Another spicy tidbit of Winter NAMM news from Sennheiser involves some swanky headphones, the HD 800s, and at a suggested retail price of a nickel short of $1,400, either these headphones are the grand poobah of headphones or they're being used to subsidize potential auto-industry bailouts . . . or both.

There's no doubt that the HD 800 will be la creme de la creme of the Sennheiser series, and the company suggests that serious audiophiles might even be reminded of the legendary Orpheus headphones. The HD 800 phones feature innovative ear cup design that directs sound to the ear at a slight angle and a 56 mm sound transducer. They don't make 'em any bigger than that in any dynamic headphones I ever 'hoid' of.

The diaphragm's vibrating part is a ring with the superpower to set the entire air volume over the transducer into motion for rich, robust sound. This patented annular design remedies dastardly dynamic transducer principle problems. Sennheiser acoustics developer Axel Grell talks transducer:

"The more transducer surface area is caused to vibrate, the purer the headphone sound becomes at low frequencies. However, transducers with a large surface area have the disadvantage that, at high frequencies, undesired resonances known as eigenforms occur at the diaphragm. This results in distortions in sound reproduction that even high-quality Duofol laminations are not able to completely eliminate. The ring design minimizes the distortion of the sound image, even with a transducer as large as 56mm." The result is impressive: with total harmonic distortion of less than 0.02 percent (at 1kHz and 100dB SPL) and an outstanding frequency response of 6 to 51,000Hz, the HD 800 has brilliant trebles, precise bass reproduction and a much clearer sound image."

Eigenforms be damned. As for the special design of the ear cups, Grell added:

"We perceive acoustic signals to be natural when we experience them with a spatial extension. Today, most music is made to be reproduced by two loudspeakers, which form an equal-sided triangle together with the listener. This results in a sound field close to the ears that is at a slight angle to the head. When the sound field reaches the ears, the sound is reflected into the ear canal and to the eardrum by the structures of the external ear with slight time differences. It is precisely these differences that are a key factor in spatial hearing and in the localization of the sound event outside the head. With its large, inclined transducers, the HD 800 generates a sound field that corresponds to the listening experience with loudspeakers, but far exceeds loudspeakers in the purity of the sound reproduction."

These top-of-the-line headphones have an elegant look, sure to be he belle of the ball with black and silver finish, and the look disguises that the acoustics of the transducers aren't bothered by partial vibrations. The secret is that Sennheiser mounts each transducer in gauze! High-precision gauze!

The ear cups themselves are made of fine-quality plastic with notable attenuation characteristics. Said cups have no covering to minimize the chances for partial vibrations to arise. Even a special, multi-layered headband has been designed to eliminate SPL dips at low frequencies by attenuating headband vibrations. Contrary to what the Beach Boys told you, there are no good vibrations when it comes to headphone design.

Seriously, though, Sennheiser really went all out with the HD 800 headphones. They even developed special four-strand, high-performance wires crafted with silver-plated, low-oxygen copper and protected against electromagnetic disturbances. All plugs are gold plated. That, my friends, is where the gold at.

Finally, Sennheiser opted not to compromise comfort for quality, providing the best of both worlds. The headphones are engineered for stability while being worn. The circumaural cups don't assault you with "aggressive lateral pressure," and ear pad material is Japanese Alcantra, which is skin-friendly and easily kept clean. This is the high life, folks.