Sennheiser is one of the few companies around that refuse to run with the fickle demands of the market, with product refreshes that offer cosmetic changes and perhaps a minor tweaking to sound output. Instead, the Germans prefer to focus on research into the black art we call sound reproduction, and every five or six years, produce something like what we're seeing today. The HD 800 is their latest flagship headphone, and it's safe to assume we won't see a successor from them for at least another four years. Nor should we, after all shouldn't every manufacturer aim to produce a quality product that stands the test of time rather than designing on the principle of planned obsolescence? The HD 650, their previous flagship, was a headphone that remained at the top of Sennheisers lineup for nearly 7 years, although other manufacturers (arguably) eventually surpassed it in terms of sound quality.

On a side-note, when talking about high-end headphones, it is important to note that there is not a lot of difference in sound quality, rather it is the sound reproduction that differs and no two headphones offer the same sound signature. Some emphasise the lower frequencies, while others have a more revealing and open mid-range. So it is often a matter of matching the kind of sound you like and your music to your equipment and a headphone. No 300$ plus headphone is really bad, simply because a manufacturer cannot afford to release a "bad" product at this price point. It is rather a matter of your tastes and the genres of music you are into.

The HD 650 retails for around 500$, and the HD 800 launched at a mighty 1399$, making one of the most expensive consumer headphones available today. If you purchase it in India from an authorised seller, be prepared to shell out close to Rs. 80,000. Forget about having mighty boots to fill, the HD 800 redefines the mould for bigger boots - it's 3 times costlier than its predecessor - that's saying something, even for headphones that are hand assembled - the echelon for exclusivity in our times it seems.

Look and feel

These headphones look space age, and love the design, or hate it, you cannot deny the fact the Sennheiser HD 800 looks unlike any other headphone around. Unfortunately for those who prefer old school wood with rounded edges and its associated charm, the HD 800 will disappoint - it's built mostly of metal alloy and high quality plastic and is more angles than curves. In fact the earcups are mostly alloy, and the entire assembly feels very rugged. They are circumaural, large and heavy, (330 grams), although they feel light when worn, and after the first 8 hours of use virtually disappear on your head (remember we said virtually). Mind you, Audio Technica's wing design headband is still the most comfortable one around. The drivers are mounted on a stainless steel frame, and the earpads are made of microfiber. While these feel insubstantial, especially given the luxurious feel of the Denon D7000s earpads, they are quite comfortable as we discovered, and being circumaural, there is no pressure on the cartilage of your ear. Also, unlike foam, this material does not seem to wear down quickly, nor does it lose its shape and go flat, which is a major plus. Equally important, the microfiber does not get as hot as materials like foam or pleather do in summers, no small boon for our country. There is minimal clamping force resulting in extended listening sessions minus discomfort. All is not perfect on the comfort front though, because the ear cushioning on the earpads is a little on the lean side, those with larger ears or a more protruding helix will find this portion touching the inside of the earcup, and this results in pressure which starts to get noticeable after an hour of wearing them.

The cables are detachable, similar to the HD 600 and HD 650, although with the HD 800, the OFC cable is much thicker, and enclosed within Teflon insulation and a cloth jacket. Each earcup gets its own cable, and the termination mechanism seems much firmer than the one on the HD 650, meaning the connect becoming loose with daily use should be less of an issue. Coming to the headband, it features a plastic-fiber construction that is both flexible and sturdy. The actual headband adjustment and armature encased inside the plastic is steel. The only minus we found was the adjustment seems to get quite loose with daily use. The pair we got had some serious miles under its belt, and one side of the headband was a tired old thing, sliding down with the weight of the earcup. While we're not sure just how much abuse this beauty was subjected to, this is pretty unacceptable for such a costly headphone, although we're sure if you'd buy one, it'd be treated with utmost care.

Features

The biggest feature of this headphone is something that Sennheisers marketing has harped on, perhaps with good reason - a new driver. It's one of the largest we've seen, at 56 mm and Sennheiser claims the waves produced by this driver radiate outwards in a ring, and towards your ear. This isn't evident looking at the driver, but what we didn't realise at first was, only the outer ring of the driver actually vibrates, therefore the phrase "ring radiating driver" coined by Sennheisers marketing. This design is meant to produce less distortion, as well as to mimic sound emanating from different angles, something traditional drivers are not too good at doing. Additionally this ring-radiating driver allows a more natural positioning of sound around your ear allowing the human brain to perceive it as having come from more space than what headphones can manage.

Realistic soundstaging is the name of the game here, and the HD 800 aims to be the best in the business at this hard-to-acheive-feat for a headphone. For discerning listeners, you either nail it or you don't, and no headphone can hold a candle to a good set of speakers when it comes to mimicking the positioning of music instruments and voices in a space around the listener. With headphones sound channels are typically separated, with music coming from left and right channels sounding like two separate parts of the music, rather than a cohesive, organic whole. Additionally, with most headphones even if the soundstage has width, it has no depth i.e. sounds appear to come from on top of your head and to the sides, but not in front of you, which is actually how the recording microphones are positioned. This is something the ring radiator transducer is supposed to address, and this driver is supposed to give the impression of a larger sound-emitting field than the actual driver size.

With the HD 650, Sennheiser moved from a neutral (read faithful to source), sound presentation, to a rather warm, lush presentation, and while this did wonders for exaggerating the mid-range frequencies for music like Country and Jazz, it wasn't what many purists wanted, and the HD 650 was hated and loved in equal measure, with some people preferring the more neutral, (and in our opinion slightly bright), HD 600. With the HD 800, Sennheiser is once again talking about "reference" quality, which basically means a headphone that is tuned to give as close to neutral sound as possible. For those who don't know, neutral means as close to the original recording as possible, without biasing towards or against a particular set of frequencies in the sound spectrum.

The drivers of the HD 800 are tuned are impedance matched and then marked. Therefore, Sennheiser claims if you ever need to replace a dead driver, they can provide you with an exact match. This is important when working with high-end equipment, because impedance basically affects the power delivery to each transducer and with a set with unmatched drives, discerning users with good equipment will notice a difference in volume level and sound quality - channel imbalance is a no-no for this grade of transducer.

The HD 600 and HD 650 were said to have mediocre connecting cables and we have seen a lot of aftermarket options arising as a result. With the HD 800 Sennheiser has beefed up cable quality to a thicker, higher rated OFC cable. The cable is Teflon-shielded up to the Y joint, and after this there is a cloth shroud that secures against damage while minimising sound produced by cable movement that can interfere with the listening experience, especially with open drivers like the HD 800 has. Aftermarket options have sprung up, but the cables are less of a bottleneck than before.

Call it old school charm, or a marketing ploy called "exclusiveness", the Sennheiser HD 800 is hand built err assembled. Each headphone has a serial number. These are assembled primarily in Sennheiser's manufacturing unit in Germany, unlike the HD 650 that were manufactured in Ireland.

Click next to read about the gear we used, the HD 800s performance, and our closing thoughts