Sennheiser HD 700 - the best $150 headphones project

rlisin

Quad 4 life
I know that Sennheiser HD 700 used to cost around $1000, now cost around $425 new and $300+ used. But last week I bought:

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and

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for a total of $135.

Not bad, considering that Sennheiser charges $200 for this cable alone.


What I did not get, as you can see in the pics, are the ear pads and dust protection covers. Many people remove dust covers from these headphones to improve sound so I don't care about them. But ear pads are necessary.

Now, stock pads for these would cost me around $70-110, depending on the country I would buy them from. That would still make it a bargain, as the total cost would be $245 tops, but I figured I'd try to find a cheaper solution first.

Here's what I've found. Ear pads for Sennheiser RS 180 have the same shape and size. They are thicker, made from different material (velour), and of course the mounting method is different, but it seems that they can be fixed to the HD 700 baffle with a few thin strips of 2-sided tape. I bought them and tried without affixing for now, they fit the baffle well.

Here's the comparison, HD 700 pads on top, RS 180 pads below:


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The best part is, the RS 180 pads cost $10. I will try to fix them in the baffle next week. If they don't work, I'll just get the stock pads. If they do work well, I'll have Sennheiser HD 700 for $ 150 :)
 
When I compared them side by side with the HD600 and 800, I didn't understand what niche they were supposed to fit into.

But for $150? Killer!
 
Haven't had a chance to listen to either of the above, the other Senn cans I have are modded HD555 and these are much, much better - even with RS180 pads just put in the baffle.
Huge difference in clarity.
 
The HD800 made the HD700 sound muffled.

To be fair, the HD800 will make anything sound muffled. At the time I believe I felt that the HD600 was close enough in clarity to not justify the price increase. However the 700s are still better headphones. Phones like the Hd600/HD650, Beyer DT990 and AKG K7XX have been the mid fi standard now for several decades and you are now a notch above them. Enjoy!
 
well... given that the HD800 are nearly $1000 and the new 800S are basically $1700 they better make $425~ headphones sound something not as good..

for my part I'd almost rather not hear the 800's because I'm not in the market for $1K+ headphones right at the moment...
 
Given how clear the HD700 sound, I'm not sure if I would like to experience the increased clarity of HD800 :)
Also, from what I read, unlike HD800, the HD700 are relatively source-friendly, and my experience confirms that.
In any case, $250 is my limit for headphones. I'm first and foremost a speakers listener so I couldn't justify spending more than that, especially on headphones that are for home use only (because of being ultra-open). I got extremely really lucky to get these within my budget!
 
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well... given that the HD800 are nearly $1000 and the new 800S are basically $1700 they better make $425~ headphones sound something not as good..

for my part I'd almost rather not hear the 800's because I'm not in the market for $1K+ headphones right at the moment...

Revealing headphones can be a curse. You hear things you've never heard in your music before. Mostly distortion though, from poor production quality and amplified instruments. I don't think I'd want to spend $1k or $1.7k on headphones you can only use a fraction of the time.
 
I listened to a number of recordings yesterday and today (RS 180 pads still not permanently attached because I'm considering modding them). These headphones have amazing clarity top to bottom AND they are fun! Also, while the difference between worse and better quality recordings is very, very clear with these headphones, listening to not-so-audiophile tracks is still a pleasure. Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" was quite a ride, so was the first Rage Against the Machine album.
 
OK, so I've successfully applied RS180 ear pads to HD700s.

I cut plastic rings (thin plastic, I used a DVD box as a source) that fit the cups - like the rings that are on the back of HD700 stock pads. Then I used 2-sided adhesive tape to attach RS180 ear pads to these rings. Then I applied 4 very small strips of 2-sided adhesive tape in each cup to additionally secure the rings in place. I put the rings with RS180 pads in - and done. They are a perfect fit and the sound is good.


Paper and plastic shapes for mounting ring, source of plastic (DVD box), RS180 pad:

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Mounting ring:

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Mounting ring in the baffle with 2 sided adhesive tape applied:

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RS180 pads attached, all done!:

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Like I said earlier, I don't know how they compare to stock pads in terms of sound (because I got these headphones without ear pads), but the results are great, I love these headphones. The sound I hear is consistent with descriptions and reviews (fun, energetic, lots of detail, tight bass, upper mids a bit favored, great soundstage), and for me these headphones are not fatiguing.

So if you need new pads for HD700s and don't feel like spending $100 on dedicated replacement pads from Sennheiser, try RS180 pads. They're only $10. And if you have old stock pads, you can harvest the original mounting ring from them and attach it to RS180 pads, then the whole operation becomes much easier.
 
Revealing headphones can be a curse. You hear things you've never heard in your music before. Mostly distortion though, from poor production quality and amplified instruments. I don't think I'd want to spend $1k or $1.7k on headphones you can only use a fraction of the time.

i use my modded hd800 for everything. they might be the most resolving headphone i ever owned but, doesn't stop me from enjoying them even off of my simple laptop headphone jack. even off of a decent/ok source the hd800 sounds better than just about anything else to me. they just improve with better sources. i use them even off my phone sometimes with good enjoyment.
 
i use my modded hd800 for everything. they might be the most resolving headphone i ever owned but, doesn't stop me from enjoying them even off of my simple laptop headphone jack. even off of a decent/ok source the hd800 sounds better than just about anything else to me. they just improve with better sources. i use them even off my phone sometimes with good enjoyment.
I PM'd you about this as to not derail the whole thread.
 
I must say I'm VERY happy with them!

After some time with them on my head I can say that the substitute pads work fine in terms of sound and are quite comfortable. If I manage to find someone who has them locally (or a store that has them on display) I will try them on to see how much difference stock pads make.

I tried driving them with a few devices. They work well directly from Fiio X5II headphone output. With an integrated amp there's more bass, but overall SQ is worse, impedance mismatch. I settled on headphone output of Proton 900 preamp, which drives them a bit better than the Fiio without sacrificing sound quality.
 
Hrmm. Surprised they work better with a small media player than an integrated amp but what matters is they work and they sound great!
 
Fiio X5II is quite a bit better than your average small media player, it is designed to drive 150 ohm headphones and it actually works quite well with even higher impedance headphones (I tried 600 ohm Sennheisers, my friend uses his Fiio with 300 ohm Beyers). Its amp's output is 245 mW into 32 ohms. For comparison, Sansa Clip+ (well known small media player that I would say is slightly above average) has an output of 7.5 mW into 32 ohms. Samsung Galaxy S5 has an output of 10.63 mW into 32 ohms.
Fiio X5II has 25-30 times more output power than an average portable player, and it has no problem pushing HD 700. Another DAP that is known to work well with HD 700 is Pono.

Integrated amps obviously have more power, but also high headphone output impedance due to the resistor based design. It is usually somewhere in the 150-350 ohms range. Not a big problem with headphones that have 300 ohms or higher impedance, but it is a problem with many dynamic headphones with impedance below 300 ohms, including Sennheiser HD 700. One part of the problem is worse control and higher distortion that results in loss of clarity throughout the spectrum. There's also a bass boost (also due to high output impedance) which alone wouldn't be a big problem with these particular headphones (they're not bassy to begin with), but combined with loss of clarity it just makes the sound worse with these headphones. The same integrated amps sound very good with 600 ohm headphones, so it's definitely an impedance issue.

In any case, the headphone amp in my Proton preamp doesn't have these drawbacks and it sounds a bit smoother and fuller than Fiio alone. It might also have more power, but that's irrelevant, as Fiio alone can easily drive these headphones way above my comfort level.

Fiio was the source/DAC in all three scenarios, and the integrated amps (I tried 2 different amps) and the preamp had all controls flat.
 
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Thanks for the explanation. I understand most of that but I thought that, in general, it was mostly 18 - 60 Ohm phones that might not fare as well with an integrated amp or receiver. I didn't realize that up to 150 Ohm phones might also be affected.
 
It is usually better with 150 Ohm headphones than with lower impedance headphones, but not with HD 700. I actually have 50 Ohm headphones that are affected less.
I think it may have something to with impedance/frequency curve of HD 700, which has a huge spike around 100 Hz (jumps to almost 400 Ohms).
 
Interesting.

I almost always use a small headphone amp, the Schiit Magni. Of course, I like trying them with different sources and amps.

I've noticed that any 'real' headphones, I can use pretty well with the Magni, an old receiver, an older CD player, a new-ish receiver or a Sony digital Walkman but I've been getting into IEMs over the last year and have noticed that some of them don't work that well with the Magni or the older receiver that automatically mutes the speakers when the headphone jack is in use.
 
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