Headphone Features
Headphone Amplifier Features

Headphone Features

Overview: The HD 800 S (506911) is Sennheiser's flagship in the Reference Class of wired headphones. The headphones are designed to give you an optimum natural listening experience, with a realistic sound field and extremely low distortion. The HD 800 S comes with two cables, including a balanced cable for use with headphone amplifiers. The headphones and cables can be stored in the elegant, padded box. The Sennheiser HD 800 S is developed in Germany and handcrafted in Ireland.

Open Design: The HD 800 S circum-aural (over-the-ear) headphones feature an open design to give you an exceptionally natural, spatial, and accurate sound. Unlike closed, noise-isolating ear cups, the HD 800 S's ear cups have a specialty steel mesh, molded to the natural shape of the acoustic chamber, to provide an open environment.

Angled Transducers: The HD 800 S has very large 56mm ring radiator transducers to resemble the perfect positioning of a pair of reference monitors to put you in the center of the sweet spot. The ear cups are designed to direct the sound waves toward the ear at a slight angle to provide a natural, spatial listening experience. The ear cups also feature handmade microfiber ear pads for exceptional comfort over extended listening sessions.

Headphone Cables: The HD 800 S comes with two interchangeable headphone cables. The cables split a short distance from the headphones, and plug into each ear cup with a special, high precision connector. The 11.5' unbalanced cable is terminated with a standard, heavy-duty 1/4" plug. The 11.25' balanced cable has a 4.4mm connector that offers the best sound quality when used with a DAC or headphone amplifier. Both cables feature a nylon outer covering that quiets contact noise from the cable.

Storage Box: The HD 800 S has a sturdy, hinged box with cut-out foam padding for storage of your headphones and cables.

Specifications:

• Frequency Response: 10-44,100 Hz (-3dB); 4-51,000 Hz (-10dB)
• Nominal Impedance: 300Ω
• Sound Pressure Level: 102 dB (1 kHz, 1 Vrms)
• Long-term Input Power: max 500 mW
• THD (1kHz / 1V): ≤0.02%
• Ear Cup Dimensions: Width 4.292", Height 4.815", Depth 1.9"
• Weight: 11.64 ounces (w/o cable)

Headphone Amplifier Features

Overview: The HDV 820 Digital Headphone Amplifier (507444) is the perfect complement to Sennheiser's high-end headphones. It has a sleek black anodized aluminum housing with white LEDs to match the flagship HD 800 S headphone. The amplifier lets you connect up to four pairs of dynamic headphones at one time, and includes an XLR-3 / 1/4" combo jack, an XLR-4 jack, and two 4.4mm Pentaconn jacks. There are both balanced and unbalanced analog input jacks for connecting source units, as well as optical and coaxial digital, and USB (Type B) inputs. The HDV 820 is engineered in Germany, and manufactured in Ireland.

Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC): The HDV 820 features a high quality ESS Sabre32 digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which delivers wide dynamic range, low distortion, and crystal clear audio. The DAC is capable of 32-bit resolution with a sampling rate of up to 384 kHz. It can also play DSD256 files with a frequency of up to 12.3 MHz.

Symmetrical Signal Processing: The HDV 820's symmetrical signal processing provides exact signal transmission over the entire frequency spectrum with very low harmonic distortion. Very short signal paths are used, resulting in a wide dynamic range, wide bandwidth, and high transient response. The use of high quality components gives you the pure musical enjoyment from any source.

Input Selector: You can connect several types of audio sources to the headphone amp, and switch between them using the rotary Input Selector switch. There are 5 positions to choose from:

• USB: This Type B USB input allows you to connect your Mac (OS X ver 10.6 and later) or PC (Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11, 32 or 64 bits) directly to the amplifier. You should use a USB 2.0 certified cable with Type B and Type A connections. The USB input supports:
  • PCM Audio up to 32-bit resolution with a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz, 352.8 kHz, or 384 kHz
  • DSD 64 (2,822,400 Hz), DSD 128 (5,644,800 Hz), or DSD 256 (11,289,600 Hz) files
• Optical Digital: This TosLink input can receive digital audio signals in PCM format at sampling rates up to 96 kHz from an optical cable.
• Coaxial Digital: This Coaxial digital (RCA) input will accept digital audio signals in PCM format at sampling rates of up to 192 kHz from a 75Ω coaxial cable.
• Unbalanced: The Unbalanced input has left and right RCA jacks, and will accept unbalanced analog audio signals through a stereo RCA cable. The Unbalanced Input features an adjustable input gain control for obtaining the optimum signal level. There are 5 positions to choose from: 14dB, 22dB, 30dB, 38dB, and 46dB.
• Balanced: The Balanced input features 2 balanced female XLR-3 jacks, and will accept balanced analog signals. The gain of the Balanced input signal is set to 16dB, and is not adjustable.

Headphone Connections: The Sennheiser HDV 820 offers a total of 4 connections to drive dynamic headphones:

• Combo Jack: A Neutrik combination socket that will accept XLR-3 or 1/4" (6.3mm) unbalanced plugs.
• XLR-4: A Neutrik XLR-4 socket for balanced headphone connection.
• Pentaconn: Two 4.4mm Pentaconn connectors with lower contact resistance, minimal distortion, and more transparent sound.

Balanced Output: The HDV 820 has left and right male XLR-3 balanced outputs for connecting the unit to a power amplifier or to powered speakers. The output level can be adjusted using the front panel volume control.

Specifications:

• Frequency Response: <10 Hz to >100 kHz
• Crosstalk Attenuation: min. 93dB @ 1 kHz
• THD+N: <0.001%
• Gain:
  • Unbalanced Input/XLR-4 Output: adjustable 14dB, 22dB, 30dB, 38dB, 46dB
  • Balanced Input/XLR-4 Output: 16dB
• Dynamic Range: >115dB @ 600Ω load (A-weighted)
• Temperature Range (operation): 41°F to 113°F (5°C to 45°C)
• Max. Input Level:
  • Balanced: 18dBV
  • Unbalanced: 20dBV
• Input Impedance:
  • Balanced: 20kΩ
  • Unbalanced: 10kΩ
• Headphone Outputs:
  • Impedance: min. 16Ω (1/4", XLR-3, XLR-4, 4.4mm)
• Dimensions: Width 8.5", Height 2.177" Depth 14.5 (including cables)
• Weight: 4.96 pounds