Sennheiser HD800s: Pure Sonic Perfection

I used to poke fun at people who would pay hundreds of dollars for a pair of headphones (Bose Triports; this was before Beats became huge). I feel like after having spent half my bonus on these things, I have forfeited that right. They have come.

This is how listening on the HD800s makes me feel.

The HD800s have been Sennheiser's flagship headphones since 2008, replacing the HD650s (previously reviewed here), and are branded as "the world's finest headphones". Though my extremely high expectations from wanting these headphones for years have probably colored my impressions, I'm inclined to agree with this assessment.

The HD800s are the result of Sennheiser basically telling its top engineers, "make the best-sounding headphones you possibly can, cost is no object". They have been designed for perfection from the ground up, bearing no resemblance to any of Sennheiser's lesser headphone lines (except the HD700, which came and is intentionally styled after them) or, indeed, any other headphone in existence. Sennheiser's design is normally sleek and ultramodern, but the HD800s can only be described as "futuristic". Though most of the design is plastic except for the driver housings and part of the band, they feel like the very opposite of cheap. Everything fits together precisely.

It's to be expected that a headphone this expensive should be extremely wearable (my biggest concern with the Audeze LCD-2), and this is definitely true of the HD800. The pads are not velour like I was expecting from the HD555 and HD650, but some kind of cushy foam (apparently microfiber fabric) that is extremely comfortable and provides a nice acoustic seal around the enormous earcups. They have the same split-pad design on the band as the HD650s, but much less caliper pressure. As a result, they are about as comfortable as the Audio Technica ATH-AD700s, feeling like a pillow on the head, but with less worry about them slipping down. (Though because of the low pressure they feel like they could slip forward or backward if I tilt my head) When I wear them, I don't want to take them off, even without any sound.

Unlike most headphones, the HD800s make little effort to hide the fact that they are basically small speaker cones positioned over your ears. The HD5x8 line has its "eargonomic acoustic refinement" reflector design to improve their imaging; the HD800s simply position the drivers farther away from the ears and at an angle so that sound enters the heads as naturally as if it were coming from the "real world". The result is by far the best, most lifelike imaging I've ever heard.

Speaking of drivers, the HD800s also reflect a truly unique driver design. Larger drivers produce better sound, especially at the low end, but they also allow for more harmonic distortion, especially in the middle which is allowed to oscillate freely. Sennheiser's solution was to give it a patented ring-shaped driver, which allows for much greater control of the driver surface and therefore allows the driver to be the biggest of any dynamic headphone, 56mm, with a frequency range of 8 Hz to 50 kHz.

So, with all of this precision German engineering, how do they sound? In a word: perfect. Contrary to my last review, I have mostly been preferring the HD650s for their overall balanced sound and strong low end, good for metal. But after hearing the HD800s, I could swear someone snuck into my apartment and replaced them with cheap knockoffs. The difference is barely tangible, but impossible to ignore.

The HD800s' frequency response is the most neutral and even I have ever heard (except possibly some electrostatics at a headphone meet). As the chart below shows, the HD650 has a bit of a bass "hump" around 100 Hz before dropping off at the extreme low end, and is also a bit lacking in treble performance (I was familiar with that; they didn't sound bright like the Beyerdynamic DT990s do). The HD800 evens out all of these discrepancies. No frequencies dominate or get left out; everything is perfectly balanced. The bass is strong and clear, but not overpowered; the treble "sparkles" but not to a distracting, sibilant degree like the DT990s; the mids, as expected from any Sennheiser headphones worth their salt, sound great.

And, of course, the transparency. The enormous ring-shaped transducers result in vanishingly low harmonic distortion. Switching between them and the HD650s, I could actually sense the "veil" that seemed to be in front of the latters' sound, fuzzing everything out almost imperceptibly. With the HD800s, that veil is gone. Of the sonic impurity that remains, I think more is due to the recording process (which was probably done with lesser headphones) than my amp. These headphones have no personality. You don't "hear" them; you only hear your music. And, of course, the other elements of your signal chain; I am planning to build a β22, a solid-state headphone amp renowned for its transparency, in the coming months as the perfect companion. Since I heard my first pair of "nice" headphones four years ago, my goal has been a sound system that just gets out of the way and puts no barriers between me and my music. In the HD800s, that goal has been realized. Worth it.