• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Sennheiser HD800S Review (Headphone)

bobbooo

Major Contributor
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
1,479
Likes
2,079
Tried it, it still feels like the female vocals get muted. (90% of my listening is female vocal). I might have to live with no EQ and the lack of deeper bass and with the 6K peak.

Bass preference being somewhat variable between listeners is consistent with Harman's research - try reducing the gain of the low shelf bass filter in Oratory's settings to taste (this will make mids/treble seem relatively more prominent).
 
  • Like
Reactions: GDK
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,376
Likes
234,550
Location
Seattle Area

watchnerd

Grand Contributor
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
12,449
Likes
10,409
Location
Seattle Area, USA
i listened to k371, designet for the harman curve. sounded like shite on most tracks

Hmmm, I don't know it it's interesting enough to call it "shite".

It's never offensive or hurtful.

But a lot of the time it's just blah or boring. Rarely is it exciting or beautiful.
 

Feelas

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2020
Messages
390
Likes
315
Hmmm, I don't know it it's interesting enough to call it "shite".

It's never offensive or hurtful.

But a lot of the time it's just blah or boring. Rarely is it exciting or beautiful.
The curve itself is blah.

On the other hand... music, somehow, sounds great.
 

mkawa

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Messages
788
Likes
695
i AB'd oratory vs crinacle vs rtings vs innerfidelity with soundsource and was really surprised at how different the settings sounded. on my pc i use oratory's settings and hadn't tried the others, but i'm really liking the crinacle settings. i found all of them to be superior to the non-eq'd headphone (which to be fair sounds great to me as well, but you can really tell that the midrange is much more sensitive than all the eq settings..
 

bobbooo

Major Contributor
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
1,479
Likes
2,079
i AB'd oratory vs crinacle vs rtings vs innerfidelity with soundsource and was really surprised at how different the settings sounded. on my pc i use oratory's settings and hadn't tried the others, but i'm really liking the crinacle settings. i found all of them to be superior to the non-eq'd headphone (which to be fair sounds great to me as well, but you can really tell that the midrange is much more sensitive than all the eq settings..

Did you use AutoEQ's settings (which don't properly follow the Harman target) for Oratory's measurements, or did you use these EQ settings actually made by him which do?
 

Feelas

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2020
Messages
390
Likes
315
What's the curve you like? AutoEQ can generate EQ for the desired curve.
I was joking about listening to the Harman curve being blah, because I'd pretty much listen to music, not to the curves :D
 

mkawa

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Messages
788
Likes
695

Darklizard

New Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2020
Messages
4
Likes
1
Here’s a thought. If any headphones need EQ then you’ve got the wrong model. I thought decent cans wouldn’t need it.
 

bobbooo

Major Contributor
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
1,479
Likes
2,079

SoundSource fetches and uses AutoEq "results".

In that case it's not properly matching to the Harman target. @mkawa try Oratory's actual settings I posted, here they are again:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/654wxtmhlq0dhqa/AABqYVBaULTGEBVUAJEU11T2a/Sennheiser HD800S.pdf?dl=0

You'll need a proper fully parametric equalizer to enter in the frequency, gain and Q-factor (or bandwidth) of each filter in the bottom left of that pdf, as well as the preamp gain just to the right of that to avoid digital clipping.
 

rcmo

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2020
Messages
50
Likes
50
Location
EU
You'll need a proper fully parametric equalizer to enter in the frequency, gain and Q-factor (or bandwidth) of each filter in the bottom left of that pdf, as well as the preamp gain just to the right of that to avoid digital clipping.

You can use AUNBandEQ within SoundSource.
 

bobbooo

Major Contributor
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
1,479
Likes
2,079
You can use AUNBandEQ within SoundSource.

@mkawa what he said, although I don't use a Mac so can't confirm for sure. Just make sure after entering in the EQ filter parameters that the total EQ curve matches the one in Oratory's pdf (right-middle curve).
 

mkawa

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Messages
788
Likes
695
hmm, yes, i already had the settings in peace on my pc, and aunband matches it after converting q factors. what does autoeq do? if the autoeq setting doesn't match oratory's parameters, how are they deriving their parameters?

i find the autoeq oratory setting to be brighter than oratory's parameters directly. it's closer to autoeq's crinacle setting..
 

bobbooo

Major Contributor
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
1,479
Likes
2,079
hmm, yes, i already had the settings in peace on my pc, and aunband matches it after converting q factors. what does autoeq do? if the autoeq setting doesn't match oratory's parameters, how are they deriving their parameters?

i find the autoeq oratory setting to be brighter than oratory's parameters directly. it's closer to autoeq's crinacle setting..

AutoEQ auto-generates its settings based on Oratory's (and others') measurements, but it does not use the proper Harman target (less bass, likely why you find it brighter). See the last paragraph of the 'Results' section on the main AutoEQ page. In contrast Oratory creates his EQ filters manually, properly targets the Harman curve, takes into account possible excessive boosted distortion post-EQ, as well as non-minimum phase parts of the frequency response that cannot be effectively EQed out, and carefully listens to the headphone post-EQ and makes tweaks if necessary.
 
Last edited:

rcmo

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2020
Messages
50
Likes
50
Location
EU
Allow me to suggest a setting to configure Amir's EQ in RME ADI-2:

LS G +11 F 50 Q 1.0
PK G -0.5 F 20 Q 0.5
PK G +3.0 F 2700 Q 1.0
PK G -3.0 F 5400 Q 3.0
HS G -2.0 F 10000 Q 1.0
 

thomz6

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2020
Messages
19
Likes
6
Hello, I am afraid or maybe paranoid...
I have tested for a short time to plug my HD 800S into an old amplifier which emits a constant low whistle/background noise and which crackles when I turn the volume button.

Is it possible that I have damaged my headphones ?

For exemple at this moment :
that sounds bad / little dirty / not clear / crackling...

For information,
I have this
Preamp: -4 dB
Filter: ON LS Fc 115 Hz Gain 4 dB Q 0.7
Filter: ON PK Fc 220 Hz Gain -4.9 dB Q 0.35
Filter: ON PK Fc 380 Hz Gain 0.6 dB Q 2
Filter: ON PK Fc 1000 Hz Gain -1.2 dB Q 2
Filter: ON PK Fc 2800 Hz Gain -1.5 dB Q 3
Filter: ON PK Fc 3340 Hz Gain 1.9 dB Q 4
Filter: ON PK Fc 4000 Hz Gain -2.1 dB Q 6
Filter: ON PK Fc 5430 Hz Gain -5.1 dB Q 6
Filter: ON PK Fc 6150 Hz Gain -2.3 dB Q 9
Filter: ON HS Fc 7000 Hz Gain -6 dB Q 0.7
And I usually use my HD 800S on a Topping L30, I dont know if it is also possible to damage the headphones if i put the sound too loud...
 
Top Bottom