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In Reply to: RE: Pionner SX1050 Receiver as headphone amplifier for Sennheiser HD800 posted by cjspu on March 06, 2016 at 06:19:39
Sounds fantastic with Naim Headline. Much touted Woo Audio amp sounded soft and turgid on the HD800. I certainly didn't care for it.
What possibly matters more than the amp is a better source for the HD800. You can always upgrade the source and keep the Pioneer.
Follow Ups:
One solution (among many) is the new HD-800S...
hope they didn't screw up what was good.
HD800 was the only Senns. I liked actually.
"Old SteveA" thinks that the ring radiator used to enhance the "soundstage" feel of that particular headphone is the primary culprit. Remove that ring radiator and the brightness disappears (taking with it a certain amount of that illusionary soundstaging?), according to him.I'm hoping that the new HD-800S represents a better and more comprehensive *fix* than this surgical alternative.
Interesting too is the recent release of Beyerdynamic's new flagship headphone, the T1 V2. The V2 is said to be a warmer, more mellow sounding headphone than the original T1.
So it almost seems like at least two German manufacturers are turning away from the analytical presentation in favor of a warmer and more forgiving one. Will Austrian AKG follow suit and revise their latest "bright sounding" flagship?
Edits: 03/24/16 03/24/16
and found T1 rather dull comparatively.
I suspect that the HD800's latest revisions might be two folds. One: any hardware companies need a *new* model every so often to stimulate the sales, two: they realised bulk of 'phone users typically use a crap source. As I walked around with my amps and cables in tow at the show, HD800 sounded horrendous on digital files on a laptop tethered to an external DAC or low end DVD players.
Only when I've encountered a 10k+ source ( Meridian 800 series DVD/CD player ) I realised how capable the HD800 was. Incidentally this was the Sennheiser USA booth who had a sense to bring a decent source to show case their ware.
IME, nothing was wrong with the original HD800 even with a bog standard kettle leads. ( with my amps )
With the help of the slightly distant sonic perspective provided by the excellent DNA Sonett (now discontinued), the HD-800s sounded smooth and well balanced through the lower treble.The HD-800s are definitely not the most forgiving of headphones and perhaps they are a little too unforgiving in light of the fact that most of us who assemble headphone systems are doing so with certain budget constraints in mind.
Sennheiser could have put a warning sticker on every box that reads "Spend at least as much on amplification and source component(s) as you did on these headphones", but they probably would not sell as many pairs of flagship headphones that way...
Then there is that other insidious problem to consider, and that is that some of us really and truly don't hear the same way that some (or even most) other people do. If one man's treat is another man's poison, what can you say?
Edits: 03/25/16
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