I usually listen to music with a portable Astell & Kern Player and had closed Denon Headsets for a while.
I wanted to change to open headphones, mainly because i didnt like the isolated feeling (dont know how to say that better as english is not my native language).
As i heard a lot about the Sennheiser HD 800 S and watched a lot of video reviews i wondered if my portable player could drive them.
In the official 800 S thread i was told that it should be no problem.
So i went to a local Hifi dealer with my player and sat for several hours in their headphone department and compared the Sennheiser HD 800 S with a Focal Clear MG, Audeze LCD-X, Hifiman Arya, Dan Clark Audio Noire XO and as kind of a reference to my Denon headphones they had a Denon D9200.
Quite fast i sorted out the Focal Clear (Earcups too small), Hifiman Arya (not enough volume through my player), Dan Clark (didnt like the sound) and also the Sennheiser HD 800 S which had too less bass for me when trying it first.
So the Audeze LCD-X was left but it was quite heavy and i didnt like the cablesā¦ but when i wanted to compare the HD 800 against the LCD-X it was mixed up with the Sennheiser HD 820.
Neither me nor the Salesperson noticed that we took the closed Sennheiser.
And what should i say, i bought the Sennheiser HD 820!
It does not really feel like closed headphones for me, more as a half-open.
It has enough bass and the soundstage is phenomenal.
I did some tweakings with the 19-fold EQ of my player and i am not an expert but now it sounds perfect for me for many music styles.
Only thing i dont like are the cablesā¦ they are just too long and i think about buying a cardas parsec cable.
Does anyone have those cables and could tell me how flexible they are ?
In summary i am very pleased with my new Sennheiser 820 Headphones 