šŸ”¶ Sennheiser HD800S

@M0N Thanks much appreciated.
O is Bifrost2 + G111 a good pairing? assuming G111 is a higher tier than A3

It’s still pretty nice, but I think I prefer the soekris on the g111 a bit more, something about how those go together is just quite special imo. I think if you wanted a more fun sound, the ares ii pairs well with the g111 for something a bit warmer and energetic

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ok thanks. I’ll stop now :laughing:

I’m not sure why, but when I use the bf2 on lp/vio gear it’s almost like the way they present and stage is a slight mismatch, where the 1321 and ares ii (to a lesser extent) seem to work better with the presentation and space of the lp/vio gear and improve upon what the g111 does where the bf2 almost tries to shift it a bit

interesting. maybe they tuned their amp to work with r2r more?

I don’t know if I would say that, I think it can sound excellent with some sigma delta, I think it comes down to the more unique way the lake people amps present and recreate space

My guess is that for me the bf2 gets pretty wide, but looses focus and accuracy on the stage with the lake people, and it also kinda affects the slam, also it’s a bit smoother which doesn’t do the best with lp amps

The 1321 really tightens up the g111 spatially and is more precise in that range it has, also the 1321 is a quicker dac, so that could be it.

Signature wise, the 1321 can be lacking in some areas on its own, but paired with the g111 it really fills in the holes, on other amps the soekris stuff can be a bad match, whereas with the bf2 it sounds a bit more complete on most amps, it generally sounds good with most amps

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maybe yes but its cool they have this much synergy together

S I picked these up this week along with the th900mk2s, powered by Topping D and A 90 stack, prior to these I had the dt1990 pros with a smsl ad18 powering them, the 1990s are an amazing gaming head set and every review I read people always said the hd800s is even better when it goes to sound stage and imagine.

Bubbles, Yosi Horikawa, sound stage is there but doesn’t seem as wide as compared to the th900mk? People in this thread have mentioned that the A90 may limit the sound stage, I’m not sure as it makes the th900mk2 sing like nothing I have ever heard.

Now imaging is a whole different ballpark
Letter, Yosi Horikawa, hd800s win here, this was the first impressive thing with them so far, listening to the pencil work its way across the page and pin pointing that movement was impressing I’ll give it that, I also found that dark side of the moon seems to sounds pretty damn good with these as well.

I purchased them for gaming and have had a small chance to test them with, the game with the best sound track something I knew would test them would be Doom 2016 and I have to admit it was worth the purchase for that alone so far for the testing I have done.

Still early days as yet, but I like them

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I’ve only briefly heard the 800s of the gear you mention, but it sounds like maybe you found a good pairing for the th900, which apparently can be pretty amp picky. Thanks for sharing initial impressions!

I put on the HD800S for the first time in a couple weeks and I was blown away all over again lol. The Tuba with EI EL84 tubes is really great with these. For me, the treble go from somewhat fatiguing to almost perfect. If anyone is looking for good tube amp pairing it’s something to consider. Though take this with a grain of salt since I never I had the chance to try other tube amps.

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I’ve got a pair of these coming tomorrow with Dekoni Elite Hybrid pads. Very curious about the soundstage.

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I’ve been enjoying these today. I thought that these would mainly be about the soundstage for me - and it’s very broad and that’s lovely if you like that sort of thing. Compared to the Arya it’s definitely a bit broader, but it doesn’t have the height that the Arya has. The Arya is like a sphere of sound around your head, or even a large egg - A sound egg - whereas the HD800S is like a rugby ball. They trade blows in this regard.

Bass, to me, is not anaemic or lacking. It’s not as strong as other headphones, but it seems like this headphone is about surgical accuracy at all times, and the bass is in no way over-emphasised. Nor do I find this to be an overly bright headphone - there’s massive amounts of detail in the treble but I don’t find that the treble is forward in such a way that I find fatiguing. These seem lovely. I’m going to try gaming with them next as that’s a big reason for the purchase.

Probably worth noting that I was so keen to use the Dekoni pads that I didn’t actually try the stock pads at all.

I’ve also already had two moments where I thought the headphone was distorting in some way, before cross-referencing the same song with a different headphone only to realise that the HD800S was showing me a bit of detail that was only ever in the background before, but now could be clearly made out.

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I am 90% there - almost about to purchase them. Yet i keep reading that they do terrible with Rap/Hip-Hop, and the sound-stage isn’t very good for gaming wise (FPS). Any truth to this?

I could see this esp depending on the amp, they might be way too lean in the bass and impact department to be fun, also might be too harsh and aggressive in the treble which can lead to an unpleasant listen with less than ideal recordings. You can offset this with a nicer tube amp to add more body and impact into the bass, and tone down the treble, but if your main genre is rap or hiphop, imo there might be better headphones more suited for that genre

Lol I typically hear the opposite, the 800s does have pretty great imaging and staging (albeit exaggerated), it’s something you can def get used to

I see, makes sense. I was hoping to not buy another amplifier especially since i just bought another one recently which i didn’t need. I was hoping to pair the HD800S with the SMSL SP200 amplifier. Do you think this will be a good fit?

Personally no, imo that would be very bright and brittle sounding, honestly really not something I would recommend with an 800s, also would handicap the spatial recreation of the 800s which isn’t desirable

I don’t know if i find it bright, i like it with a few other headphones such as the DT1990. It sounds insanely clean and neutral. If it’s a bad pair up - what other non tube amps would you recommend? I personally do not like tubes.

If you are ok with it and the 1990, you might be fine with the 800s on there, but personally I find the sp200 not neutral and more analytical leaning with a more oversharpened and overprominent treble response, also tends to lack in soundstage width and depth too much for me to call it neutral. But if you have no issues with the 1990 on the sp200 the 800s might be fine for you

If you were looking for an alternative amp, what budget would you be thinking?

Analytical would be more what i was aiming for as well, i find it does a great job at that. With the 1990’s i find i can wear them for hours on end with the amplifier and be fine and don’t find it fatiguing. I do also have an NFB 11.28 which i could try the HD800’s on and see if it’s any better since the sound does seem more warm and colored in a way.

If i had to buy one i don’t think I’d want to spend over $700 (less is better). I’ll then have three amplifiers laying around.

Amen to that all though I’d say ā€œinsanely clean and detailedā€ :+1:

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