CES 2009: Sennheiser announces "world's best headphones"- the HD800s
Sennheiser’s making quite a bold claim here – the world’s best headphones. The HD800s apparently sound better than any other pair of headphones on the planet. I suspect that it might be difficult to prove that one to a jury – surely it’s more than a little subjective?
But let’s not quibble over that – it’s beyond doubt that these are damn good. A brand new “RING” driver, developed specifically for these cans alone, can deliver an amazing 6Hz – 51kHz frequency response. For comparison, your average person on the street can hear about 20Hz to 20kHz. Unless you’re an audiophile, therefore, you’re not going to get much out of these. Sennheiser also claims an amazingly low 0.02% distortion.
A combination of the RING driver, “aerospace grade” plastics, stainless steel and silver-plated cables go towards making these headphones rather impressive. Hilariously, in a thinly veiled dig at Denon, Sennheiser also says “This is a thoroughly modern engineered product, no endangered
trees have been cut down and no cows killed just to provide a
veneer of luxury”, referring to the mahogany and leather in Denon’s AH-D7000 headphones.
I’ve never been a believer in the ‘if you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it’ school of thought, so I’ll tell you right now that these will set you back precisely £999.99. A thousand quid, for a pair of headphones. If your ears are good enough to need the HD800s, then I suggest you spend the cash on insuring them instead, just in case someone shouts “BANG!” a bit too close.
Sennheiser UK (photo credit: the-jude on Flickr)
For more from CES 2009, click through to this page.
