O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.
That’s playboy-turned-religious Augustine talking, and he speaks for many of us. In my case I would replace "pure" with "thrifty." I am not thrifty, but I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to become so. Like Charles Foster Kane, I use money to buy things. This is not to imply that I am imprudent in my spending; in fact, I live on considerably less than my means, an essential ingredient in my overall recipe for happiness. Nothing bugs me more than having to think about money. As long as I keep my sights well below the threshhold of my budget, I’m not likely to spend myself into the poorhouse; I’m inherently careful along those lines.
Nevertheless, I’m not one to let fiscal sobriety stand in my way when I hear the seductive siren call of a new gadget. Generally speaking those tech gizmos that are in my future select themselves for purchase, as it were: they call out to me, like so many adorable SPCA kittens or impudent Polk Street hookers. Take me home with you, they smirk. You know you want me, big boy. Why not have what you want? I’m right here and just oh so willing.
I’m as human as the next guy and as such I can be had for a bit of pleading. Out comes the credit card and off I go with the object of my desire—a new laptop computer, a snazzy USB microphone, a cool wireless keyboard/mouse combo, a media server, an audiophile-grade DAC and headphone amplifier. Back we go to my place, to strip off the shrink-wrap, open ‘er up, fondle and frolic into the wee hours.
When I started hearing about Sennheiser HD 800 headphones I was intrigued. Oh, what the hell: I was instantly inflamed with lust. I had a pair of Senn 600s for years and adored them. Eventually they died the true death and I decided to go with a pair of Grado RS-1 cans for my high-end listening. I’ve enjoyed the Grados immensely, but all the same I’ve missed the cushy plush plumminess of those Senns. And the Grados just aren’t very comfortable, doggone it: they sit right on your ear instead of wrapping around, and because they don’t have much of a grip on the head, they flop around all too easily. (Not good when using cans while playing my digital piano.) But I couldn’t justify buying Senn 650s—then the top of the line—given that I had just dropped $700 on the Grados.
But Senn 800s? Well, that would be a different matter, wouldn’t it? The 800s share nothing in common with the earlier models, but have been redesigned from the ground up, hand-made in the German factory, and are priced at a sobering $1400. That sends them zooming towards the neighborhood of Stax models—but at least according to preliminary reports, they perform at least as well, if not better. And they are Sennheisers, meaning wonderfully comfortable, luxuriously engineered and executed, and profoundly musical.
As I said, gadgets select themselves, and obviously a pair of Sennheiser HD 800s had been peeping out my name from the moment of their birth on a workbench in Germany. Amazon, that ever-discreet adoption-agency-cum-pimp was at hand to make all the necessary arrangements, and there we are.
So? Are Senn 800s nirvana in a can? I admit that even the $700 I dropped on the Grados is an appalling amount of money to pay for a headphone, but $1400 plus shipping? Can any headphone be that good?
In a word, yes. The 800s are indeed the finest headphones I’ve ever experienced—and in addition to the Senn 600s and Grado RS-1, I’ve owned a pair of Stax Lambda electrostats, and auditioned Grado RS-1000s very carefully. I’m a bit of a headphone whore, in fact; cans are often my preferred mode of listening. Despite my extremely public persona as a teacher and symphony lecturer, I’m a guy who treasures the peace of his personal monastery. Great headphones aren’t really a luxury for me; I’ve been seeking a private sonic grail since adolescence.
This just might be it. Utterly musical—by which I mean unforced and natural across the spectrum. No blare to the treble, no jarring thump to the bass, no telephone-speaker smoosh to the midrange. Wide, multi-dimensional soundstage. Crystal clarity and almost unbelievably fast response. And they’re wonderfully comfortable, despite being enormous black & silver contraptions that make me look like a cyborg Princess Leia Organa. I can wear them for long periods without fatigue, and they don’t jiggle around, either. Well, they can’t slide around much because they more or less envelop my head.
Like all fine equipment, they are merciless about exposing the shortcomings of inferior material. Nor are they meant to be plugged into an iPod; I drive them with a Benchmark DAC1 headphone amp, matching tit for tat in audio sophistication. But they will get what they can out of any source; certainly even ill-made recordings have never been given a better chance to make a case for themselves.
And fine recordings? Well…
Money can buy happiness, even if in small, impermanent doses. Sennheiser HD 800s: audio truth in two cans.
Sennheiser HD 800 headphones: incomparable