The HD800 & HD800S thread

Nope, the HD800 has been around for long and you will see it used as demo whenever you visit any Hi-Fi events. New things are interesting, but so far nothing has really shaken the competition, considering the increased pricing of most new things. And as Golmang said, even the HD600 & 650 are still around even when there are better headphones that share the same signature.


Speaking of HD650... Gotta admit I hadn't used my HD800 for 4 days since last weekend because I was too lazy to unplug my 650 & 600 from the Crimson and just kept using either of em, plus there was Sorrodje's SRS-2020 sitting on my desk which was easier to reach during the day...
In conclusion; I could live without the HD800. Until the time for night listening came... Listening to Polovtsian Dance with the HD800 after 5 days just made me fell in love with it again

 

i don't think i ever be able to part with my hd800. these are just some insanely good headphones. yea, even with the sdr mod they have some some fr issues still in a way but, are near perfect i think. the amount of detail they have is insane compared to the planers and stax i had before. i think the ring radiator drivers do a great job at what they do. the hd800's are defiantly my new favorite headphones and can't see myself ever parting with them ever. i never heard the sr-009's or he-1000's or he-6's so can't compare them to the hd800's. would love to hear the utopia as well but, no big deal if i end up never getting a chance to since i really am extremely happy with my hd800's.

 

one day i'll pick up a pair of hd650's to add to my collection but, in mean time, i can't get over how amazing the hd800's are. i love mine like, don't even know. so hard to explain but, i really think these are like the greatest headphone ever and gotten me to enjoy headphones once again. the hd800's are litterly my new all time favorite with the sdr mod.

even off a crappy laptop output it can be still enjoyable but, scales remarkabily so easily. like with these it's very easy how quick and how much these can scale going from source to source, amp to amp. these are defiantly super sensitive and most sensitive headphone transducers i ever dealt with so far. i can't see myself ever parting with these ever. they just make a great all-rounder i personally think. yea i can detect the slight recessed mids still but, they're not bad at all and still very resolving, lots of resolution and revealing.

i plan on trying a couple things with them in the near future but, love them as are. i have these felt rings that came from a pair of sennhesier linear II but, only have one since i lost the other ring somewhere around the house but, the felt ring fits perfectly around the outer part of the hd800 drivers and this weekend i plan on shopping around micheal's to see what type of materials i can play with. the hd800's has brought my faith back into headphones once again and i still can't say how much i enjoy and love these so much.

 

I watched Tyll's video about the HD800 and HD800S. What he says is that, the HD800S has by far more THD to warm it up. Also he says, it's the "same" effect you are using tube amps for. Tube amps add distortion and therefore make it sound warmer.

So, regarding measurements, the HD800 SDR is superior to the HD800S because of the lower THD. But then, people will use tube amps that add distortion to make the HD800 sound warmer. So why not just use the HD800S with an SS-amp instead of the HD800 with a tube amp? Wouldn't this be smarter, as SS-amps might have technical advantages over tubes? Please share your opinions and correct me if I am wrong.

 

Tubes vs SS has been covered ad nauseum, you'll find lots of threads on this topic with the forum search. Briefly, unless you're using a guitar amplifier to power your headphones, tubes are not designed to distort in a well designed amp, although they will measure different from SS.

 

sorry for such a large photo but, this is only i found on google search showing the felt ring. anyhoo, last night i went to micheals and bought some creatology felt and cut out rings to best of my ability like the sennhesier hd250 linear II's has since the size diameter fits perfect in the hd800 cups. they fit perfectly in the cups covering the larger portion of the driver just right. i wasn't expecting much much but, to me it seem to clean up the midrange a good bit. i tried them multiple times with and without the felt ring and seems to me it has affect on the midrange the most. i know i read of reflection issues in the cups before hand so probably all the felt piece did was absorb and eliminate the reflections in the cups preventing anymore cancellations. i know everyone here probably knew bout it and probably sometime very similar many times over. i know am i am a late bloomer with the hd800's.

i think the felt ring mod plus the sdr resonator mod sounds super great and best i ever heard in headphones so far.

 

@Rex Aeterna - have you tried them with Sonarworks? There's a free trial, it might be worth a listen, if your player has a VST host (if it doesn't, there's a free trial of JRiver too ).

 

Joe Bloggs from Head-Fi saying hello
So this is for those unlikely souls who still own an original unmodded HD800.

Last night I finally got to sit down for a good listen to a pair of them that allowed me to profile their frequency response to my ears. And this is what I came up with:


Notably, the dreaded 6kHz peak isn't really at 6kHz for me but... somewhere both before and after 6kHz. And there's a big peak at 10600Hz that I haven't heard anybody complain about. I don't know if this is a common problem frequency or just my ears acting up as I hear such a peak at such a frequency with a lot of headphones.

Anyone who wants to try an EQ correction for the HD800 (original, stock!) based on the above results is welcome to try with the following .e-q files for Electri-Q:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1yw2w8ahuyf4v7/Electri-Q_(posihfopit)_Install.exe?dl=0 (Electri-Q installer)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r1afulyolwo6fls/Sennheiser HD800.e-q?dl=0 (version 1 with more highs)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dj79ot97uvepikr/Sennheiser HD800-2.e-q?dl=0 (version 2 going by inverting the above curve)

 

How did the spikes look when measured, compared to trying to do it by ear? It would be a good way to check if it's your ears

(Hi, BTW, welcome to SBAF.)

 

Thanks
I only have equipment for measuring IEMs

I do these tests by ear and they've never jived with whatever measurements I see of the same earphones, either online or done at home, in a better than random chance way when it comes to frequencies above 1kHz. But you'd think what a real pair of ears hear would be closer to what you might hear than what you get from a dummy ear, however well crafted?

(there's a tendency for my hearing tests to reproduce some of the peaks and dips of instrumental measurements, except at shifted frequencies.)

 

This actually looks consistent with what I have measured with the ear-canal-opening measurements, except that I had a wide 2kHz dip with my measurements (which is also what I hear), but otherwise that looks a lot like what i hear a stock HD800 like. The right mods can make it almost flat.

 

I'm thinking of putting my HD800 on sale. After a week of trying to put replacement pads in without success, I'm done with the dread pads They are simply too tight. I'll either have to glue them into the ring or break the headphones to brutally force them in.

 

If it's just the clear plastic screen you can always cut it in a few places. Just cut perpendicular to the edges and the pad should snap in very easily. This way you can also easily remove the plastic ring.

 

There has to be some kind of step by step clear tutorial to replacing them.

I seen videos of them being put on within seconds.

 

The first time is really rough, I just put in a new pair a month ago, there's commentary in this thread about it. Took me a long time with lots of hand wringing but eventually the plastic loosened up enough. One month later I popped them off, and it was still a little tough, but took like five minutes.

My old pair, which were on for 2.5 years, very easily popped on and off, less than 30 seconds to do. Unsure if that is representative of just all that time on the phones, or manufacturing changes (both?)

 

The replacement pads that I got felt smaller in diameter compared to the original pads. I'm getting wrist pain from trying to brutally force and hold them in place for mins, but they will simply pop out as soon as I release the pads.
Anyone here looking for a pair of HD800 with no paint chip? I just want to get rid of it now and not suffer anymore.

 

I was looking for a secondary HD800 to try & paint as an experiment, how much were you looking to get for them?

 

I don't know the used price for these. The 1/4 inch cable has torn spots so I'll include the CH800S balanced cable with it.
If possible, I will try to return these pads back to Sennheiser...it's stressful.

 

About how hard should it be to remove the cable from these? I've tried removing mine with enough force that the plastic shifts a little and they still won't come free.

 

Should be easy with no need to use force. They just snap in & snap out.

Your connectors must be tightly fit.