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Author Topic: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots  (Read 18060 times)

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Marvey

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Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« on: May 30, 2012, 10:12:39 PM »
Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots

Subjective pre-measurement observations:
More bass and thicker sounding than HD800. Probably more 2nd order distortion. 6kHz peak similar to HD800 but more nasty (sharper from top to bottom and also of greater magnitude.) Midrange is recessed. Treble sounds completely wrong. Timbre of high-hats and percussion are wrong. Snares and related percussion don't hurt as much as the prototype, but still not easy on the ears. Tonality makes me dizzy and nauseous - I lasted 2 minutes. Overall technical capability is between HD650 and HD800 - really not bad in this sense. It's lack of neutrality, mainly the recessed mids, and 6kHz peak completely kill this headphone for me. Nothing, including classical music sounds right, because the overtones are presented totally unnaturally.



Compared to HD558 (in red)


Compared to HD800 (in red)


With the exception of the 5-6k ridge, ringing appears to be well controlled in the treble. The ringing centering at 5.5k and peak at 11k could almost qualify for the double penetrating ridges of death. I'll throw up a few full spectrum non-linear distortion tests.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2012, 10:32:33 PM by purrin »
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Marvey

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2012, 10:36:23 PM »
More comparisons:



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Questhate

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2012, 10:37:22 PM »
Sparkly!
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ujamerstand

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2012, 10:38:40 PM »
So they fixed nothing?
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Marvey

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2012, 11:07:32 PM »
Nope. I was just imagining that they fixed things.
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Marvey

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2012, 11:15:35 PM »
Decent distortion figures.

The HD700 bass distortion is not impressive by today's standards. The HD800 and especially LCD3 bass distortion numbers are better. This is obvious via listening.

Note figures below are with tones at approximately 80db. Not really trying to push it too hard. Excuse the extremely noisy environment.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2012, 11:20:52 PM by purrin »
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Marvey

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2012, 11:16:04 PM »
Bass distortion figures are no better than HP1000, which were OK. They are effectively the same - see comparison graphs below. We can't even tell them apart.


The reason the HD700 sounds bassier than the HD800 despite having a similar FR in the bass is because it has more 2nd order distortion. For example, a 40Hz tone is going to be augmented with another 80Hz which wasn't there in the first place. Note that the HP1000 also exhibits this behavior. This is why the HD700 bass sounds fuller, but not as tight as the HD800's.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2012, 11:25:51 PM by purrin »
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Marvey

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2012, 11:22:15 PM »
reserved
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maverickronin

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2012, 11:34:45 PM »
So if the HD800 is a weaponized face tweeter then what is the HD700?
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LFF

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Re: Sennheiser HD700 Frequency Response and CSD Waterfall Plots
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2012, 12:22:32 AM »
Very sad to see these results. Senn is old and established headphone company. It saddens me to see that they are putting out such rubbish at $1,000.00! Sad indeed.
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