OFFICIAL: Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XX

Well, in their mind, HE-1 is the best headphone they can produce as of today. They can argue that soon personal audio will arrive at an unobtainium premium ultra high speaker-equivalent price point, so they might as well arrive first, HFM Shangri-la next.

But, who cares about HD800S or "HD850" right?

 

I'm hoping you're right. Right now we have the HE1, a bunch of $200-300 headphones and the HD800S. It's a weird line-up. I'm sure they realize it too. But Senn needs to pick up the pace. The competition is about to eclipse them through sheer trial-and-error.

 

The HE-1 may be the best thing they can produce right now, but that's a statement piece that will be lucky to sell 10 in a year. Companies don't make the bulk of their money off of those products. Those exist to entice people to spend money on their more reasonably priced items because it's from the same brand as the $30K headphone.

 

All I know is the 650s are damn good. I can't believe the price of these. I'm not even driving them properly yet, mojo and vorzuge duo. Sounds very good. Get my Valhalla 2 tomorrow, that should be a nice jump. Not sure how much they could have done to improve the sound, maybe an extra 20db of sub bass. At $200, has to be one of the best buys in audio.

 

Just glanced at Sennheiser's 2015 annual report, this is far from their focus, which involves a lot of wireless stuff and professional equipment. This could be driven by Brexit and the phones being produced in Ireland. Moving dead stock. Look at the drop in retail prices.

 

Maybe mid-fi where the money is

 

I think we should be grateful they are not pulling an Apple and releasing questionably designed hardware at inflated prices (I use a Mac and like it, but the new MBP line up is madness). The Massdrop edition is fine, as long as that is not all they are planning for the future.

$500, which is the HD650 MSRP, is a hard market because it can be argued that if someone is going to spend over about $300 they are much more likely to spend a lot more and get the HD800S. When the HD650 was launched it was their highest priced non-statement headphone. From a purely business minded perspective, I cannot see them investing a whole of money into RND'ing a new item for the $500 price range when the HD650 is still an amazing headphone with a loyal following, AND it serves them best to sell a ton of HD800S'.

 

Good to know history behind the HD700, this shit involving Jude continuously sinks below my already cynical expectations. With that kind of fiasco, why wasn't the HD800 a grandslam?

 

Take the fight to Audeze and Hifiman...Maybe if they rose the HD800S price to $4289?

 

I was thinking sonically. So it's their version of a Grado sound? Bright sells.
EDIT This was true when I worked at The Good Guys selling speakers. Nobody bought Celestions.

 

I have no doubt that moving tons of low priced mid-fi headphones pays dividends over selling a moderate amount of hi-fi headphones, especially given that their current stable of hi-fi headphones still do good business (except the 700, and even then it probably does well enough for them at $400 that they're fine with it).

 

Somehow, typing "super best audio friends.com" doesn't get you in trouble. It could be the .com for all I know but I don't want to try ".org" because I got an email for including "SBAF" in one of my posts just one week ago. Maybe next week

 

I need to hear an HD800. So much to learn.

 

HD800 soundstage, HD650 tonal signature with tighter deeper bass. It's what everybody wants. I'm sure it's possible.

Not really - what you actually need is to hear a modded HD800 with tubes. SD-mod + sbaf mod + copper cable + tube amp is the way to go if you ask me. Stock HD800 with SS amp can be a pretty painful once you get tired of the soundstage and detail.

 

That's the holy grail.