Sennheiser HD800S Review (Headphone)

[TheTalbotHound]

Hello, is there a group delay measurement for the HD800S like there is on the other two headphone measurements of the Hifiman HE400i and Focal Clear? I can't seem to find it.

 

[PuX]

Could you explain exactly how "keeping components single-purpose" exactly helps?

look at the measurements of any receiver or other combo device on ASR. is it awful or much worse than average single-purpose amp at the same price? well there you go, single purpose always wins.

Reminds me when I looked at Stereophile measurements of some electrostats - were they Martin Logans? - and completely blown away with the absurd FR. Seems the manufacturer always knows what people want. Obviously, it's being told what they should like.

so avoid Marin Logan, that's the point I made.
just like I avoid Koss, Beats, Marshall, Bose headphones - I believe these brands can't produce any good headphones.

Your assumption is completely incorrect. If electro-acoustic transducer has deficiencies in its transfer function, then it destroys proper transfer before the transducer. EQ is to correct transducer’s errors.

so introduce new error to correct old error?
great approach, 10/10.

 

[Hipper]

It's unclear whether equalising two different headphones to the exact same target on the exact same test rig will produce the exact same frequency response at your own eardrum.
Perhaps the HD800(S), because of its construction, interacts in a way that is more speaker-like with our pinna and as a result sounds more consistently spatially "accurate" (no idea what that means for headphones to be honest) across most users - and not just test rigs.

I agree.

That's what I like about the HD800 - it has a large ear piece that doesn't seem to distort my pinnae. Compare that to the HD650 which does.

I presume this has some effect on what we actually hear.

Back in the day the Jecklin Floats were designed to avoid pinnae distortion - they liked to call them 'ear speakers'.

 

[Robbo99999]

Both have been interpolated and smoothed to 12PPO. Granted, your native data is of higher resolution than my digitization of Oratory's, so even the 12PPO looks more detailed.
His I believe is a 3 measurement average, so that also smooths it.

Here is yours unsmoothed:

I do believe the paper calls for the 3 averaging though, and most all other reviewers also do averaging (Crinacle does 3 and RTINGS even does 5). But yeah, I know you don’t like averaging, but I would suggest doing multiple measurements and choosing one that doesn’t have such a huge dip ~10kHz (if you already do this, and the HD800S had a huge dip in all of them, then maybe the given Target curve data for your unit is not fully accurate).

Yeah, you gotta leave out the large outliers.

 

[Deluxillo]

There is already done EQ profiles.
For example oratory1990 for my HD555.
Unfortunately my HD555 became worse when I applied that EQ..

??? Aure you using it the one from the oratory's list and not from the autoeq list? To me the bass from the HD555 eqed is excelent. Totally different headphone now. From yikes sound to really great and balanced.

 

[amirm]

Hello, is there a group delay measurement for the HD800S like there is on the other two headphone measurements of the Hifiman HE400i and Focal Clear? I can't seem to find it.

Did I not post it? If so, here is a raw dump:

 

[magicscreen]

??? Aure you using it the one from the oratory's list and not from the autoeq list? To me the bass from the HD555 eqed is excelent. Totally different headphone now. From yikes sound to really great and balanced.

I am using this HD555 oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets
I imported by hand the table below.

 

[solderdude]

My GD measurement (HD800S) but this is pinnaless.

 

[Feelas]

so introduce new error to correct old error?
great approach, 10/10.

Since it's impossible to get a flat response purely in analogue, yes, this is the only one that works. Anyways, how is that introducing a new error, please elaborate?

One could make a good multi-purpose device if they wanted, since there's nothing against doing so. It'd cost more than a sum of parts for merely being an integrated & ready-to-use multi-purpose.

 

[infinitesymphony]

just like I avoid Koss, Beats, Marshall, Bose headphones - I believe these brands can't produce any good headphones.

Hey now, Koss have some decent budget headphones that get people into this hobby.

And of course the Bose QC35 IIs are always in the running for best Bluetooth ANC headphones.

I'll go ahead and agree with the others, though.

 

[amirm]

Hey now, Koss have some decent budget headphones that get people into this hobby.

That Koss Porta Pro headphone lifted my portable listening pleasure immensely back in the day. What a joy it was to have a such light, compact headphone with good bass. After some 20 years, I bought one for my wife recently which she loves as it is super comfortable for her as she listens to her youtube videos.

 

[infinitesymphony]

That Koss Porta Pro headphone lifted my portable listening pleasure immensely back in the day. What a joy it was to have a such light, compact headphone with good bass. After some 20 years, I bought one for my wife recently which she loves as it is super comfortable for her as she listens to her youtube videos.

That's good to know. I bought my first pair of PortaPros on Amazon last month during the BF / Cyber Monday sale. Maybe I'll crack those open today.

I have early memories of listening to records through my father's pair of Koss K-6 headphones. Kind of sounded like listening to a seashell. Later I picked up a pair of Koss TD-61s to go along with a new Discman and discovered the existence of low frequencies.

Panasonic are my current easy <$30 brand recommendation for anyone who asks about earbuds or supra-aural headphones but I'm always curious to see what Koss are up to in that range.

 

[TheTalbotHound]

thanks amir

 

[amirm]

Thinking of old headphones I had, the first "high-end" headphone I had in 1970s were these Quad Pioneer Headphones:

No, didn't have a quad system. My brother and I put our allowances together and went to local Pioneer shop and bought these. They were huge and heavy. But boy the memories....

 

[Robbo99999]

Thinking of old headphones I had, the first "high-end" headphone I had in 1970s were these Quad Pioneer Headphones:

No, didn't have a quad system. My brother and I put our allowances together and went to local Pioneer shop and bought these. They were huge and heavy. But boy the memories....

Medieval torture device or headphone, hard to draw the line by appearance!

 

[amirm]

Medieval torture device or headphone, hard to draw the line by appearance!

Depends no where you plug in the cords of course.

 

[scherbakov_al]

Fine! Here it is, the correct graph for displaying harmonic distortion. It can be seen in what places and with what harmonics there may be problems.

 

[Robbo99999]

Depends no where you plug in the cords of course.

Owweeee, I prefer 3.5mm!

 

[TheTalbotHound]

Thinking of old headphones I had, the first "high-end" headphone I had in 1970s were these Quad Pioneer Headphones:

No, didn't have a quad system. My brother and I put our allowances together and went to local Pioneer shop and bought these. They were huge and heavy. But boy the memories....

i wonder how these measure now lol

 

[amirm]

I see one on sale for $199 on ebay which is where I took that picture from.

I must say, I don't recall them sounding that great. I used them because my Dad would scream at me if I turned up our stereo loud. So I would put on the headphone. Remember sweating so much in them in summer. It was usage out of necessity.