The HD800 & HD800S thread

If it's rampant speculation you're interested in, I suggest continuing to post in this thread instead of bringing that nonsense here.

 

So when you are thinking out loudly and thinking possible answers for asked questions and you bring out the facts. And maybe in the progress you prove someone wrong, it's forbidden and you can't do so in this forum?

Allright then.

 

I think that's a mischaracterization. The only "facts" you shared were an original product release of June and a postponement of such release to October, without providing a source for the latter. The rest of your post is speculation and asking for more speculation about product features. Well, that and your disingenuous use of "some" when discussing others who have speculated about the same, when in fact one of those speculators was you on another forum. Happy to continue the discussion privately if you like, but I'd prefer not to derail the thread further.

 

Don't worry guys. HE1000 got the axe as well.

 

He really needs another list for modded headphones.

 

Then he could make a list for eq'ed headphones as well. I think there's a good reason why he hasn't done that.

 

I hate to say this but the in today's market a $1600 HD800S is not a flagship, they probably are going to release a successor and price it in the in the 3-4k market like everyone else.

 

True, even more reason to f**k off from the hp arena and get into speakers.
Value is long ago not the reason to buy hp-s. Until 2k in hp-s + up to 2k in amp, hp-s have some traits over speakers. This is why I went on.
Hard to make a case for them at 4k + totl amp for hp-s alone. 4k can get some very very nice speakers in diy at least.

 

@sorrodje I 100% agree, but the market bears what it bears, and that seems to be 3k+ cans in the highend atm.

 

My ass is allready sore from spending 4000€ on total in amp/dac/hp's. I don't want to sell my second kidney in order to get 4000$ hp's alone.

But who i am whining about? Some people spend 5000$ in power cables alone.
In all seriousness, the flagship headphone market is getting out of hand.... fast

In the future you can choose to buy Sennheiser Orpheus/ Focal Utopia 3 / Stax 029, or similary priced brand new Lamborghini

 

but you know that even though there's a Bugatti Veyron, the Toyota Prius is still a perfectly reasonable choice.

 

That's kinda silly, though, because all the stuff that made headphones a value 10-20 years ago still exists. You can get an HD600 + Magni for just over $400, and it'll sound phenomenal, way better than any $400 speaker system. You can add in a Modi Multibit, upgrade to a Vali 2 and still be at $750, where speaker systems are still deeply limited.

Yeah, if you drop $8K on a headphone system, you're not really talking about a value system anymore... but all that means is that diminishing returns exist in headphone audio the same way as anywhere else. Nobody drops $8K on headphones if "value" is a big goal -- but just because the $8K option exists doesn't mean the value options are worse than in the past; in fact, I'd argue that there's never been a better time to be into headphone audio if you're interested in value.

 

Maybe I'm saying this because I've never heard headphones above the HD800-class (and I feel like I'm parroting myself from HD600 days), but a modded HD800 seems both great and not exactly cheap, especially with the whole rig factored in. And it's already at a level beyond the average consumer's willingness to spend and appreciate. At that point, then, isn't "end game" determined by the individual rather than the technology available?

 

yeah. the only thing pushing anyone to upgrade is their own fanaticism.

 

Eloquently put.

 

If we take flagship to mean the "best" or most expensive any given company has to offer, then the HD800S is still Sennheiser's flagship until the Orpheus comes out. Being a flagship does not qualify you as hi-fi or even mid-fi, so people wanting to parse the names is a non-issue to me. See the classic "Battle of the Flagships" where AT's TOTL stuff was losing out to Senn/Beyer/AKG "mid-fi".

My HD800X still sounds better than any plastic estats, Straight-Outta-Shanghai playnars, or Vaginal Flow(tm) headphones,and the fact that they are all more expensive is no concern to me.

 

I can only accept buying an Ether Flow if they do nightly builds.

 

Great time to look out for gently used HD800 Classic or S as hypesters drop them in anticipation of something better. Personally I'm sticking with my HD800 Classic and LCD2.2 PF until the same hypesters start dumping their Focals and Flows for the HD800+1.

 

Yeah, and you can get ipod + random ass actually pretty good sounding chi-fi iem-s for 100 $, but it's mid-fi at best.
As is HD650 and your solid state amp.
With the help of diy 1.5 ... 2k$ for transducer and amp looks to be the starting point into hi-fi sound.