HiFiman HE-500 (HE as in High End) please post your impressions. . loan pair for UK pg. 28. - Page 243

My main goal is to get something that sounds really excellent and is totally portable. Sitting at home and listening is all well and good, but I'm rarely at home and I want that amazing sound everywhere. I'm mainly looking for an absolutely huge soundstage so I can just feel like I'm in my own little music-realm when I close my eyes. To be honest, the HE-500 doesn't have all that much of an expansive soundstage. It sounds like it should have an expansive soundstage, but you can still clearly tell that you are listening to headphones. Despite that rocky-road frequency response (Which I am aware of), I'm sure they can help deliver that. Beyerdyanmic wouldn't release such a high-price item if they didn't think it sounded good. 

By the way, just look at Grado. Many people like their products and they are voiced totally by ear to the "house sound". I figure these were voiced the same way in order to achieve the effect of having a much larger soundstage than what you would expect on a portable, closed headphone, thus the reverberation effect. Again, exactly what I'm looking for.

If you have any better recommendations, I am welcome to them!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiikasi 

My main goal is to get something that sounds really excellent and is totally portable. Sitting at home and listening is all well and good, but I'm rarely at home and I want that amazing sound everywhere. I'm mainly looking for an absolutely huge soundstage so I can just feel like I'm in my own little music-realm when I close my eyes. To be honest, the HE-500 doesn't have all that much of an expansive soundstage. It sounds like it should have an expansive soundstage, but you can still clearly tell that you are listening to headphones. Despite that rocky-road frequency response (Which I am aware of), I'm sure they can help deliver that. Beyerdyanmic wouldn't release such a high-price item if they didn't think it sounded good.

 

By the way, just look at Grado. Many people like their products and they are voiced totally by ear to the "house sound". I figure these were voiced the same way in order to achieve the effect of having a much larger soundstage than what you would expect on a portable, closed headphone, thus the reverberation effect. Again, exactly what I'm looking for.

 

If you have any better recommendations, I am welcome to them!

Dude that is a terrible philosophy to follow through. I understand that these particular cans might fit what you are looking for, but it's sheepish to assume that commercial headphone brands price based on fidelity.

There's a reason why audiophiles flock to head-fi and ask for community suggestions of headphones, rather than just picking a brand they like and dump $$$ into fire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by preproman 

Got a graph of the Ultrasone Sig Pro's?

No, these aren't my graphs, they are from the Changstar database and are measured by purrin. If you need to get something measured, get in contact with him maybe. E.g. my jergpad mod got measured a few days ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubstep Girl 

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.

Interesting observation Dubstep Girl. Which kind of Skuld cable did you get?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jono454 

 

Is there any noticeable difference between the stock and the toxic cable?

 

I don't really mind the brightness so much but i think it would sound better if it was mellowed out just a little bit. 

My stock cable has broken in the connection, the toxic cable has not, this is noticeable

I was not able to notice any sonic difference with a dac similar to yours. With a more resolving dac, I would say that the toxic cable is just a little darker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by preproman 

 

Frank.  If you ever get a chance.  Try the AKG 702 65th Anniversary Edition. 

Any comment on these vs the Hifimans is welcomed ;)

The 701s were my last dynamic headphone before I took the plunge and went for the HE-4. The 4s brought pretty much everything I found the 701s to be lacking (bass, bass & bass + harshness) and, bass aside, their sound signature is not too far.

I recently bought the SoundMAGIC HP100 to replace my Mad Dogs (as my go-to closed headphones). Their sound signature is reminiscent of that of the 701s (well, the DT-800 is closer I think) but adds bass punch and tame that harshness.

I can't help but feel these have a "one note" bass that clearly fall short of the planar... I'm keeping the MDs, no doubts ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acapella11 

 

Interesting observation Dubstep Girl. Which kind of Skuld cable did you get?

skuld 8 dark grey 

matches the headphones pretty nicely

You guys (and gals) are killing my wallet.  I've been wanting to demo the -500s for a while, and the "deal of the day" price was enough to push me over the fence.  I'm excited to try these versus the HE-400s on a Lyr and Soloist SL.  The best pairing of amp and can will be my HP for a good long while...

We'll see, Happy.  I wouldn't be surprised if the -500s beat out the -400s, but we'll have to see.  My listening tends towards rock, bluegrass, and jazz.  Those are all pretty decent on my -400s, but I think the -500s will also handle those genres well.  One interesting variable is that I am running a DSPeaker in this setup.  I could use its digital tone controls to tame the -400s high end response just a dB or two, I wonder if that will matter in the final analysis...