HD800 Journal: Part 1

What a long wait, but finally the HD800 is here. I’ve heard the HD800 at two other occassions, but nothing beats listening at home with your own personal set up.

This past week I’ve been contemplating an upgrade to my CEC CD5300 CD Player. The CD5300 is a great CD Player, and I really have nothing to complain about it, until I heard the higher end, top loading model TL51XZ. Even from the HD650, the improvement to the TL51XZ wasn’t modest. The top loader really have a massive depth in the soundstage, making the CD5300 sounds flat and two dimensional. The upgrade proved to be just in time for the arrival of the HD800.

As much as I love the balanced HD650 amped with the Beta22, I’ve always felt that there is something missing, and I felt that the balanced Beta22 still have a lot more to offer, and the HD650 being a big bottleneck to the music chain. I’ve been constantly bugging the local Sennheiser product manager, pushing him to speed up the delivery. I’m pretty sure he was going to start rejecting my calls, but good thing the HD800 arrived in time. After all, I already have a great source, a great amp, an even a balanced cable, all waiting for some ring-radiator driver love.

It would be proper to start the HD800 experience on a single ended amplifier, and so I resisted from unplugging the standard single ended cable and replacing it with the balanced APureSound cable. The set up was as follow: CEC TL51 XZ > Grace M902 > Sennheiser HD800. I tried to listen hard, cause at the same time my daughter is watching TV at the same room. Great, all this waiting, and when it finally arrived, you can’t listen to it properly!

Out of boredom from trying to listen to an open back phone with the TV playing fairly loud, I finally unplugged the Sennheiser HD800 from the Grace, went to my storeroom, picked up the balanced APureSound cable, and plugged it in to the Beta22. The TV’s still playing, but I can hear faintly that imaging has been greatly improved. Awesome.

It’s a nice saturday afternoon, and my daughter finally decided to take a nap. She’s still 9 months old after all. I think deep down she knows that her dad has been looking forward to receiving this headphone.

I started playing all the most complex songs in my CD library. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Beethoven’s Overtures, and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang. I cannot spot complex passages in these complex musical works. Has the HD800 erased those complex passages? The CEC TL51, Beta22, and HD800 so effortlessly plays all these big complex music like talking a walk in the park. Well I can’t give the credit solely to the HD800, cause the CEC TL51, the Beta22 in dual mono balanced configuration, the Transparent XLR interconnects, the APureSound HD800 cable, and even the Kimber PK10 power cable all contributes to this great sound. But for the first time in my history of owning these CDs, I can finally hear the music played so effortlessly. No congestion, no muddying in the sound, and like I said: the complex passages have been erased!

One of the issues that I was worried about the HD800 is the impact. The HD650 have one of the best bass impact out of all the dynamic headphones I know. And I was worried that I’m going to miss that impact on the HD800. Worry not, cause the HD800’s impact is just as strong as the HD650. What’s more the bass is lovely on the HD800. The bass has such a great clarity, control, resolution, it really puts the HD650 to shame. I’ve never heard bass notes as clearly defined as today, through the HD800. The overall presentation of the HD800 is laid back, but with more transparency and detail than the HD650, people certainly would not find it “veiled” as many complained the HD650 are. I personally never find the HD650 to be veiled in anyway, but I can see that the crowd who complains of the HD650 veil can accept the HD800 better.

There is nothing polished or boosted about the HD800. Your music better be well recorded, your source better be a good quality source, and your amplifier better deliver some clean power. But when everything on the chain is done right, it’s like the stars aligning themselves together, and music listening finally becomes perfect.

I had planned to do several portable amps review next week, but with the HD800 in the house, who really wants to do a portable amps review now? Gosh, we’ll see how next week turns out, as I plan to do a special photo shoot session for the HD800, as well as more impressions of the HD800 single ended on the Grace M902, and maybe a portable amp like the LISA 3.

This is going to be a fun several part journal. Keep in tune!

Update: Click here to read the 2nd part of the HD800 journal.