Sennheiser HD800 - new flagship headphone

[LFC_SL]

Sennheiser Electronic - HD 800

Sennheiser Worldwide: Microphones, Headphones and Wireless Systems

Announced at CES 2009. New "ring radiator driver"

As can be seen it is a major redesign from the existing HD600 and HD650. When the HD650 came out many were of the opinion it was merely a different flavour of the HD600 rather than a major step forward. Indeed some prefer the HD600

Hopefully they will be the Bristol Show 2009 and I will compare with my HD600

[mossym]

6Hz..honestly? was thinking of a pair of 600's, but wow these look good

[LFC_SL]

I should warn that it would appear the rrp will be $1400 but to be confirmed

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/0...eisers-hd.html
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD8...1446110&sr=8-1
http://i.gizmodo.com/5127916/sennhei...-at-its-finest
http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite...transid=500319

[mossym]

ouch..competition for the grado 2000s then


i'll stick with the 600's

[cribeiro]

They look awful, like DJ headphones... Let´s see what people write about them...

[MIB]

Was interested until I saw the possible price Notice how they've skipped 700 and gone to 800 to make it seem 2 steps up from the 600's.

Not sure about the looks either.

[LFC_SL]

No question about it. With that price-tag they are going after the top of the market, such as the Denon D7000

You can be comforted that they say each pair will be hand-made in Germany

[Nic Rhodes]

Not sure about the looks and I feel the £400 sector is one they consider as being more fruitful for sales.

Re the 600 / 650. I thought these came from the 580 originally. They did the excellent special edition of 580 Jubilee which looks very similar in appearance to the later 600 and 650s.

Would be interested in user feedback on these.

[alexs2]

I think I may avoid this for a bit on at least 2 grounds....

I know looks shouldn't count,but it does look like a piece of industrial headgear,and the price may make you shudder a bit...the RRP appears to be about £1k.

Like pbirkett,I like the sound of the HD600,and I may try the HD650 but what I have currently works very well with my system and I do like the sound.

[pbirkett]

Quite like the look of those in a sort of mad max futuristic kind of way, and at least they clearly seem to be a proper departure from the hd6x0 although at that price I doubt I'll be trying them unfortunately

[peter312]

They look quite big. Actually, they look very big!

[Arcam_boy]

looks aren't great but not really my main concern. can imagine they sound stunning although if there going to cost £1000 + I will stick with my 650's for a bit/lot longer yet

[Tejstar]

The chaps over at Head-Fi seem to like this... a lot.

Originally Posted by Head-Fi

In its eighth year, Head-Fi is looking at its biggest product release story since its founding...We wanted new, and Sennheiser comes to the table with something all new--something that today is so extraordinary, so precise in its driver build quality, that Sennheiser has chosen to have this new flagship handmade in Germany...This could be it. The Sennheiser HD800 could be it. Early impressions tell me I'm listening to one of the best headphones I've ever heard. Longer term listening will eventually tell the real story, but the first impressions are so strong—so positive--that I feel like I'm trying to mince declarative words just out of a sense of protocol, a sense of reasonableness--because one couldn't possibly make that kind of decision so soon, could he? So let me say this: I have no doubt in my mind that the Sennheiser HD 800 is, beyond any shadow of a doubt (even this early on) one of the finest dynamic headphones I've ever heard. And I am quite confident in saying that Sennheiser's new HD800 is (yes, again, even this early on) one of the best headphones I've heard of any type, period.

[LFC_SL]

Went to the Bristol Show 2009 on Friday and pictures now up of the HD800 and of the Sennheiser stand:

Bristol Show 2009: A Photographic Tour

Listening impressions to follow...eventually. Juggling work, applications, a few other things and need to organise the notes I took down

[LFC_SL]

Righto-ho then... please refer to the link for photos of the headphones and the sources

As you can see the amp alone is around £1000 and its not even the best part of the set-up so definitely the right start for this here thing. Music is the CD in the picture; classical/orchestral clarinet something or other. You will have to excuse me as I have denied myself real sleep since Wednesday morning so I am hoping the CD cover will help me out. This is all from my written notes jotted down immediately after at the time, before I moved swiftly onto the IEx series. Got a few looks from Sennheiser reps but they were awfully polite and gave me room

First a listen with my stock HD600 to take it in and get adjusted... more listening... huh fancy system... and then switch

Wow. How should I put it? It was like when the performance was being recorded and then they stopped, installed more microphones and then started recording from the beginning again. The HD800 has to be the most impressive headphone I have heard yet in delivering a sound that was multi-directional and nuanced, with the separation of the instruments and sounds being discernible in the direction they were coming from. I switched back to the HD600 just to confirm this point. I do not wish to make a conclusive statement on the matter given the limited listening time at a trade show but I think Sennheiser may be on to something with this new driver design production in delivering sound through headphones that does not sound like *2 channel* blocks. That's how I would put the difference when compared with my HD600. With the HD800 I could imagine that I was live in the actual room of the recording being made before me. I just thought the HD800 was more immersive [sic] and three dimensional than the HD600. The HD600 did not sound bad at all on the excellent set-up which it was connected to but the HD800 was playing a different sport.

Again in comparison to the HD600 the best metaphor is that I cleaned my glasses. Like a layer had been taken and stripped away. The clarity and detail that was being delivered by the HD800 was greater. It sounded like a different performance through the HD600. The texture of the music was different. I could hear new elements through the HD800 that were not previously present. The separation of each component with all that was present in the music being presented with the weight that they should and everything marrying together to deliver a beautiful sweet sound I could listen to all day long

The tonality of the clarinet was all the more nicer through the HD800. Sharper, brighter and sweeter to the ear yet controlled without being harsh. HD600 seemed to have a cut-off point holding back the notes and could not reach the same peaks. Like a girl I cannot take even a mere hint of overdone highs. Not the case here. I just thought the HD800 did the service to the music and conveyed how a clarinet should sound all the more accurately (and as far as my limited knowledge goes from last year and an ex-flatmate studying music keeping me awake at unseemly hours because he was apparently a one-man orchestra in preparing his thesis).

The overall timbre of the instrument(s) was better on the HD800. That was so with the lower registers of the clarinet. More structured, nicer texture with a sliver of a hint of detectable vibration from the instrument being played. Lovely. I also have to say that the HD800 to me appears to be quite a neutral headphone. It did not add anything here nor there that should not be present. I just thought it was a very accurate and yet enjoyable sound. Not boring as some might take neutral to mean. Its the way it delivers the sound. The music just comes alive. You are hearing things you could not hear before. You get the sense that the space around your ears is just so much wider yet at the same time nothing was lost or distant. It was just the depth of the sound in that the range now seemed uninhibited. With the CD I listened to there was room to breathe. HD600 is what I am used to but with the HD800 I just got that thought that the HD800 was reminding me I was listening to a woodwind instrument and I could just close my eyes and imagine being there for the performance