Battle Of The Flagships (50+ Headphones Compared)

[KDinsmore]

Cavalli amp. Take your pick.

[mrtim6]

fostex th 900 and senn hd 800 with which amp you paired them ???

 

Sorry for the super late reply star

 

i have tried both with the lehmann linear - I personally really didn't like this combination with the HD800.

 

However since I wrote my initial impressions I purchased an HD800 March 2015 and have tried it with my Grace m903 - fantastic pairing- no sibilence at all TH900 is also great with this amp (HD800 is better now IMO with this pairing). I have listened to both headphones on my Japanese Bakoon 5210mk3 - In initial tests I preferred the TH900, however I did not extensively test the HD800 - no sibilence problems here either. I have listened to both headphones on my Leben cs300xs with nos tubes - undecided here. I also listed to the awsome headphone section on my Yamaha A-S3000 integrated - the HD800 was my preference here.

My revised thoughts are:

HD800 is truely an awsome headphone - just pair it very carefully with other equipment. Better than the TH900 in most areas. Just unforgiving just like my Yamaha NS-2000 speakers with poor/average recordings.

TH900 far more forgiving than HD800 especially with poor/average recordings. TH900 generally much easier to pair with most amp/dacs and truely shines with the Bakoon 5210 Mk3. I prefer the TH900 over the HD800 with EDM and most electronic music. HD800 I prefer the HD800 over TH900 with rock, alternative, classical and jazz.

In the end both headphones are worthy of an audition and IMO very complimentary of each other. If I had to choose one - probably would be HD800 as my headphones have not suffered from sibilence at all. The pair I listened to were 3 years older than my pair.

I tested both single ended as none of the amps except the borrowed Lehman linear were balanced.