Sennheiser HDV 820

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by iDesign, Apr 28, 2017.

  1. Vorlon

    Vorlon self-important, pompous ass

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    This thread seems to have run a bit off course... I understand the HDV820 is likely not the best value, but in the end it´s all very relative. For example here in Finland the resale values of Schiit gear are pretty poor (and aren´t accepted as trade items in many places) plus obviously the distribution or prices are not on the same level as for people from US on these forums. That´s just the price you pay for having a smaller scene, large brand stuff is often a better investment in the long term.

    Sennheiser gear like the HDV820 and HDV800 on the other hand are extremely easy to sell with a good price, not to mention they have (among solid state gear) very good synergy with their own headphones. I´ve A/B:t it against the Mojo, OPPO, Meridian Prime, Lehmann Linear & Benchmark DAC-3 and at least against those it was the winner. Unfortunately I haven´t had the opportunity to try any high end Schiit gear as they are nowhere to be seen here.

    Objectively though, sure a lot of the price of this thing is definitely due to the fact it´s the "official high end HD 800 S companion", but if you have previous large brand stuff that´s easy to sell you can get a good trade in deal from most stores here (my guess: dealer margins are pretty good for the HDV820). That´s what I just did so I´m now in the HDV820 club. Not going to make any first impressions yet as I´ve been listening to it for literally 30 minutes now. I´ll mostly be using it with the new HD 660 S ince it´s released (and until that my trusty HD 600).

    What I can say is that it looks cheaper/less flashy than the previous version, but I guess they are going for a "disappears from your desk" look this time. It doesn´t come with a fancy box either, just a cardboard box with the manual. As for the new pentaconn connections, if the rumors are true both IE 800 S and HD 660 S will be including one of these cables so it seems to be the connector of choice for Sennheiser in the future. If that´s a good idea I have no idea.

    And yes, I am a Sennheiser fan... Always have been. There is a certain level of perhaps blind trust I place in their products that I don´t do for any other headphone company. This may be misguided, they need to do something a lot worse than the HD 700 for them to lose that.

    EDIT: also what finally pushed me towards the HDV820 is that the back 3-pin XLR are finally preamp outputs for active monitors. This is the reason I sold my HDV800 a long time ago. Unfortunately there is no automatic shutdown when headphones are connected, but it´s no big deal to shut down my desktop Genelecs when I´m using the headphone outputs.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2017
  2. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    Well if you limiting yourself to physical stores or people near you that's bound to happen. Personally I never got a better deal in a store (trades/trades + cash) than in an online sell (probably because they are extremely limited here).

    The fact that you limit yourself, in that regard, is nothing other than a personal choice... respectable, but a choice.

    That said if you are going to hang on to it, like you said, in a long term, as long as you enjoy and use it, it's a good investment in something for yourself.

    Enjoy every second of it.
     
  3. Vorlon

    Vorlon self-important, pompous ass

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    First impression from memory is that it´s a little less bright (or more natural sounding) than the original HDV800. Bass has good groove and impact - not surprising for a ES9018... DAC section seems better in general than the original, but the bar for beating that wasn´t high in the first place. There´s also now a Sennheiser control center app for Windows that let´s you tune USB buffer settings etc. My desktop Genelec monitors sound great too.

    Real test will be when I get the HD 660 S hooked in via the balanced pentaconn connection.
     
  4. iDesign

    iDesign Almost "Made"

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