Objective - what's that?

Quote:

hifimanrookie said:

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

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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:

sebna said:

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

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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 - all opinions are welcomed
 
Also help with interpretation of those 3D graphs would be nice - never seen them before.
 
Thanks
 

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.

Quote:

sebna said:

Allright smartie pants so little less objective please - all opinions are welcomed
 
Also help with interpretation of those 3D graphs would be nice - never seen them before.
 
Thanks
 

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Those are waterfall charts - basically spectographs with time.

Quote:

zoom25 said:

 
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.

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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:

happy camper said:

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.

Click to expand...

 
[size=12.0pt]hehe thumbs up. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]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 [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]Coming back to subject. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]I listen on medium to high volumes usually. At least I think so as I have no real comparison to anyone. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]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? [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]Thanks[/size]

Quote:

sebna said:

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

 

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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:

sebna said:

 
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.

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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.

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

I used the higher gain 2.5x. Most current pop songs require vol about 12 o clock while audiophiles about 12 to 3.

What gain is it set up for?

I'm using the odac o2. Builder said 6.5x will have distortions.

zoom25 said:

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.

Click to expand...

Quote:

sebna said:

 
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.
 
 
[size=12.0pt]hehe thumbs up. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]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 [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]Coming back to subject. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]I listen on medium to high volumes usually. At least I think so as I have no real comparison to anyone. [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]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? [/size]
 
[size=12.0pt]Thanks[/size]

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

Quote:

snip3r77 said:

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

Click to expand...

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:

thekillerpiglet said:

 
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

Click to expand...

 
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:

zoom25 said:

 
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.

Click to expand...

 
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.

Quote:

snip3r77 said:

I used the higher gain 2.5x. Most current pop songs require vol about 12 o clock while audiophiles about 12 to 3.

What gain is it set up for?

I'm using the odac o2. Builder said 6.5x will have distortions.

Click to expand...

 
Everything you said makes perfect sense. Current pop songs that come on radio have to fight for air time and one thing you can do is compress them and make them louder at the expense of clipping and loss of range. We call this the loudness war. A good read for anyone that's interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
 
The people who make the typical "audiophile" recordings know the population sector they are targeting and so don't have to adhere to the strategies commonly used now. This is why you usually can go louder with audiophile recordings because they allow the track to breathe. (Kinda went off track, thought it might be interesting though for others perhaps)
 
I use the 2.5X as well - makes sense and we got similar results. Yes, with 6.5X, I can confirm the sound coming from the HE-500 has a lot of distortion