I was driving home from my dad with my electric scooter. I was tired and unfocused on the road. My thought were wandering towards my pair of Sennheiser HD820 and how confusing that headphone is. Another HD700? Another headphone with confusing traits. Then i tipped over and crashed. Not a good omen. I’m sitting here with two broken ribs and bruised knees feeling sorry for my selves. Listening to good music is therapy and I’m trying sit here without moving or breathing to heavy. Im going to stay in the awesome dimension only music could send me into. The Sennheiser HD820 is firmly planted on my head..
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HD800
HD800 is the headphone that started my journey for real. I didn’t know that music could sound as good from a headphone! I used to own both the HD600 and HD700, reading reviews of HD800 over and over again. It was ten thousand kroner witch is about thousand dollars. That was an awfully large lump of money for headphones back in 2012. The HD800 was launched in January 2009, and many expected it being a tweak of the HD600/650. They where so completely wrong. Everything about the HD800 was new! Suddenly a new flagship with 56mm ring radiator drivers angled at your ears. Everything about the HD800 was different. The sense of room and stage was redefined and the resolution of the HD800 is still second to none. It was, it IS a truly impressive piece of equipment! Musicians and engineers still use them as reference earphones. The resolution and soundstage of the HD800 is very good for finding faults in the mix and subtle details in the recording. But first and foremost the HD800 is used by audiophiles that wants to hear everything the rig can give, and it only grows with the equipment it is given. We have tried many headphone amplifiers to match this headphone. Some amplifiers sounds anemic on it, making it a little challenging to match right. The HD800 is known for it’s treble peaks from 6 – 10khz. Some people will find it unbearable for the long haul and modding them was a relief for many people. I have had old pairs of HD800 sounding more treble focused and analytical than later models. We think that Sennheiser did some silent revisions of HD800 late 2012 / early 2013 to make the treble a little more bearable for people. I remember Tyll Hertsens of late Innerfidelity calling them ¨ Soul less¨ Still it was hanging on the wall of fame until the HD800S was launched the first of february 2016. I reviewed them for the Norwegian Stereo+ – magazine and I enjoyed them like the world had got a new champion. But after a couple of weeks i started to leave the HD800s in it’s box and went for the original. I didn’t even notice at first. Sound can be a mather of habit and i got thousand of hours on the original. But the fact is i think the HD800 with S on the end is a dulled down lazy version of the original. The ¨ it¨ that the original had was gone and the new model was still kind of bright with better base. Better in the sense of being fuller, but no cigar for being as correct in my ears. The acoustic absorbers in HD800S should ideally tune down the peaks around 6 – 7 kHz and boost the bass. The rest should be unchanged. They also doubled the price vs the original. After thought and consideration i ended up selling my new and fairly unused HD800S and never looked back. That said. I have owned five pairs of HD800. One time having two pairs. One for the living room and one for the bedside rig. But i always ending up selling them and wanting them back. It’s a love and hate relationship! Im considering buying one more original because I’m scared of living without one. Am I insane or just truly into my hobby? The HD800 is one of the best headphones made to date and are instant classics that deserve space at every headphone collection. That’s my opinion anyway and the discussion has been on since 2009.
HD820
As mentioned, i didn’t like the HD800S. So when the HD820 came along in the summer of 2018 for even more money, I was eager but hesitant. Sennheiser have worked on it since the first prototype in 2012. Have Sennheiser invented the gunpowder one more time? Is Axell Grell popping out of the factory with the worlds best closed headphone? I know Sennheiser is capable and the creation was stunning to look at. Deep drawn Gorilla glass and that futuristic lens shaped drivers is gorgeous. In fact it is a lens. The gorilla glass reflects the sound waves into absorbers, that makes it insanely complicated to get right. It uses the same headband as all the HD800 – series headphones. Even aftermarket pads for the HD800 will not fit the HD820. Besides the drivers and headband it’s a whole different headphone. They are closed back so in theory they should block the sound from outside sources and visa versa.
Build Quality
Absolutely superb build quality. The stickers behind the drivers are pealing off. That’s no dealbreaker to me. Feels and looks solid. Yep, solid..
Comfort & Fit
The comfort is truly top notch and they disappears on my head. Plenty of room for big ears. The headphones only weighs in at only 360 grams with Gorillaglass and all. The clamping force is pretty much perfect on my relatively small head. But there is a problem to get a good seal on them. The pads is a little too small to close the gap beside my temples. The springs that pushes the cups to my head should have been a little stronger, but I’m not sure that would have fixed the problem. Maybe the clamping force should have been stronger or a combination of all. I sort of gets a good fit pushing the headphone backwards so the gap beside my temples tightens. I will explore this with different earpads in the future. Closed headphones without seal is pretty useless and we will pick up that topic further down the review.
Sound
The most important thing is sound. It’s not like we are putting on all those weird creations just to look stupid! I must admit that wearing these looks better than Jacklin Floats or AKG K1000 on the bus. I’m talking my selves away from the fact that the sound of the HD820 is pretty interesting. They have big problems besides the fact that they are one of the best closed headphones i have had the pleasure to hear. Compared to Dan Clark Ether Flow C they have better bass and the Soundstage and Imaging is better. The Ether Flow C sounds more diffuse. Im able to trace every instrument on it’s own, like the HD800. The bass is generally extended, but can get a little boomy at times and not as articulated as rivals. But the bass is better then HD800S by far in my opinion. I think they nailed the top end now, for sure and it reminds me of IE800S in many ways. They both lack the dynamics that Sony MDR Z1R have. But compared to the Z1R there is room and I’m able to place every instrument paned in the mix. The Imaging is not as brilliant as the open HD800, but damn good none the less . The peaks with sibilance on it’s siblings is gone. All this is Amazing for a closed headphone! It’s so good i often think about getting home to crank up the volume but it does not have traits that make them exceptional like the ESLab ES-R10 i reviewed some days ago. There is no ¨ IT¨ factor here.
This is a difficult review because i like this headphone, i really do, but we have to discuss a few major problems:
Problem 1. Midrange
It’s like they tried to seal off the bass from the midrange with a huge dip starting at 150hz and this suck a lot of vocals into the back. Making them sound strange, like they are pulled back in the mix while getting overrun by the music. This will naturally only happen in some tunes but are damn annoying. Sennheiser is known to have nailed their midrange since the time of the original walkman. The HD700 was a strange headphone as well, with a lot of peaks in the treble that made them useless to me in the end. I sold them after a few months. The trouble with midrange on the HD820 is not too bad compared to the mess of the HD700. It left me with listening fatigue pretty fast and left me with small signs of tinnitus. Im happy that is gone now. To get the midrange right is more important than having obviously extended bass presentation. It feels like this is done on purpose.
Problem 2. Closed VS Open headphone
The hybrid thing is not an option. HD820 is sort of a hybrid. First of all people buy a closed headphone to use on the go or to not get annoyed or being annoying. There is no other reason. The HD820 is like a leak bucket and you can hear every last note of my guilty pleasure music if you sit beside me and that is a problem for closed headphones. Even worse for me is the fact that i got three kids, the wife and a dog. If i decide to use my closed headphone, it’s because I don’t want to be bothered by noise from the outside. Im not talking about one of the kids screaming like crazy because he is tired after kindergarten. Half of the town hears him and no closed back in the world can withstand that noise. But i have a heat pump in my listening room. If I’m doing critical listening i turn it to silent mode. But that should not be an issue with closed headphones. EsLab ES-R10, Dan Clark Ether flow C, Beyerdynamic T5 and a bunch of others can do that. When constructing a closed headphone that should be a priority.
Conclusion
I like the 820! I really do! But i can’t recommend it because of it’s price/performance ratio. The price in Norway is currently 2126.- USD and i would rather go for the HD800S for less money, or would I? To other people i would recommend doing it. Me, my selves and I would get a used Original HD800 and a good amp to match it. But the truth is that I have used the HD820 a lot since i got it and it will get a lot of head time, even if it really doesn’t deserve it. The extended bass with big stage and accurate imaging plus the right resolution on top makes this for a fun headphone that will stay in my collection. We have been waiting for the HD900 for a good while now. Maybe it’s time to let the worlds best dynamic driver alone and start from scratch?. Enough tweaking around..
Check out the Sennheiser HD820 on Amazon here and the HD800S here.
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