Introduction
When the Sennheiser HD820 was announced, we at the store were pretty intrigued. Could Sennheiser capture the HD800S series sound in a closed back design? Could this be the headphone that finally delivers a reference level, open back experience in a fully sealed, noise isolating design?
The answer is, kind of. The devil in the details. In the course of developing my thoughts on the HD820S, I had a long discussion with Eric, a proud owner of the previous flagship 800-series headphone, the HD800S. You can watch the 15-minute Youtube video of our discussion below, but this post will be a summary of our findings.
Design
Firstly, in terms of physical design, the HD820 is a beautiful headphone. It takes the ornate space-laser design of the HD800S, gives it a matte black paintjob, thicker earpads and literally caps it off with a concave piece of Gorilla Glass.
This piece of glass is the pièce de résistance of the HD820. Open headphones are sometimes considered superior to closed headphones because in an open headphone, sound that is emitted from the back of the driver - the backwave - is allowed to escape from the rear of the headphone rather than bouncing around and returning to the listener in the form of resonances that muddy the soundstage image. The HD820 is a closed headphone, but the glass piece is curved so that the backwave from the driver is reflected away from the listeners ears, and into acoustic chambers around the rear of the headphone that are designed to diffuse these resonances.
Sound
We can confidently say that as far as this particular aspect of the HD820 goes, this design works, and it works well. The HD820 is the most open-sounding closed headphone that we have heard, with very little of the typical enclosed sound that a closed headphone typically exhibits. In fact when wearing the HD820 you could almost be fooled into believing you are listening to an open headphone. The HD820 delivers a wide, expansive soundstage, though it’s still not quite as wide as the HD800S. And here is where the other differences start to make themselves heard.
Eric is a big fan of the HD800S. He finds it a very relaxing listen with an accurate / reference level of technical ability. I agree with some hesitation - I’ve always found the HD800S (and the even more ‘accurate’ HD800) to be a marvellous listening instrument, but never something that really felt particularly engaging to listen to. The sound has always struck me as diffuse and not particularly exciting. Considering that I tend to gravitate towards richer planar bass response, as well as the kind of coloured mids that Japanese headphones tend to bring, this is not surprising. I can understand why Eric, or anyone else really, would like the HD800 though. It’s a headphone ideally suited for critical listening - I just think its better for classical and jazz, but not much fun for pop or electronic.
The HD820 changes a few things about the HD800’s sound. Firstly, there is more bass, long considered an advantage with closed back designs. The bass on the HD820 is punchier and digs deeper, though there is little bleed into the mid-bass. Sennheiser reportedly concentrated on ensuring that the increase in bass response did not come with a muddying of the mid-bass range. The result is clean and visceral, and this is something that both I and Eric appreciated immensely. The change in the bass response immediately makes it my favourite out of the HD800/800S/820 triplet, and Eric (who also owns a Sony MDR-Z1) has similar praise for the way the bass adds some fun colour to the sound.
Things also are a bit subdued with the treble range of the HD820, resulting in less sparkle and energy in the highest frequencies. I’m not so fazed by this - to me, the HD820 is a little ‘safer’ in the treble with some high energy tracks. Eric was less happy about this change - remember that Eric owns a MDR-Z1, so he certainly appreciates a bit of treble. But as far as the HD820 goes, this wasn’t a deal breaker for Eric either.
It’s in the upper midrange / vocal range where things get trickier with the HD820. Perhaps as a consequence of closing off the design, vocals have a bit of a closed-off sound to them - as if the singer was singing with hands cupped around their mouth. For Eric, this really kills the vibe of the HD820. I don’t personally mind the change so much, but I do agree that it makes the sound of vocals less natural than it should be.
Don’t get us wrong - the HD820 is still more recognizably an HD800-series headphone than any other headphone we have heard. For many people, the HD820 will be a perfect fit - sound similar enough to the HD800, but in a fully sealed, isolating package. But for many purists who were fans of the HD800 sound (and for whom the HD800S’s slightly warmer presentation may be offputting), the HD820 may be little too coloured.
Personally speaking, this is the only headphone in the three that I genuinely quite enjoy listening to, though I still would prefer a bit more absolute slam in the bass and sweeter, richer vocals. And to me the HD820 is more of an easy long term listen than some other closed back flagships, like the Fostex TH900 and the Sony MDR-Z1, which both have treble responses that strike me as fatiguing after a few minutes. But Eric and I both agree, the HD820 is more of a side-grade than an upgrade to the HD800S formula.
The HD820 is available for demo at Minidsc, and we would love to know what you think!
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