Senheiser HD800 Amp/DAC suggestions

S

Slade

2[H]4U
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Jun 9, 2004
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I have rescued a few pairs of these headphones from the garbage fate and now am in need of suggestions on how to take advantage of these headphones.

After sifting through head-fi and some other audiophile forums, I'm no closer to finding a affordable amp/dac combo or 1 piece that fits within the [H] budget and sounds good. Also a lot of the posters there come off as elitist jerks which make our AMD/nvidia rivalry look tame.

So any of you have these cans and are running them off affordable hardware and still sounds good? I've mostly been served well by my AKG k141 studio + Audioengine D1 for gaming and easy listening needs and want to really hear why the HD800 commands its price.
 
Guitar Center has a used XDUOO TA-03 for $179.


Why the hell were these heading for the trash?! How many did you get? You selling extras?
 
I use the schiit Mjolnir 2 with mine, but I admit I overpaid for that. In retrospect I'd try the schiit Jotunheim since it has balanced outputs as well. There are also some massdrop options with balanced dacs that are cheaper too.

I have a preference for balanced systems with these, but that's really to just make up for the cans shortcomings I suppose.

Best of luck!
 
I was thinking of going the Massdrop route. Looks like I'll try out the LCX first and go from there. Previous users of these headphones abused them, cables were falling apart. They wanted new headphones and picked Bose noise cancelling.

As for how this came about, boss was going to toss the two away since our users didn't want them. I said I'd take them. So I fixed the cables for myself and another coworker and we're both in this bind because I've gone with simple entry level stuff for my gear since I'm a gamer first rather than some audiophile.
 
Slade said:
I was thinking of going the Massdrop route. Looks like I'll try out the LCX first and go from there. Previous users of these headphones abused them, cables were falling apart. They wanted new headphones and picked Bose noise cancelling.

As for how this came about, boss was going to toss the two away since our users didn't want them. I said I'd take them. So I fixed the cables for myself and another coworker and we're both in this bind because I've gone with simple entry level stuff for my gear since I'm a gamer first rather than some audiophile.
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So how much are you looking to get out of these home repaired cans?
 
Slade said:
I was thinking of going the Massdrop route. Looks like I'll try out the LCX first and go from there. Previous users of these headphones abused them, cables were falling apart. They wanted new headphones and picked Bose noise cancelling.

As for how this came about, boss was going to toss the two away since our users didn't want them. I said I'd take them. So I fixed the cables for myself and another coworker and we're both in this bind because I've gone with simple entry level stuff for my gear since I'm a gamer first rather than some audiophile.
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Wow. Boss doesn’t know what they are worth eh?

Easily $600-$800 used on eBay.
 
Something cheap? Get an Objective 2 with integrated DAC and be done with it.
 
I thought about the O2 DAC, but heard it was just ok for the HD800. Aside from the cables, you'd think these headphones were barely a few months old. I washed the pads, fixed the cables and both worked great. Just right time and right place to get some gems from the trash pile.
 
I could build something like that. I'm actually partial to a good tube sound. I usually work with even smaller circuitry; lightsaber boards based of arduino designs.
 
I ended up picking up a ifi Micro SE Amp. I got to sample it in person and got it on sale for 25% off of retail price. Before I pulled the trigger I looked it up and saw it had a very good synergy with the HD800. I have to say the reviews are right.

This combo really softens the hit of the 6k hz brightness spike of the hd800. I kept sampling it on my Sony amp, my d1 and the ifi micro and I could listen all night with the ifi amp whereas the other 2 amps would make my ears bleed for anything longer than 5 minutes.
 
Slade said:
I ended up picking up a ifi Micro SE Amp. I got to sample it in person and got it on sale for 25% off of retail price. Before I pulled the trigger I looked it up and saw it had a very good synergy with the HD800. I have to say the reviews are right.

This combo really softens the hit of the 6k hz brightness spike of the hd800. I kept sampling it on my Sony amp, my d1 and the ifi micro and I could listen all night with the ifi amp whereas the other 2 amps would make my ears bleed for anything longer than 5 minutes.
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Ears bleed with the HD800?

Nope...
 
I use the Chord Hugo 2 and also Mojo and Poly with my HD800S.

Amazing sound.

Spike problem at 6khz is gone in the 800S.

Sound stage is |.................| big, really does sound like you are listening to speakers instead of headphones.

Astounding.


Slade said:
https://assets.sennheiser.com/global-downloads/file/6582/HD800_HD800S_Manual_01_2016_EN.pdf

You can see in the frequency response graph that the original HD800 has this spike at 6k. The hd800s which replaced the hd800 has been modified to reduce this significantly. Bad amp pairings with the HD800 really really highlight that 6khz spike. Depending on the song, this can be very very harsh to listen to and causes listening fatigue very quickly.
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Hugo 2 XPHD - fatigue gone.

XPHD its like a slight delay or something, example, with it off, you can hear sound going back and forth between each ear, but xphd on and you can select how much xphd you want or none at all, with it on, it kinda eliminates it and does it GOOD.

It’s so good, most of my listening is done with it on to some degree, I only turn it off when I get new albums from linux distros on usenet and then pump to Hugo 2 via roon to see just how bad the album was produced.

Once I find out just how bad todays albums are recorded, I get my score, write it down in a book, e.g name and score 1-10, 10 being total fucking shit, and then turn on xphd again to get back to normal.

< 44.1khz - 768khz and Native 512 dsd, “native”, not dop.

Really nice on H2 and Roon, my goto nowadays, jriver used to be my goto but it got too buggy n shit and wanting cash every year for buggy shit, bugs the shit out of me.

Chord Mojo, brilliant little thing for a 4-500 bux, 399 uk, can be had cheaper, its a little pocket rocket.

Can drive the hd800, but big bro better at it but 2k uk
 
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Nenu said:
Bottlehead Mainline Valve amp kit or a cheaper model.
A bit of DIY and you get the last headphone amp you wiil buy.
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What do you mean? Rewire the headphones to conduct mains current to your ears or what? :D
 
I found a store with Schitt equipment I could demo with the HD800. Can't say I was impressed with the Schitt gear. My perspective was the gear was "bright" and with the HD800, bright + bright just was too much.
 
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