WTF Revisited: Sennheiser HD700 Stories, Review, and Measurements

Honestly, I'm surprised this didn't happen right after the first "HD700 is my fav headphone" post and took this long to "explode".

 

I get it, I've been reading this forum a long time for it's useful info but I never joined it specifically because there seemed a dislike for the headphones I liked (HD7xx/hd8xx) and I figured there would be rejection of my viewpoint. I am sure it would be easy to write me off as a troll, but it's just simply a matter of my expressing my viewpoint and talking about a headphone I like. This is one I have 4 years of experience with over many different dac/amp combos and could speak to more than any other headphone in the forum in terms of long term experience.

I originally joined because I wanted to share my impressions of the HD820 and also because I was frustrated with most people either buying overseas junk or prioritizing portability over high (or even mid) fidelity gear -'and I believed this forum was the antithesis of those things.

Note nowhere I said that I thought HD700 was the best sounding headphone. It obviously has flaws and those flaws bother many people, it is very controversial. What you call "fake headstage" is an effect I like very much for the music I listen to - that's really all it boils down to. Also, i'd say many others like this headstage as the hd8xx uses the same headstage "trick" and is also the most popular headphone series over $1k.

To others mentioning sharpness, treble peaks, yes those exist (tho worth mentioning there is even more aggressive treble on original hd800). Even on liquid platinum I still experience sharpness at times, but not everywhere - so If a song is no good for the HD700 I use one of my other headphones. It's also one of those things that if you go into it specifically listening for it , it will be a lot worse. Eventually I'd like to build a collection of headphones that have very unique characteristics in manipulating the presentation of the sound. I don't want to have just 1 headphone, I like the idea of different headphones presenting the same song in unique ways .

Re: crossfeed its a totally different effect, and is still useful for older content with hard stereo pans but in general i dont care much for the effects crossfeed offers

I always use a big disclaimer when I recommend the hd700 to someone because of its unique faults, and I never said it is something SBAF as a forum should endorse. Most of this thread has been my musing and trying to figure out what I like about it so much considering others' dislike. And for the record i don't think it's the best sounding headphone of what I've owned, I just like it's blend of unique qualities (which also includes fit, low weight, portability, etc)

Anyhow I am happy to not post about this anymore but I'd wanted to give people background so they don't think I'm insane or trolling - I am not just going to say it sucks because everyone else does if I don't believe that - especially when no one has been able to offer an alternative with similar headstage effect/size characteristics/price thats readily available . It just happens to be a very unique headphone that I like the overall blend of characteristics of, that simple. Not saying anyone else has to like it

 

So can we put this one to bed? On of a forum consisting of dozens to hundreds of subjective impressions and comparisons to other cans, and numerous measurements (most of which for the second go 'round on these never-has-been-never-was-been cans) can we not conclude that despite some users subjectively preferring HD700 for certain, ahem, abilities, it is by most subjective and almost all objective conclusions a poor value proposition, and not a TOTL headphone? HD700 is pretty much garbage unless you happen to be one person known as Ruined and i'm cool with that. Just don't want to see 800 people posting that they picked up cheap HD700s thanks to the one dude on SBAF that says that they image like god tickled your nutsack, that'd be awful. Cause for most people they do, in fact, sound like garbage.

 

From here on it shall be called "HD Scheisshundert" and never be mentioned again.

 

I love my HD700 after comparing it with a 660s.
More resolving but picky....
660s and 700 share the same driver ref. 540888