Gadgetory

sup guys I'm cabby HD here and this is the most ridiculous pair of headphones I have ever owned and I regret nothing this is the sennheiser HD 820 you might remember these actually at CES when we first got a glimpse of these they showed up on a bunch of different channels in the form of a first look they had like two pairs of the Sennheiser booth and everyone was dying to try them out and we did and they sounded great but that was on a really crowded show floor you're surrounded by noise you're listening to the one song they have available on repeat over and over again trying to appreciate them but you can only experience so much out there and so that begs the question what's it like to actually bring them home and experience and own a pair of these ridiculously high-end headphones so they promised a couple of things with these actually first of all the super wide soundstage similar to the legendary open-back Sennheiser HD 800 s and 800 s but with all the benefits of closed back thanks to the glass here so you know what we're off the bat let's start with the price there are $2,400 headphones so ya know this isn't a buyer's guide personally I don't really care past a certain price if they're two thousand three thousand four thousand dollars they're all ridiculous compared to the one hundred to three hundred dollar headphones I spend most of my time listening to but you do get some insane specs for that price now specs on some headphones might actually be the least important part but just so you know they are these huge fifty-six millimeter drivers same size as HD eight hundreds they have a frequency response that ranges from twelve to forty three thousand eight hundred Hertz they have an impedance of three hundred ohms as you can see edged onto the side of the ear cups and they are of course a completely over ear design with lightweight leather ear cups that wrap completely around your ear without touching it it kind of feels like having premium speakers floating next to your ears they have this thinner velvet-lined foam up at the top and it's actually structurally made of mostly just hard plastic but without feeling cheap because plastic is lightweight and I'll talk more about that weight in a second and there's a three meter high quality braided cable removable at the gold plated connectors at both of the ends and on the signature piece is this concave Gorilla Glass cup behind the drivers which serves to reduce interference from the outside sound and making it closed back and so the final result the finished package is this huge absolutely massive pair of headphones obviously they're way bigger than you're normally used to seeing but that's because they can be like these are not you're out and about type of headphones these aren't your plug into your phone and walk outside for headphones actually it's the opposite of that these are just your proper sit down and listen and that's it type of pair of headphones so that's what they're designed for they don't have to be low impedance they don't have to be highly efficient with smaller drivers they don't have to be noise cancelling or any of that stuff they just have to be lightweight and comfortable for listening for long periods of time because that's what you want to do with these is just sit back and listen for a long time and really that's what of course we're most interested in from the start with a pair of headphones like this is how they sound that is a focus and I can tell you right now they sound absolutely amazing but really actually the interesting thing with these is they're supposed to be a closed back headphone with all the benefits of an open back design or as close to an open back pair as a closed back pair can get if that's making sense basically a typical high-end pair of open-back headphones has the classic trade off because they're open the upside is a much wider soundstage things sounding like they're coming from across the room and a variety of areas a very dynamic sound but the downside is massive bleed in both directions everyone around you can hear what you're listening to and you can hear things from outside and in your environment outside of the music so in a loud space you'll hear that too so that was the deal with HD 800 and HD 800 s and pretty much any other high-end pair of open-back headphones I've ever tried but the HD 820 on the other hand closed back but open back but closed back there's this concave piece of Gorilla Glass over the driver that stops a lot of sounds from getting in or out so the bleed is dramatically less the people around you will hear much less of what you're listening to but more importantly for me anyway you hear less of the world around you it's not a complete seal it's not noise cancelling but when you put them on you hear a lot less so like I said it's not gonna be noise-canceling by any means you will definitely still hear the loudest stuff but because of that seal all the way around your ear and because of the glass it's reduced in a major way it's like going from a big empty room to a much quieter sound treated empty room the soundstage though is still extremely wide and that would be thanks to the huge drivers and the air actually in between the drivers and the glass and the space between your ear and the drivers so it's still kind of a spread out situation which is why the headphones are so big so it's a very complex solution to a real problem but I can verify that it has the intended effect and the end result is an amazing listening experience as it better be for twenty four hundred bucks okay here's here's where it does it for me for headphones like this I feel like I can listen to them at very high volumes I keep wanting to turn the volume up because when I do instead of it getting more harsh or more like shrill at those especially the troubles and the high pitches it just gets more full like there's just more sound it's so much easier to listen to I hope that makes sense like carrying the volume up too high on normal headphones obviously it gets distorted it gets too loud and it's hard to listen to it hurts your ears but turning the volume up really high on these just feels like more intensity and more sound and more volume without being harsh I don't know to an audiophile this probably seems ridiculous what I'm saying right now but that's just how I feel and the other thing is I'm loving listening to these I'm driving them with an Apollo twin mark 2 and I'm listening to compress files from streaming services so I'm clearly not getting a hundred percent out of these or any headphones probably over a thousand bucks at this setup here but it is still a $900 amp and it sounds pretty damn good and I've been using it at my desk for a while I've had the mark one for years it drives my speakers and my go-to tracks I'm listening to on tidal and Spotify title actually this year introduced what's called a master quality which is much higher than CD quality apparently but only a couple artists and albums actually support it with this little letter M but basically whenever I could I attempted to listen to the highest available quality possible-- on tidal or Spotify my go-to tracks for for assessing audio and listening to songs I'm familiar with for headphones contact by Daft Punk six straight minutes of absolutely jaw on the floor amazing mastering listen to that on any pair of headphones it's great strobe by deadmau5 at its peak kind of sounds like you're on another planet say not up by Shaka that's just one of my favorites and that's also a more pop heavy song as more bass there's more kick and vocals and then anything by a vein SIL or C to C just amazing mastering and that's the type of stuff that you'll really appreciate on these headphones because different instruments and different sounds will be so separate that's called instrument separation they'll be so separate and distinct and crisp and clear that you'll feel like you're appreciating the song in a whole new way that might be the most cliche thing I've ever said about high-end headphones but it's actually true these are dope tech 100% everything from the way they're packaged to how they sound to how they look to how comfortable they are it's an experience maybe here's this is probably the best way I can explain listening to this pair of headphones versus a regular pair with a regular pair of headphones on it might look or feel to your senses like this like you're getting a lot out of it you get a lot of bass a lot of highs a lot of mid-tones that sounds pretty clear and everything seems available to your senses and that's great but then switching to a pair like this might be like your senses kind of change where it might seem a little bit flat at first it might not be as punchy in the bass but suddenly you realize all these things you're missing out on all these highlights all these shadows all these textures get a lot more vibrant and clear it's it's the best analogy I can make because I'm a video person but hopefully that does it for you my final thoughts really can be obviously in the very expensive world of high-end audio this is probably the nicest pair of headphones I'm ever gonna get to try or listen to and I'm totally okay with that and Sennheiser I hope you're cool that I'm I don't think I want to ever give them back I'm so they're perfect for a studio environment for me for someone not that I'm making high-end mixes and masters and sounds and audio projects but just as someone who's listening to things in a studio where I want to block out high-end sound but I still do want that vibrant wide soundstage experience the open / closed back design of these actually delivers that and that's pretty awesome so I'm definitely a fan of using out they are certified dope tech also color wear if you ever plan on supporting these like you did with the HD 800 either way that's been it thank you for watching dr. Y as the next one peace