CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

  • December 31, 2015, 11:06:26 AM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5

Author Topic: Sennheiser HD700 impressions  (Read 9979 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

khaos

  • Powder Monkey
  • *
  • Brownie Points: +7/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 64
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2012, 02:06:52 AM »
Is this the peaky treble that can be tamed via careful application of EQ or is it the one that rings and rings and still rings more?
Logged

RexAeterna

  • Gigolo of Gigolos
  • Mate
  • Pirate
  • ****
  • Brownie Points: +355/-1
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1373
  • Friendship is magic
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2012, 03:40:32 AM »
when i saw the price of them i wanted to punch someone for some reason. i mean it's ridiculous for them to be priced that high. i know people disagreed with me, but i guess that's cause common sense soon cease to exist in this current generation. i had people tell me the price is justifiable ''if you can afford it.'' but has nothing to do if you can afford it or not. like i mention at head-fi, this is just as bad as when sony announced their PS3 system with release price of 600 bucks. they're out of their minds! but of course since it was the holidays and people have the ''i must have it. i must own it'' mentality companies will continue be able to sell at high prices.

thanks for the impressions also! after reading your impressions though, i want to punch sennheiser even more if they're that more peaky. seems you can't win in the high-end(or high-priced) world of headphones. one side is for the darkside and other side is for brightside of things. nothing in between. no level ground. Son, i am disappoint.


Quote from: victor25 on January 10, 2012, 08:43:29 PM
Oops was a bit too soon to reply, see you have EP sextet's measured. I have never heard the EP's, but I listen to my MP's all the time (should have a pair of LP's coming in tomorrow).

congrats! all i owned are LP's. mine is NOS but i fully redone it with new solder joints,cleaned it out and rewired it with 18awg speaker wire(i know thick, but only wire i had left over cause i was dumb opening them up so had to rewire then and there) and terminated a 4-pin XLR jack to it cause i drive it off of speaker outputs. the solder joints were bad so re-cabling did open them up a bit(not cable believer really. bad solder joints can cause issues).

let me know how the LP turns out for you cause there is crap load of different opinions and variations of the drivers(some had a reflective dome. some had different holes/ports behind the driver casing.different passive drivers,ect.). if all the info i gathered and experienced the LP should sound bit brighter than both the EP and MP. my LP's has a brightness to them with modern day stuff. i think cause the sextetts were designed around the analog era where speakers had flat treble and top-end(sextetts were measured in an anechoic chamber in a free-field form with flat frequency speakers) , and how speakers nowadays are design around ''modern highs'' to compensate for boosted top-end in modern,mainstream recordings. just a guess though.
Logged
''I'm a music lover. Not an audiophile.''

''The World is Study.''

''I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.''

''Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.''

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2012, 09:54:54 PM »
Quote from: khaos on January 11, 2012, 02:06:52 AM
Is this the peaky treble that can be tamed via careful application of EQ or is it the one that rings and rings and still rings more?

Let's say I know more about these than I would want to reveal at this time (what do you think usually happens when I get my grubby hands on a headphone?  :) ) EQ is great tool. EQ actually works very well on LCD3 and HD800. I hope this answers your question.

PM me to remind me again about this question when the product actually hits retail.
Logged

khaos

  • Powder Monkey
  • *
  • Brownie Points: +7/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 64
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #13 on: January 12, 2012, 01:22:53 AM »
Quote from: purrin on January 11, 2012, 09:54:54 PM
Quote from: khaos on January 11, 2012, 02:06:52 AM
Is this the peaky treble that can be tamed via careful application of EQ or is it the one that rings and rings and still rings more?

Let's say I know more about these than I would want to reveal at this time (what do you think usually happens when I get my grubby hands on a headphone?  :) ) EQ is great tool. EQ actually works very well on LCD3 and HD800. I hope this answers your question.

PM me to remind me again about this question when the product actually hits retail.

 ;) Reading between the lines and NDAs are so fun , I'll wait and see then.
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2012, 06:45:48 AM »
Regarding voicing of the HD700: on a whole, overall, the HD700 does sound a bit warmer compared to the the HD800 (with the "Anax mod" which shelves down the region above 5-6kHz about 3db.) So that's certainly a step forward. In fact, if the HD700 were smooth and peak free, it would have been almost perfect. I would say overall, the HD700 is about -5db down in the treble compared to the HD800. Also, there sounds like a recessed area in the mids (similar, but even more than that the HD800's) that would almost give the HD700 an overall laid back flavor if the treble weren't so peaky.

This is why LFF didn't think they were all that bad - his concern was with the pricing. As with me, I'm just cranky and very sensitive to narrow peaks in the frequency band from 5-12kHz. Many people are not so sensitive to such peaks. I do have to say that the HD700 I heard had such sharp peaks that I had never heard before on any Sennheiser including the HD558, HD600, HD650, and HD800 - with the exception of the HD25-i-x-q-z-p-11-2 (or whatever it was they decided to name it). So TP mods, foam mods, Anax mods, or whatever ain't going to fix the problem.

It's a shame that the HD800 ring driver technology (with its advertised and lack of resonances - confirmed via measurements) didn't trickle down. The HD700 looks to be similar to the HD650 driver, but tweaked and voiced with high-tech laser beams to sound like what I mentioned above. The unfortunate side effect from this tweak could have been the peaks - or maybe Sennheiser used a stiffer material that presents more resolution at the expense of resonances. This sort of gets to what RD was saying...

So to be clear:
  • Less treble than stock HD800 (kind of what everyone was hoping for)
  • More treble peaks than HD800 (or any other mid-fi Sennheiser)
I figured I needed to post this since I always forget my HD800s are modded for the treble-cut.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2012, 09:12:39 AM by purrin »
Logged

khaos

  • Powder Monkey
  • *
  • Brownie Points: +7/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 64
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #15 on: January 12, 2012, 07:42:28 AM »
I had hope that those peaks would be tamable, darn it!
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2012, 07:17:52 PM »
The most precise way to put it is that the HD700 is overall* less bright than the stock HD800 (I always have to remember this since I run HD800 with mods). The HD700 has at least two strong sharp peaks. One in the upper mids and another in treble. The treble one hurts me the most. For reference, I hear the HD800 as having an overall elevated treble with a slight broad peak in the upper mids around 6kHz.

*Now by overall, what I mean is that if I draw a line (upper mids upward) between the sharp peaks and the troughs on the HD700, essentially an "average", this line will be maybe about 5db less than the slight broad peak / treble plateau of the HD800. That's a fairly significant difference. For classical and most jazz, these headphones sound very much alike with a the HD700 being a slight bit warmer (not significant difference) and having a rougher sounding treble. The HD800 treble still sounds grainier though, probably because of another slight emphasis around 13kHz (which doesn't seem to be present on the HD700.)

Now for rock, adult contemporary, and pop, the HD700s start to sound all over the place depending upon the recording and how instruments such as percussion are tuned and guitars distorted. If a recording has content that lights up either of these two peaks, then the HD700 start to sound thin (it's matter of the energy balance between the treble and the rest of the spectrum.)

As far as the shape and contour of the FR from the bass to the middle midrange - it is exactly the same between HD800 and HD700. I know the Sennheiser rep said the HD700 is middle ground between HD650 and HD800, but I hear nothing in common with the HD650 (other than less overall treble.) The HD650 is a little bit bassier, even slightly boomy or muddy compared to HD700/800. Although the HD650 sparkles up in the high treble, it has a wide depression in the lower treble region. Neither the HD700 or HD800 have a recessed lower treble like the HD650.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2012, 12:26:12 AM by purrin »
Logged

rhythmdevils

  • Mate
  • Pirate
  • ****
  • Brownie Points: +131/-65535
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • Team Cheap, Picky Basterds
    • www.my40dollarorhosarebetterthanyour1kflagship.com
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #17 on: January 14, 2012, 11:32:54 PM »
It seems probable that the peaks are a result of Sennheiser tweaking a driver to have "HD800 flava flave" that it naturally doesn't really want to have and it's behaving in a way that doesn't work all that well for the driver's design. 

What do you think?
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2012, 12:27:19 AM »
Of course.

A warmer HD800 with technical ability between HD650 and HD800 > HD800

So they have to gimp HD700. This is not a design flaw. It's intentional.
Logged

rhythmdevils

  • Mate
  • Pirate
  • ****
  • Brownie Points: +131/-65535
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • Team Cheap, Picky Basterds
    • www.my40dollarorhosarebetterthanyour1kflagship.com
Re: Sennheiser HD700 impressions
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2012, 02:49:30 AM »
If I were making my own line of headphones and my name was Fritz, or maybe Hans, I would have come up with the ring radiator design, and then designed/tuned at least 2 and maybe 3 different headphones with that same driver but for different crowds.  One like the HD800 for the Klarity is King crowd, and one warm and rich ala LCD-2 (probably not possible with such an open enclosure but who knows) and one right down the middle.  They could give them letters or a sexy name, like AKG's K240 variants- K240 Studio, Monitor, DF, etc

HD800 Studio
HD800 Reference
HD800 Audiophile

Then they'd have their sticky fingers in the whole market and could sell their ring radiator to people with all tastes.  They could then use their advertising and consumer clout to assert this series as the last word in headphones.  And if they did it right, it would work.  No one would be griping about too much treble. 
« Last Edit: January 15, 2012, 02:51:24 AM by rhythmdevils »
Logged
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5
« previous next »