During last week’s CES, Sennheiser was eager to show off its new, pretty insane audiophile-grade headphone called HD 820. There’s a lot to be wow, especially the price tag associated with it, but more on that later. Backed by 70-year of audio equipment making experience, the HD 850 here wants to change your perception on closed-back audiophile headphones. More specifically, it wants to debunk the notion that closed-back aren’t made for audiophile sound.
Featuring Sennheiser’s legendary Ring Radiator transducers covered over with patent-pending Corning Gorilla glass cover that not only creates quite a unique visual eye-candy, revealing the acoustics within, but the toughen glass also serves to reflect sound waves from the rear of the transducer to a pair of absorber chambers which Sennheiser said will minimize resonance.
Other features of this sound hole-pleasing audiophile cans include a robust metal headband with an inner damping element, silver-cladded OFC cables, gold-plated plugs, handcrafted non-allergic synthetic and microfiber leather ear pads, low contact resistance Pentaconn connectors, and finally, everything is put together with the assurance and quality of Germany-made product.
And now, for the price. Being a “game changer for closed-back audiophile headphones,” it naturally does not come anywhere close to affordable. Hell, it will be gross understatement to even say it is expensive. It is beyond expensive. At $2,399.95 each, the Sennheiser HD 820 Closed-back Audiophile Headphone is, without doubt, reserved for the elite audiophiles.
That is not a typo, btw. HD 820 actually cost as much as a decent used car in down under and stateside. The Sennheiser HD 820 Closed-back Audiophile Headphone is expected to be available early Summer 2018, but eager beavers can already pre-order it as we speak.
Images courtesy of Sennheiser.
