Cause see you can also get it very loud through plugging into a laptop, so it's not just the volume we're talking about. You don't think high gain mode gives more current or wattage to the headphones than medium gain? I think there's more to it that goes on than just volume purely.

I am all for the "not just pure volume" argument. If I plug the 500 into my phone or laptop it sounds thin and flat even at loud levels. But I can't hear a difference between high and low gain when the volume level is matched. So for the sake of not adding more distortion, albeit (probably)not audible, I keep the gain on low. IMO YMMV

Stupid comment.

canthearyou said:

Having heard both I prefer the 500.

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Same here.

My first post ever and here for the HE-500.
I loved headphones from years ago, my first pair is Grado Sr-80.
Now I am on HE-500 with Maverick Audio tube magicD2 as DAC+Pre amp and the glory Emoitiva mini-x as the power amp.(Thanks to the Emotiva thread, I saved my money and find my way in many different set-ups)
Had them for about 1.5 year or so. Loving it! 
I am going for look for some upgrades or just something new or interesting or different here. As I wanted to explore the headphone world deeper. I went to a local hi-fi shop and talk about my situation, guys in the shop does not seemed to like the mini-x setup, but they recommend me the Woo audio WA6 as an upgrade, and with HE-560, as a total upgrade.
I wonder how this would be different, they arranged a test session for me today, so in a few hours I will be listening to those.
I will bring my HE-500 there to compare. As some of you talk about WA6 SE, I wonder if they have it too, and what is the difference is te be find out.
And what do you guys think the WA6 could pair with my tube magicD2 DAC+pre amp?
replies are welcome.
And very nice to be here in head-fi, my favorite hobby forum ever!

Deckard and the HE-500's are just a perfect match.

twerk said:

Stupid comment.

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Mine?

Never mind. Lol

Lol no!!! I wanted to delete my own comment which was stupid (which they usually are unfortunately).

vforverdi said:

  My first post ever and here for the HE-500.
I loved headphones from years ago, my first pair is Grado Sr-80.
Now I am on HE-500 with Maverick Audio tube magicD2 as DAC+Pre amp and the glory Emoitiva mini-x as the power amp.(Thanks to the Emotiva thread, I saved my money and find my way in many different set-ups)
Had them for about 1.5 year or so. Loving it! 
I am going for look for some upgrades or just something new or interesting or different here. As I wanted to explore the headphone world deeper. I went to a local hi-fi shop and talk about my situation, guys in the shop does not seemed to like the mini-x setup, but they recommend me the Woo audio WA6 as an upgrade, and with HE-560, as a total upgrade.
I wonder how this would be different, they arranged a test session for me today, so in a few hours I will be listening to those.
I will bring my HE-500 there to compare. As some of you talk about WA6 SE, I wonder if they have it too, and what is the difference is te be find out.
And what do you guys think the WA6 could pair with my tube magicD2 DAC+pre amp?
replies are welcome.
And very nice to be here in head-fi, my favorite hobby forum ever!

Click to expand...

 
You might get mixed responses on the HE560 vs HE500 question. I had them both to compare, and in my experience the HE560 had a very odd treble spike that was very odd and irritating. I easily picked the HE500 over the HE560. Comparing the relative price of the HE560 to the Edition X, I'd say the Edition X is easily worth the little bit over the HE560. 
 
TBH, I've never really liked Woo Audio products. They look great, but they seem to be pretty far behind on the price/performance ratio. I really enjoyed the Mjolnir2 and balanced Audio-GD amplifiers with the HE-500. Both would be upgrades over the Emotiva A-100 (which was really only intended for the HE-6 originally). 
 
Best amp I've heard the HE500 was the schiit Rag. Really pushed those drivers and showed me how well the HE-500 actually do scale. 

  You might get mixed responses on the HE560 vs HE500 question. I had them both to compare, and in my experience the HE560 had a very odd treble spike that was very odd and irritating. I easily picked the HE500 over the HE560. Comparing the relative price of the HE560 to the Edition X, I'd say the Edition X is easily worth the little bit over the HE560. 
 
TBH, I've never really liked Woo Audio products. They look great, but they seem to be pretty far behind on the price/performance ratio. I really enjoyed the Mjolnir2 and balanced Audio-GD amplifiers with the HE-500. Both would be upgrades over the Emotiva A-100 (which was really only intended for the HE-6 originally). 
 
Best amp I've heard the HE500 was the schiit Rag. Really pushed those drivers and showed me how well the HE-500 actually do scale. 

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Hey elwappo99,
 
Thanks for the suggetions, the result is that I totally agree with you that the 560 is weird in sounding, I tried AB test on the same setup in the shop, 500 win over obviously, maybe 560 is designed different so the set up should be different. But anyways, I prefer the 500 ove 560.
For amps, the WOO WA 6SE does give some difference, I have never heard  a schiit, so I am now starving to hear one.
The warmth basically is the difference, but comparing to that price, the emotiva is really amazing in this case.
Not a big difference with the SE, but I still get it, I feel I just like the tube sounding in general.
Besides, according to Dubstepgirl, the stock tube on SE is terrible, and she got significant difference from tube rolling. The best replacement is a West electric 422A, but there is a close in quality budget buy- USAF 596. So I am going to try some tube rolling before I conclude the quality of the SE and with the 500.
I was thinking to upgrade by DAC as well, maybe some time in the future.

For those who are curious

Amp - Grace M9XX

Drive
Hard Easy
open close
HE500 Vs TH900

Comfort
HE500 - heavy, not comfortable for long term sessions.
TH900 - very comfortable, I can ware it all day.


Songs
Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison
Soul For Real - Candy Rain,
Candy shop - 50 cent
Salt shaker - Ying Yang Twins
It's going down - young joc
Low - Flo Rida
HOLY - Florida Georgia Line
Yeah Boy - Kelsea Ballenini
There's A Girl - Trent Harmon
Wanna be that song - Brett Eldredge
Bring Em Out - T.I
Top Back - T.I.
Go get it - T.I
Money talk - T.I

Fun
HE500 - play everything very well, effortless.
TH900 - I enjoy it more than the HE500. BETTER

Mids
HE500 - You all know it has one of the best mids ever, well balanced with everything else. Intimate mids. BETTER.
TH900 - sibilant, sharper, especially come directly from he500. But, its not unbearable like others have said. I'm perfectly fine with it. Some songs are more noticeable. on bass tracks the mids will sit back behind it, not as balanced as HE500. On hip-hop/rap songs the sibilant is not as noticeable.

Bass
HE500 - Bass here are good, balance not over taking other frequencies.
TH900 - Way more bass, deeper, It's just better. More impact. BETTER.


Details
He500 are not that far behind in detail.
TH900 has a little more detail. BETTER

Neutrality
HE500 more neutral
TH900 U-shaped, not a warm headphone.

Interested in getting these. Whats a good price for these in used market these days?

[redacted]

maheeinfy said:

  Interested in getting these. Whats a good price for these in used market these days?

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There are a number of them in the classifieds right now.  Most between $400.00 - $500.00 depending condition etc...

Hello everybody,
 
I was hoping you ould help me with my new HE-500. I recently bought one and really loved it. It's a huge step from my previous headphones! But unfortunately I feel that my current amplifier has not enough power to drive them properly as I listen at 80-85% volume and with some recordings I can even turn the volume knob to a maximum and it's still not very loud. I use Teac UD-301. What do you think I should do: get an additional standalone amplifier (like Schiit Jotunheim) or upgrade the device itself by getting something like IFI Micro idsd or something else. I seek something within a reasonable price range of 300-550 USD. I'm not very technical and perhaps - I don't exclude that - I only think that my UD-301 is not sufficinet  Please adivse. Thank you for your help in advance.