Sennheiser HD 800 S (2016) vs Monoprice Monolith M565

The Sennheiser HD 800 S (2016) is an exemplary product and one of the very best Open-Back Headphones at the $1,400 budget.

The Monoprice Monolith M565, however, doesn't seem to have enough data available for us to be able to draw any meaningful conclusions.

The Sennheiser HD 800 S (2016) has managed to impress reviewers from some of the most highly trusted sources on the internet, including AVForums and Rtings. It performed great in their in-depth hands-on roundups - it was awarded the "Best Headphone 2018" title by AVForums and "Best Open-Back" by Android Central in their respective Open-Back Headphone roundups. That's high praise, especially when coming from such high-quality sources.

Returning to the Monoprice Monolith M565, SoundGuys, a source that's known for its high-quality in-depth testing, has great things to say about it. In fact, it was named its "Ranked 1 out of 5" in its "Best headphones under $200" roundup, which is quite a feat.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Open-Back Headphones, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Sennheiser HD 800 S (2016) got its highest, 10, rating from Expert Reviews, while the Monoprice Monolith M565 earned its best, 9, score from SoundGuys.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Open-Back Headphones on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Open-Back Headphones being 7.8 out of 10, whereas the Sennheiser HD 800 S (2016) and Monoprice Monolith M565 managed averages of 9.6 and 9.0 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct Sennheiser HD 800 S (2016) vs. Monoprice Monolith M565 comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.