Arctia
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2009
- Posts
- 185
- Likes
- 21
Picked up a HD800 from another head-fier. This is my very first high end headphones. So the only valid comparisons I can make is against my old K701. I have compared my K701 against several other mid-fi phones. Everytime I simply returned or resold the newer headphones after one or two weeks, and went back to my K701. Because while all other phones may have their own signature qualities, there were always some strengths about the K701 that I don't want lose.
Fast forward to two weeks ago. Tired of "sidegrades", I made a forum post asking what is an upgrade to the K701. First two replies were quick, "HD800" they said. I thought about it many times before, but the price scared me away every time. But I thought about how much time I wasted searching for the right headphones, time is money really (and as you get older, time is more valuable than money), I figured it's time to man up. Got myself a pair of HD800 from the sales forum here.
First impression: holy @#$! the soundstage
Let me explain. K701's soundstage is almost renowned. It was one of the qualities that made me kept crawling back to it. It's wide, as wide as the very tip of the ear cup to the tip of the other ear cup. If you cover up K701's ear cups, the music immediately turns warmer (+bass, +body). A bit enclosed, but warm and nice, and the overall clarity doesn't change too much. In fact I'll probably look for materials to make this mod.
Now HD800's soundstage, it extends way beyond the ear cup. If you have HD800, you can try it right now. Extend your arms out to your sides, and slowly move your hands towards the ear cups like you are going to cover them. Before your hands get anywhere close to the ear cups, you will notice the sound changes immediately. The sound gets worse and worse as your hands move closer, and when your hands finally cover the ear cups, the music becomes un-listenable. The sound that your hear from your HD800 is not only between your ears, but it comes from outside as well. People say HD800 leaks a lot. Well, that's not really leaking. In a way, HD800 is purposely generating sound outside the ear cups, it's integrating the air outside into the listening experience.
The result? A slightly wider soundstage, and somehow it has more depth too. Can't explain why, but that's what my ears tell me. If you describe K701's soundstage as an ellipsoid, well HD800's soundstage is still an ellipsoid, but much closer to a sphere.
I don't know what kind of crazy engineering went into this thing. Right now I wholeheartedly agree that technologically this is one of the most impressive dynamic headphone that I've heard.
What about actual sound?
Coming from K701, the biggest thing that I noticed was the difference in bass. HD800's bass is superior in both quantity and quality. I know when I listen to more pop-py songs with my K701, I often have to turn on my bass preset. While the K701 can delivery very good bass with some EQ, the presentation gets distorted because of the EQ. HD800 has that extra kick without any compromise in detail retrieval or stage presentation. This is the part that impressed me. Plenty of other headphones can provide amazing bass, but very few can do so while maintaining K701's level of clarity in other frequencies.
Another plus is that there's a wider tolerance on volume now. I think all K701 owners can agree with me that below a certain volume, K701 sounds anemic. Once you turn the volume up, K701 becomes quite good. But you have to be careful because sometimes the highs can be piercing. This quality alone makes K701 finicky, this is also one of the main reasons why people only recommend K701 for specific genres. No problem with HD800, as long as the volume isn't too low, the body is already there. At the same volume, HD800 simply sounds fuller than K701. This quality alone makes many songs that were un-listenable on K701 tolerable on the HD800.
Oh and detail retrieval is amazing (how can I almost forget). Even in my tired state right now, I already heard things that I didn't notice when listening with K701. Everything is magnified on the HD800. It's like I have the best surgical equipment in the world with a brand new species in front of me, and I'm just slowly dissecting it. Completely unforgiving, nothing can hide. The difference is not too big between the two, the HD800 simply takes it one step further.
Last thoughts
All these impressions are done from my mid-fi equipments (HR Ultra micro stack). I'm also quite tired after work, so there could be things that I said that are outright crazy, feel free to correct me on anything.
Essentially, HD800 is the only straight up upgrade from the K701. I have seen plenty of people claim that they are nothing alike. To me, HD800 is a completely improved K701 with no sacrifice to any of its original strengths (HD800 is even more comfortable to wear). Now whether or not it's worth 5x the money is another question. I will let my ears decide in two weeks.
I'd love to try T1 or other $1k+ cans. But before that, I guess I'll need to improve my amp+DAC.
Fast forward to two weeks ago. Tired of "sidegrades", I made a forum post asking what is an upgrade to the K701. First two replies were quick, "HD800" they said. I thought about it many times before, but the price scared me away every time. But I thought about how much time I wasted searching for the right headphones, time is money really (and as you get older, time is more valuable than money), I figured it's time to man up. Got myself a pair of HD800 from the sales forum here.
First impression: holy @#$! the soundstage
Let me explain. K701's soundstage is almost renowned. It was one of the qualities that made me kept crawling back to it. It's wide, as wide as the very tip of the ear cup to the tip of the other ear cup. If you cover up K701's ear cups, the music immediately turns warmer (+bass, +body). A bit enclosed, but warm and nice, and the overall clarity doesn't change too much. In fact I'll probably look for materials to make this mod.
Now HD800's soundstage, it extends way beyond the ear cup. If you have HD800, you can try it right now. Extend your arms out to your sides, and slowly move your hands towards the ear cups like you are going to cover them. Before your hands get anywhere close to the ear cups, you will notice the sound changes immediately. The sound gets worse and worse as your hands move closer, and when your hands finally cover the ear cups, the music becomes un-listenable. The sound that your hear from your HD800 is not only between your ears, but it comes from outside as well. People say HD800 leaks a lot. Well, that's not really leaking. In a way, HD800 is purposely generating sound outside the ear cups, it's integrating the air outside into the listening experience.
The result? A slightly wider soundstage, and somehow it has more depth too. Can't explain why, but that's what my ears tell me. If you describe K701's soundstage as an ellipsoid, well HD800's soundstage is still an ellipsoid, but much closer to a sphere.
I don't know what kind of crazy engineering went into this thing. Right now I wholeheartedly agree that technologically this is one of the most impressive dynamic headphone that I've heard.
What about actual sound?
Coming from K701, the biggest thing that I noticed was the difference in bass. HD800's bass is superior in both quantity and quality. I know when I listen to more pop-py songs with my K701, I often have to turn on my bass preset. While the K701 can delivery very good bass with some EQ, the presentation gets distorted because of the EQ. HD800 has that extra kick without any compromise in detail retrieval or stage presentation. This is the part that impressed me. Plenty of other headphones can provide amazing bass, but very few can do so while maintaining K701's level of clarity in other frequencies.
Another plus is that there's a wider tolerance on volume now. I think all K701 owners can agree with me that below a certain volume, K701 sounds anemic. Once you turn the volume up, K701 becomes quite good. But you have to be careful because sometimes the highs can be piercing. This quality alone makes K701 finicky, this is also one of the main reasons why people only recommend K701 for specific genres. No problem with HD800, as long as the volume isn't too low, the body is already there. At the same volume, HD800 simply sounds fuller than K701. This quality alone makes many songs that were un-listenable on K701 tolerable on the HD800.
Oh and detail retrieval is amazing (how can I almost forget). Even in my tired state right now, I already heard things that I didn't notice when listening with K701. Everything is magnified on the HD800. It's like I have the best surgical equipment in the world with a brand new species in front of me, and I'm just slowly dissecting it. Completely unforgiving, nothing can hide. The difference is not too big between the two, the HD800 simply takes it one step further.
Last thoughts
All these impressions are done from my mid-fi equipments (HR Ultra micro stack). I'm also quite tired after work, so there could be things that I said that are outright crazy, feel free to correct me on anything.
Essentially, HD800 is the only straight up upgrade from the K701. I have seen plenty of people claim that they are nothing alike. To me, HD800 is a completely improved K701 with no sacrifice to any of its original strengths (HD800 is even more comfortable to wear). Now whether or not it's worth 5x the money is another question. I will let my ears decide in two weeks.
I'd love to try T1 or other $1k+ cans. But before that, I guess I'll need to improve my amp+DAC.
