The HD800 & HD800S thread

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by sorrodje, Oct 11, 2015.

  1. Erroneous

    Erroneous Friend

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    Laaaaaaaaame. A tweaked HD800S that you get to save about $200 off the regular sale price of, with the privilege of waiting until November.

    They're cannibalizing their current high end headphone.
    A cheap HD800 for people to tweak would have brought a product back from the dead without butchering sales of a regular $$$ product. Drop version is supposed to be betterer, so who's going to buy HD800S now? People want the new hotness and now Drop has it at a discount.
     
  2. wbass

    wbass Friend

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    Out of some kind of madness, I've got both an HD800 and an HD800S. Well, I got really good deals on both. Both are stock. Through a BHA-1, I don't feel a particular need to mod the regular HD800. But I digress....

    Like some on here, I have a slight preference for the regular HD800. It's a touch clearer in the bass than the S, so I'm wondering if the HD8XX will double the bass distortion with two resonators.

    I've also got a pair of Utopia, but I've been using the HD800 more lately. Still, the Utopia are overall more resolving. If Senn could up the resolution, something like the HD8XX would be nigh on perfect. This sounds more like a driver tweak however.

    But, hell, I'd still love to get ears on.
     
  3. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Who the f**k does Drop think is interested in an $1100 headphone that no one has actually heard, based on a headphone that many people feel has significant FR issues that require extensive modding to correct? I know lots of people buy FOTM shit on Drop but those are usually less than $500.
     
  4. Pancakes

    Pancakes Friend

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    I bet they sell out within 30 minutes. I wouldn't spend anywhere close to $1100 - $1200 on an unknown quantity. $900 on a rebadged 800s sure. But not this.
     
  5. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Honestly they should have dumped old HD800 stock with a Drop paint job for $450 and watched it sell out in three minutes.

    I joked about a Porta Pro ++++ but I’d much rather have a souped up Porta Pro (more souped up than the one they’ve already done) for $150 than a tweaked HD800S for $1100/$1200.
     
  6. Erroneous

    Erroneous Friend

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    I and a bunch of others here would have been first in line with wallets open.
     
  7. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I guess a guarantee of 3,000 sales at $1100 is a better deal for Sennheiser than whatever sales are for the HD800S now.
     
  8. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    HD800-tier technicalities with "better" FR would be remarkable, but yeah USD1k+ is still priced far out of most people's pockets. Who knows, maybe in another decade the silly thing will actually be affordable.

    Likewise concerned about distortion performance when sub-bass is pushed that far up, but @Bill-P's reportedly awesome headphones using the HD800 driver gives me some hope this won't be a steaming trashpile. Waiting on actual pics of the internals for now.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  9. netforce

    netforce MOT: Headphones.com

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    $1100 and then a 9 month wait o_O

    Yikes
     
  10. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    I personally don't think $1100 is that wrong. It's actually a good starting price point as long as we can look forward to something really good.

    Large portion of rants (myself not excluded) might come from lost trust on Drop team and Senn in recent years -- if this is an announcement during Elex days, I might debate myself more seriously lol.

    A couple of thoughts
    • FWIW SBAF's overall consensus on HD800 is good drivers in wrong enclosure. Without proactively modifying internal dimensions, the improvement would be give-some-take-some mostly or limited at best. Hence when 8xx is officially announced later today (2am here in PA), I would like to first see if they ditch 800's original housing. If not, well, let's grab some popcorn and enjoy drama.
    • I bet Jude will upload an enthusiastically-toned home shopping advertisement preview youtube soon to help Drop's sale.
    • Nevertheless, I do want 8xx to be eventually on Marv's hands for in-depth analyses. My magic 8 ball says they would suck (at least for my taste).. but who knows.
     
  11. Ksorota

    Ksorota Friend

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    copied from somewhere else.


    Hey Friends,

    Tomorrow morning at 9am PST, we are releasing the DROP + Sennheiser HD 8XX.

    This headphone is the result of hundreds of thousands of community posts and four years of collaboration between the teams at DROP and Sennheiser.

    Analyzing discussions around the HD 800S, we saw clear mandates from the community around bass extension and midrange balance. The HD 8XX incorporates two novel changes to accommodate those mandates.

    Where the HD 800S uses a single resonator, Sennheiser developed a dual resonator system for the HD 8XX, creating bass extension down to 10hz (+5db @ 10hz vs 800 S).

    Sennheiser’s team, lead by Jermo Koehnke, reached the bass solution pretty quickly, but our goals for the midrange proved demanding... bordering impossible. After significant research, Sennheiser reached a solution; altered acoustic impedance in the transducer's dampening material to smooth the FR from 2.5k to 8k.

    This means the transducer in the HD 8XX is unique, it’s a new ring driver.

    The HD8XX goes live tomorrow at 9am PST with 3000 units available, shipping in November. These 3000 units represent the full production we anticipate for 2021. We’ll make more available if the capacity increases, but this launch is the only guaranteed HD 8XX availability until 2022.

    Launch pricing for the HD 8XX is $1100 and you’ll receive $200 worth of drop points (20,000 points) with purchase.

    For future units, HD 8XX pricing will increase to $1200+. So come by tomorrow morning at 9am PST, pickup your HD8XX, buy a DROP + THX 789 for $99 and enjoy the endgame this November.

    https://drop.com/buy/drop-sennheiser-hd-8xx-headphones ^ this is the direct link for 9am tomorrow, thanks for your support
     
  12. Sonorus

    Sonorus Facebook Friend

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    This is promising

    "This means the transducer in the HD 8XX is unique, it’s a new ring driver."
     
  13. Tchoupitoulas

    Tchoupitoulas Friend

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    I was just about to point that out - if the transducer's any good, it might go some way to justifying the sticker price.

    But then other things make me nervous (emphasis added): "So come by tomorrow morning at 9am PST, pickup your HD8XX, use your drop points to buy a DROP + THX 789 for $99 and enjoy the endgame this November."

    THX 789? For a variant HD 800? Really?
     
  14. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    Well $1100 is decent price for US but few points to consider
    1. No one outside US will buy it for this pre launch offer as with import tax and shipping it’s like getting 800s today from local authorized dealer. If in future it’s proven that 8xx is indeed an improvement over 800s then I feel ppl outside US will start buying it.
    2. 9 months wait is far too long.
    3 Actual bonus amount is $145 as drop anyways give us 5 points for every $ spent.
    4. Going by history of Drop, no way the price will go north of $1200. Check out FDX01, early birds paid $250 and it sells for $200 today.
    Due to above points I don’t see drop selling 3000 units of these.
     
  15. Ksorota

    Ksorota Friend

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    They just want another 100$ from you for one of their products…has impulse buy marketing tactic written all over it.
     
  16. Inoculator

    Inoculator Friend

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Yikes...I don't even dress my toddler in blue and black. What uninspired garbage. And those FR changes...baffling. Cool extra bass extension, but who in their right mind thinks you should create a dip in the upper mids and add more treble energy?! Certainly not how I would have "fixed" the HD800.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2021
  17. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    I just hope they sent @purr1n a sample and he just can't speak on it because of a press embargo thing. LOL will find out in 30 minutes.
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Should be incoming sooner or later.
     
  19. 9suns

    9suns [insert unearned title here]

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    Horrible!
    And don't forget this:
    "Where the HD 800S uses a single resonator, Sennheiser developed a dual resonator system for the HD 8XX, creating bass extension down to 10hz (+5db @ 10hz vs 800 S)."

    That probably means much higher QTS driver, and as such, probably higher mechanical losses. HD800S was, for many people, not as lively, detailed and effortless compared to HD800 in the bass, this HD8XX should be much more offensive in that regard.
     
  20. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Well, other possibilities could be doped diaphragm for lower Fs (could result in higher mass) or an actual resonator to for the low/subbass. Curious to see what Drop came up with. Sennheiser has forsaken the OG HD800 no? Only HD800S available today?
     

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