Comparing World-Class Headphones Sennheiser HD 800

Sennheiser HD 800 ($1499)

Description - Sennheiser's flagship dynamic headphone is a full-size open design, and uses a ring radiator driver to deliver a more planar wavefront to the ear.

Pink Noise - Very even sounding, but lacks a bit of heft in lowest two octaves, and has mild mid-treble emphasis (between "sss" to "ssh").

Bass Texture - Good texture and extension. Slightly "one note" sounding relative to the planar magnetic cans.

Bass Slam - Dynamics are good on these, but the slightly one-note sound and lack of bass extension has these falling a bit short relative to the planar magnetics.

Midrange - The amazingly good imaging of the HD 800 coupled with an excellent mid-range had these cans delivering a great sense of someone standing in front of me singing. But, like the HE-6, though to a lesser extent, the slightly accentuated treble left me feeling the voices were a bit withdrawn and lacking in organic body. Just a bit dry.

Treble - Though just slightly too elevated, the treble here is extraordinarily fast and coherent. All instruments have well integrated, though slightly emphasized, treble components. These sound nearly as speedy as the estats.

Dynamics - Clean, coherent, and articulate, these deliver excellent impact, without any confusion on complex music. But like the HE-6, only to a significantly lesser extent, the somewhat elevated treble makes them "revealing" at the expense of a comfy-cozy sound. Very precise.

Imaging - Here it is, the moment I've been waiting for, I consider the HD 800 the best imaging headphone in the world ... and not by a small margin. The 800s a simply unmatched in their ability to deliver both depth and pin-point localization of instruments. They are so coherent and nicely damped that it almost feels like you can reach out and touch the players. If only these cans didn't have a bit too much treble energy they'd be my desert island headphone, largely on the basis of being able to convincingly "take you there" with their extraordinary ability to deliver a convincing soundstage. The HD 800 is unmatched in this regard.

Measurements

Click on graphs image to download .pdf for closer inspection.

Long, slow curvature of the frequency response From mid-range into bass is typical of dynamic headphones, and these measure very well in this regard up to about 3kHz. If only the gentle rise of 5dB didn't happen between 4kHz and 10kHz I'd be one happy camper.

300Hz square wave is extraordinarily clean indicating spectacular control of the diaphragm. Had the first overshoot and undershoot been half the size, I would say this was a perfect result. To me this points towards the excellent coherence and spectacular imaging of these cans.

Impulse response is probably the best I've seen. The 300Hz square wave and impulse response of these headphones is clear evidence of the world-class engineering prowess of Sennheiser's design team.

Rise in the low frequencies of the THD+noise plot show the driver running out of oomph in the lows. Still, this is typical of dynamic headphones, and may be a limitation of this technology. Note the planar drivers of the estats and planar magnetic headphones succeed well here.

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