Sennheiser HD800S Review (Headphone)

[Deleted member 43924]

So what are the best closed backs youve tried?

Can't speak too much to sound quality of each closed-back I've tried cus it has been a while since I've heard the majority of them, but I found the Ether C Flow 1.1s to be my favorite overall, very good comfort and decent, if somewhat boring, sound signature that took well to eq. I also liked the Aeon Noires, but headphones with oval pad shapes seem to cause hotspots in the upper jaw/lower ear area for me, so I sold them (then rebought them, and repeated the process two more times...). And people say the HD 820s are super somfortable, but I get the same hotspot situation I've gotten from other headphones with them, I think its because the pads are thicker than those on the HD 800Ss and/or more clamping force. So I will be parting with them.

Honestly I'm in a pretty good place with the HD 800S for primary listening and then just using my IE 900s if I need some isolation. If I do decide to get a pair of closed-backs, based off what I've read on ASR and my experience with the company, I would check out something from DCA, either the E3 or Aeon Noire X, though I am still a bit weary of their pad shapes.

 

[Westsounds]

Can't speak too much to sound quality of each closed-back I've tried cus it has been a while since I've heard the majority of them, but I found the Ether C Flow 1.1s to be my favorite overall, very good comfort and decent, if somewhat boring, sound signature that took well to eq. I also liked the Aeon Noires, but headphones with oval pad shapes seem to cause hotspots in the upper jaw/lower ear area for me, so I sold them (then rebought them, and repeated the process two more times...). And people say the HD 820s are super somfortable, but I get the same hotspot situation I've gotten from other headphones with them, I think its because the pads are thicker than those on the HD 800Ss and/or more clamping force. So I will be parting with them.

Honestly I'm in a pretty good place with the HD 800S for primary listening and then just using my IE 900s if I need some isolation. If I do decide to get a pair of closed-backs, based off what I've read on ASR and my experience with the company, I would check out something from DCA, either the E3 or Aeon Noire X, though I am still a bit weary of their pad shapes.

Good reply thanks. The 800S are a great headphone, and as far as I’m concerned there’s nothing better, particularly at low level detail retrieval and separation of the layers within the music. They do need EQ though I believe to sound their best, for me anyway. I have some ear buds as well I could use for the closed sealed (private) listening, without disturbing anyone else in the room I suppose. It is still nice though to have a full sized closed back as they just provide that bass that open backs don’t really match, it’s just a design and physics thing I suppose. They just do make a better bass canon in general, just looking for one that can near match the way the 800S picks up information from the recording and sounds great though is rare.

And I don’t find the 800S an amazingly comfortable headphone, as light as it is. It’s still a cumbersome thing on your head and it kind of floats there, but you never forget you are wearing the big thing. I can't really do any marathon sessions with it on my head, I eventually just end up taking them off because I’ve just had enough of wearing it. The cost you have to pay I guess for having such a great driver and design on your head. Apart from that, they are phenomenal things to listen to.

 

[Robbo99999]

Right now I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 820s that I've been using with Oratory1990's eq profile and the sound is good, with the usual tradeoffs you'd expect to get from a closed back. Some past headphones that I eq'd to Harman were Mr. Speakers Ether C Flow 1.1s, DCA Aeon Noires, 1st gen Meze Lirics, and ZMF Eikons (I've spent a lot of time looking for a closed-back I like). I've also been eqing my in-ears, specifically a pair of Sennheiser IE 900s with Oratory1990's profile.

I see ok, it's good experience to have a number of different headphones and EQ them to Harman to see what's going on. How do you find HD800s bass when EQ'd to Harman? To me it's been about the only weak point, as in the deep bass doesn't hold much detail. I suppose it's gonna depend what material you listen to and if you have low bass in the stuff you listen to. (I've got the HD800 used with Oratory EQ)

 

[Deleted member 43924]

I see ok, it's good experience to have a number of different headphones and EQ them to Harman to see what's going on. How do you find HD800s bass when EQ'd to Harman? To me it's been about the only weak point, as in the deep bass doesn't hold much detail. I suppose it's gonna depend what material you listen to and if you have low bass in the stuff you listen to. (I've got the HD800 used with Oratory EQ)

I think the Harman bass is pretty good for what I listen to (lots of indie rock, left-field electronic, and ambient). That being said, I gravitate to being more of a treblehead than a basshead so take my words with a grain of salt.

 

[Deleted member 43924]

So what are the best closed backs youve tried?

I've spent some more time with my pair of HD 820s and I've decided to keep them around. Took a bit of time to get the fitting just right compared to the HD 800s, but it's pretty decent once you get it right. After applying eq, it just feels like a closed in HD 800s, and while I'd rather be using the 800s most of the time, it's nice to have an option for when listening conditions aren't quite ideal for an open-back.

 

[A Surfer]

I've spent some more time with my pair of HD 820s and I've decided to keep them around. Took a bit of time to get the fitting just right compared to the HD 800s, but it's pretty decent once you get it right. After applying eq, it just feels like a closed in HD 800s, and while I'd rather be using the 800s most of the time, it's nice to have an option for when listening conditions aren't quite ideal for an open-back.

Feels like a pretty expensive solution though when without a doubt there are more performative closed back options that are also much less expensive.

 

[Deleted member 43924]

Feels like a pretty expensive solution though when without a doubt there are more performative closed back options that are also much less expensive.

For sure, I just really like the comfort of the HD 800S and figured the 820 was the closest I could get to having that in a closed-back. I was also in a position where I could be a little frivolous with my money, so figured I'd take a chance on them. That being said, I think if the oval pad shape and clamping force works for you, something from Dan Clark Audio is probably the better choice for a closed-back these days.

 

[Westsounds]

For sure, I just really like the comfort of the HD 800S and figured the 820 was the closest I could get to having that in a closed-back. I was also in a position where I could be a little frivolous with my money, so figured I'd take a chance on them. That being said, I think if the oval pad shape and clamping force works for you, something from Dan Clark Audio is probably the better choice for a closed-back these days.

Thats interesting, thanks

 

[A Surfer]

For sure, I just really like the comfort of the HD 800S and figured the 820 was the closest I could get to having that in a closed-back. I was also in a position where I could be a little frivolous with my money, so figured I'd take a chance on them. That being said, I think if the oval pad shape and clamping force works for you, something from Dan Clark Audio is probably the better choice for a closed-back these days.

Makes sense, and I owned and loved the HD800S with both tubes and solid state amplification. I also had an HD820 on hand for several weeks, but really could not get a proper seal so I did not enjoy it at all, but arguably I also never really heard it properly.

Still, perhaps I'm being overly critical here, but for that kind of money, a headphone should not be so terrible for positioning sensitivity. Feels like a significant design fail.

 

[JoelDollie]

Hey all, I created an account on ASR just to share how to ''Fixed'' my HD800S to sound as neutral and accurate as possible. Matched to Kii Three.

I believe that headphone measurements and target curves are a bit all over the place and that unlike speakers, they aren't super reliable, so I just did it by ear, comparing to my Kii Threes in a really accurate studio. Couple details I didn't mention in the video:

I EQ'd these to my Kii three with a house curve, a little bit tilted like most engineers would have, with an extra ''Toole esque'' bass boost. My monitors IN ROOM response is about +6db in the bass and -1.5db at 20k.

I didn't boost the 30hz as much as would normally be needed because I don't think the 800S drivers and even produce that reliably and the overall result doesn't seem that great, I think it's just boosting too much above where it can actually produce these frequencies, so I settled for 6db.

In some tracks the HD800S still feel sharper than my speakers, in some tracks maybe a tiny bit less, this is due to the highs being very random and dippy on headphones, I think that depending on the tracks, some elements might land on ''holes'' in the frequency response or on peaks, so in the gend I kinda went for an average, not trying to go into crazy detail so that this can actually translate decently for many people.

Oh and also after publishing this video I went and fixed my own pair, as either driver mismatching was hardcore or it's just my ear shape but almost no matter how I put them in my head I had dramatic reduction at 8.5k in the right ear.

If you are confident in that, I recommend sine sweeping in dual mono and experimenting with left/right EQ. My phantom center went back to dead center, it's actually eerie. I knew for years that everything was leaning left, actually in blind tests I was panning things 6% too much on the right to compensate. I wish I EQ'd sooner. Now these treble moves will be highly personal so I recommend just sticking to the yellow curve for most people. Sine sweeping and double checking if these moves ''remove'' dips for you is also a great way to double check. I'm pretty confident this curve will work for most people.

 

[patoulol]

Hey all, I created an account on ASR just to share how to ''Fixed'' my HD800S to sound as neutral and accurate as possible. Matched to Kii Three.

I believe that headphone measurements and target curves are a bit all over the place and that unlike speakers, they aren't super reliable, so I just did it by ear, comparing to my Kii Threes in a really accurate studio. Couple details I didn't mention in the video:

I EQ'd these to my Kii three with a house curve, a little bit tilted like most engineers would have, with an extra ''Toole esque'' bass boost. My monitors IN ROOM response is about +6db in the bass and -1.5db at 20k.

I didn't boost the 30hz as much as would normally be needed because I don't think the 800S drivers and even produce that reliably and the overall result doesn't seem that great, I think it's just boosting too much above where it can actually produce these frequencies, so I settled for 6db.

In some tracks the HD800S still feel sharper than my speakers, in some tracks maybe a tiny bit less, this is due to the highs being very random and dippy on headphones, I think that depending on the tracks, some elements might land on ''holes'' in the frequency response or on peaks, so in the gend I kinda went for an average, not trying to go into crazy detail so that this can actually translate decently for many people.

Oh and also after publishing this video I went and fixed my own pair, as either driver mismatching was hardcore or it's just my ear shape but almost no matter how I put them in my head I had dramatic reduction at 8.5k in the right ear.

If you are confident in that, I recommend sine sweeping in dual mono and experimenting with left/right EQ. My phantom center went back to dead center, it's actually eerie. I knew for years that everything was leaning left, actually in blind tests I was panning things 6% too much on the right to compensate. I wish I EQ'd sooner. Now these treble moves will be highly personal so I recommend just sticking to the yellow curve for most people. Sine sweeping and double checking if these moves ''remove'' dips for you is also a great way to double check. I'm pretty confident this curve will work for most people.

View attachment 502647

Very interesting.
Do you have a video of your studio? One that shows the acoustic treatment in detail?

 

[JoelDollie]

Very interesting.
Do you have a video of your studio? One that shows the acoustic treatment in detail?

Planning to do one soon

 

[Robbo99999]

Hey all, I created an account on ASR just to share how to ''Fixed'' my HD800S to sound as neutral and accurate as possible. Matched to Kii Three.

I believe that headphone measurements and target curves are a bit all over the place and that unlike speakers, they aren't super reliable, so I just did it by ear, comparing to my Kii Threes in a really accurate studio. Couple details I didn't mention in the video:

I EQ'd these to my Kii three with a house curve, a little bit tilted like most engineers would have, with an extra ''Toole esque'' bass boost. My monitors IN ROOM response is about +6db in the bass and -1.5db at 20k.

I didn't boost the 30hz as much as would normally be needed because I don't think the 800S drivers and even produce that reliably and the overall result doesn't seem that great, I think it's just boosting too much above where it can actually produce these frequencies, so I settled for 6db.

In some tracks the HD800S still feel sharper than my speakers, in some tracks maybe a tiny bit less, this is due to the highs being very random and dippy on headphones, I think that depending on the tracks, some elements might land on ''holes'' in the frequency response or on peaks, so in the gend I kinda went for an average, not trying to go into crazy detail so that this can actually translate decently for many people.

Oh and also after publishing this video I went and fixed my own pair, as either driver mismatching was hardcore or it's just my ear shape but almost no matter how I put them in my head I had dramatic reduction at 8.5k in the right ear.

If you are confident in that, I recommend sine sweeping in dual mono and experimenting with left/right EQ. My phantom center went back to dead center, it's actually eerie. I knew for years that everything was leaning left, actually in blind tests I was panning things 6% too much on the right to compensate. I wish I EQ'd sooner. Now these treble moves will be highly personal so I recommend just sticking to the yellow curve for most people. Sine sweeping and double checking if these moves ''remove'' dips for you is also a great way to double check. I'm pretty confident this curve will work for most people.

View attachment 502647

I haven't watched your video (yet), but one thing to note about sine sweeps, it's possible to have natural peaks and troughs at certain frequencies in your hearing that might even be specific to one ear or the other, so if that's the case then you probably wouldn't want to correct for it in headphones. So you can't assume it's a headphone quirk or fault, it might just be your ears. One way of telling is listening to sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat speakers to give you an idea if you have the same peak or trough. Generally I wouldn't recommend listening to sine sweeps as part of headphone EQ process, as it would be hard to know what is your own natural hearing vs stuff that needs to be fixed.

 

[JoelDollie]

I haven't watched your video (yet), but one thing to note about sine sweeps, it's possible to have natural peaks and troughs at certain frequencies in your hearing that might even be specific to one ear or the other, so if that's the case then you probably wouldn't want to correct for it in headphones. So you can't assume it's a headphone quirk or fault, it might just be your ears. One way of telling is listening to sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat speakers to give you an idea if you have the same peak or trough. Generally I wouldn't recommend listening to sine sweeps as part of headphone EQ process, as it would be hard to know what is your own natural hearing vs stuff that needs to be fixed.

Hey! Yes the reason I think that this process is completely valid is that I first sine sweeped with my monitors in my room which measures very well, so my measurement mic tells me if the dips are actually there at the listening position or if it's my ear, then I compared that to the headphones. It's not anechoic but its mastering grade (about -+2db PSY smoothing)

But I think you're right when it comes to the very high treble actually, mainly starting at 6k+ things become a little more random if I move the headphones on my head, and the higher you go the more random it is

With that said, the high mid issues remain super coherent no matter how you place the headphones and have been observed by a large pool of people so I think it's reasonable to say that they are fairly coherent in all HD800S. The high treble I think only the owners of the headphones can get in there... If they know what they are doing.

 

[Mort]

Are all open back headphones as loud as these are to other people in the area? My family can still hear them from time to time. Maybe I need close back, but I like the sound from the 800s much more than my Noire X.

I do listen at fairly high volume...

 

[Tano]

Are all open back headphones as loud as these are to other people in the area? My family can still hear them from time to time. Maybe I need close back, but I like the sound from the 800s much more than my Noire X.

I do listen at fairly high volume...

No offence but maybe you should listen to lower volume levels. It would be better for you and your family won't hear it.

 

[gorman]

I do listen at fairly high volume...

Careful, you cannot heal hearing damage in any way.

 

[Robbo99999]

Hey! Yes the reason I think that this process is completely valid is that I first sine sweeped with my monitors in my room which measures very well, so my measurement mic tells me if the dips are actually there at the listening position or if it's my ear, then I compared that to the headphones. It's not anechoic but its mastering grade (about -+2db PSY smoothing)

But I think you're right when it comes to the very high treble actually, mainly starting at 6k+ things become a little more random if I move the headphones on my head, and the higher you go the more random it is

With that said, the high mid issues remain super coherent no matter how you place the headphones and have been observed by a large pool of people so I think it's reasonable to say that they are fairly coherent in all HD800S. The high treble I think only the owners of the headphones can get in there... If they know what they are doing.

As long as you know you don't have a natural dip in your hearing there then that's ok.....but as you say you found recently that above 6kHz you're getting some variance with headphone placement on your head, so you might have already reassessed if your 8.5kHz large "channel balance" EQ filter is valid or not.

 

[Robbo99999]

Are all open back headphones as loud as these are to other people in the area? My family can still hear them from time to time. Maybe I need close back, but I like the sound from the 800s much more than my Noire X.

I do listen at fairly high volume...

Listening at lower volumes might be as simple as having an EQ that works well at lower volumes - I feel that Harman EQ's are well suited to this with "room boost" bass and a good dose of treble.

 

[staticV3]

Are all open back headphones as loud as these are to other people in the area?

See here: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools/table/186596