HiFiman HE-500 (HE as in High End) please post your impressions. . loan pair for UK pg. 28. - Page 192

Quote:

Originally Posted by hifimanrookie 

Yeah right..probably the doctor of love or was it bass?

Doctor of bass, love AND pepper!

Easily the most talent person on Earth! What can he not do?....Just give him a year, he'll soon be out with planar magnetics. Then an epic fight will commence between the two doctors to....Dr. Dre vs. Dr. Fang Bian.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebna 

Short ball guys - HE-500 or T1? If anyone here can be objective of course :D

 

I listen to everything with emphasis on electronic and inde rock ofc most of it in Flac.

 

I come from AH-D1000 and I also own for last few days D7100 but I dont like them and I am going to return them as way too bassy and wit ha bit of pinchy highs and mutated high pitched women voices.

 

Thanks for all and any input :)
 

The only way to be objective is to not say anything and just show you graphs, from which you derive your own conclusions:

HE500

Innerfidelity data: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANHE500.pdf

Changstar data:

T1

Innerfidelity data: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BeyerdynamicT1.pdf

Changstar data:

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebna 

Short ball guys - HE-500 or T1? If anyone here can be objective of course :D

 

I listen to everything with emphasis on electronic and inde rock ofc most of it in Flac.

 

I come from AH-D1000 and I also own for last few days D7100 but I dont like them and I am going to return them as way too bassy and wit ha bit of pinchy highs and mutated high pitched women voices.

 

Thanks for all and any input :)
 

Haven't heard T1, although most people've told me that T1 doesn't have the right impact. The HE-500 kicks ass for those genres, right up there with LCD-2 for electronica.

Allright smartie pants ;) so little less objective please :D - all opinions are welcomed :)

Also help with interpretation of those 3D graphs would be nice - never seen them before.

Thanks
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebna 

Allright smartie pants ;) so little less objective please :D - all opinions are welcomed :)

 

Also help with interpretation of those 3D graphs would be nice - never seen them before.

 

Thanks
 

Those are waterfall charts - basically spectographs with time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoom25 

 

Haven't heard T1, although most people've told me that T1 doesn't have the right impact. The HE-500 kicks ass for those genres, right up there with LCD-2 for electronica.

But how good are the HE-500 at handling the far from perfect sources of 320 mp3 files and and remixes of different kind? Will they be forgiving? I like to listen quite mid to loud volumes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Camper 

I have the T-1s on now and tell you they are a few compromise headphone. Perhaps the 800s are more technical but at the cost of warmth the T-1s have. If you listen to low volume or acoustic/vocal material, the T-1s. But for electronic and better all rounder its the HE-500 with a current generous amp. And just as I was to hit the submit button, Roland Maria Stangier comes on with the English townhall organ and shows just how versatile the T-1s are.

hehe :) thumbs up.

I am exploring some random Jazz on D7100 at the moment and preparing myself for some 24/192 material in few seconds which I just downloaded completely free from http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html go get some :)

Coming back to subject.

I listen on medium to high volumes usually. At least I think so as I have no real comparison to anyone.

The only thing I am a bit afraid in HE-500 is that they need to be listened to really loud, I heard, to get most of them while I am not entirely sure if I am up for it or if they can be listened to on low volumes and still sound great?

Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebna 

Short ball guys - HE-500 or T1? If anyone here can be objective of course :D

 

 

Have them both, T1 is nice change of pace and do sound very good in their own right, but got to cans are the 500's. Grater detail, fuller sound, more involving. I may feel different once I get an OTL on the T1's.

KP

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebna 

 

But how good are the HE-500 at handling the far from perfect sources of 320 mp3 files and and remixes of different kind? Will they be forgiving? I like to listen quite mid to loud volumes.

In my experience, this has been amp dependent. With O2, bad recordings with compressed dynamic range can sound boring. Although with great recordings, the O2 can deliver the perfect experience. With the Emotiva, everything sounds good all the time with it. Whether its 320 or FLAC, you will enjoy it. Throw remixes, bootlegs, mashups or whatever with Emotiva and you'll have a fun time - also the dynamic range on average is higher with Emotiva. Dynamic range is usually left out in reviews, but with planars and electronic music, I absolutely feel the need for an expansive dynamic range. 

For example, the E10 starts crapping out at times, sounding flat and dull with O2 and Emotiva, in comparison to Marantz CD5004. You need a good dynamic range to truly "feel" the song.

So my answer is, it depends on your gear. Although I would still say that the HE-500 is closer to the forgiving side of the spectrum. The KRK KNS 8400 while not as revealing as the HE-500 can make awful recordings a pain to listen to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebna 

 

But how good are the HE-500 at handling the far from perfect sources of 320 mp3 files and and remixes of different kind? Will they be forgiving? I like to listen quite mid to loud volumes.

 

 

hehe :) thumbs up.

 

I am exploring some random Jazz on D7100 at the moment and preparing myself for some 24/192 material in few seconds which I just downloaded completely free from http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html go get some :)

 

Coming back to subject.

 

I listen on medium to high volumes usually. At least I think so as I have no real comparison to anyone.

 

The only thing I am a bit afraid in HE-500 is that they need to be listened to really loud, I heard, to get most of them while I am not entirely sure if I am up for it or if they can be listened to on low volumes and still sound great?

 

Thanks

Jazz? High pitched voices? I can be wrong..but that has he500 allover it  But pls get the right amp for it

Quote:

Originally Posted by snip3r77 

The thread is exceptionally active today.

Been researching a bit and according to the Fang Bian it requires a 1w amp. Not many amps exist, at most 10 that you can find.

Will the bottle head Crack work? I understand that it is OTL based and it's more optimized for high impedance rather than low.

Cheers

No no no it doesn't require it. It'd be nice if it could get it, but HE500s are exceptionally forgiving in terms of amping, moreso than most other high end headphones in fact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKillerPiglet 

 

Have them both, T1 is nice change of pace and do sound very good in their own right, but got to cans are the 500's. Grater detail, fuller sound, more involving. I may feel different once I get an OTL on the T1's.

 

KP

But are the HE-500 ok on lower volumes as well? The thing is that after all T1 are top of the line while HE-500 are second to top which makes the decision a bit more complicated then I thought. Such a shame I cant listen to them both, or even one of them.

I am going to pair them with very transparent and neutral transistor amp which is very revealing. Its name is Black Pearl by Ear Stream (it gives 1.5w).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoom25 

 

In my experience, this has been amp dependent. With O2, bad recordings with compressed dynamic range can sound boring. Although with great recordings, the O2 can deliver the perfect experience. With the Emotiva, everything sounds good all the time with it. Whether its 320 or FLAC, you will enjoy it. Throw remixes, bootlegs, mashups or whatever with Emotiva and you'll have a fun time - also the dynamic range on average is higher with Emotiva. Dynamic range is usually left out in reviews, but with planars and electronic music, I absolutely feel the need for an expansive dynamic range. 

 

For example, the E10 starts crapping out at times, sounding flat and dull with O2 and Emotiva, in comparison to Marantz CD5004. You need a good dynamic range to truly "feel" the song.

 

So my answer is, it depends on your gear. Although I would still say that the HE-500 is closer to the forgiving side of the spectrum. The KRK KNS 8400 while not as revealing as the HE-500 can make awful recordings a pain to listen to.

As mention few lines above I am going to pair those HPs with very unforgiving and transparent AMP. Later on with some sabre based DAC probably (ATM DAC is Xonar D2).

The D7100 are very unforgiving and revealing to source. Making listening to my Indie Rock flac painfull to my ears :( (have to turn down the volume) However on the other side some high resolution files are just purely amazing like Pink Floyd or classical / jaz ones. They are very sensitive to quality of material which I am listening to and I can easliy tell the higher resolution files from lower ones. Unexpected draw back of high quality equipment.