Sennheiser HD800s

[Sheets Tabuer]

Anyone got these, if so what are you partnering it with.

Also what are your unbiased opinion, what sort of music are.you running through them?

[ian996]

I have a pair which I drive via a Woo Audio WA5.

They are head and shoulders above any other headphones I have experienced, but they are also the most expensive, as I have no experience of the really high-end stuff.

I would agree with the general consensus that their strongest point is their imaging - the large transducers and the fact that they are set at an angle to your ears really does provide a sense of space to the sound. The main central image is still "in your head", but there is a real spread of width and some depth to the surrounding sound images.

I play all kinds of music through them, as an open back design, they don't provide a huge sense of thumping bass, but they have excellent speed and transient impact, which is more important to me personally.

Overall, I would say that they are perhaps more suited to acoustic material than compressed rock - not because they sound bad in any way, shape or form but, quite often, those listening to rock via headphones are looking for the bass to be emphasised, to make up for the inevitable lack of chest-thumping impact you tend to get with headphones.

I love them.

[Sheets Tabuer]

Thanks for your input, I was worried how they might fair with my preference of music, as an old house head my music is heavily influenced by electronica with some led zep and AC/DC thrown in.

I do live alone so perhaps I should be looking at another option however I don't think I can bother with all that again.

[theboss]

I have a setup in my study which is basically Linn Akurate DS --> Sennheiser HDVD800 --> HD800

I'm using balanced XLR interconnects plus the Sennheiser balanced cable for the phones. I'm not using the DAC functionality of the headphones amp as by all accounts it's not outstanding vs the Linn which is pretty good.

Not a lot to say really, it's just a really nice sounding setup and the components seem very well matched. They are sensationally comfortable. Sound as said above is very transparent and detailed. I listen to mostly classical music. I bought these about 6 years ago and haven't compared with the successor products.

I did start off collecting high res recordings but given the Linn's native interoperability with Spotify and Tidal I tend to just stream stuff these days.

[PedroB]

Not got HD800s but have listened to a friend's pair quite a bit. Way better sounding than my HD650s.

I'm running Rega RP3, A&R Cambridge A60, Graham Slee Novo headphone amp. The 800s on that setup sounded huge. Massive soundstage.

[Sheets Tabuer]

Thanks all, quite a price range of stuff being put through it, I'll arrange a listening.