diminishing returns. That's not to say the Voice won't be better than the stock cable, only that it takes a major amount of money to make minor improvements at this level.

 

[Fafner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bostonears /img/forum/go_quote.gif Of course the Voice cable won't be 2x better than the stock cable. We're way past the point of diminishing returns. That's not to say the Voice won't be better than the stock cable, only that it takes a major amount of money to make minor improvements at this level.

I don't expect the Voice cable to be proportionally better than the stock one, or even the standard Equinox. But nothing in my setup really is. Look at the 12au7 tubes I got...they sound awesome, I wouldn't swap them with anything else, but do they sound 4 times better than, to say, Telefunken smoothplates? Ofc not. That's not what you have to expect when dealing with high-end gear.

 

[Gamerphile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif How much for the cable? Can you share with us if you will be offering dual xlr terminated cables, or are you helping Senn develop this offering?

He I wish... Its kinda like this: I know this guy who is also ordering the HD 800 and is as worked up about it as only few of us are. He really should be on Head-Fi but isn't. He works at SennCom and we (me + some SennCom audiophiles and experts in the fields relevant) all wanted to "reverse engineer" the cable a bit to see what all the fuss was about. This guy just had the ability and proper work function to actually do it so I told him that if he ordered some I'd like to use one for my university projects where I needed an XLR termination to see if balanced operation would do any difference. So I did some "home hacking", as one of the old school experts called it, in their lab one afternoon after we looked at one. Then I have revised it a few times and such with some of the experts as I was a total newbie with cable terminations and we love to go overboard in ways to try to make it 99.9999% similar to stock

So I know how to do it but I don't have cables or equipment. But cables are an official spare part and I would call your local Sennheiser vendor or Sennheisers offices in your region and ask how to get them if you really need 2 cables. Alternatively you could just have the one stock pair XLR'ed but then there is the hole problem with warranty which BTW might still be a problem if you use XLR'ed at all and break them. Hmmm... Someone should call Sennheiser about this - anyone?

Making it is really easy as long as you have a multimeter, good soldering tools, schematics from Neutrik website or what ever on the terminations you want and schematics fro threads here on the balanced operation part. Red for right, Green for left... Sailor and aviation cable basics - now also to a HD800 cable near you!

 

[Fafner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif AFAIK, there are at least 2 head-fiers here pre-ordered the Voice. Would be interested to see their impressions.

I'll most likely write some impressions, however, keep in mind that I'm going for the balanced version, so it's going to be hard to tell which part of the improvements are going to be there because of the cable and which part because of the balanced drive.

 

[Gamerphile]

Oh and if you want to cry a bit here is an picture for you to think about. I know this product manager at SennCom which does some of the Bluetooth products where its both Sennheiser and SennCom in coop that R'n'D it. So he went to Sennheiser HQ and there he saw litteraly piles of HD 800 laying tortured on tables - misused for QA and such. Sonicly and such they where like 99.9% of what we will get but they just had small imperfections or even just needed for some evil test scheme of wear and tear. Imagine it.. piles... of pure sonic pleasure destroyed...
Story goes they actually track them by their uniq ID so someone doesn't slip a pair off for "private sessions" and such.