Sennheiser HD-800 Stereo Headphone Review by Dale Thorn
-------------------------------------------------------

The Sennheiser 800 is the best sounding headphone I've
heard, except for perhaps the Stax electrostatic
models. The clarity of the sound is impressive, and
compared to the HD600 and HD650, the 800 makes those
other two sound somewhat muffled by comparison. I use
the term clarity because other words don't seem
appropriate (i.e. "presence" is a term some reviewers
use to note an emphasized midrange, which the 800 does
not have as far as I can tell).

Bass goes down as far as my CD's go, and I haven't
noted any emphasis or dropouts in the bass. Highs are
more difficult to evaluate since they cover a very wide
range of tones and have such an overwhelming effect on
overall sound quality. Because of the 800's superior
clarity, many of the 128 to 192 kbit MP3's, and many of
the older CD's will be slightly irritating due to
harshness that has a variety of causes. The best
quality recordings will sound marvelous with the 800's,
and better equipment such as ultra-low-jitter DAC's
and headphone amps will "open up" the sound and provide
a more "you are there" experience.

The 800's will play at reasonable volume levels with
portable devices such as most cellphones, iPods and so
on, however, the cord is so bulky and heavy that you
wouldn't want to be walking around with all of that,
since it defeats the point of portability. On the other
hand, the comfort of the 800's is almost too good to
believe - after wearing them for an hour or so I put
the HD650's on my head and the differences were
dramatic - the 650 clamped my head much more than the
800, and the 800 seems to provide a lot more free room
around the ears than the 650. That spacious room around
the ears, and very light earcup pressure made me
suspect that it would have an adverse effect on the
bass, but not so.

I've had opportunity to compare the 800's to several
portable headphones including the new B&W P5, and to
summarize, there is just no comparison. I haven't had a
chance to compare to any other high-end 'phones
besides the HD650 and HD600, and after careful reading
of reviews in Stereophile, Absolute Sound, Sound on
Sound, and various Web reviews, I get the nagging
feeling that while most of these reviews put the 800's
at the top of their list, they aren't solidly committal
as to the 800's superiority in all of the qualities I
mentioned above.
So my summary would be: Don't expect the 800's to
improve the sound of all of your music sources, just
those that are free of irritating distortions. After
more than a year with the 800's, one fact has been
consistent with other headphones I've used -  the
equipment (aside from the headphones) makes much less
of a difference in the listening experience than the
recordings do.

The following are some of the music tracks I tested
with, and the main features I listened for with those
tracks:

Blues Project - Caress Me Baby (piercing guitar sound,
handled very well).
Cocteau Twins - Carolyn's Fingers (guitar string detail
and quality, excellent).
Commodores - Night Shift (bass detail, excellent).
Germs - Forming (raw garage sound, excellent).
Lick The Tins - Can't Help Falling In Love (tin
whistle, very clear and clean).
Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side (bass impact, good;
detail excellent).
REM - Radio Free Europe (drum impact, very good).
Rolling Stones - She's So Cold (bass impact and guitar
sound, good).
U2 - With Or Without You (bass boom/high-pitched
instruments/sibilants, handled well).
Van Morrison - Into The Mystic (bass, moderate).
Who - Bargain (voice trailing off: "best I ever had",
excellent vocal harmonics).