Battle Of The Flagships (50+ Headphones Compared)

[dalethorn]

David was very smart about how he put that together, and how he borrowed from various sources ideas and language to make his overall presentation consistent. My experiences with the headphones tracks pretty close to his. Now if he or someone could reproduce the original post with informative commentary only in a PDF, it would make an excellent reference. It's still good as an original post, but there is some very useful commentary and criticism that would also be helpful with the chatter removed.

[dalethorn]

The HD800 is like taking a veil off of the 600 and revealing music. Very amazing difference. I got the 580 after the rave review in Stereophile, then a 565, then a 600, 650, 800, Amperior and Momentum. But I've never heard anything that can equal the 800 in reproducing upper harmonic details, regardless of the amp used.

[dalethorn]

I have to say that I've never heard the 'rattle' that David Mahler mentions. I wonder where they would have come without the rattle... If the other HPs really are better than the K-1000s, they must be amazing. Mani.

 

Based on my 30 years of headphone listening with everything from Beyer DT48's to the Sennheiser HD800, I'd say you probably have the best sound of all of those, regardless of the 19th place showing. I don't want to suggest any cynicism, but an obsolete item at or near the top of the list can really detract from sales.

[dalethorn]

Dale, I'm more than happy to bow to your superior experience here. I had the Berning amp lying around doing nothing and thought I'd try it with the K-1000s. I'm not sure if it's the best match ever, but this pairing certainly makes beautiful music. If you're aware of another amp I should try with the K-1000s let me know. Cheers, Mani.

 

My 'superior' experience does not include the K1000 or the Berning amp. My 'superior' experience in analyzing David's massive headfi review says that your K1000 (based on several reviews I've seen) is 'probably' much better than 19th. I've had a lot of those headphones David reviewed, and while much of that information is useful, it reads like something that's trying hard to avoid any controversy that would conflict with David's marketing. Parts of it, and I noted this with the HD800 review, looked like it was cobbled together from other people's analysis, again to play it safe.

[dalethorn]

Sorry to create the wrong impression David. If you were able to read all the comments I've made about your review on various sites (impossible, I know), the big picture is I highly recommend your review, if for no other reason than you've expertly assembled information from your own experience and the vast experience of others. I'm slightly doubtful that you did all of this in a vacuum, so whatever the interpretation is as to how much is uniquely your experience and how much was absorbed from others - not an issue for me certainly. As to the HD800, I had one for 3 years - gave it away without charge. My impression that your impressions of the HD800 were partly from your experience and partly taking advisement from others - I think it's a valid impression based on what I read. But you obviously have the HD800, so you know the deal as well as anyone. BTW, in spite of a long experience with headphones myself, including Stax and nearly everything Sennheiser has made since ca. 1990, I've revised my descriptions of much of my experience to conform better to current market trends. I'd hate to be stuck in the past and not able to communicate with all those Beats users out there.

[dalethorn]

Someone at Headfonia is suggesting that Sennheiser has revoiced the HD800, and that serial numbers above 10k have more bass and less treble. I wonder if anyone could confirm that one way or the other.

[dalethorn]

Thanks David. I couldn't imagine the HD800 having that much sample-to-sample variation, so perhaps the persons reporting have some excess earpad wear that makes a difference.