As a Club Orpheus dealer we stock all of the high-end Sennheiser headphones. The range is small, just consisting of the open backed HD800 S, at £1,400, the In-Ear IE800 S, at £870, and the headphone amplifier HDV820, at £2,100. The latest addition is the HD820, a high-end closed back design. Open backed designs are fine to use at home late at night to avoid disturbing the neighbours, but if someone was watching TV and another person was listening to music on open backed headphones in the same room, both people would disturb each other. Hence the challenge for Sennheiser was to produce a closed backed headphone that sounded as good, or better, than their top-of-the-range open backed HD800S. This they have achieved with the HD820, which cost £2,000. As usual they are exceptionally comfortable, with their soft hand-crafted microfiber ear pads cutting out ambient noise, while even the metal headband contains an inner damping element.
We have been very impressed with sound of the HD820. The low end sound is especially good, particularly with electronic music, while remaining very delicate on classical and acoustic music. We carry the HD820 on demonstration, so if you would like to hear how good a closed back headphone can sound, or would like to compare them with the HD 800S, do arrange to drop by.