Sennheiser HD 820 Review (headphone)

[don'ttrustauthority]

Think you might need to define "speed" as you think if it

the speed at which a sound is produced after a signal is sent to the headphone obviously. what else could it be????

 

[TulseLuper]

Thanks for the review Amir.

One look at the frequency response and you think the 820 is going to sound strange but it does not.

This was my experience after getting these (thanks again @Inner Space). I saw measurements around and expected them to sound pretty screwed up, desperate for EQ. That was not my experience. Tonality out of the box is better than I expected, and I prefer them to other EQ'd headphones such as Bose QC35ii and Fostex TH-X00. Spatial effects here provide a ton of value. Crazy for a closed can.

 

[Vini darko]

Shame they are so hidious , plasticity and over priced. Other wise nice enough I guess.

 

[Chocomel]

Guess most people have already seen how much the HD820 bass can vary with seal but in case some people haven't

Measurements from rtings(bass done with in-ear mics on a number of people) and headphone test lab

 

[rcmo]

Physically one probably can. I don't own the 820 nor will I in the future so can't say what it does. When the original pads would work fine on the HD820 they would have mounted them most likely. Maybe someone who owns the 820 and 800(S) can give it a try.

The pads are the same size and cut but are fixed differently. You could fix HD800S' on the HD820 (eg. with some double sided tape). But you wouldn't definitely like the result. In my quick test all bass was gone and it all sounded not only thin but weird.

 

[TulseLuper]

Guess most people have already seen how much the HD820 bass can vary with seal

The cups are massive, and I'd expect more than the usual variation from head to head.

 

[Chocomel]

The cups are massive, and I'd expect more than the usual variation from head to head.

Yeah it's not just gonna be hair/glasses but also moreso the shape of your head.

 

[Stokdoof]

It comes with two different length cables, both of which are quite thick and microphonic. They seem strong enough to hang yourself from them!

Nop. I tried ! Still alive

 

[CaseyBill]

I gotta say that I'm surprised by the panther and overall conclusions. The measurements paint a fairly horrible picture - look at those incredibly uneven lows and mids! My subjective impressions weren't any better - tonally, these headphones were a disaster to my ears.

Agree - sounds more like a can't than a can recommend to me!

 

[BostonJack]

So Aeon RT is still the king of the measured closed ones?

Does anyone here have experience with the Aeon RT in the open back form? Or, ideally, listening comparison with both closed back and open back.

the Aeon RT is on my list. unfortunately, I have cycling, skiing and climbing equipment to buy first

 

[Human Bass]

The 820 is a big failure in the headphone world, nobody seem to love it

 

[chris719]

Do they leak much sound?

 

[Ron Texas]

"Performance ratings are price independent for the most part so there you are." A bit of wisdom from our host. Thank you @amirm

 

[617]

We really do hold headphones to incredibly low standards

 

[chris719]

We really do hold headphones to incredibly low standards

It's true, but I'd say if it were easy to produce one that measured perfectly, the problem would already have been solved. Sennheiser, Sony, Audio Technica, etc. are not completely incompetent.

I am far from a subjectivist, but there is something either missing from headphone measurements or just hard to pick out of the data. For example, I own HD6XX and HD800. The measurements of HD6xx and HD800 don't appear to tell me why the imaging or placement of sound in the HD800 is so different (and to me, preferable). If someone does have the answer to this and I've missed it, then ignore this .

I am still interested in HD820 as someone who likes HD800 but doesn't always want an open headphone. The price tag is ridiculous, though.

 

[respice finem]

Apart from limitations on the user side (ear anatomy etc.), a closed-back headphone will have its inherent problems due to its chamber materials and geometry, and so will the open-back, just different problems. Probably the best potential for a decent FR and best EQ lies in IEMs.

 

[welsh]

It is but doesn't have the spatial effects that this one has.

I sort of dread a future review of my Audeze LCD 2 Closed... They are more than a little weird tonally, but when using a Fiio E12 portable amp do provide bass’n’slam when out and about.

 

[amirm]

We really do hold headphones to incredibly low standards

Headphones do some things that no speaker can do. Show me a speaker that goes flat down to 20 Hz and lower. With no room effects to muddy that region. They also take to EQ so well due to lack of interactions with the room and very low distortions. They can also play superbly loud and in many case block external noise. All of this work to make one enjoy them immensely on a number of fidelity factors. So it is not a puzzle that one can get an excellent performance out of many.

Speakers have a much tougher job having to move tons more air, are highly position sensitive in the room, etc. While they have their own magic that headphones can't replicate, it is easier to be critical of them than a post EQ headphone.

Finally, let's remember that objective information about headphones is approximate. So you can't just let your eye be the judge for them. As I explained in this review, I was actually stomped, not being to fully rationalize some of the response I was seeing in the frequency response. So if you are basing your opinion on how pretty a graph should be for a headphone, you will be wrong a number of times.

 

[rcmo]

The 820 is a big failure in the headphone world, nobody seem to love it

Maybe I am the only one, but I really do.

 

[welsh]

The problem with spatial qualities is that it not only depends on the headphone itself but also on your ears and how your brain processes the incoming 'information' and creates an 'image' in your head. For instance the K7** headphones sound just as narrow as most other headphones to me while many glorify them as having a great sound stage. I heard owned, and still own, some from these series and they don't work for me.
All I know is that the HD8** series is hard to beat on that front. It also isn't of huge importance to me.

Closed alternatives that sound good to me are some DCA closed headphones (own none) and like a modified and filtered DT1770 but not for spatial qualities. So there are alternatives in the sense that there are decent to good sounding closed headphones around but they might not tick everyone's boxes.
So is the HD820 not universally liked. Some even hate it. It is just where you place the importance the most. I tried buying headphones based on recommendations, based on graphs and whatever and rarely agree with all aspects myself so ... nothing as personal as a headphone.

My best ‘closed’ ‘phones are actually IEMs - InEar monitors with 8 BA drivers. Kind of ‘diffuse field’ neutral; incredibly detailed and ‘technical’ with no tonal issues.