HiFiman HE-500 (HE as in High End) please post your impressions. . loan pair for UK pg. 28. - Page 237

Edited by MickeyVee - 3/7/13 at 8:59am

 

Hmmm.. having lush mids, subdue treble but realistic, well textured and good impact on bass (very good PRaT) for just $700? meh.. i'm not going to

 

You know you want your decision to buy confirmed, otherwise you would have surely posted in a different thread.

 

Best phone I own.  You'll love it.  If you don't cherish it you'll be able to sell it at little loss.

 

Feel better?

Well.... ok +1 

I hate you people 

 

btw, are the new shipment of He-500 coming in a box? or are they still coming in the travel case?

 

I'm just debating if I should sell my He-400 to fund the He-500, or if I should keep the He-400 as a dedicated EDM headphone? My hd650 aren't going anywhere (I truly love their sound for certain genres). I had a tough time between the HE-500 and LCD-2, but in the end I would rather have a headphone that can do it all (I listen to a wide variety of genres).

 

If you want a fuller midrange, slightly tamer vocals and slightly tighter bass conveyed more clearly then yes :]

If you want even more detail and air on top of that then that is the HE-6 for you

 

I am merely following the opinions of others though as my first hifiman HP was the flagship. Yeah crazy and risky move but YOLO 

Edited by conquerator2 - 3/7/13 at 2:53pm

How well does the He-6 pair up with the Lyr? That's the only headphone amp I have at the moment and I don't plan to upgrade to be honest.

 

If I ever do, it'll be for balanced or electrostats lol

To my knowledge very well.
Lyr and Bifrost is a nice starting setup for the HE-6.
Mine is very similar to yours.
Enough power is the 1st priority and Lyr got that covered.
Lyr pairs well with all Hifiman. Bifrost is a solid DAC too.

.

break in's going good, their sound has changed slightly a few times, its only been like 20 hours-ish, haven't left them playing for too long yet. i will keep burning them in of course

 

i didn't like the velours, they where way too flat and the foam inside is hard and chunky, the metal bar inside touches my ear and its uncomfortable. also cause of this, the headphones feel extremely heavy, similar to the LCD-2 (except the LCD-2 doesn't bother me weightwise, but rather, the pressure it places at the front of the pads)

 

i switched back to the pleathers, at the end convinced the sound difference was minor and didn't drastically affect SQ as much as i thought it did. the pleathers are much nicer to me. 

Edited by Dubstep Girl - 3/7/13 at 5:01pm

DG, glad to hear burn-in is going well. Please keep your impressions coming, as I'm very interested in the synergy (or lack of) between the HE500 and both of your Woo amps.

 

i sure will! 

 

i plan on posting some sort of LCD-2/HD 800/T1/He-500 comparison thread soon, since i get questions about them alot, as they are probably the top 4 headphones in this price range (along with the now discontinued d7k)

 

also gonna post some tube rolling notes/mini review with the HE-500 for the WA6-SE (on the WA6/WA6-SE thread). as of now, the WA6-SE surprised me, it has tons of power for the HE-500, no issues driving them. vocals are very nice and the soundstage while not as wide as my other headphones, is presented very well, with alot of depth. the same 596/6GL7 combo with worked for the LCD-2 works very good with the HE-500 as well.

 

my WA2 unfortunately cannot drive them very well, or any low impedance for that matter, so i won't say much about it. However, at the low volumes i heard, it sounds very good, i think if it had more power, it would be a very lovely pairing.

 

 

 

EDIT: also listening to my HE-500 with the Norse cable now, i'm very impressed, for the first time i heard a decent change in sound vs. the stock silver cable. overall, the sound is very smooth, with no edginess, and there seems to be alot of depth and transparency in the midrange. the treble is even better than before, vocals seem even better presented and the sound is more refined now. with the stock i felt like something was holding the headphones back a bit, like some small veil somewhere in the sound.

 

also with the stock, i felt like the bass was slightly further back from the mids/highs, now the bass seems more coherent and more in line with the rest of the sound. impact/quantity is about the same, it just doesn't feel as far back as before, which made the sound rather washed out originally. overall, the cable added slight but noticeable improvements without affecting the overall sound.

Edited by Dubstep Girl - 3/7/13 at 6:52pm

Thank you, DG!

 

I trust your ears and I'm totally looking forward to your headphone review.

Give the HE500's some time before you start doing comparisons.  Mine now have 140+ hours and their really starting to open up. I started making some comparison notes with the HD700 but felt that I haven't give the HE500 enough time so I stopped.. getting close though. I'm going to use them exclusively for another week or two before I start the comparison again.

re Cable: I pretty much found the same thing going from the stock cable to the Q.

re Woo: I'm following the WA7 thread.. looks promising.  Woo is at the TAVES (Toronto Audio Video) show each year and if there are there this fall, Im definitely going to audition and give it a serious listen. Been lusting over some woo gear for a while now.

There is nothing now in my system that I find wanting. Love both the HE500 and HD700 with the Schiit stack.

Looking forward to your impressions.