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Senn HD700 Preview. $1000


Jon L

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http://www.headfonia.com/the-sennheiser-hd700-journal/

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Sennheiser HD 800 vs HD700 by drjlo1, on Flickr

Aside from any sonic competence it may or may not possess, I find it difficult to believe that any company, let alone a dominant multi-national corp like Sennheiser, is capable of coming up with such a Fugly design for a $1000 headphone.

Pricing HD800 now at $1500 and HD700 at $1000 is quite ludicrous, and while I will give HD700 a listen when available, for those who wish for "HD650 musicality with a little better technicals," I still recommend a used HD600, recabled with better cable and removing the veil with "foam mod" and using the money left over for a real amp.

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When Sennheiser introduced the HD800 three years ago, the resolution of its 58mm ring-radiator driver is mind blowing. However, there were two things about the HD800 that prevented it from getting public acceptance: First, it wasn’t voiced quite the right way (treble issues, bass issues, et cetera). Second, the competition from Beyerdynamic with the T1, Hifiman with the HE-6, and Audez’e with the LCD-2, were quite advanced with their own offerings. And for many people, they had a more “correct” voicing than the HD800 is. Especially the planar based drivers was winning a lot of fans around the world with their fast and accurate transients. Even though the planars don’t scale up as well as the HD800 on high-end set ups, it wasn’t relevant because the HD800 simply didn’t have the sound that they were looking for (and I agree, it was a hard headphone to enjoy).

I do not think a single sentence in that opening paragraph is grammatical.

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God damn is that annoying. I took the time to rewrite:

The Sennheiser HD 800 is highly-resolving, but lots of people think it's too bright and doesn't have enough fucking bass.

Nice review, Dinny. Short and sweet. The only thing I would add would be, "If you want to know if it's right for you, well then, I'd suggest that you give it a listen and decide for yourself."

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They give me an idea whether or not the listener/writer likes them. If I know what kind of sound the writer likes then I can make an assumption about how the headphones in question might sound. Sure, such an assumption is not necessarily correct but if I keep in mind the limitations of them, then I should be safe. I mean Headfonia is one of the rare review sites that still write unfavorable reviews. And from the conversations I've had with Mike he didn't strike me as a brown noser. Maybe this piece of text is too overenthusiastic but hell, if these phones sound that great then I can't blame him. Still he makes clear that this isn't conclusive and should be treated as such, if someone decides to ride the hype wagon because of this then... Too bad for them.

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They give me an idea whether or not the listener/writer likes them. If I know what kind of sound the writer likes then I can make an assumption about how the headphones in question might sound. Sure, such an assumption is not necessarily correct but if I keep in mind the limitations of them, then I should be safe. I mean Headfonia is one of the rare review sites that still write unfavorable reviews. And from the conversations I've had with Mike he didn't strike me as a brown noser. Maybe this piece of text is too overenthusiastic but hell, if these phones sound that great then I can't blame him. Still he makes clear that this isn't conclusive and should be treated as such, if someone decides to ride the hype wagon because of this then... Too bad for them.

Have you read his review of the Tera-Player?

He rivals Srajan in froth.

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He's indeed a bit too prolific sometimes, but I like the fact that while he may be too carried away sometimes, he seems to be honest and isn't afraid to speak out when he doesn't like something. This is increasingly rare, and as RudeWolf said, he's an exception.

Srajan, however... he writes about the moons and planets he was born under or something on his website. To me, that says a lot about what his reviews will be like.

Edited by Leonardo Drummond
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Srajan, however... he writes about the moons and planets he was born under or something on his website. To me, that says a lot about that his reviews will be like.

I read Six Moons long enough to get to the Acoustic System Resonator Review. Scroll down to the picture of a stupid tiny block of wood with some metal hanging out of it, sitting on the dash of his minivan. He also claims that the zen master who created the things placed them in his engine compartment and 'tuned' the car for better performance.

In a revisited review he went further, bringing the master into his home. He put them in the fridge and claimed some serious BS, and all over the house, taking it way beyond audio application. You are correct, dude who believes in his planet alignment isn't going to tell me much about sound.

Edited by NightWoundsTime
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I read Six Moons long enough to get to the Acoustic System Resonator Review. Scroll down to the picture of a stupid tiny block of wood with some metal hanging out of it, sitting on the dash of his minivan. He also claims that the zen master who created the things placed them in his engine compartment and 'tuned' the car for better performance.

In a revisited review he went further, bringing the master into his home. He put them in the fridge and claimed some serious BS, and all over the house, taking it way beyond audio application. You are correct, dude who believes in his planet alignment isn't going to tell me much about sound.

Oh dear... are you serious?

Has he ever heard about the placebo effect? It really amuses me to see how much confidence people put on their own senses. It's just madness.

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Wait a second, that article isn't a joke? Does anyone in their right mind pay 200-1200 Euros for little metal cups to place them around their rooms?

Oh, and what a coincidence that the rarer the material these are made of, the better they sound ;) Obviously platinum has much better resonance properties than gold or copper....hehe

Edited by monsieurguzel
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Wait a second, that article isn't a joke? Does anyone in their right mind pay 200-1200 Euros for little metal cups to place them around their rooms?

Oh, and what a coincidence that the rarer the material these are made of, the better they sound wink.png Obviously platinum has much better resonance properties than gold or copper....hehe

I actually sat in a room at an audio show where they tried to demo these acoustic resonators by removing a bunch of them and later resinstalling them. It's obviously difficult to comment on effects at show conditions, but would they work for headphone systems? Do you have to wear them as earrings inside the headphone cups?

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Mike is a good friend of mine in real life and we often organize little meets together. I do agree that he can be a bit too enthusiastic sometimes especially if the toys are new but I guess we are all susceptible to this... I can vouch that he means no harm though.

Anyway, I have heard his HD700 today and it's a pretty interesting piece. Overall it sounds like a watered-down HD800 but somehow images better and possesses a more realistic headstage than its older brother. Its treble is quite a mess though, with ringing and peaks in the upper midrange and lots of unwanted energy in the treble area. Holy shit, I don't know how Senn thought it's a good idea to make the HD700 sounds even brighter than the already bright HD800. Well... it's a pre-production version after all so things may change with the final revision.

I did point these out to Mike to tamper his enthusiasm so we will see how the final review goes.

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Tell him to write using grammar, not imagination. He conflicted himself in the review saying they were better than the HD800 in separate aspects. Then, in the summary, he says they are not better than the HD800. I don't know what to think.

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Wait a second, that article isn't a joke? Does anyone in their right mind pay 200-1200 Euros for little metal cups to place them around their rooms?

Oh, and what a coincidence that the rarer the material these are made of, the better they sound wink.png Obviously platinum has much better resonance properties than gold or copper....hehe

Didn't you know? Platinum has an electromagnetic wave radiation that directly interferes with the power-cables burn-in. It makes them immediately sound like they've run for 3.28 million hours, a sweet spot in burn-in time. That's why it's more expensive. laugh.png

I know of people who does. And yet worse facepalm.png BTW, who's this Mike at Headfonia? A long standing HF member?

I've never seen him on HF, but he seems to be well known in the community. I think that's because of the website, though.

Edited by Leonardo Drummond
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Wait a second, that article isn't a joke? Does anyone in their right mind pay 200-1200 Euros for little metal cups to place them around their rooms?

Oh, and what a coincidence that the rarer the material these are made of, the better they sound wink.png Obviously platinum has much better resonance properties than gold or copper....hehe

Yup, and this is probably a big part of why the LCD3 TP mod isn't a popular as it should be. "It's toilet paper, it can't sound good."

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