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Sennheiser HD800 S Anniversary Edition

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Oct 4, 2020.

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  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Thanks to @netforce at The Source AV for being able to provide these to SBAF for measurements, analysis, impressions, etc.

    Introducing the Sennheiser HD800 S Mordred from Excalibur Edition. Nope, you can't have this. At least not in the USA. It's my understanding that this limited edition headphone is sold out. It may be possible for folks in the USA to buy from Europe and have them shipped here. I hate reviewing stuff that people can't have, but at least this is interesting.

    mordred.jpg
    HD800 S Anniversary.jpg
    HD800 S Anniversary Plaque.jpg

    By the way, the HD800 S Anniversary Edition seems to be quite different from the HD800, and by extension, a little different from the HD800S. It's still an HD800 in terms of soundstage, timbre, transients; but the subjective tonal balance seems a bit different. I could be dreaming though. Will put this on the bench to confirm, but my sense is that the midrange dip is more evident, the 6kHz is no longer existent, but the highs are still up there. Also, the bass quality seems more in line with the HD800 than HD800S which sounded thicker to my ears (this is a good thing).

    Measurements later today...
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2020
    purr1n, Oct 4, 2020
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  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Posting this here so if anyone has an HD800 S regular edition, maybe they can spot differences.
    DSC01568.JPG
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2020
    purr1n, Oct 4, 2020
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  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Figured I wouldn't tease you guys for too long. Took some measurements really quickly. This confirms a bit of what I'm hearing, at the least the more recessed mids and non-existence of the 6kHz glare. I did think the highs sounded more elevated than what the measurements below say. However, this could be the result of the amplitude between the dip and highs being the similar.

    Sennheiser HD800 S Anniversary Edition
    Frequency Response
    miniDSP EARS (SBAF 3,.2 compensation)
    upload_2020-10-4_14-38-29.png

    Sennheiser HD800 S Anniversary Edition
    Frequency Response
    Flat Plate Coupler (comped)
    upload_2020-10-5_11-26-52.png

    Here's a quick comparison with the HD800 (non S) using Bill-p tools. I've uploaded the HD800 S Anniversary data as HD800SA on hpdb.io if you want to compare to other data.

    Unfortunately, I do not have EARS measurements of the HD800 S (standard edition), only the flate plate coupler measurements. I will take FPC measurements of the Anniversary Edition here to get us a better idea of how it compares to the S. Note that the HD800 S and HD800 weren't all that different, at least not as different as the HD800 (non S) to HD800 S Anniversary below.

    UPDATE/CORRECTION 10/15/2020

    upload_2020-10-5_9-8-31.png
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
    purr1n, Oct 4, 2020
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  4. cameng318

    cameng318 Friend

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    Better bass, tamed treble, and more dip around 3kHz… sounds like what AKG did to K702 to make the 65th Anniversary Edition. Perhaps that's the secret anniversary formula;)
     
    cameng318, Oct 4, 2020
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  5. E_Schaaf

    E_Schaaf MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    Still looks like murder to my treble-sensitive ears but I wonder if the same mods that brought the HD800 to a near-tolerable level could bring this new version completely into the safe zone.
     
    E_Schaaf, Oct 4, 2020
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  6. Pancakes

    Pancakes Friend

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    Looks like they basically tilted the FR clockwise centered at ~2K.
     
    Pancakes, Oct 4, 2020
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  7. wadec22

    wadec22 Almost "Made"

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    Happy to see the anniversary edition is indeed the same as regular HD800S. My miniDSP measurements of regular HD800S look basically identical.

    I saw when the pre order was up and considered it but wasn't sure how gold would look in person vs the black. Also was afraid I'd scratch them right away.
     
    wadec22, Oct 4, 2020
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  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Basically.

    Add T1 Gen 3 to that list.

    EDIT: Correction, above HD800 results were borked. Corrected ones have been uploaded.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
    purr1n, Oct 4, 2020
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  9. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Can you elaborate this a little more? Did you happen to compare it with hd800 og, or use the same SBAF compensation? Other measurements I remember rather suggest hd800 and hd800s were much less different than golden-800 delta.

    Too bad. Did you lose your previous measurement for some reasons? Asking this because I could see the below..

    Anyway thanks for reviewing this new product. I've quite much ignored them as the difference I thought was only in colors. But fortunately my guess wasn't the case. Happy to see more thoughts put in the headphones if not done perfectly.
     
    Vtory, Oct 4, 2020
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  10. wadec22

    wadec22 Almost "Made"

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    yeah, pretty casual response last night as my youngest was rather restless, sorry. Looking at Marv's measurement of the anniversary edition looks very similar to my miniDSP measurement of late model HD800S. Now keep in mind different EARS rigs, different graph color scheme, different sized image, etc. At a glance, they look the same to me.

    Now keep in mind I had a toddler flopping on me all night crying off and on, so I put one of my measurement runs on google drive to pm to marv to see if he wanted to play with it and explore differences. a lot of variables there, so not sure how helpful it honestly is.

    I never did measure either of my OG HD800 units but the differences between standard and S were stark to my ear. Of course, I am very sensitive to the og 6k peak
     
    wadec22, Oct 5, 2020
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  11. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    That was my first EARS, a super early unit, which had totally screwed up L and R where the miniDSP comp files didn't quite match up. miniDSP did me the honor of providing a good unit. I do have FPCs and I may be able to comp the measurements from @wadec22. However, I think the best approach is to apples to apples on the same measurement rig. Even if it is the flat plate measurement, it will tell us a lot.
     
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Looks like the HD800S and HD800 S Anniversary Edition are the same. (I think I may have screwed up HD800 data because it was so long ago - I will revisit the above the post. UPDATE: Data has been corrected).

    HD800 S vs HD800 S Anniversary Edition Frequency Response
    GRN/RED = HD800 S Anniversary Edition
    GRY= HD800 S
    Flate Plate Coupler (no comp)
    upload_2020-10-5_8-56-34.png
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Here is another set of HD800S measurements from the hpdb.io repo. The Anniversary has slightly more lows, but this could be a matter of seal / pads. One thing I've noted is that the HD800 S driver is much more sensitive to seal than then old HD800 drivers.

    Note the measurements below are compensated, so they will be tilted up more than the above FPC (non-comped) measurements. The HD800 S is a bright headphone.

    upload_2020-10-5_9-22-24.png

    I think it's safe to say that the HD800 S Anniversary Edition drivers are the same as the HD800 S drivers. Or at least it's too close to call given human factors, pad condition, etc. I will take a look at distortion in a bit.
     
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  14. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Distortion comparisons below between HD800 S Anniversary Edition and HD800 S (standard). Some minor differences (D2 dip at 200Hz with the standard) which could be based on variety of factors, but IMO, mostly the same.

    HD800 S (standard)
    HD800 S L HD.jpg
    HD800 S R HD.jpg

    HD800 S Anniversary
    HD800 S Anniv L HD.jpg
    HD800 S Anniv R HD.jpg
     
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    HD800 S Anniversary Edition
    CSDs
    Flat Plate Coupler
    FPC HD800SA-L.jpg
    FPC HD800SA-R.jpg

    Compared to HD800 S (standard) and HD800 (non S) below:

    HD800 S (standard)
    CSDs
    Flat Plate Coupler
    FPC HD800S L 3.jpg FPC HD800S R 3.jpg

    HD800 (non S)
    CSDs
    Flat Plate Coupler
    HD800 stock L.jpg

    Close enough for HD800 S and HD800 S Anniversary. Note how stock HD800 is much more ringy at 6kHz. I had forgotten how well the HD800 S has addressed this - well mostly because I've forgotten how the stock HD800 sounds like given all the mods and experiments on SBAF.
     
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  16. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    Have to say the OP pic does a great job of communicating the color. A lot of the original pics posted around looked like 14k yellow gold and it looks nothing like that in person

    I only owned the hd800, hd800 s 75th, and hd820 - have not owned the original hd800s but did demo it extensively.

    Of those I owned, this hd800s 75th does sound really the best balanced to me with no modifications or EQ needed on my LP . I would say the treble and mids are a step ahead of the hd820, but gonna hang onto both as I have many times during the day (if not most of it) I need isolation.

    Am really satisfied with my purchase and the combination of hd800s 75th + hd820 have satisfied me to the extent that I will likely be getting rid of my other dedicated music listening headphones other than hd25 for portability. I was in the market for hd800s anyway but I liked the hd800 two-tone look a lot better than the hd800s all-black look so this release was really good timing.

    Thanks for the measurements!

    Note that "ring" in the hd800 original is what made me get rid of it. While it was very impressive sounding at first, over time it became irritating.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
    Ruined, Oct 5, 2020
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  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Most of the time, I don't bother. However, on occasion when it's important, I will color correct to what my eyes see (there was some afternoon sun the room, warming up the colors). The saturation is slightly bumped too, just because I could. Things are always going to be funky because of ambient light conditions and monitors which are way off. Ultimately, it's my artists' interpretation of it, how it feels in my mind. Not any different from what sound engineers do.

    No, the color shouldn't like anything like Mordred's armor.
     
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  18. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Since Sennheiser have made NO claims about updates or improvements in the Anniversary Edition, I'd be surprised if there were any. Perhaps Sennheiser hired a marketing executive from a car company? This is just like an automaker releasing a "limited edition" model in a special color with designer badges.
     
    Metro, Oct 5, 2020
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  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Could be a play on rich Chinese. Chinese love gold. Heck, my dad just had to get that gold iPhone a few years back. I don't think this was priced any higher - just limited edition.
     
    purr1n, Oct 5, 2020
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  20. Ruined

    Ruined HD700 ruined my ear holes

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    I would have preferred a gunmetal but I'll take the gold two-tone over the all black standard 800s. The two tone coloring (including hd800 silver) does more to highlight the intricate design of the earcup imo.

    They also released the hd25 in a gold edition earlier in the year so I guess this follows that theme
     
    Ruined, Oct 5, 2020
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