Wonderful, in-depth review!
Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
Byrnie
Sonic Defender
I think you nailed it well my friend. Perhaps I will get the nerve to regrill (but I do like the stock signature quite a bit). I would be curious if you find a slight lack of midbass? I sometimes feel there is a very small lack as for instance in the song 46 and 2 by Tool there is a section where a tom is hit once as an accent. This hit was always slightly back in the mix, and based on the sound of the tom I would have to assume it was tuned to be mostly a midbass tom. Now I find the same tom hit ever so slightly back further (or just quieter) in the mix. You perceive the hit, but there is less body to it. Anyway, regardless if that is true or just a product of my imagination, the 560s are brilliant and as we have been saying all along, this might be a new classic benchmark for top-tier performance at a price far more people can reach. Great review Jerg.
jerg
If you want more midbass punch with HE560s, I have found two ways: either EQ (bump up 100-200 Hz area), or try some Jergpads.
Rudiger
Focus-A does not add some midbass ?
ThurstonX
Good stuff, jerg. Thanks for taking the time to revise your review for the final production model.
I'll add something I discovered yesterday when I disassembled the mismatched pair of pads that came with my HE-560s. The (blue) foam used is the same, but the FocusPad's foam is thicker (deeper). Angling seems about the same. Since I was creating my own pads using a pair of doughnuts left over from making jergpads, I compared the too foams. Older is definitely stiffer. The blue foam is soft and floppy (insert your own jokes here), but also a little thinner (depth). The relative lack of depth combined with the softer foam means one's ears are closer to the driver, and even with unmodified FocusPads, one's ears are likely to touch the dust screen. I simply cannot wear the FocusPad-As, and have already traded them for another pair of FocusPads. An easy mod for those desiring more depth is to insert a ring of some material, a la the old pleather pads. I used the thicker, non-adhesive Creatology foam. That makes the FocusPads usable for me, though I still want more overall space inside. I'm probably going to hack up my extra set of FocusPads to see what I can do with them. And as we've discovered, foam density plays a critical role in the timbre of the sound. The seriously dense Q701 pad foam makes them almost too dark, though with some things it can help. They're certainly darker than my other hacked up pads (old HFM foam) and the FocusPads. Kinda sounds like how you describe the jergpad sound by comparison, but more so. The jergpads make for a nice compromise. I suspect there's a little blurring of the line between upper-bass and lower-mids, but that's just a guess.
Anyway, just a few notes and ideas for mods. As you note, the HE-560s really respond to different pads, more so than the HE-500s, for example, so it's a wide-open playground.
Lastly, don't mind me, but I'm always proof-reading. A couple of things you might fix are:
Under Midrange:
"For me, HE560's midrange is a complex matter creature." I'm guessing you meant to choose between "matter" and "creature".
Under Soundstage:
"Medium-sized with the stock cans" "cans" should be "pads", yes?
Cheers.
I'll add something I discovered yesterday when I disassembled the mismatched pair of pads that came with my HE-560s. The (blue) foam used is the same, but the FocusPad's foam is thicker (deeper). Angling seems about the same. Since I was creating my own pads using a pair of doughnuts left over from making jergpads, I compared the too foams. Older is definitely stiffer. The blue foam is soft and floppy (insert your own jokes here), but also a little thinner (depth). The relative lack of depth combined with the softer foam means one's ears are closer to the driver, and even with unmodified FocusPads, one's ears are likely to touch the dust screen. I simply cannot wear the FocusPad-As, and have already traded them for another pair of FocusPads. An easy mod for those desiring more depth is to insert a ring of some material, a la the old pleather pads. I used the thicker, non-adhesive Creatology foam. That makes the FocusPads usable for me, though I still want more overall space inside. I'm probably going to hack up my extra set of FocusPads to see what I can do with them. And as we've discovered, foam density plays a critical role in the timbre of the sound. The seriously dense Q701 pad foam makes them almost too dark, though with some things it can help. They're certainly darker than my other hacked up pads (old HFM foam) and the FocusPads. Kinda sounds like how you describe the jergpad sound by comparison, but more so. The jergpads make for a nice compromise. I suspect there's a little blurring of the line between upper-bass and lower-mids, but that's just a guess.
Anyway, just a few notes and ideas for mods. As you note, the HE-560s really respond to different pads, more so than the HE-500s, for example, so it's a wide-open playground.
Lastly, don't mind me, but I'm always proof-reading. A couple of things you might fix are:
Under Midrange:
"For me, HE560's midrange is a complex matter creature." I'm guessing you meant to choose between "matter" and "creature".
Under Soundstage:
"Medium-sized with the stock cans" "cans" should be "pads", yes?
Cheers.
jerg
Haha thanks for the proof-reading. I fleshed out this writeup at 4AM (apartment mate just had to delay my midnight laundry so I felt productive at such an hour).
Sweden
How is imaging, specially compared to the HD800?
