General Asylum: REVIEW: Sennheiser HD-800 Headphones by Bill Way

Model:	HD-800
Category:	Headphones
Suggested Retail Price:	$1400
Description:	Dynamic circumaural headphones
Manufacturer URL:	Sennheiser
Model Picture:	View

Review by Bill Way on August 31, 2010 at 21:31:24
IP Address: 64.131.185.46 Add Your Review
for the HD-800

Thirty-eight years ago, as a college dropout selling hi-fi in Milwaukee, I loaded up on what was at the time really good stuff. After a few months of that, I did finish up my degree, but that’s another story. One of the great pieces of gear I got back then was a pair of the Koss ESP-9 electrostatic headphones. Even powered by the great measuring, lousy sounding solid-state amps of the day, they were amazing. In the years since, I have not had anything like them. I’ve made do with various modest Grados, which are good, and for the money, really good.

Fast-forward to 2010, and I’m interning in a New York recording studio. What’s more ridiculous than a 40-year-old virgin? Maybe a 58-year-old studio intern. But as I delved into Pro Tools and mixing, I wanted a good pair of cans, so off to B&H I go. They have almost all the serious headphones on the market, all hooked up and playing music. I hoped I would walk out with a pair of better Grados. No such luck. Once I heard the HD800s, I was done for. I handed over the plastic and said, “Do it.” Fifteen-hundred bucks gone. Yikes.

The first surprise was the size of the box they came in. Enormous. Heavy. Complete with a carrying handle on the top. I get it home and open the box to reveal a beautifully made fabric-lined inner box cushioning these enormous headphones, along with a thick, large format owner’s manual gorgeously printed in full color on lovely satin-finish paper. Was there anything I really had to read in all those pretty pages? No. Face it – you don’t need a big manual for a pair of headphones. The beautiful box and booklet have to account for a hundred bucks of the cost. I find that pretty annoying.

But then it’s time to plug them in. I didn’t have a headphone amp; just several very mediocre choices: built-in headphone jacks on my MacBook Pro, a Marantz SA-8260 SACD player, an HHB CDR-830 burner, and an iPhone. Surprise, surprise: they all sounded good. Nice mids, decent high-end extension, and detailed bass that really plumbs the depths. (Not a surprise: plugged into the iPhone, they looked ridiculous. Your could glue the iPhone onto the headband and not notice it, either visually or by weight, as the mass and size of the HD800s dwarfs it.)

So far, so good, but I knew I needed a good amp for them. I ordered the Bottlehead Crack headphone amp kit, built it, and immediately added the “Speedball” power supply upgrade. I now have many hours on the Crack/Speedball/HD800 combo.

How are they? For the answer, I have to quote the wonderful singer/songwriter Deni Bonet, who I met in the studio when she was tracking songs for her upcoming CD. One of the tracks is a kind of happy, bouncy, breakup song featuring her on ukelele (really) and vocals, which I think could become a hit. My favorite phrase from the song:
It’s ridiculous, it’s sublime.
That sums up the HD800s. Spending almost two grand on headphones and an amp for them is certainly ridiculous. Everything else about the combo is just wonderful. Now the details.

The HD800s are high-impedance phones, and provide no isolation from room sounds. They are very heavy, weighing in at over 11 ounces plus cable, and are physically enormous. The pads, which feel like a very soft micro-fiber, are so big that your entire ears sit inside them. Once on your head, they are more comfortable than any phones I’ve had. Glasses wearers, fear not – they are comfortable with or without glasses, and sound the same with your glasses on or off. They also breathe, so you won’t have sweaty ears. You really can wear these all day, and, despite their weight, forget about them. They are that comfortable.

What do they sound like? In a word, Smooth . Are the mids and highs the match of the old ESP-9s? Nope, they’re not. They don’t quite have the magical weightless quality of the best electrostats, but they are close – flat, lovely, extended, and fast. That smoothness extends down with no mid-bass hump, right to the very deepest fundamentals.

The presentation of the sound is a little different from most headphones. While conventional headphones put the sound in the middle of your head, the HD800s seem to put the sound around your head as much as inside it. And for the really low notes, this effect is much more apparent. Headphones with good bass response often feel like rubber mallets pounding on your eardrums. The Sennheisers’ lows are much more natural sounding and go very deep, with none of that pounding feeling.

I did have one surprise: I kept turning the volume down . Over and over, with all kinds of music, I’d set the volume where I thought it should be, only to reach over in a couple of minutes and turn it down a bit. With time, I realized I was doing that because the HD800s do everything so well. When you’re not missing anything, you don’t need it so loud. And yes, they will play much louder than anyone needs, so if you are determined to further your hearing loss, go right ahead.

What music do they sound good with? Pretty much everything. Jimi Hendrix and John Lee Hooker, Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, Joey Defrancesco on the Hammond B3 (oh baby!), and my latest acquisition: the quick-like-a-bunny 1965 Bayreuth Ring cycle with Karl Böhm, on pristine vinyl. Yes, I listened to the whole damn thing, all thirty-two sides. Wagner is addictive. So are the Sennheisers. The dynamics of the CSO/Reiner Mahler 4th on the Classic Records reissue are almost frightening, just like they should be. Jerry Douglas’ dobro on Alison Kraus’s Live album has a “wholeness” and depth that I’ve not heard before.

Will the HD800s show up deficiencies in the source material? Oh yeah. The fine layer of sonic grit on the recently released Ella 12 Nights in Hollywood CD set is all there, but so is all of Ella with those amazing performances. I think the lack of any midrange or upper midrange bump actually makes the HD800s a little more forgiving of sonic flaws than lesser gear, despite their hugely extended top end.

Bottom line: with the HD800s, you stop listening to the phones very quickly, and the music takes over. They are sublime.
Footnote:
The HD800s really sing with the Bottlehead Crack/Speedball. The Crack is a build-it-yourself OTL amp kit for high-impedance headphones, designed around the 6080/421A/5998/6AS7 dual triode. The Crack is easy to build, but you need good soldering technique for the Crack upgrade, as there are a couple very small boards with teensy components, and sloppy soldering on boards with high voltages just won’t do. On the plus side, the forums on the Bottlehead site are loaded with mods and upgrades to all their products, and Doc B and the rest of the Bottlehead crew are very responsive to their customers. I’m sure I will try most of the mods eventually. Yeah, I’m addicted.
WW
September 2010

Product Weakness:	Don't resolve quite like the best electrostats
Product Strengths:	Smooth extended response, sense of airiness

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Bottlehead Crack/Speedball
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): VTL Deluxe (modified)
Sources (CDP/Turntable): TD125 II modified, Hadcock 242 modified, MusicMaker, Marantz SA8260, HHB CDB 830 Plus
Speakers: n/a
Cables/Interconnects: Cardas, Venhaus
Music Used (Genre/Selections): almost everything
Time Period/Length of Audition: 6 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): PS Audio 3.5 Power Director
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	Bottlehead Crack/Speedball
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	VTL Deluxe (modified)
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	TD125 II modified, Hadcock 242 modified, MusicMaker, Marantz SA8260, HHB CDB 830 Plus
Speakers:	n/a
Cables/Interconnects:	Cardas, Venhaus
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	almost everything
Time Period/Length of Audition:	6 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	PS Audio 3.5 Power Director
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner