Torpedo

I said more than 200 since the pic of the unit at CES displayed a 2xx, but we can speculate they've already produced 300 or 500, who knows! My guess, and as such should be understood, considering Sennheiser's history, is that the first units will be available at more or less the same time everywhere and only from selected vendors. They take much care of their distributors and I'm sure they won't damage some of them for having others offering the product earlier. They know this product would create expectation and that there would be a peak demand at launch, so it will take place only when they're sure they can supply that initial demand. If that's higher than they expected, then the actual release will be later.

Theoretically you're absolutely right and there's no rational advantage in using a higher sampling rate. However you'd have to agree that having twice the points to reconstruct the analog signal should make it kind of "smoother" at any frequency in the audible range. That which is just an intuitive observation and which may be wrong, IME makes an audible difference, and I'm not a bat either. Maybe the maths used to reconstruct a 10KHz wave from 4 sampled points aren't as perfected as they are to reconstruct that same wave using 8 samples. In any case I insist that the bigger difference I noticed for making the digital recording closer to the vinyl used, was by increasing the bit depth more than the sampling rate, despite it was noticeable, IMO wasn't as evident.

And you didn't notice any difference from having recorded the very same signal at 16/44 than at 24/88? Surprising, that doesn't match my experience at all.

Just try it yourself man, there's a clear difference. Make your own recording from a pure analogue source and use different sample rates and bit depths, then listen with no downconversion.

I didn't mean otherwise. Just saying that when you are using as your source a standard RB shinny disc, any bit depth or higher sampling rate used during the recording stage, won't come back no matter how much upsampling and upconverting you use in the process of conversion to analog. OTOH if we had the chance to reproduce 24/88.1 files which were recorded originally that way directly, sound would be much better than RB, even if the DAC used isn't top notch. IMHO post processing of a 16/44.1 file can't do miracles, just "sound shaping".

I don't think these Germans have left anything to random. When the first units hit the street, I'm quite convinced they'll have the stock to supply their estimated demand. Otherwise if they have already produced more than 200 units, why not making them available right now when expectation is at its highest point?

Not just that. Try recording a vinyl or straight with a microphone into the computer or a decent pro recorder, using different sample rates and bit depths, and reproduce them in a good system from the own recording device to avoid conversion down to 16/44.1 IME more important than sampling rate is bit depth. Just 20/44.1 is a nice improvement over standard RB, and to my ears, the difference from RB to 24/44.1 is way more interesting and noticeable than going to 16/96. The problem I see on those upsampling and upconverting DACs is that they cannot invent information that's lacking, so they may be good to use filters off the audible range, but not sure that's really an interesting addition to the sound obtained using "normal" DACs

Did you know that in Argentina the "orto" is the asshole? I can't help smiling every time I read that "ortho" thing

I will listen for the third time today this little gem: Anne Sophie Mutter - Bach Violin concertos, Gubaidulina "in tempus presens" I attended a few weeks ago a recital of her performing the Brahms violin sonatas, with her regular accompanying pianist Lambert Orkins. I think this lady has learned how to play with a soul, and this disc is a prove of it.

You'd better use it, the mustache and also sun glasses. You won't like any significant other recognizing you.

BTW don't we have any mate in Germany who can assault Sennheiser's and send a few HD800s around?

More or less, but only after you've used them to rob a bank and we share the booty. I want a pic of you with the HD800, rubber nose and moustache on.

I'd like to order one, but the Spanish distributor still isn't accepting orders. I'd order them to Headroom, but I find quite silly paying shipping and customs for a product that being made in the EU shouldn't have those additional charges. However if I could get them sooner doing so... I'm definitely going nuts.

One of the amps he builds? OMG

Honestly, I for one I can't care less if this is a price ceiling or bottom. We have a product which has SOTA aspirations, and has a price point. This was the price the PS-1 sold new in Germany (more or less), it is a bit more expensive than GS-1000 in Europe, and a bit above competitors statement products prices. All gets reduced to know if the HD800 is a good value for its price, even if its performance is beyond the price compared to similarly priced products. What comes after... who knows. Maybe Senn releases another SOTA product in five years, or in six months AKG is releasing a USD2000 statement headphone. I don't think this should affect the true performance of the HD800 nor its perceived and real value. Maybe more people listen to the HD800 and come to agree that it's a big step into the right direction, but still can be improved. Would that mean it should cost less? I don't think so.

So that's the thing he bought with all the money harvested from his customers waiting for a product delivery Now I understand he has no cash for repairs and builds... Does anybody know if M has a bipolar disorder? Such behavior is truly suggesting.

Seal - Soul [2008]

You don't get perfect seal with the R10 for the quite low clamping pressure of the headband. For my head and ears, for other people this can be different, of course. New pads are thicker and place the driver about 1/4" further from the ear canal entrance than aged pads. That makes a difference in the subjectively perceived roll-off in the bass. On new pads I need to add manually some extra pressure to get a decent bass response. Without that extra pressure I think the roll-off starts at about 120Hz (for male vocal formants) and for sure is at about 10 or 15 dB below at 40Hz. With that extra pressure, so new pads get flatter and more like the used ones. In this case I think the roll off in bass starts at about 70-80dB and probably at 40Hz you are between -6 to -10dB. I'm not sure about the treble roll-off. My subjective impression is that the cans must have some enhancement around 8KHz compared to the high midrante at 1KHz. Above 12-15KHz they're probably rolled off, but nothing that annoys me. In fact I tend to prefer transducers with some roll-off above 12-15 KHz than the ones being flat or enhanced at those frequencies. I am very interested in correlating these findings with actual measurements, but looks like I'll have to wait for my technician friend having the spare time to do so

That's it, having some measurements under the scope of being comparable to other phones and being repeatable, is quite useful. Do you remember at what frequency started the treble and bass roll-off? Do you remember how much clamping pressure did you use between the can and the dummy ear? Did you perform several measurements at different clamping pressures? Apart from amplification, I've found that the bass light R10 change a lot their frequency response depending on placement and above all, the ear-driver distance. Their sound changes drastically between used pads and a set of new ones.

What I find most difficult in your case is determining if the bass issues are the only concern you eventually might wish to take care of. Were it the only point, therefore it's important knowing if those problems are just a matter of lack of power, room integration -which comprises speaker placement and room acoustic treatments-, damping factor, speakers' character, personal preference or even are related to specific recordings. I suppose the sensible way to face this is trying to measure your room-speakers' response, but that's difficult and needs some specific gear and skills. You might try to place the speakers in different places into your room to see if you can getter a more satisfying bass, than assessing if there are other issues in the sound which aren't of your liking. I'd try any of those before spending bucks blindly on new amplifiers, however I've gone that route before to learn things the hard expensive way So, were you to get an integrated amp to grab your speakers from their bottom, maybe a good and yet affordable recommendation would be getting a used Krell 300i or 300iL, even a 500i. Those aren't expensive nowadays and were that not the solution to your problems, they can be sold again easily without much loss. Maybe it's not a final solution, but you might learn a few things by trying it.

I can agree that Dreadhead's measurements may not be kosher and his measurements system is "clearly improvable", however, as far as he had measured a few phones and we could take his results under the scope of comparison terms to other well known phones, having cans measured won't harm. IMO if he posted his graphs of the R10 and we could compare them to his measurements of HD6xx, K701 and other popular phones, it'd be interesting to me so far.

I guess it was in Bilbao, I can't recall any Spanish city named Balboa... Interesting recording though

Nice toy Mike. Enjoy it!

I think the R10 measure far from flat, but for sure not in the same crappy way that those Phart-on do.