[Beagle]

Everyone who has heard it.

Who probably like too much bass? Who would also find Stax bass light? Second one sounds like he hasn't a clue. Anyway, It's all subjective.

 

[YesThisIs]

I do love Sennheiser and all they do. But early impressions are quite worrying... I have prepared my wallet to buy this to keep my HD800S and HDV820 some company. But if it is bass light and overall the soundstage has been reduced, i have no reason to buy this.

"It looks good" might be a little bit of an reason. But not 2400€ worth..

Lets see what they can do with the tuning. However, people should keep in mind, that "reference" headphones shouldn't be bass heavy at all.

 

[Zapp_Fan]

Not having read anyone else's impressions, here's my hot take from CES (got a good ~10 minute demo in at the show on Friday).

Detail and imaging are pretty fantastic for a closed-back. Subjectively, I guess 95%+ (how much imaging is 5%? I don't know. They're not far off.) as good as the 800/s. On a head-to-head with the 800s, (they had sets running on the same amp to make comparisons quite easy) the 820 does have a bit of a different tone in the midrange, maybe a little more nasal or closed up, which I guess I chalk up to it, you know, being closed-back. To put it another way, I think most experienced listeners could pass a pepsi challenge between the two.

Otherwise to my ear the 820 is pretty neutral across the board. Dynamics are great as you'd expect from any can in this price range, but as always you'll need a decent source / amp for that to shine. I think it would be fair to say that the 800 and 820 are quite similar, but the 820 is definitely not identical to the 800, they sound like a family but not like twins.

IMO In the loud environment of the show floor, the 820 was a lot more pleasant to listen to than the 800s, (i.e. I could actually hear them) so the benefit of the 820 is pretty clear. On the other hand, do I think the 820 is worth the extra cash if blocking background noise isn't an issue for you? Not really. In an extended listening session in a quiet environment I might be able to pick out some more advantages of the 820, (no way in hell I could properly judge e.g. distortion with so much background noise) but in a sub-optimal testing situation they came off as having pretty similar performance.

I consider this quite an achievement, to be clear (making a closed-back sound like a world-class open back is pretty wild when you think about it) but I would consider the 820 more for situations where an open-back is not an option, not as a straight upgrade from the 800 / 800s.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Who probably like too much bass? Who would also find Stax bass light? Second one sounds like he hasn't a clue. Anyway, It's all subjective.

Stop the presses folks! I agree with Beagle here, lol!

 

[Beagle]

What! I'm just saying it might be just right as it is now. I don't want potential voicing changes being made because of a short two minute audition by three people. Listen to it for three weeks then report back that there's no bass.

 

[Zapp_Fan]

What! I'm just saying it might be just right as it is now. I don't want potential voicing changes being made because of a short two minute audition by three people. Listen to it for three weeks then report back that there's no bass.

FWIW my impression of the bass was that it was pretty darn flat, (like flat-flat) rather than emphasized, and that on certain tracks, you might think it was bass-light. Also, if they were listening at the show, the background noise tends to mask anything below 1Khz pretty badly, which doesn't help. Most of the demo content they had out didn't necessarily have much bass either (old Bowie, Beatles) which, even in the best case, makes it harder to judge.

I listened to some more bass-heavy material through them (from my phone, bleh) and didn't notice any roll-off that would indicate sub-par performance, but it's fair to say there's no particular bass emphasis either.

I'll caveat my own impressions here too - it was pretty loud there (e.g. the Earthquake booth where they were showing off various subwoofers at high volume was like 50 feet away, lol) and I wouldn't advise anyone to spend or not spend $2400 based on me listening for 10 minutes in a loud event hall.

 

[Beagle]

@Zapp_Fan Thanks, I noticed your post after the fact, and it appears to make sense and sounds reasonable, given the less than ideal conditions at the show.

It's also been my experience that the headphones I ended up enjoying the most in the long term were the ones that didn't sound amazing on first listen.

All I've been hoping for (since i first got wind of this upcoming model) is basic HD800 sound but with a smoother, less spiky top end in a closed concept. I was hoping for similar price but what are ya gonna do...

 

[Swiftfalcon]

So then, Tyll has made first impressions



"Bass Light": many hearts broken

Well Mr Hertsen loves his bass hahaa.

 

[Mark Up]

Tyll prefers warmer cans with really good but not overdone sub bass extension which I find agrees with how I hear headphones most of the time. He said the Oppo PM3 were bass light, when I'd hear people raving about bass quantity and when I heard them, he was correct. A shame as they are great otherwise. There is hope they can change the HD820 tuning, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Who probably like too much bass? Who would also find Stax bass light? Second one sounds like he hasn't a clue. Anyway, It's all subjective.

That’s such a true phenomenon when listening to new headphones and becoming emotional about some lower frequency character, just to go home and become bored with the signature in two weeks simply because too many mids are covered up.

I would love nothing more than to be able to get a flagship Sennheiser with a slightly warmer character than the HD800 series. And yes, this product is an early conceptual model, though the story is it’s been in the works for a while.

Remember too, even if everyone said the HD820 was wonderful and perfect, we would generate the same amount of posts. Lol.

Cheers!

 

[Rowethren]

I wouldn't really say that Tyll likes bassy headphones... The Focal Clears for example have replaced almost everything on his WoF and they have very neutral bass IMO present but not overbearing or underdone. If he says they don't have enough bass then that does definitely worry me.

Edit: Especially as I generally prefer more bass than him as well

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I wouldn't really say that Tyll likes bassy headphones... The Focal Clears for example have replaced almost everything on his WoF and they have very neutral bass IMO present but not overbearing or underdone. If he says they don't have enough bass then that does definitely worry me.

Not bassy, but he has said numerous times that he prefers a warm sound signature.

 

[Rowethren]

Well honestly I wouldn't say what he likes is really warm, just neutral and how much bass they should have as apposed to the HD800 which doesn't sound like a real performance to me as the bass isn't there.

When I see live music one of the things that gets me is how visceral and energetic the bass is and what is generally considered neutral by people on this site just doesn't cut it and that isn't a subjective thing, live performances I have been to all have more bass than what is considered neutral here and that is a fact. Surely the goal of a headphone is to recreate the music and if it doesn't sound like a live performance surely it failed?

For reference most of the music I listen to is either folk or metal or somewhere in between.

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Well honestly I wouldn't say what he likes is really warm, just neutral and how much bass they should have as apposed to the HD800 which doesn't sound like a real performance to me as the bass isn't there.

When I see live music one of the things that gets me is how visceral and energetic the bass is and what is generally considered neutral by people on this site just doesn't cut it and that isn't a subjective thing, live performances I have been to all have more bass than what is considered neutral here and that is a fact. Surely the goal of a headphone is to recreate the music and if it doesn't sound like a live performance surely it failed?

For reference most of the music I listen to is either folk or metal or somewhere in between.

I don’t disagree. I also prefer warm bass and consider what those call neutral here to be bass shy. But I was just quoting what Tyll has said about himself and his preferences.

 

[Beagle]

Well honestly I wouldn't say what he likes is really warm, just neutral and how much bass they should have as apposed to the HD800 which doesn't sound like a real performance to me as the bass isn't there.

Tyll's initial reaction to the original HD800?

"Wicked bass response!"

Now, that could have meant anything. I'm thinking it meant that it could reach down into the low end of the spectrum, as opposed to "huge bass".