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The Sennheiser HD 800 ($1499)
I had the good fortune of a factory visit to Sennheiser's campus in Wennebostel, Germany sometime in 2005--four years before the HD 800 made its appearance at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, the HD 800 was already heavily under development. We'll never know, of course, but I reckon these headphones have more R&D hours invested in them than any other on the planet. The engineers at Sennheiser were given a "clean slate" to develop the world's best dynamic headphone. At the time of my visit,…

Sound Quality
Brutally honest sums it up. Some might use words like "analytical" and "detailed," but those words typically point towards some fault of the headphones being overly bright. I'm not entirely sure this is the case. Because these headphones create a sense of space and image so incredibly well, I tend to believe they've got to be delivering a very coherent and well balanced signal. No headphone, in my experience, sounds as much like a scientific audio instrument as the HD 800. If you are an audio professional an have an application where using an open headphone is possible,…

Editor's Note - A quick reminder here for headphone DIYers: The time is very short for you to send cans in for measurement to enter the contest. Read full details here. The only difference now, relative to that first post, is that it has been opened up to all DIY headphones, not just ortho builders. I will be announcing contest winners on InnerFidelity's anniversary---April 1st.

BUT! I want all the U.S. headphone DIYers to know that my lab door is always open to you for on-going measurements. I didn't do this for the…

"HAKAMICHIS" ( Semi-open 120 ohm SFI )
Dig the funky style! And they say the new HD700 looks like Star Wars.... Nakamichi HP-100 Monitors, FTW!

These were originally purchased due to extreme unobtainium/rarity, and as a NOS (new, old stock) pair unused. Haven't seen this exact pair since, except a similar thrashed ITT 400 ohm pair with identical build I managed to grab. ( 2 dead drivers on that, too. ). To my dismay, these Nakamichis had a dead driver out of the box. Got about 20 seconds of use before the one side kicked out forever.

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS OF FINAL…

"LOOP" ( Open 32 ohm SFI )
These were originally picked up for a possible project due to a dead stock driver. I didn't think they were worthy because of their lightish construction, but got bored one night. Start to finish approximately 5-6 hours.

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS OF FINAL BUILD ( 2 trials total this being the second and final one, phew )
These could possibly pass for an off-the-shelf pair these days if you didn't look too close.

Shell is the Pioneer "Loop" SE-MJ31V. Mesh is scavenged from a torn apart plug-in baseboard heater. The larger baffles from some…

REALISTIC PRO 30's ( Semi-closed 32 ohm SFI style stock driver OEM'd by AudioTechnica )
Went in for the mod on these because the original sound was too untamed and, well honestly, I can't remember now what it was like other than it was not to my liking. These are completely stock except for internal damping materials. Original stock sound impressions can be found at WIKIPHONIA. Sent Waulta an identical mod kit; he may or may not get to it for comparison.

MOD DETAILS ( Around 15 or so trials )
I used a large donut of 3-layer Acoustifoam around the outside of the cup edge to…

email dialog between Tyll and Kojaku

Hey Tyll,

I know you really hate Grados, but I have finally finished modding my cans and would like to know if you'd be willing to take a look at their measurements and give them a listen. They're Sr225i that have been placed into mahogany cups, recabled with 26 AWG Solid Core Cryo Silver, and then pad modded with a sock mod that is actually pretty popular but I'm pretty sure you haven't listened to yet. Let me know how I can send them your way if you'd be willing to do the measurements and listen to them.

Best Regards,…

Killing Classics
You know what I hate? Companies that change products just to have something new to tout. "New!" is such a powerful word. It's better than "Sex" for consumers, PR people, manufacturers, and, yes, journalists ... even I salivate at the thought of "new" headphones from someone like Sennheiser. (Sex is better in private, of course, but problematic to sell.)

For example, a couple of years ago Denon had a great little headphone in the AH-D1001, but they decided they needed something NEW!, so they discontinued…

Stored Energy
Stretch a rubberband between your forefinger and thumb; with your other hand pull the rubberband like it was a slingshot; then let go. Sproing! It vibrates like a guitar string for a bit, and eventually stops. When you pulled the rubberband back, you were storing energy in it; when you let it go, it released the energy with a bunch of vibration before going back to its stable state.

In a headphone, the diaphragm makes acoustic energy, which radiates off the front of the diaphragm for you to hear. But the rear of the diaphragm also radiates energy and, in a…

AKG Headphones
AKG has a very long history manufacturing headphones, and was a leading force in headphone design back in the '70s. Here's a cool article about some old AKG headphones I got to play with. The K240 series of headphones were very popular in recording studios in the '70s and '80s, and AKG has continued to develop headphone models, and has a significant roll in the world of headphones world wide.

The thing is, I think AKG lost its way regarding headphones for the last little while. The early '90s were tough…