Sennheiser's new headphones debut at CES 2009

[JackBurton]

Sennheiser has come out with their new audiophile headphones. They look really nice, but we'll have to wait and see how they perform. Good timing too, because I'm looking for a nice set of headphones. Steep price tag though.

Sennheiser HD 800


Wow, a VERY glowing review already in.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Hmm, with this and the Ultrasone Edition 8, it seems like headphone manufacturers don't think they'll be hurt on the high end by the recession. I'd be curious about what type of quantities they're expecting to push.

My only real issue is that it looks like its unfinished, it looks like a prototype product. I think it is the headband, just seems like it should be covered. Wow, the wires enter far in the back, that seems kinda to be a bit awkward placement.

 

[Kaido]

Saw those on Gizmodo, they look like something Ironman invented :laugh:

$1400 isn't bad for high-end stuff. Go price out some Stax Omega II's sometime

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
Wow, a VERY glowing review already in.

This is from Jude, an admin over at Head-Fi:

Let me cut to the chase: This could be it. The Sennheiser HD800 could be it. Early impressions tell me I'm listening to one of the best headphones I've ever heard.

:shocked:

I have no doubt in my mind that the Sennheiser HD 800 is, beyond any shadow of a doubt (even this early on) one of the finest dynamic headphones I've ever heard. And I am quite confident in saying that Sennheiser's new HD800 is (yes, again, even this early on) one of the best headphones I've heard of any type, period.

Where do I sign up?? haha

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Where do I sign up?? haha

Right next to the X after you fork over $1400.

 

[Baked]

$1400! That's ridiculous. *hugs his mint condition HD650 w/ recabled silver wires*

Man, those elists bastards at Head-Fi calls all the high price stuff "best thing since slice bread." The HD800 is gonna be the new FOTM for people w/ disposable income at Head-Fi when it goes retail. What else is new?

 

[EGGO]

I don't think this will bring the price down of the HD650. Which is a good thing because I just got it and I'd be mad at myself.

I think the design is too ugly like it's a gamer headphone. That's about it.

 

[coldmeat]

Those are so ugly.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: EGGO
I don't think this will bring the price down of the HD650. Which is a good thing because I just got it and I'd be mad at myself.

I think the design is too ugly like it's a gamer headphone. That's about it.

It will open up a bigger used market for the 650 for those reselling to upgrade though.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: Baked
$1400! That's ridiculous. *hugs his mint condition HD650 w/ recabled silver wires*

Man, those elists bastards at Head-Fi calls all the high price stuff "best thing since slice bread." The HD800 is gonna be the new FOTM for people w/ disposable income at Head-Fi when it goes retail. What else is new?

:thumbsup: Though hugs his Denon D2000 headphones.

 

[ivan2]

Kudos to Senn for making something that sound so good but looking so ugly...

 

[alfa147x]

i want a pair, anyone ever buy used headphones?

 

[Ika]

man those things would probably look good on Darth Vader's head... probably not so on a regular human's. Guess they skipped over the 700s, too... oh well.

In any case, I'm always wary of initial reviews due to the FOTM factor, and in this case, the "omg Sennheiser finally released an upgrade!" factor...

that said, I'd love to hear a set... but I doubt I'd ever get a chance to.

 

[mikeford]

Its not like $1400 is all you spend, high end headphones demand the best in the rest of the chain.

Still when you can't get space or isolation for full range speakers, headphones make a cheap taste of the good life.

 

[smb]

Originally posted by: coldmeat
Those are so ugly.

agreed.


As mentioned. if your buying $1400.00 headphones, you are defintiely not going to get the best out of them running them off a soundcard. people buying these are running them off of quality gear.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
i want a pair, anyone ever buy used headphones?

Nothing but.

What it sounds like they've built is a coaxial transducer with a ring-radiator tweeter. Most headphones just go kaput above 10khz - this one should have no problem.

The ring radiator is an interesting idea - if I'm not mistaken, the lowest frequency they can produce is not quite so closely tied to the size of the transducer as it is in many of the planar designs, which means that you can get the treble extension of an electrostatic transducer without the annoying excursion limitations.

If you look outside of headphones, ring-radiators are nothing new. Tymphany introduced the first - the Vifa XT25 - a good five or six years ago, with even better ScanSpeak ring radiators following shortly. These are some of the best tweeters money can buy, bar none. Hi-Vi even makes a triaxial speaker called the "trinity" with a a cone midrange around a ring-radiator tweeter around a planar supertweeter, though it's not considered to be particularly good in terms of sound quality or value (which is not surprising considering that hi-vi has made no prior ring radiators).

That said, I don't really like headphones that much, and the current set of speakers I'm (slowly) bodging together should be much, much better, if only because I don't have the same design limitations - for example, I can use concrete and split output between three drivers, and they can't.

It's a shame, though, that there's so little innovation in the headphone market. Beyerdynamic, for example, has been selling pretty much the same lineup of headphones with minimal changes for years and years. While there are many small companies offering a wide variety of unusual headphones, these are usually botique items sold in small volumes at high prices, and build quality is often poor.

Hopefully, Logitech (which owns Ultimate Ears) will pump some money into a novel full-size headphone design as well. I'd quite like to see a new air-motion-transformer based headphone, preferably priced below $300 so I can actually afford it.

 

[0roo0roo]

you dont need innovation when things rather opaque for customers. lets you keep nice high prices based on brand reputation and lack of competition. seriously i wonder how much those actually cost to make.

 

[EGGO]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
you dont need innovation when things rather opaque for customers. lets you keep nice high prices based on brand reputation and lack of competition. seriously i wonder how much those actually cost to make.

Keeping out of cable discussion threads when it comes to headphones may be best.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
you dont need innovation when things rather opaque for customers. lets you keep nice high prices based on brand reputation and lack of competition. seriously i wonder how much those actually cost to make.

I doubt they will be selling them in great volume. The R&D costs have to be spread among the few buyers and this is where most of the overall price comes from. The cost of the parts is probably but a small fraction of the price.

Any esoteric product will follow this trend.

As the quality increases linearly, the price increases exponentially as the volume sold decreases exponentially.

There is competition from the 'audiophile' headphone manufacturers in that price range. While it isn't as much competition as you would see in the 5-100$ range, it is enough competition for the people who would be interested in these high-priced products.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
you dont need innovation when things rather opaque for customers. lets you keep nice high prices based on brand reputation and lack of competition. seriously i wonder how much those actually cost to make.

Not that much - maybe $100/pair? However, engineering the new technology must have cost a fortune. Sennheiser has done this sort of thing before with (now discontinued) electrostatic headphones, though I wouldn't be surprised if the new transducer research was put to use in less expensive headphones.

Also, if you read any of the information with the headphones, you might not that they've made a lot of innovations. You were just too lazy to read about them. These measure flat to within +/-3dB from 14khz to 20khz - that's pretty impressive.

There's also a surprising amount of competition. Stax, Ergo, Denon, and a few other companies all make headphones that cost more than $1,000. This might seem like a lot for headphones, but please consider that $1,000 on automotive upgrades won't even get you a replacement exhaust system.