Sennheiser HD800S loaner program

How would this be that different then the lending library at The Cable Company?

 

Yeah, you're right.

I was thinking of separating the loaner into tours, so the 1st tour should impose that people spend less time (maybe 2-3 days for a quick demo?) so that it won't take an unreasonable amount of time to get everyone to listen to it. The idea is to simply get a 1st-taste, and I think about 2-3 days should be enough for that. After that, listeners would probably know what to expect/tweak for on the 2nd round, which can go longer, and can be decided with a raffle/vote.

I totally understand that this has implications on SBAF. So yeah, I agree that it should be taken off-site. I just hope that it's okay to discuss general stuffs about it here just for a public reference and all?

 

That's a valid point. I think I would prefer a SBFA shared cost loaner though:

1. I would know the history of the gear
2. It would be administered by people I trust
3. I would have the opportunity to buy the actual sample I heard once it had done the rounds
4. There is nothing like this in Australia that I know of

Not a refutation of what you said, just my preferences.

 

Someone here or elsewhere will probably get a pair on day 1 - and chances are they either already own, or have heard the original HD800. It might be a good idea to start hearing some opinions on these before even considering a loaner program for them - for reasons purrin mentioned as well as there could be such a minor difference with the sound between the HD800S and original HD800 stock that it wouldn't be worth it - not to mention how close we can make the mod(s) to sound to it. I think once we can take actual measurements of the HD800s and compare it to the stock HD800 and a modded version - it wouldn't be worth getting a loaner, especially with all of the liabilities, length of a tour etc. Trust me, I want to hear them as badly as anyone -but I think it is best to be practical. Just MHO.

 

Any chance of sending a HD800 (non S) on a tour then, so that those who haven't heard it know what people are talking about when they make comparisons? Has anyone actually heard a HD800S?