HE-5..initial musings - Page 26

I have never heard the LFD but suspect it has that classic mosfet sound that makes folk build ZEN behemouths or track down the original MF A1 or sudgen's when they pop up.

I am thinking that you may like the sound of the SOHA II - hybrid design but simple SE BJT output ( not that you need more amps but just as to the type of sound that you prefer ... and in that it seems we have similar inclinations. ) Just for the sake of interest, the EHHA that you hear spoken of is a transconductance tube - mosfet amp. Hell let's totally derail this thread and start discussing mosfet amps for headphones ..... hmm, I wrote this I while back for the ortho wiki ( schematics seem to have been removed - no they haven't , just linked to the wrong one) ..dB

Yes, HE5 sounds "thin" when A/B'd against the K701, HD800 ans PS1000. In absolute terms, not at all. HE5 might be the most balanced headphone I've heard. There is no clashing or blurring, transparent (but NOT bright) throughout the spectrum (that's a hard thing to do), and sounds more spacious (to my ears) than the HD800. Now...to me, spacious means space around the performance and no fog and absolutely clear focus. It does NOT mean throwing the images into outer space. HE5 is kind of unique in that the imaging oft-times seems to be behind the head and off to the sides and not placed in front of your face. After becoming accustomed to the HE5, the HD800 bass sounded slow, bloated and dragging behind like a deer carcas behind a pickup truck...the PS1000 had a wee bit of a boom in the mid/upper bass (but the GS1000 had more impact, like live music; the drum kit was alive and kicking)....the K701 had bass. So this might mean that the HE5 lacks bass presence in the long term. I don't know. I DO know that if I had I been given the option to leave my HD800 and K701 behind and walk out of Zanth's house with the HE5, I think I'd have done it in a heartbeat. I already left the Rotel CD player behind

Yeah, stick me with Holly and Oscar and wait 'till I leave to break out the good stuff!

I was thinking more along the lines of SE zero feedback mosfet - that deeeeep bass control which is quite unlike other amps.

While prototyping the EHHA we played around with all sorts of feedback options for the mosfets and it was an eye opener for me to see just how much you could influence overall sonic signature - ultimately i preferred a little feedback but it sounded wonderful with none too.

..dB

this is exactly what i feel and hear from these headphones and they are also very very musical compared to other headphones wich i own -Senns Grados etc.this is the most complete presentation of musicality so far and makes me happy every second ,it has the sound wich i have been looking for many years and didnt find until now

It was the HiFiMan EF1 (I think that's the unit #). Nice amp. Defined what was what with each headphone we used.

....switched back yesterday to normal plug and then to balanced again to be sure what i was hearing.The HE-5 is much better when balanced -airier , headstage ,soundstage etc everything is better .

Excellent news! Can't wait for my balanced cable to come

Hi Beagle,

I know it's been a while since you've heard the HE5, but can you clarify the above or try to confirm my interpretation of it?

The HE5's bass is nice but lacks the oomph of Grado's GS/PS. Even with this "shortcoming" (some would say), it is tighter/faster than the Senn's without being "anemic". I'm not sure what to make of your 701 comment or what the long term presence of bass is.

Thanks!

It's weird because I only hear this lack of oomph with electronic music genres that rely on the huge and long-lasting subwoofer-type of synthetic bass, such as dubstep and ambient. With these genres, some bass notes seem too distant, too quick, almost empty. However, when I switch to music with normal bass played by real instrument (acoustic or amplified), I hear no problem at all, the bass is strong, tight and well defined.

Maybe I just don't amp the HE-5 enough ? All I know is that my Stax lambda pro exhibits the same limitation (but it's probably under-amp), but the "boomy" edition 9 does not, quite the contrary.

Ahh, thanks for the 2nd point of view. So in your experience, he probably meant long-term bass in the sense of how long it lingers.