Gadgetory

the Sennheiser HD 8 DJ's come with a fairly complete accessory package including a fantastic if a little bit big hard case easily swappable pleather and the lure ear pads that use a cool snap on snap off system to locking detachable Kevlar reinforced cables that have attractive connectors but are heavier and stiffer than I'd really like and finally a quarter inch to three-and-a-half millimeter adapter Jack the cooler master glazier 240 L CPU cooler delivers the convenience of an all-in-one and the performance of a custom water cooler click now to learn more the HD 8 DJ's are professional piece of equipment and the build quality reflects that the ear cups don't seem to be made out of anything special but I suspect the material choice here has more to do with acoustics then trying to build the motive leftover space-shuttle components because we can and everywhere else they use a combination of high quality plastics metal and this wonderful dense dense foam the soft plastic on the outside of the headband makes it strong and very flexible with no danger of cracking and the metal headband insert comes out into a metal front and plastic back receptacle that offers about as much air cup swivel as you could reasonably need this piece is joined via a litter that wonderful metal hinge that locks into any of its four positions with a very satisfying click to another metal fronted and plastic back piece that supports the actual cans the use of plastic is very sparing and it feels like it's only there to keep weight down rather than to save cost overall A+ for the build quality I would never even consider tossing them around casually but that's for fear of scratching them and reading their perfection not because I think they'd be damaged the headband sits at an angle versus the you know normal up-and-down orientation relative to the ear cups and I found myself referring to the inside R and L markings a few times before I memorized how they go on but I did I really appreciated the design the ear cups have four positions three for listening with over the year half on the ear and completely off the ear modes and I mean I guess this is a DJ feature or whatever but it's also great for listening if the baby has woken up as well and then a final one that allows the headphones to be folded up and put away into their case for easy transport I found all the way on the ear and all the way off to be more comfortable than the halfway one because my ear lobes get sore from the pressure of having it just kind of sitting halfway onto my ear but being able to hear some of the music and some of your surroundings is a trade-off some people will prefer one other interesting note is that due to the unique headband design casually popping one ear off is not very comfortable and makes the headband dig into my scalp so I did find myself actually using the hinge mechanism more often than not anyway once you figure out how to get them on your head comfort is a strong point of the HD HD J's but the fact that they use a slightly heavier metal construction and stronger than average clamping pressure on your head they're rated at 6.3 Newton's that means they're not the sort of headphones that you can put on and completely forget you're wearing this clamping pressure though was a conscious design choice and I'll talk about it a little bit more during the listening test portion of the video now I tried both earcup materials the pleather as well as the velour and I did all of my comparative listening test with the pleather ones but I was actually surprised to discover that the velour cuffs did not negatively impact isolation and bass response nearly as much as I expected maybe the very dense foam helps I'm not sure the velour felt a touch more breathable but again maybe due to the dense foam it didn't make as much of a difference there as I thought either and at the end of the day they're both comfy and they both have the same cat belly soft cloth over the drivers themselves so while I ended up settling on the pleather cups because I like the feel of them against my skin either of them as a solid choice so now for the listening tests I listen to crappy top 40 music and so do a lot of people and I do all of my listening tests with a mix of whatever I'm listening to at the moment and some older songs that I've got more experience with I mean an objective - and an O DAC as my source with a mixture of flax and high bitrate mp3 files so with that out of the way they're so tight now I complain about bassy sound signature headphones a lot to the point where regular viewers might be taken aback by the gushing that is about to occur about these headphones with their very base heavy sound signature but I absolutely love them the mids are strong detailed and well controlled but where these headphones absolutely destroy everything else I own even my IE 80s is when it comes to bass sennheiser says they're designed for precise beat matching by professional DJs but between the drivers the construction and that higher than normal clamping force that gives them a wonderful seal against your head honestly I just found them exhilarating to listen to regardless of my profession stuff I hadn't really enjoyed in ages completely came back to life for me i sat down to do some listening test with Hybrid Theory and an hour later I hadn't managed to take the HD aids off my head to compare them against anything else low-frequency electronic background music and bass guitar is so detailed and easy to listen to and when apologized by Timbaland came on with I was just sitting at my computer working I just had to stop and wait for the song to be over I mean seriously I felt like I could feel the beat all the way down the back of my neck but that isn't to say it sounds loose and out of control like the Razer Kraken forged headset which I included in my comparative testing due to its price not due to its sound quality and even when I compared to my excellent Denon HD six hundreds the HD 8 DJ's had much more punch and much more clarity in the bass while doing a better job of maintaining that clarity in the mids and highs I'll be it at a higher price now I've seen criticism that they lack Sparkle a bit which is strength in the high frequency range but that's definitely a personal thing Sparkle is a headphone characteristic that I find harsh and fatiguing if it's overdone and I just don't feel like the HD 8 DJ's need more the mids and especially the lows are so well controlled that they don't overpower the slightly subdued highs and while they don't pierce through the rest of the music I can easily hear anything at the high frequency ranges at reasonable listening levels speaking of reasonable listening volume level Sennheiser rates these at a whopping 115 decibels max but I never took them anywhere near that high and you probably shouldn't either unless you're using a proper external amp you won't even be able to drive them that hard due to their 95 ohm impedance rating but they are still not as hard to drive as some high-end headphones and with an iPhone 4 I was able to go louder than I'm really comfortable with without going you know completely over the top with that set a proper headphone amp does give them a noticeable extra kick so I would definitely recommend investing in one if you are picking these up for music listening ambient noise isolation is a very strong point for these headphones the only things that I have access to that are better are Brandon's QuietComfort 15 s that have active noise cancellation honestly it makes the sound so immersive and makes it easy to get carried away to another world where it's just you and your headphones and I don't know maybe that's the only complaint I have about these with my HD 600 s the only other headphones I own that cost the same as these are more it's easy to forget that they're there they're light and comfortable they don't clamp my head that much and they sound so open and natural that my computer could have been moved to a concert hall though I wasn't looking where there's music playing around me and I'm not really wearing headphones at all the HD 8 DJ's are for active listening they demand your undivided attention to the point where my wife already totally hates them because I'm in my own world completely when I'm wearing them all right so it's time for final thoughts after 10 minutes of positivity I'm sorry Sennheiser but the other shoe had to drop at some point the HD 8 DJ's are very very expensive the MSRP is $400 u.s. and the cheapest I could find them was at B&H for 350 after mail-in rebate that puts them out of the range of what I would normally be shopping for when it comes to headphones I get it there professional piece of equipment and they are both built and priced as such but I just I guess I just wish this level of performance was available at a bit of a friendlier price point what I will say about them though is that while the law of diminishing returns is always present you know a $1 pair of earbuds offers infinitely more functionality than nothing at all while $400 headphones can never compare that favorably to less expensive options the HD a DJ's still offer a noticeable compelling improvement in performance over 150 $200 and $300 headphones that I listened to but bottom line are they worth it geez I don't know I mean are you going to replace them right away then No are you going to keep them for five to ten years actually taking advantage of the fantastic build quality if so start saving your pennies because yeah they're worth it they sound absolutely out of this world guys like and share this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a comment on the Linus tech tips for are linked in the video description if you want to discuss this product or you have constructive criticism for me and my team also linked in the video description is our support link with options to buy t-shirts give us a monthly contribution to help us keep making videos or just change your amazon link to give us a kickback whenever you buy random junk on like amazon.com or Cote UK or wherever the heck you live check it out if you enjoy our videos it helps us out a whole bunch and as always thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe