The HD800 & HD800S thread

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

  1. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    Yeah I finally picked up an hd800 because of the insane deals available now. I resisted for so long but a mint condition amazon warehouse deals came up for $791. But I have no amp so I'm not using it til my zmf amp ships
     
  2. Warrior

    Warrior RIP 2021

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    Finally able to listen the the hd800, really enjoyed them. Less than ideal, but was at bh photo. Kind of noisy but really was surprised, I was expecting much less bass. Not sure if I'd prefer them over my Fostex but I definitely liked them a lot. That was with my X7 and mojo too.
     
  3. Fapman

    Fapman New

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  4. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    Lol. I think if this guy reviewed a Ferrari, he'd give it 0 out of 10 for fuel economy and 0 out 10 for engine noise isolation(too loud when revving)
     
  5. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Rtings should stick to TV reviews, of which they might have the best I've seen, until someone finally cracks the headphone measurement and compensation puzzle for good. That said, they are off to an impressive start and need to reconsider their rating system.
     
  6. T.Rainman

    T.Rainman Acquaintance

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    Actually I think their measurements are quite 'realistic' and jive with how I hear them (the few on their website I know well)

    Agreed on their rating system for sure !
     
  7. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Their frequency response results, with whatever compensation they use, look pretty off to me, the more of their reviews I look at. If you disagree, I guess we'll just have to duel at sunrise tomorrow.
     
  8. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    I think you should try the HD600 immediately. Going to them from HD800 (SDR) is like a breath of fresh air. They may lose out on some technicalities and stage width, but the frequency response and more natural tonality and treble more than makes up for it. (I don't get listener fatigue from the HD800, just annoyed by the FR.)

    Have been comparing both off and on for a few weeks (along with HD650) and thought of all your posts in this thread when comparing recently.
     
  9. T.Rainman

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    LOL :D .. get out your set of duelling pistols then.
    See you tomorrow ... |\/|
     
  10. chakku

    chakku Friend

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  11. T.Rainman

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    yes, and those of Sonarworks as well.
     
  12. Priidik

    Priidik MOT: Estelon

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    Rtings review structuring is outstanding. Their compensations are unfamiliar. The fr response comp for HD800S
    looks polar opposite to Tyll's. Something in between is how I heard them.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2016
  13. T.Rainman

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    The compensation is not unknown, but it is not used by others though.

    [​IMG]

    I do admit > 10kHz their plots seem a bit 'hot'.
    I hear the HD800S as a bit sub-bass challenged and with elevated treble and a 'warm' tonality of the mids because of slightly recessed upper mids.
     
  14. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Keeping in mind this is based on what I've heard with both headphones and speakers/subs, as well as experiments with measurements...Their sub-bass roll-off results seem exaggerated to me, similar to how Tyll's results often look, but potentially worse depending on which headphone you look at. RTings has the HD650 lower hump showing around 200Hz rather than closer to 100Hz, nor should the 30Hz spot be ~6dB down from 1KHz. If you want to listen to a headphone that actually exhibits that sort of bass roll-off, try the MA900. Not to mention, if you overlay the HD650 and 800S results, there's nothing there indicating that the 650 should sound subjectively and measure with a stronger mid-bass response ~100Hz. It's one thing that makes the HD650 sound thicker/less lean in comparison despite the HD800 having slightly better low-bass extension. The treble results seem suspect to me as well, with the 650 having a 9KHz spike up to 3-5dB from baseline, which would not sound nearly as pleasant as the 650s actually do.

    My point is, Tyll is clearly still going through a bunch of work researching compensation curves and trying to figure out exactly what his measurement head does from a physical perspective. Measurement rigs differ, and there's no known perfect compensative curve for individual rigs or as a blanket method. I also am not a believer in using bass boosts in compensation curves. A lot of the headphones that fit the Olive Welti curve sound bassy as shit to me, for example.

    I really appreciate RTing's TV reviews because those test methods are all very well understood, and they do a good job with them. Headphone measurements are still in their relative infancy in terms of establishing hardware and compensation consistency, and all RTings has so far is a picture of their compensation curve without further detail. I find it more damaging than not to the average consumer to toss around measurements willy-nilly if you're not really sure what you're doing OR unless you are very, very detailed with your hardware, software, compensation curves, overall methods, and have disclaimers pointing out the potential inaccuracies and downsides to your methods. I'm less critical of people that post on this site, because we're either not running our own review sites, usually, or are not seen as some sort of god-like figure on more popular headphone forums that are full of those that can't tell heads from tails when it comes to headphone measurements. (Even then, I'm just some guy on a relatively small forum, but I try to make it very clear I use an in-ear mic with results that are very particular to my physical body and potentially very inaccurate.)

    And then to start slapping subjective numerical scores to everything? It's like rubbing salt in the wound and gives a false sense of knowledge and authority on the matter. What exactly is required to get a 10? Does it have to have a perfectly flat response on some arbitrary compensation curve, be both open back and perfectly isolating, with low distortion, and the ability to run from a phone with in-line mic controls and bluetooth, plus waffle maker?

    I think I'm just salty because I was waiting around outside in my underwear, pistol in hand, and no one showed up to duel me! I just got a bunch of dirty looks from the neighbors and eventually had to go inside when the police showed up.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2016
  15. T.Rainman

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    I had a similar experience except ... not in my undies and no police ... fortunately. o_O

    Agreed on the scoring and what they find 'important' in a headphone.
    I don't give rats about isolation and whether or not it is wireless or has buttons.

    Really do like the layout and short descriptions and their 'explanations'.

    Indeed OW does have far more bass lift than the compensation applied here.
     
  16. Hands

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    I will say that if RTings keeps refining their methods, they could certainly be a good source for headphone reviews. So, I don't want my current saltiness to imply they can't make something great from it, like they have with their TV reviews. It's just headphone measurements and reviews are tough.
     
  17. T.Rainman

    T.Rainman Acquaintance

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    Yep, agreed.

    Perhaps holster the duelling pistols again ... unless the cops confiscated yours today.
     
  18. cooperpwc

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    Sigh... I wish that one could upgrade to the HD800S without having to buy two (in my case both useless) cables. Sadly our consumer society ain't quite that flexible.
     
  19. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    I love the HD600, but they start to falter during complex musical passages. Fine for jazz where there are minimal instruments, but large complex orchestral stuff is where things get dicey. Which always baffled me because they are popular for classical.
     
  20. Ash1412

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    When dat orchestra touches the subbass, all I can hear out of my HD650 is "blobbbbbbbbbbbbbbb......"
     

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