Article: A Tale of Two Sennheisers: The HD820 and the HD800S

[Josh Mound]

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[austinpop]

Thanks for your excellent review! As a fellow HD800S fan, and having heard the the HD820 at various shows, your impressions are spot on.

[mozes]

I auditioned  both and I preferred the HD-800S.

I am not a headphone guy by any means.

[One and a half]

I own both HD800S and HD820. The HD800S has been the go to HP for two years something. The HD820S arrived in August 2018, after a week's burn in, I haven't touched the HD800S since, well maybe to dust it. I read the review above and thought, what's driving the HP's and the rest of the system, cause I honestly don't hear the tonally flawed character.

[audiobomber]

Interesting review, looking forward to more. The Beyerdynamic DT 1770 and DT 1990 Pro could be another closed/open comparison.

[crenca]

Excellent review!  I think I weigh the Clear's "cleaner" bass performance more than you do.  Also, I don't hear the Sennheisers as "leaning bright", they ARE bright, so the tonal balance of the Focal's wins easily for me (and this is before any DSP - something the Sennheisers don't respond well to).  Add that to the fact that "headstage" is something I find more elusive than most other HP enthusiasts (It's all "between the ears" and nothing compared to a normal two channel image IMO), the Sennheisers are a bit flawed - but I know I swim upstream in this opinion.  For better or worse, the Sennheiser 800 are the reference HP can in the TOTL arena.  I have no experience with the 820 but this comparison gives me a very good idea...

[AMR/iFi audio]

Nice piece of work @JoshM, a spot on takeaway with HD820, even though we like them!

[Josh Mound]

On 1/6/2019 at 5:37 PM, crenca said:

Excellent review!  I think I weigh the Clear's "cleaner" bass performance more than you do.  Also, I don't hear the Sennheisers as "leaning bright", they ARE bright, so the tonal balance of the Focal's wins easily for me (and this is before any DSP - something the Sennheisers don't respond well to).  Add that to the fact that "headstage" is something I find more elusive than most other HP enthusiasts (It's all "between the ears" and nothing compared to a normal two channel image IMO), the Sennheisers are a bit flawed - but I know I swim upstream in this opinion.  For better or worse, the Sennheiser 800 are the reference HP can in the TOTL arena.  I have no experience with the 820 but this comparison gives me a very good idea...

 

The HD800 definitely are bright. But the HD800S corrects a lot of that, IMO.

[Josh Mound]

On 1/3/2019 at 1:54 AM, One and a half said:

I own both HD800S and HD820. The HD800S has been the go to HP for two years something. The HD820S arrived in August 2018, after a week's burn in, I haven't touched the HD800S since, well maybe to dust it. I read the review above and thought, what's driving the HP's and the rest of the system, cause I honestly don't hear the tonally flawed character.

 

I mention the rest of my system in the review. 

 

I'm sure some people will prefer the HD800S. But it's undoubtedly a very colored headphone, and I just can't get past that huge dip, as someone who prefers only modest deviations from neutral.

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 3/13/2019 at 12:43 AM, JoshM said:

The HD800 definitely are bright

 

It's the kind of brightness people eventually learned to love😎