Submitted by Kryceck t3_znwm2q in headphones
Hi everyone.
I've had these bad boys for half a year now and I wanted to give my long term thoughts on the HD800 after 6 months of using them as my daily driver and I want to go over its faults, EQ, and its biggest strengths and what I think of them overall.
Build and comfort: These are solidly constructed all throughout with a pretty robust plastic material, not exactly sure what it is but it doesn't feel like it'll break easily at all. The comfort is just at the top of its class. Virtually just disappears on your head with very comfortable, albeit thin pads which contribute to their unique sound signature, and we'll get to that later. Also, hardly any clamp force, if any at all which is VERY much appreciated. All in all, world class in comfort out of the some few headphones I've tried like the LCD4z, Empyreans, HD58X, LCD-2C, LCD-3, Ananda, and HD700.
Bass: The bass is flat with a slight roll off in the subbass, though exceptionally well textured and detailed. The subbass is there, but it never reaches that level of "rumble" most people would want and it very much relies on the type of listener you are whether you like a flat response or if you're a basshead. It is more tuned to be an analytical and accurate representation of bass and it's not for everyone. EQ would definitely suffice for some who just want that extra "oomph" however.
Mids: This is some of the best midrange I've ever heard in a headphone, simply put. It's not forward to the level of the HD600 lineup, which can be a dealbreaker for some, but the tradeoff you get for a less forward midrange is the most lifelike timbre I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. The sheer resolution and room information it can extract is mindblowing.
Treble: This is easily the most controversial aspect and I think it has some of the most refined treble responses I've ever come across. The downside is that for people who are treble sensitive, it has *too* much treble to where it becomes sibilant and fatiguing. On some heavy EDM tracks, it becomes even too fatiguing for me and I can tolerate quite a lot of treble. However this brings me to my next point.
EQ: Using Oratory's EQ mostly resolves my love-hate relationship with the HD800's treble and I use it for tracks that are inherently bright like EDM especially and it's been a much smoother experience. I set it to default for other genres of music. It responds VERY well to EQ as well and it can easily make this someone's endgame if the stock tuning isn't to your liking.
Soundstaging and imaging: Not sure what else I can add here that hasn't been said a million times before. It's the widest soundstage I've ever heard besides probably the Ananda which isn't necessarily wide, just more so "grand" with a sense of height and scale that the HD800 doesn't quite do. The layering and depth is absolutely phenomal and for movie scores or orchestral/classical it ABSOLUTELY excels far beyond any other headphone on the market, I assume. Even withthe other flagships I've mentioned earlier, those simply don't hold a candle to what the HD800's soundstage is capable of. The imaging is scarily precise and it's so easy to pinpoint where sounds are coming from within the expansive soundstage it has.
Gaming: Yeah, yeah, you've heard it be hailed as the headphone to end all headphones for gaming thousands of times before. I'm just another person to reaffirm that claim. The room information you can extract in competitive FPS titles is sheerly in a league of its own. Playing Battlfield 1, oh boy let me tell you, that's an unforgettable experience, especially in operations. It just feels like you're placed in a live battlefield in a way I've never heard in any other headphone, not even my previous pair, the Ananda.
Conclusion: These have been my daily driver and my dream endgame for years and having the pleasure of owning them the past 6 months, I just can't see myself getting rid of them. They have some issues like anemic bass (not for me anyway, but for some they'll see it that way) or too much treble hotness, but EQ largely resolves those issues to where if you're willing to dabble in it, it's well worth buying IMO. Still a world class headphone all these years later and I don't think that'll change.
ultra_prescriptivist t1_j0joi7v wrote
This is pretty much bang on. I'm also quite treble sensitive so that 5K spike was the first thing to fix (I actually use oratory's fixed-EQ settings with just a touch less sub-bass) , but once that was done I could see why the HD800 are so well-regarded. Classical and Jazz are just sublime on them.
They're also some of the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn - they're just so damn ergonomic. Also, even though they're over 100g heavier than the HD6x0, they don't really feel like it due to how the weight is distributed.
The only downside, though, is that I often find that they are almost too resolving. So many albums in my collection are hard to listen to because the HD800 shine a spotlight on a bad recording like no-one's business. They're definitely a "serious listening" headphone for me. For that reason, I still generally default to my HD600 as my daily driver, simply because they do a pretty decent job with everything you throw at them and they're so great for casual listening.