Reviews
A musicians perspective
"Maybe you also get tired of so called experts telling you how such and such equipment finally allows one to hear music as it was intended to sound. . . ? But who, except the original artist or perhaps producer, could ever possibly know that? Well I have been programming synthesizers and playing guitar for 4 decades, and I have wondered that long what my stuff would sound like on "better" gear. But I always only hear it original, not recorded, not compressed, and with gear like Yamaha FS1R, Eventide Eclipse etc, I have a purity of sound few understand. Nothing ever gets added to my sound that I need to deal with, I can hear and feel my fingers slide across the wound strings and know every pulse of the bass analog synth sounds I use, and they have sounded different on every single combination of gear over 4 decades of listening. And now I know. With my Sennheiser HDV-820 dac/amp and these HD-800S headphones, I hear accurately every aspect of what I am playing. No exaggerated bass? Excellent! If I wanted thump, I would add thump. I want musicality and nothing I have ever heard at any price gives me the accurate transparency of this combo. I can finally stop looking and start recording, Thanks Sennheiser,"
— robert g. (5/5)
Great headphones!
"Great headphones!"
— william H. (5/5)
Very good sounding with tubes
"I am enjoying a lot my new hps. The HD800S sounds quite good, but you do need a tube amp, otherwise the magic will be missed. HeadAmp in my opinion is the best place to shop, the best prices always. Justin is a great guy. Thanks."
— Jair O. (4/5)
Sennheiser HD 800 S Headphones
"Have you ever heard God sing? Sennheiser HD 800 S headphones are as close as you are going to come. These headphones are fantastic!"
— Gene T. (5/5)
A Must Try If Not Must Own
"I've tried the HD 800 S twice prior my purchase a couple years back. One at a local audio store and one at CanJam. After trialing it, I knew it was the flagship for me - as my preferred FR is diffuse-field-esque with soundstage and comfort being a big factors in my headphone preference. I bought the HD 800 S half a month prior to the review, as I was waiting for the RME ADI-2/4 PRO SE to arrive. Two things I've noticed when trying were, one, the soundstage wasn't as wide as I remembered, and, two, there's a lot more sub-bass than I remembered as well. Despite the former, the HD 800 S still reign as the widest sounding headphones - it just might be getting used to how wide speakers are. For the latter, they weren't at all bassy - but they provide a nice impact on the sub-bass despite being a relatively bright neutral headphone. Build wise, they are what you expected from Sennheiser - high quality plastic with design intended for ease of repair (well kind of). I tried pad-rolling it with the Yaxi Pad for the HD 800/S, but the earpads are a pain to both remove and put on again. The proprietary connector is also a big pain to remove due to how tight they are. Comfort wise they are feather light, have a very light clamp, and have large earpads for any shaped and sized ears. On my head, I can wear indefinitely which I cannot say for my HD 6XX. My only contention with earpad is the pinch of the hair if you don't open them up before taking them off. Sound wise, they are a detail and soundstage monster. Soundstage has a lot of width and depth, with a mild height; imaging is also very refined - you can pinpoint where a sound is coming from if a track is well recorded mastered. Their frequency response leans toward bright neutral. Bass is light and sub-bass is rolled-off, but if a track has sub-bass, you can definitely feel it. The mids are overall neutral and no where as intimate sounding as the HD 6XX. Treble is accentuated with a big peak at roughly 5.5 kHZ to 6 kHZ ish. They were definitely a bit fatiguing after the first 30 minutes of listening but no longer after 2 hours once I got used to it. The HD 800 S is unforgiving in their ability to reveal minute details in recording - distortion, artifact, the sound of throat swallowing - they reveal all of it. In short, they're a comfortable decently-built detail and soundstage monster - since I got them, I haven't listened to my stereo setup. Where they shine is in good recording and in the following genres - classical, jazz, kayōkyoku, city pop, power metal, symphonic metal, and symphonic / orchestral tracks."
— L.D. (5/5)
Great Headphones
"I always knew that the HD800s was going to be what I wanted in headphones but they are even better than I imagined. I started with HD660s then onto Audeze lcd's then Focal Clears . All are good headphones but they still lacked the soundstage and clarity I was searching for. I got the HD800S and they blew me away. They put you in the room with all the musical performances. I was concerned about not enough bass but not true for me. I absolutely love them. If you're looking for tonal purity with a huge soundstage search no more."
— Ronald L. (5/5)
Best buy for a state of the art sound
"Everyone is aware of the fact that for any type of product, one reaches the point of diminishing returns after a certain level of excellence is achieved. I feel this is the case with this particular headphone, and that Sennheiser has in good faith produced a headphone which has such detail and musicality, it is profoundly superior to mid fi headphones, yet only perhaps microscopically inferior to the world's most expensive planar and electrostatic headphones. I say this as an owner of several vastly more expensive headphones and as a frequent attendant of hi-fi expos and thus demo-ing many over the top expensive high end systems. Sennheiser has achieved the "sweet spot" between price and performance for this product, and the fact that the HD 800 and HD 800S have been around for so long and are so popular and well reviewed attest to this. Actually, I cannot say I enjoy listening to my more expensive systems more than I enjoy listening to the HD 800S, as any design has engineering tradeoffs regardless of expense. The 800S is a tour de force of engineering know how and practicality. I highly recommend this headphone, especially to critical listeners of unamplified acoustic music."
— LeRoy A. (5/5)
HD800s very good headphone，
"HD800s has a large sound field，three-frequency balance, more details, and high definition. It is indeed Sennheiser’s flagship headphone, and it can play its powerful charm even more with a high-quality tube headphone amplifier, The sound is beautiful and well worth it, and I would also like to commend headamp.com for the service, fast delivery"
— wen D. (5/5)
Good headphone
"good sound detail, bass is fine not too weak nor strong sound neutral . The high frequency sound a little bright to my ears but acceptable. i may try with the dedicate headphone amp on order later. I don't understand how people describe sound stage on any headphone. I can hear the sound stage on my main system (McIntosh Set/Dunlavy speakers) and (Carry 300B/ Coincident speakers) with pin point position of each instruments/singer(s) holographically right in front of me. This is not physically posible with this headphone. (I run this 800s with Mcintosh C2700). so I can't comment about sound stage. Pro: as good as it can get for the headphone more or less. Con: top head heavy, the belt put too much pressures on the top of my head"
— W. P. (5/5)
Legendary soundstage
"This review is for the newer, made in Ireland version of the HD800s, which supposedly slightly improves the bass response. I have not heard the original for comparison, but these headphones sound great out of the box. They do initially appear to lean towards being treble-heavy for anyone who is not used to flat or neutral listening. EQ will solve this, if you (like everyone else) automatically cranks whatever sort of bass boost or "loudness" button is on your system. Make no mistake, the HD800s have no problem producing the low end if you boost it. What these headphones do offer that can't be added after the fact is an amazing stereo field and a great build quality. There are no tweaks for your soundstage or construction, and these phones give you some of the best of both at a comparatively lower entry price into the hifi arena. My chain is a Technics SL-G700 cd/dac into a Quicksilver headphone amp (tube). The HD800s sound razor sharp (in a good way) even just out of the internal headphone amp of of the Technics, but the Quicksilver adds some nice overall warmth, holographic depth in instrument separation, and noticeable slam into the kick drum."
— Jacob R. (5/5)
