Sennheiser HD800S measurements (unsanctionned)

Discussion in 'Audio Science' started by sorrodje, Dec 26, 2015.

  1. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    Here we go...

    - Remember I'm still a n00b in measurements. so take that with the usual caution.
    - I posted my measurements rig in the dedicated post.
    - That's raw measurements without any compensation.
    - Do not compare this with other measurements.




    HD800S FR Left and Right


    HD800S_FR_Left and Right.jpg

    HD800S FR compared to HD800 Stock, modded*. I give HD600 FR as benchmark

    HD800 vs HD800mod vs HD800S vs HD600_FR.jpg

    *my HD800 was modded with a ring of felt/foam around the driver and some rugliner over the Grey Mesh.

    HD800S Waterfall Plot
    HD800S_CSD_Waterfall_plot.jpg

    HD800 Waterfall Plot for comparison

    HD800_CSD_Waterfall_plot.jpg

    HD800S Spectrogram
    HD800S Spectrogram.jpg

    HD800 Spectrogram for comparison
    HD800 Spectrogram.jpg

    HD800S distorsion.
    HD800S_distorsion.jpg
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2015
  2. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    My HD800 and HD800S ;)

    IMG_1469.JPG
    Paint is a tiny bit different from the colorware Matte black. Colorware letters are white, HD800S letters are more light grey. Small differences. Dunno for the quality and the durability of this paint though. Time will tell.

    IMG_1452.JPG

    IMG_1450.JPG

    HD800S has new serials. The headband is still engraved "HD800" though . Mine is #493 . My HD800 is #17003.
    IMG_1457.JPG

    IMG_1459.JPG

    The famous resonator :
    IMG_1463.JPG

    Looks and feels like a soft foam with a hole in the middle. soft dense closed cell foam ? will give dimension later . at the bottom of the hole it's closed by a cloth ( acoustic cloth ? )

    IMG_1464.JPG
    HD800 :

    IMG_1467.JPG

    Subjective impressions and some thoughts later.
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2015
  3. Judeus

    Judeus Facebook Friend

    Banned
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    202
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Location:
    summit-fi purgatory
    damn, that is a nice improvement
     
  4. Rotijon

    Rotijon Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    261
    Trophy Points:
    63
    That 6khz bump is nicely reduced, bass seems similar.
     
  5. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2015
    Likes Received:
    4,495
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    42°S
    Yes, the treble has been tamed but the bass seems identical. Can changes to one segment of the FR affect perception of another to any extent? I will be interested to hear you subjective impressions @sorrodje.
     
  6. chakku

    chakku Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2015
    Likes Received:
    676
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NZ
    The 6khz bump has been reduced a bit and there looks to be a tiny bit of added upper midrange and air on either side of that bump as well.

    Interested to see a few more measurements just to see how consistent the peak is addressed here.
     
  7. Klasse

    Klasse Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    117
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Very interesting! Thanks!
     
  8. Dr. Higgs

    Dr. Higgs Boson - Member

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2015
    Likes Received:
    781
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Roswell, GA
    Thank you very much for taking these measurements Sorrodje, impressive to see that they've tamed the treble to HD600 levels. Looking forward to your impressions!
     
  9. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    The HD 600 doesn't have a -10 db dip at 4khzand then a +10 db jump up to 6khz though.
     
  10. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    4,801
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Yeah, at stock, the HD800 has up to 16dB difference between 4KHz and 6KHz. The HD800S seems to have tamed this behavior down to a more agreeable... 10dB or so.

    It's great to see Sennheiser could do this. However, I still suspect the HD800S won't sound like an HD600, since HD600 has quite a few more things going for it other than just FR.
     
  11. Lurker

    Lurker Facebook Friend

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2015
    Likes Received:
    132
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Imho these measurements are pretty useless when comparing two completely different headphones.
     
  12. TMRaven

    TMRaven Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    621
    Trophy Points:
    93
    HD600 has a little too much presence centered around 2-4khz for me, I prefer the gradual depression of the HD800. I mostly listen to instrumental stuff though, so I can see people who listen to lots of rock and/or vocals would prefer a healthy amount of upper midrange.

    Looks like the resonator did its job, it lopped off a good 4db at 6khz. That will be very noticeable.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2015
  13. Arnaud

    Arnaud Facebook Friend

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2015
    Likes Received:
    177
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Location:
    Tokyo
    Thanks Sorrodje, very interesting!
     
  14. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    The HD 600 is a little messed up with strings including guitars. The HD 650 is noticeably better. The HD 800 is unlistenable stock with rock and metal. The S might be but who knows.
     
  15. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    - Updated waterfall plots to let see better the Z scale
    - Added Spectrogram which is another way to visualize differences for decay/ringings.

    Let me know if you want some other views with different settings or more precision about the data.
     
  16. Rotijon

    Rotijon Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    261
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Hmm, The headband and grills seem very different.
     
  17. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    Pics added.

    If you want early impressions out of the box of people who are enough confident in those "out of the box" impressions , ask at Head-fi. The HD800S is maybe one of the most awaited headphone of early 2016 and I learned than most readers read early impressions and forget to follow carefully how those impressions evolve with time. So I much prefer to give impressions when they're settled and once for all.

    The only points on which I can be affirmative are :

    - It's still a HD800
    - it's not the HD850 eveybody seem to rave about. If you want your fix of lushness and forgiveness , go elsewhere . The HD650 is still a wonderful headphone.
    - the 6khz glare and the tendency to exacerbate sibilances is mostly fixed.

    Points I need to evaluate :

    - Is the HD800S better than the stock HD800 to my ears ?
    - Is the HD800S better than the modded HD800 ?
    - Ok the 6khz is mostly fixed but all experimented HD800 owners know that this peak is only a part of the problem. my mods (measured by me and a friend) did not fix the 6 khz peak BUT improved the overall result. The measured change was mostly some warmth added from 300 to 1khz by 1 or 2 db. so the last question is :

    - What about applying the mod in the HD800S ? ;)
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2015
  18. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    NO. Same grills , same headband, same pads , apparently (slightly different color so I wonder if they worked on the pororsity of this material? ) same grey mesh .

    The only obvious change I can detect is the resonator.
     
  19. n3rdling

    n3rdling Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2015
    Likes Received:
    929
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Los Angeles
    That looks really easy to DIY. Combine this with some of the normal HD800 mods to give it a little more warmth and this could be a winner.
     
  20. TMRaven

    TMRaven Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    621
    Trophy Points:
    93
    If we were to find the exact type of foam and the exact dimensions, someone with the right machinery could puke them out fastly and accurately. I'd pay for one, but I wonder if Sennheiser would allow someone to do that.
     

Share This Page