Ken Rockwell reviews the HD800!

[Mikado]

http://kenrockwell.com/audio/sennheiser/hd800.htm

this was totally unexpected. 

edit: but I sure did love this quote:

I am not an audiophile. Audiophiles love audio and equipment, but rarely music. An audiophile is someone who can't listen for more than a few minutes before stopping to change capacitors or swap cables. Audiophiles spend more on equipment than they spend on music and concerts. They will own dozens of different headphones, cables and amplifiers, and receive their pleasure from fiddling with all this gear. Audiophiles listen to their gear, instead of the music.

[Za'afiel]

Wuhoo! Unexpected indeed. But I sort of like the review... his style brings a lot of purists back to earth.

[seven]

its true.

sometimes you get so engrossed in your gear, that the most important thing is forgotten.
the music itself. sometimes people also forget that to "enjoy" music, you don't
necessarily need a $600 / $1200 / $2000 system. having a lesser system
doesn't mean you won't be able to just simply enjoy in the music any less.
even if detail is less, its in mono, or whatever; the joy you get in music cannot be measured
in the amount of money you spend on it.

also, its highly recommend people also to play any musical instruments as well.
there's so much more appreciation and life in creating music for yourself  rather than just listening.

[donunus]

Love the review!

[solomonella]

awesome review! loved the part boss Mikado quoted

[donunus]

That whole concept of his review is true IMO. I started off as a hardcore music lover ever since I was a kid. I used to buy tapes and records instead of toys when I was 7 then sound reproduction became a part of the importance when i was around 10 yrs old. Sound quality and music appreciation went along hand in hand perfectly until the day came when changing equipment all the time became necessary for me to enjoy the music. I think that disease of audiophilia hit me around 1989 when i was 16 years old during the time when I also built my first speakers. Everytime audiophilia takes over, the music listening seems to become boring and the hobby and the process of nitpicking gets a little tedious after a while so what I do everytime that moment happens when I get bored with music is step back and get rid of my equipment, get something simple and decent to replace them, then just enjoy the music. I know it works because its been a few months now and I have been enjoying my music listening through my px100-II out of my laptop's HP jack and my ipod longer than Ive enjoyed listening to my tunes through my past expensive cans.

[dduckquack]

this is helpful, thanks

[Boymasskara]

i like this review better.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/kidizoom.htm

Some Windows software is included, but I don't use any of it since it won't work on a pro computer (Mac).

and probably his favorite photo of flowers

[Mochan]

Rockwell? That annoying photography guy with an ego the size of Mt. Pinatubo, who everyone hates?  Gosh I can't believe you guys are reading his stuff!

[Boymasskara]

Rockwell? That annoying photography guy with an ego the size of Mt. Pinatubo, who everyone hates?  Gosh I can't believe you guys are reading his stuff!

well, i'm reading it for entertainment, and sometimes the specs of the lens that i want to know because that data came from the manufacturer

try this, bro Erwin

http://blog.bahneman.com/content/ken-rockwell-facts?story=Ken_Rockwell_Facts

[Mikado]

Rockwell? That annoying photography guy with an ego the size of Mt. Pinatubo, who everyone hates?  Gosh I can't believe you guys are reading his stuff!

exactly which is why i'm quite surprised to see a (pretty good) review of the HD800

[marcusd]

I say try all you can, upgrade, downgrade, sidegrade but when you have finished, settled back and enjoy the music year in year out

[donunus]

My whole idea is... be a hardcore audiophile all you want even if you forget the music. be a music lover without caring about audio quality. Be both... The most important thing is that you are having fun. As for me, even when I'm obsessing on cable comparisons, codec comparisons, headphone comparisons, etc... I'm having fun like all of us are over here. That is great. What is not great is when a hardcore music lover for example can't get anymore music because he spent all his money on audio equipment that he got tired of in a day or two... Or something like that... It sort of becomes like a drug this audio addiction of ours hehehe

[reorx]

The reviews of Ken Rockwell's have as much credibility in the Photography world as those of 6moons in the audio world

But he has a point there. Audiophiles DO spend to much time listening to gear than to music, or "measurebating" (to borrow a photog term i heard from my brother) than enjoying the music

[riddler]

I'd take Mr. Rockwell's cranky, opinionated yet somewhat pragmatic reviews over a review that contains a lot of technical blabber which I barely understand nor do I care to know about. YMMV.