The HD800 & HD800S thread

I am powering it out of the project polaris right now. There is sibilance and treble peaks on some songs when I use the .1 ohm and 32 ohm impedance output settings. When I use the 120 ohm setting, all those issues went away and the sound is fuller. It is confusing because I thought the general recommendation was for the output impedance to be 1/8th or less from the headphone impedance.

Edit: Nvm, the sibilance might have been a spotify glitch when I turned volume normalization off. I restarted the software and no sibilance at 32 ohms output.

 

Honestly people who think that amps can fix the HD800 are just plain wrong. I've heard some seriously rolled off amps that made it sound warm (in a weird way), but even then I got fatigued after 15 minutes and had to stop listening. Once you level up to the HD800X you never go back.

 

sorry but noob here whats the HD800X ? a modded version?

 

I can concur, hearing the HD800 out of an amp with 600 Ohms impedance was the best I ever heard the HD800 sound.
More bass, stronger slam, a fullness to the instruments not heard before etc..

 

I noticed that when I go from 32 to 120 ohms the bass is more present and everything sounds more full but the midrange becomes less clear.

Edit: after playing around with it some more I settled on 32 ohms. It sounds more full and musical with minimal sacrifice to clarity. 0.5 ohms just sounds a bit too thin and harsh on the project polaris.

 

The amp quality might factor into it.
I wonder if any of the higher up Eddie Current stuff has been tested with a 150+ ohms output & with a HD800.

 

Wow, HD800S just arrived. Straight out of Gung-1/MJ-1, much more tolerable than HE-6. A really nice sound, really good build quality, and finally - so freaking light!

However watching Netflix, movie/tv dialogue sound cupped?

And the Adele 19 & 21 cds; wow they're poorly mastered, even more evident now.

 

Make sure you have the sound settings on stereo, I think it defaults to 5.1 and changing it doesn't stick.

 

Dr. Audiophil will certainly not certify any of this stupidity hence

“Perkele’s very subjective journey to Profaned capital and back aka tales from the virtual world starring HD800”


I've been gamer for a very long time. C64 and Amiga 500 ruled my youth. Then came Pentium powered PC and my future was pretty much set.
Ok what the hell all this has to do with HD800? Well my young ass wipe, I managed to nab used specimen with balanced and se cable for 600€. Not too shabby one could say. The purchase was made mainly for gaming purposes.

I’ve had an audit with Senns back in the days and they were not quite what I was looking for. Maybe this time things will be different? At least I would lose lot of money due the relatively low price and decent resell value.

From the gaming point of view what I've read from the in-ter-nets HD800 should be an "unfair advantage against your enemies”. Geeks around the net been’ bragging that with HD800 they’ve been ruling all sorts of battlefields by hearing the diarrhea moaning in Hitler’s ass from 1,5 mile while hanging upside down from a chandelier. Spatial accuracy this 3-dimensional madness that. Well shit I’ll be the judge of that.

Hell, I might as well go batshit crazy and pair the cans in unholy matrimony with Sound Blaster X7 external dac / hpa / coffee maker / bluetooth receiver / blender / penis extender. Juvenile and stupid marketing sheets sealed the deal. They had lightnings on the commercials! Unrealistic promises - check! I wish they’d insert sounds of a mating lion to the X7 subsite. At least it’ll power my passive Aurelia speakers too which is a pro.



Baseline for this near useless experiment :



-forget the usual component synergy hunt and common sense
-do not care about “hifi grade experience” or “nimble and exquisite transitions of string instruments during some cello concerto vol 3.0 by some shoeless hobo”
-play as much as you can
-use every software gimmick provided by Creative and distort the shit out of sound without remorse. Scout mode? f**k yeah! Presets for action games? I’m in! SBX virtual surround? Don’t mind if I do! Beta drivers? Well naturally Yes! ASIO drivers / other rational optimizations? Go **** yourself with a rake.
-maximize soundstage and shit-to-pants o’meter
-profit!

Only sane thing during my pointless audio adventures might have been installing sorrodje’s mod to the HD800. Best 20€ used in ages. Thanks man! Your mod tamed the treble spikes while maintaining other perks held by the Greatheiser. Hell I might even use these for music from now on. Maybe I’ll try the SBAF mod too?


Used gear:

Win10 PC usb -> Creative Sound Blaster X7 LE DAC/AMP -> HD800 (SDR mod)
Win10 PC usb -> Creative Sound Blaster X7 LE DAC/AMP -> Ether C



Cone o’ Crappiness:
























RUN1
Fuckery: SBX on (surround set to 77%, bass enhancing 33%), no presets, normal gain
Game: GTA V
HP comparison: Ether C 1.1 with a pair of black pads


Non audio related ramblings: comfort of these cans are a big ++! HD800’s are very light and even my dumbo ears managed to sit inside the pads without touching anything. Or that’s what she said. Ethers on the other hand feel much more heavy and cramped. On the intimacy point of view Ethers rule.

I did try the crystalizer feature for a very short time. Crystalizer ought to “restore the audio details at the high- and low-range”. Yeah right. Everything sounded way too unnatural and jumpy. This would not be my idea of improved dynamics. Who the hell uses these settings and claim it’s an improvement.. Marketing dudes from Creative and many gaming sites to be exact. Pure nonsense for wannabe audiophools.

The first thing I noticed was expanded soundstage throughout the virtual world. No more claustrophobic feeling of sitting in closet ala Ether C. Cruising through Lost Santos while spotting people cry in agony around me was ever so fun. Pinpointing crashes, shootings and overall happenings were improved. Transition between left and right, back and front etc were much more precise than with Ether C which has way more cramped headstage and blobbed panning. General feeling of “airy open world” was much more present. Explosions were a bit lame compared to Ether as I’d concentrate on the impact of the sound rather than accuracy. I’m not a fan of the in game radio which is set on as one jumps in to a vehicle. No idea about that. Relevancy near zero anyways. Overall feeling a tad thin but my goodness are these precise! Ether’s may have a bit more meat to their bones. Maybe my upcoming preset fuckery will “improve” things. Maybe not. Sibilance was still mild issue as I had not modded the cans at this point.


Pros: using Creative marketing dictionary: WOOO YEAH MUDDAFUKKA BLAKKA BUKKA AWESOME DERP + lightnings. New toy happiness.
Cons: sound leakage (no shit), light sibilance issues, lack of boom




RUN 2
SDR mod installed
Fuckery: SBX on (77% surround, 33% bass enhancement), Scout Mode preset, normal gain
Game: Dark Souls III

Near to zero expectations about the scout mode. Anyhoo Dark Souls III here I come. Title music with SWOOSH blade sound is no more piercing my ears thanks to SDR. Nice improvement. Load - and swamps here we are. Hahaa I will dominate your sorry asses with my improved aural wall hack of an headphone.. Oh man the vast soundstage is working against me, while rolling and turning camera the sounds are coming from the wrong side. Makes me confused. Less whining and more gaming, on we go and jump, roll, roll,guy with spear coming from my six, fell to the crab pool, oh I died. That f'ing giant crab stabbed me in the back. Load, invader gank squad, ominous music, blades swing, jumping, I died. Hell f**k shit. What’s the point of hearing my murderers foot steps from a distance if I’m not able to slice’n’dice them porkers. Or did I hear any difference? Not very significant. Major turn off as DS3 is by far my favourite game. This experiment is not going to last one more minute.

Thoughts about the scout mode per se - near useless. Maybe some competitive gamers would appreciate the feature. To average Joe scout mode does not bring anything special to the table. Failboat in my eyes.

Pros: slight artificial ability of pin pointing enemies
Cons: scout mode + big soundstage and confusing panning does not bode well with this game. What a pity.



RUN3

SDR mod installed
Fuckery: SBX on (77% virtual surround, 66% bass enhancement), Action mode preset, high gain
Game: Metal Gear Solid - Phantom Pain



Oh Afghanistan you toilet bowl of Eastern world. I shall rule your half empty deserts— hey wtf that thing is .. wolf howling? Bat taking a dump behing that rock? Bakka-bakka-bakka.. You monsters are shooting at me! I just wanna be your friend. And now you pay the ultimate price. Soundwise everything seem to be presented tad louder and straight forward. 360 surround is working pretty much similarly than earlier. Maybe I shall try to explode something.. Well russkies have some rockets. BOOM. Well that sounded like fly farting in a stable. This is not what I’ve paid for. I want to be shaken like a japanese businessmen in a bukkake festival. Gimme moar powah! Unlimited POWAH!

Pros: nothing worth mentioning
Cons: modest explosions / rumble


RUN5

SDR mod installed
Fuckery: SBX on (77% surround, 33% bass), Driving preset, normal gain
Game: Dirt Rally

Sliding through the narrow tarmac roads of Route De Turini was quite pleasant. Differences with previous settings were subtle. Nothing to go crazy about. Starting to appreaciate the cans even more. My ogre ears ain’t sweating no more like they did with Ether. These presets are starting to feel like a joke as I suspected. SBX on + pseudo virtual tweaking should suffice from now on. Getting tired already. This is stupid experiment.


RUN6

SDR mod installed
Fuckery: Off
Game: Dirt Rally

On the road again. This time I’ll not use any audio gimmicks provided by Creative enginerds. Once again nice resolution, believable reproduction of gravel flying through the air. It’s not bad. Not bad at all. Engine roaring could use some EQ to reach more credibility to lower frequencies. Tires screeching during perfectly executed handbrake turn sounded like a victory - and off the cliff we go. Crash boom bang. I’m out. That was fast and certainly not furious. Positional accuracy is not playing as important role with this game compared to FPS etc games so I’m pretty happy with the non-fuckery setup. Prolly gonna stick with these settings from now on while doing my solo rally. Maybe some virtual surround tweaking. Maybe. Formula 1 type of games might be another story as there would be a lot of traffic around me. I’ve had it. This indeed is pointless.

Conclusions:

HD800 is viable option for my gayming needs. Even the slight feeling of sterile brightness did not bother me in the end. At least for now. Positional accuracy, ability of reproduce details and clarity and superb comfort worked really nice. One could argue endlessly about my choice of DAC/AMP but hey - I’m in peace with that. It was a gaming journey after all.

Straight comparison to Ether C - HD800 provides much better value for my tastes. My ex gaming champ Fidelio X2 was even better value for mere 200€. More fun too, but that’s a story for another time. I miss you Fidelio.

Special thanks: to all you coding bastards who make reality escape easy and convenient by creating worlds of virtual strip clubs and endless blood bathes. Game on!


TODO:

-manual EQ fuckery, further pseudo surround optimisations, bass optimisation, + crossover tweaking
-get another cheap amp, Vali2 perhaps
-get WQHD 34” screen for TOTAL IMMERSION
-get a life instead of this nonsense

 

You know better chain can further improve gaming quite a bit. Seriously.
(Not so seriously) The journey is not at the end. Time to get ocd mod fireface interface, Yggdrasil and EC Studio. Then what your opponents will have against you?

 

Sure, by no means is my current gaming setup fine tuned to to the end (or even near optimal for HD800) but it shall serve for now. I just made pointless experiment for my own amusement.

Yggdrasil and EC are out of my reach, got no funds nor chance for an audition. Would be nice to try them for sure. I wonder how upcoming Realiser A16 will suit for gaming. At least they are using HD800 as reference cans. We'll see.

 

scout mode and bass are bullshit, the only thing you need is the SBX slider from 67 (default) to 100 depending on how much blending you can accept between the virtual speakers

 

For scout mode I could not agree more. I made it very clear in my ramblings. SBX on and 100% surround is pretty solid with GTA V. I tend to use it on the scale of 77%-100 depending on the game. Fiddling with bass more tricky, my tastes require a bit more boom for gaming purposes than HD800 produces au naturel. Anything above 30% contributes to a murky unwanted distorted bass which I find fatiguing during longer gaming sessions. Thank Zeus it's easy to turn off.

I've also grown quite fond of using Senns in music listening. Sorrodje's resonator had strong contribution in that part. Do not feel the urge to try HD800S any more. Classic HD800 is truly a resolving and wide open headphone. Very nice compliment for my listening. Now to find a perfectly matching amp!

 

Amp part is the weakest part of the X7 unfortunately. Better hook up an amp on the lineout, will also create harder slam and kick.

about GTA: While the world building is unparalleled the sound is a bit lacklustre, more on the mixing side. Needs to be more lively and better mixed in terms of overall volume and dynamics. Just give it a real city noisy feeling

.

 

Keep an eye on thomann's Violectric B-Stock. I grabbed the V200 amp from B-Stock (699€) and absolutely love it with my HD800s (with SD mod). And since thomann has 30 day satisfaction guarantee you can always return the amp if it's not your cup of tea.

I have one. It's glorious. But it's only 60Hz though. As soon as Acer releases the Predator X34P I'm gonna upgrade.

 

Just got an hd800 last week with the SDR mod already installed. Pairs really well with my Valhalla 2. Im about to to the sbaf absorber mod this weekend, already got the rug liner in.

Quick question though. Do the black dust cover go back on OVER the rug liner or do I keep them off (or under)? I found two different answers to this in my own research.

 

Try both. I wouldn't use the dust cover, even with a stock HD800, but some people seem to like it. IIRC the dust cover actually made it peakier and less extended with some mod configurations.

 

Thanks to @sorrodje a pair of SDR's arrived on Friday and I popped them in my 800's today. So far this is a really fantastic mod in my eyes. I don't care for the HD800S and I didn't like the Anax mod but these things just seem to take a little bit of bite out of the 800's and that's it. A very welcome change in my eyes!

 

welcome to the club, enjoy