On July 9, 2007, a representative from Sennheiser USA posted a photo contest on Head-Fi. The rules were simple: submit a photo that was creative and edgy, featured Sennheiser headphones (any model, no other manufacturers) and kept a positive outlook (no bashing of their name). Simple enough. The prize is the interesting part. The top four winners, chosen by a vote, would be given a pair of HD480-13-II (600 ohm) headphones. Many years ago, six pairs were shipped from Germany to the United States and were never opened or sold. They are keeping two pairs for their headphone museum and four are being given away. What makes these headphones different from the regular HD480’s, which were sold, is that they were made for the stage and have a high impedance. This means they are tougher to drive (you need a strong amp).
I waited until three or four pages of entries were posted to see what the competition was bringing to the table. In case you are not familiar with Head-Fi, you basically have a collection of males, who are age 18-50, gainfully employed (ie not poor), and technically savvy (engineers, phd students etc). I thought surely this level of skill and dedication would translate over. Needless to say I was surprised at both the content and attitudes. People took the contest very literally. They took their digital cameras and submitted pictures of headphones on their desk. Headphones by an amp. Headphones hanging on a hook. The adventurous ones took macro shots, zoomed in on a part of the headphone. Then I submitted my picture:
That’s a picture of my friend Brian’s daughter Sam. It took hours of setting up, very cooperative parents, and lots of patience (try dealing with a hyper 5 year old in a pitch dark house under construction). It took another 4 days or so of back and forth editing sessions by my friend, the UI god, Prakash to get a finished product. I posted the picture on July 25th and immediately the Sennheiser rep, The Delivery Man, posted a reply saying he loved it. The landscape changed. People starting stepping up their game. For the most part though, pretty boring in my opinion.
I was more disappointed in the attitudes of the members rather than the quality of the entries. After my submission, I did not post another word. I sat back and watched grown, educated men bicker and fight amongst each other. Lots of passive aggressiveness came out with people suggesting copyright violations or misinterpretations of the rules. Then when the poll was (2 weeks) late, they couldn’t stop talking either. Rather than being appreciative for a contest with no entry fee and an awesome prize, they kept going at it. They suggested ways that people might cheat or tamper with the voting. What if people got their friends to vote? Should we track votes by IP? Oh no!
Finally, the poll went up on August 14th. Even in its short three pages of discussion, people were still doing their politicking. One member suggested that since I was a shoe-in, people should just vote for their 2nd or 3rd favorite instead. Ridiculous. Others complained they weren’t aware the poll was active or that Sennheiser made a mistake in narrowing down the top 15 entries. In the end, I won first place with 27% of the votes, nearly doubling that of second place. I even made it on the front page of the site!
Thanks to Sennheiser USA, The Delivery Man, and Head-Fi for putting up the contest!
P.S. Many people have asked me if these headphones are supposed to be the top of the line, super expensive headphones. No, their not. They are desirable, to me, because they are rare. I am sure you could go out and spend not too much money ($150?) and get headphones of the same caliber.
congratulations on winning the contest! i can’t wait to see your new headphones.
“P.S. Many people have asked me if these headphones are supposed to be the top of the line, super expensive headphones. No, their not. They are desirable, to me, because they are rare. I am sure you could go out and spend not too much money ($150?) and get headphones of the same caliber.”
You know, I really don’t know if that is the case. There are certain types of music where these seem to sing like absolutely no other(Find a copy of the album “Brand new day” by Sting, or anything by Mehdi).
But their real talent, in my opinion, is in vocal reproduction. Listen to a live radio discussion, or even the news on TV, and you can be absolutely certain that what you hear is precisely how it is intended to sound. There is no colouration or distortion in any way, at least to my ears.
They certainly have their weaknesses – the soundstage doesn’t immediately stand-out as being open, the bass can seem a little heavy on some music, and a little light on other tracks, but after a while it’s hard to come to a conclusion other than that the headphones are doing their job supremely well. There are others out there that may offer a wider soundstage(or, even better, decent studio-monitor loudspeakers!), or others that seem to deliver a more pleasing sound with a certain genre of music. But for accurate and faithful reproduction of anything pumped into it, it really is difficult to fault – let alone actually beat – the old 480II.
In my ill-informed opinion, of course.
I really dislike some of the attitude displayed over at Head-Fi, so I rarely browse, let alone post over there these days. It’s a shame, because it can be a hobby with real passion and bite, but the snobbery and clique displayed by some members can be rather off-putting.
