Sennheiser HD 800 S, A Deep Dive into Audiophile Excellence

The quest for sonic perfection is the driving force behind high-end audio, the very spirit that has kept the audiophile flame flickering for generations. Sennheiser’s HD 800 S pays primal homage to that quest for perfection, the culmination of more than four decades of engineering innovation and the pinnacle of headphone design craftsmanship. It’s less a piece of hardware to play back music, and more a listening tool to interpolate music.

Analysts, reviewers and average Joes have praised the HD 800 S as one of the best headphones on the market, including top ratings and accolades for its peerless sound quality, precise design and ultimate luxury listening experience. This extensive review aims to explore the Sennheiser HD 800 S’s intricate and ingenious design, dissect its peerless sound, and discuss the headphone’s overall philosophical importance to the hobby of audiophilia. We’ll go into the design details that make it shine sonically, explain the inherent tessitura that makes it sing so delicately, and discuss the iconic legacy of excellence it hopefully embodies for its fortunate owners in the years to come.

A Legacy of Innovation: Tracing the Evolution of the HD 800 Series

While I will elaborate on differences from and similarities to its predecessor only within my final judgment, it’s vital to provide a certain amount of contextual justification in establishing the evolutionary genealogy from which the HD 800 S has descended. When the original Sennheiser HD 800 (‘HD’ = ‘high definition’) first unveiled itself in 2008, it proved itself to be an epiphany in modern audio-engineering (and with the release of the HD 800 S, Sennheiser has proved the PhD aspect of same in its retaining of the original model’s designation). That initial model changed the face of high-fidelity listening, by raising a whisker bar for sonic fidelity and detail-retrieval. This headphone – with its open-ear design and 56 mm transducer drivers – introduced a new sonic reality with levels of staged layering unlike anything that had come before.

With the advent of the HD 800, Sennheiser ditched the closed-back implementation that was in vogue at the time, and adopted the then novel open-back design, along with large-aperture transducer drivers, which created a far more realistic stereo image than anything before. This left sound to radiate freely from either side of the headband, rather than travelling directly into one’s ears, generating a far more convincing sense of spatialisation, drawing the listener more deeply into emotive soundscapes and, at the same time, revealing the finer nuances typically found in denser musical layers.

No wonder it became the headphone of choice for classical music devotees. The Sennheiser HD 800 S (2013), the successor to the HD 800, took it as a starting point, improving and refining it to address some small criticisms of the original, as well as further pushing the audio performance envelope. What came out, when the dust settled, was a flagship headphone that, on some key sonic criteria, surpassed even the original HD 800 – and offered a much more refined and comfortable listening experience.

Unveiling the Masterpiece: Key Features and Design of the HD 800 S

Keeping with the lineage of the HD 800 series, the HD 800 S remains as an open-back design, of utmost importance because of its impact on the headphone’s soundstage and acoustic naturalness. When compared with a closed-back headphones let sound escape freely, giving way to an enhanced soundstage and widened, more natural and listener-immersive performance. This is an advantageous physical design since it results in lower pressure on the ears, and in turn provides a lower likelihood of suffering from listening fatigue, a consideration important to audiophiles who are prone to long periods of listening.

Magnificent 56 mm transducer drivers within the HD 800 S are larger than any other driver in any other headphone I’ve ever come across. This allows the HD 800 S drivers to not only hit every frequency in the musical spectrum with total detail and projection, but they also move much more air, meaning a lighter, more dynamic impact in the listener’s ears. The drivers themselves are designed to be as distortion-free as possible in order to relay every played note with total fidelity. The HD 800 S has been refined and reworked and assembled with the care and attention to detail seen only in objects of the finest craftsmanship. The headband is of anodised matte stainless steel, light and strong, with adjustable sliders.

The earcups have soft fabric covers, stretched over a washable and highly breathable nano-coated dual mesh membrane that adapts precisely to the visible—and invisible—contours of the ears, giving the wearer optimum comfort. Likewise, the carry case and included accessories display unparalleled attention to detail. On board: a sturdy carry case (made of soft-grip foam, with a dust- and grease-proof Kevlar surface, and containing nano-coated interior membranes with a soft fleece surface), a jumper cable with threaded, removable 6.3-mm plug, and an adapter for balanced connections. Sennheiser also offers one of the comfiest headphones on the market, the open-back HD 800 S.

Excellent processing indeed. The HD 800 S is a testament to Sennheiser’s commitment to sonic quality and the listening experience as a whole. My Akira Kurosawa soundtrack becomes tangible, I can feel me running through the grass that’s being destroyed by the samurai’s blades. I can hear more than I’ve ever heard before as the soundstage extends right, left is an active exercise.

• Open-back design for an expansive soundstage and natural acoustics
• 56 mm transducer drivers for exceptional detail and clarity across the frequency spectrum
• Lightweight and durable stainless steel headband for secure and comfortable fit
• Comfortable breathable fabric earcups for a plush and enjoyable listening experience
• Robust carrying case, detachable cable, and adapter for balanced connections

A Symphony of Accuracy: Exploring the Sound Performance of the HD 800 S

The Sennheiser HD 800 S is praised for its realistic, uncoloured and detailed sonic performance, a characteristic of the HD 800 series, and presents the listener with a neutral signature, which means that it doesn’t alter the sonic character of the music by changing the frequency balance. Put simply, this type of headphone should allow you to hear the signal as it was when the artist crafted it.

The faithful reproduction of the sounds of the music without any added colours or harmful artefacts is one of the secrets to a high-fidelity experience – the key thing an audiophile wants from their system is to hear all the things that matter in their music in a live and natural way. This typically includes the delicate, sparkly quality of a plucked guitar string or the subtlest of nuances in an orchestra of hundreds. Smoke and mirrors, however, do wonderful things. The HD 800 S allows the sonic storyteller’s creations to beautifully rise to the surface, revealing just how much a musical recording has been labour-intensively augmented.

The nuances and layered subtleties of purely acoustic music come across wonderfully; the effect of having acoustic instruments – the very essence of classical, jazz, folk, world, bluegrass and other forms of music – reproduced veridically is nothing short of disarmingly visceral and emotive. The HD 800 S can also do justice to dense electronic pieces, separating layers and textures in the most intricate recordings and, perhaps most importantly of all, doing so without messing with the musical outline and definition. The HD 800 S’s frequency response reaches very high and very low sound-wave frequencies. The balance of its overall sound offers a fantastic feeling of lush and engaging spatial sound envelopment of the listener.

The high frequencies are as pure and extended as I’ve heard from a full-size headphone, wherever I have played recordings that took advantage of the cymbal’s shivers and violin trebles that tell you all about a musician’s technique. On the extreme low end of the audible spectrum, the punchy and explosive bass response will deliver the most well-recorded hi-res recordings of the lowest lows with near-sample-rate impact while imparting a sense of control to note sequencing that will also surprise lovers of more contemporary music genres, from driving rock to electronic dance music. The HD 800 S can rock as well as make classical music vocals sound like they are really coming from just behind (and above) your ear.

The HD 800 S creates a genuine sense of soundstage as a spatial and sonic environment that you can place yourself within, rather than being a flat projection laying over your head and ears. Elements are placed in the sonic landscape with a sharp and precise realism: in boomy rock or solo piano, I get a genuine impression of where the sound is coming from, and where it’s going. In every staccato string or piano note, I can almost feel the air moving. This subtle, subconscious detail, a direct consequence of the noiselessness of the HD 800 S, is the key to its realism as a listening experience.

Key Sound Characteristics

• Neutral sound signature for accurate and uncolored sound reproduction
• Exceptional clarity and imaging for revealing subtle nuances and details
• Wide frequency response for a well-balanced and immersive listening experience
• Accurate reproduction of high frequencies for shimmering overtones and delicate treble notes
• Powerful and controlled low frequencies for a deep and impactful bass response
• Expansive soundstage for a spacious and immersive listening experience

Comfort and Fit: Crafted for Extended Listening Sessions

It is this comfort, and an exceptional fit, that makes headphones such as the HD 800 S attractive for hours of listening. In an open-back design like the HD 800 S, it is important that the natural air from outside is not disturbed The ear pads have a soft leather exterior covering, which wraps comfortable around a – heavier – foam material to limit pressure on the earlobes. They are even designed to follow the shape of your ears for a secure, comfortable and non-pressing fit. In an open-back design like the HD 800 S, it is important that the natural air from outside is not disturbed when listening over longer periods. To ensure this, the headband is also extremely light.

Overall Experience: A Transcendent Listening Journey

The Sennheiser HD 800 S is the headphone that audio fetishists fear: listen-once and hear better for all eternity. Pure, natural sound reproduction, made with precision and care, and comfortable enough to wear for hours on end. Its build, sound, and feel are almost organic in their purity and undeniable quality.

The HD 800 S achieves natural sound wherein recording artifices are so smoothed out that they almost vanish. Looking for something musical that will give you goosebumps? Want to find out why some audio snobs drive their girlfriends crazy? To hear what you’ve been missing this whole time? Well, this is the headphone for you. The Sennheiser HD 800 S is a God-headphone. It walks on water and is definitely not meant for most people speaking to the average headphone user, this may be gibberish.

But sometimes you need to speak German to a German, to bring ideas into focus and relate to experience. This headphone is not for weekend hobbyists. The Sennheiser HD 800 S is an object of desire – the radio-carbon-dated legacy headphone that sexier or more fashionable stuff will come to replace but never displace from among worldly treasures. Many other leading headphones provide a thoroughly accurate sound that will satisfy most of your audiophile needs – but none conveys the nuances like a close-up of your favourite song. None surprises you like a headphone, unless you’re listening to this one.

Conclusion: The Benchmark for Audiophile Excellence

The Sennheiser HD 800 S is a headphone that demands a price, but that also justifies it through a sound quality, listenability, and build quality that are without peer, and that have a visceral impact on the listening experience that reminds you exactly why headphones are now levelling with the best kinds of hi-fi. Here is Sennheiser at the summit of its technical skills and commitment to audio, pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

It blows out your speakers, it has that Europe-au-large kind of Hollywood scale, and it is transformative: like hearing Bach in space The Sennheiser HD 800 S is a €1,500 headphone. It’s a lot of cash for a pair of earphones, but it is a lot of very good headphone. It is audiophile hedonism put to work. It is a lot of good for €1,500. If you bought the very first HD 800 in 2009, the latest version now costs half as much and sounds twice as good. And if you’re the kind of person who, when bored, can’t think of anything better to do than listen to some really good music, the HD 800S is an accelerant.

It is audiophile hedonism put to work: here is a system that asks an awful lot of its listeners, yet rewards it with a visceral impact on the listening experience that reminds you exactly why we love headphones. Here is Sennheiser at the summit of its technical skills and commitment to audio, mindful, it seems, of the role that audio plays in our emotional lives and the need for it to connect to a gut response if it is to compete with culturally deeper experiences such as literary fiction or Teilhard de Chardin’s cosmology. It sounds like the best sound I’ve ever heard, which is all anyone can ask for from a hi-fi system. ‘This is what happens,’ said the band