I received my new headphones and headphone amp a couple weeks ago so I figured I would do a short review.
The Sennheiser HD800's are the current top-end Senn audiophile headphone offering.
System:
Asus ASUS Xonar Essence STX Soundcard
Blue Jeans Cable RCA cables
Woo Audio WA6 Single-ended Triode Class-A Tube Headphone Amplifier
Sennheiser HD800 Headphones
Entire system on sine-wave UPS with no other power "conditioning".
I plan to eventually go to a dedicated DAC rather than use the soundcard DAC, good though it actually is. I just can't make up my mind at this point as which DAC I will get. Currently leaning to Channel Islands.
I run this in my living room off a dedicated computer. My main comp is in my office. This is the set-up:
The monitor is mounted on an arm for convenience.
The components are simply on the end table:
The headphone amp, as already stated is a Woo Audio WA6 tube amplifier. Jack Woo works in the U.S. and hand builds every amp himself. The workmanship is simply outstanding. All internal wiring is point-to-point. No PCBs.
This amp had the premium component upgrade along with an upgrade of the main rectifier tube to a Sophia Princess Mesh Plate 274B.
The amp with all of the upgrades ran approximately $1400, so a decent mid-range price for an audiophile headphone amp.
No tubes:
With tubes:
Tubes hot:
As I already stated, the Sennheiser headphones are their current top offering. There are probably about a 100k posts on the things at head-fi by now so for additional thoughts I would recommend a trip to their forums. I find the HD800's to be unbelievably comfortable. I can wear them for hours at a time and not even notice they are on. They are not hot or tight on my head. The quality on the phones appears first-rate, though they have a bit of a "futuristic" look to them. They use a 1/4" plug and they are open headphones, meaning you can hear background noise and others can hear what you are listening to if you crank it.
The headphone cables are removable, so you can easily migrate to a balanced set-up should you want to.
Stock picture here to get an idea of size:
So how do they sound?
First, let me state I don't buy into a lot of the hocus pocus you read in reviews on audiophile equipment. With headphones especially, the listening experience can change drastically simply based on the fit of the phones to your ear and the shape of your ear canal. So what sounds good to me may be sub-standard to someone else.
The Woo tends to give everything a slightly warm sound, though it's certainly not "tubey" as similar amps may be. I prefer this. Some may not.
Probably the two most important things that define a set of headphones right away are soundstage and quality of the bass. In both of these areas, especially soundstage, the HD800's exceed expectations. Soundstage especially is quite good. The general consensus on head-fi and other review sites is that the HD800 is the current king of soundstage among headphones.
The bass is clear and packs punch without being over-powering. It's very transparent, giving whatever is in the music without embellishment. The same thing can be said for the mids and highs. The HD800's are above all transparent. They are in fact so transparent that a lot of music that sounds great in the car or on your computer or with a cheaper set of headphones is almost unlistenable with the Senns. Every detail, every nuance, every blemish is immediately apparent. This is one of the reasons I got the Woo tube amp. It takes the edge off this extreme clarity ever so slightly without negatively impacting sound quality when the music is up to the challenge.
I will follow up with more detailed discussions of specific songs and how they sound.
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Originally Posted by Kallenator
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