Sennheiser have just revealed their latest and greatest high-end IEM’s to date called the IE800, alongside their first ever headphone amplifier, the HDVD 800. Both of these new items slot in at the top of Sennheiser’s range, the IE800′s bring newly designed miniaturised drivers and I suspect it may be their first venture into a balanced armature hybrid design (To be confirmed). The styling for me is exquisite and will turn heads wherever you are with the twin exhaust looking vents on the back. The HDVD 800 has been designed as the ideal partner for the company’s more expensive models such as the HD800 and HD700’s.
The flagship IE800 earphones are believed to use a brand new Sennheiser patented, 7mm extra-wide band driver, which the company says is the smallest in the industry. The patented driver design delivers a frequency range of 5 – 46,500 Hz, pretty impressive from such a small surface area.
The hybrid drivers have been clad in ceramic casings and stainless steel vents on the back have been added for improved bass. Unlike the IE80 headphones the lead is not detachable which has its pro’s and con’s but with I believe it will come with a Kevlar and Teflon insulated cable similar to the HD800 headphones to offer the best quality and very little noise from movement.
The HDVD 800 has been construced from a slab of anodised aluminum with a glass window on top to show the symmetrical digital amp, it is capable of supporting up to 24-bit 192kHz sources and has designed for use particularly with Sennheiser’s own HD 800, HD 700, HD 650 and HD 600 earphones. Inputs on the rear of the HDVD800 include AES/EBU, S/PDIF (optical and coaxial) or USB. The USB 2.0 audio standard offers 24 bit data transmission at up to 192KHz so suitable for the latest high resolution audio files played back from your PC or MAC.
The Sennheiser IE 800 earphones will go on sale this summer, priced at £499, while the HDVD 800 headphone amp will arrive at the same time, priced at £1,399.
