HD 800 (Early Production)

Welcome to the club brother, I have an early serial number HD800, a final run 50XXX HD800, an HD8XX and might add a HD800S too.

Similar collection, I have a dt880 600ohm, focal Stellia, hd800 non s. No good planar at the moment just an old Audeze sine. Hd800 is my favorite but a lot of things to turn on to make it sound good so I don't reach for it lol.

The biggest audio jump was from cd player ear buds, not bad ones Sony $200 dollar cd Walkman and minidisc, to the porta pro. Then from porta pro to audio technica, then add in a xonar stx pci express sound card. Now I have hd800, focal Stellia, sold zmf eikon, mad dog, lcd 2 foam version, lcd 3, lcd xc, Sony ma900, z7. Etc. Nothing was as big a jump as porta pro. I want to get one to try back to level 1 but it's too expensive lol.

HD800 stock. No treble spike on my sample (late S/N, came with official certificate with frequency graph etc). Out of the right source and using well mastered music (e.g. ECM, Hyperion, etc) they sound better than my mates HD800S (he also agrees).

Audiophile options like Sennheiser, Bose and Sony are your best bet. There's no real ""best option"", you can look at different reviews and see what works. like hell, ive tried so many headphones and earbuds, Sony, steelseries, sennheiser. At one point i just switched to other cheaper options and im pretty happy with them. for example will recommend [cleer enduro](https://d3oc4tmn8qmbnq.cloudfront.net/?q=GMKAO1466), great for their price. Beyer is also super solid, senn hd800 s etc. alotttt of options, list could keep going on

I've had 2 gaming headsets, first it was a Steelseries Siberia, then a Razer Kraken, but then I got to know someone at work who is into sound. He convinced me to buy a HD 650 and by god it was a different tier. It was so comfortable, but 5-6 years ago I've changed it to a HD 800, purely because the same friend sold it to me £500, pretty much half price and he took good care of them too.

Now you gotta compare HD800 (newer and older production models) to HD800s

I’ve seen both between US Audio Mart and EBay in the past 2 months. Harder to find than HD800S but not impossible.

I have the Raal SR-1a, the AKG K-1000, the Sennheiser HD800, and the Raal Magna (too poor for the Immanis lol). The Raal SR-1a can throw a slightly wider soundstage than the AKGs, but sounds better with the wings much closer to your ears. It’s the biggest soundstage of the above, though I prefer the sound from the Immanis in every way. If you’re really looking to get an experience larger than a headphone’s natural “headstage”, though, you need processing more than novel driver placement. Look into the “Smyth Realiser”. It is a headphone system with a wider soundstage stage than most speakers.