HiFiman HE-500 (HE as in High End) please post your impressions. Proving to be a great headphone... - Page 144

 

Your Asgard gets to be the go-to for one more night.  I'd be excited to hear your First Impressions of the Lyr, followed up with a post honeymoon stage impression.

 

Upgrade-itis, that's why we're all here :)  Fortunately for me, I'm at a point where I wouldn't change a thing about my setup nor do I have an inkling to.

 

Yup it's true, i've been running the HE-500 with the original Dacport that have 1.5W @600ohm, even the Dacport LX can drive it and the result is good

The O2 is portable!

i actually had my he500 burned in by my trustful m-stage for 6 days straight!..and he did it with awe!! and sounded really gooed! and i even tried a couple of other amps..among an asgard, a 3322 and then came the 337..and u know what happened (check my pics)....with this i wanna say..the he500 is much easier to drive then other higher end phones..BUT..i know from my own experience that a better quality amp gets the he500 on a whole new level..to be honest..if i never tried the 337 i would still be with my mstage...i even was completely anti tube amp..as i found them slow and to warm...but the 337 proved me wrong

yes..u can drive the he500 from a humble amp..but if u have a lesser quality amp then its better to get the he400 then..also a very good phone....IMHO ofcourse!

and the mstage is portable also..sort of...i took him everywhere with me in my laptop bag..lolz

Edited by hifimanrookie - 12/10/12 at 7:13pm

 

There's a thread about this somewhere.  O2 vs TOTL is the title or something close to that.  I'm sure you could find it if interested.  I think it got banished to the sound science forum to die a while back.

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/603728/o2-vs-totl

 

Do you notice a difference between O2 and Asgard in quality or is it more signature.. is it different enough to be noticeable in a blind test in your opinion? Thanks.

Edited by moshen - 12/15/12 at 2:10am

Really curious how big of an improvement Emotiva is over O2 :)

 

Yea will update as soon as my cables get here. I will be able to test for myself two polar subjects here on head-fi: the O2 and speaker amps with orthos.

I'm not in front of my setup right now, but from my recollection, it's in quality.  I thought the HE-500 sounded great (maybe a bit thin) out of the O2 until I tried it with the Asgard.  Much fuller.  And then I thought it was just fine until I tried it out of the Lyr.  Fuller and punchier still, though starting to notice diminishing returns.  I'm going to try to stop upgrading now ....

The Better the amp the better the he500 will sound in my opinion..

 

Corrections

Nope...normally a better quality with better parts in it is stronger then a 200 usd amp...so both is true..but a very strong lyr dont sound better on the he500 then my less powerfull on paper but better quality 337..but in general..more power means better sound in general for a he500..my apologies for the confusement.

 

I agree with you on that

 

I've also already tried the O2 with the HE500 and the result is reminds me of underpowered DT880/600 ohm, is a bit tizzy

The 500s benefit from power but the quality of power is more important than the quantity with a higher sensitivity vs the 6s. Not to say a 1 watt perfect amp will sound better than a 30 watt mid fi amp as the orthos have the ability to use more power effectively than any (standard definition dynamic) headphone and the HE more than the LCDs. The dynamic capability of the technology requires ample sustained current but it's the reserves that separate it from a typical headphone. The HEs are more like a speaker than a headphone and a planar speaker are current monsters. It's the bigger components of the speaker amps that allow the HE to perform like it can. The huge current banks and oversized transformers (for the power needed) gives the planars all the energy needed for full performance. When we are questioned about the large wattage amps being used for the 6s, it's not the full power band of the amp being used but the available current. How much is needed for the best performance has not been nailed down but all the experiences given on here indicate "hot" or brittle highs, veiled (weak) presentation and boomy or ill defined lower registers and center soundstaging being diffuse indicate underpowered performance.

As we are learning though, an amp has their own touch to the sound so just having an oversized power supply isn't the only need. The refinement, imaging, speed, density or weight and damping control of the sound separates low, mid and hi fi performance. Take your HEs to a hi fi store and check out a few high end amps. The HE 500 (my guesstimate) on a 5-30 watt speaker amp should be enough.

I feel the 6s can use twice that but I've not done enough experimenting with various wattage and hi vs lo current/ voltage to make a qualified statement.

The new ortho amps are going to more current. They are beginning to enter the components used for speaker amps. I've just felt more inclined to try it from the top down than from the bottom up.

IMO

The amplifier will only amplify the quality of the signal it is provided from the DAC. It cannot add detail that isn't there.

If you aren't noticing much of a different in SQ between low end and mid/high end amps, your DAC/source is holding you back.