zoom25 said:

   
Yea. Higher learning curve on the Audeze's than the Hifiman. Also, the sound signature difference. Audeze's will seem a bit boring at first when coming from HE-500. Hifiman is more speaker like, so it takes less time to get used to. Audeze's while having a smaller soundstage, is more 3D and comprehensive. Even after having the LCD-2 for 5 months and then moving to LCD-3, I still needed at least a month to get a handle on it. I only started liking the LCD-3's after two months with them.

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+1.
 
Might I add that if coming from the HE500, don't expect your WOW tracks to be the same on the LCD2. Your ears are just too used to those tracks on the HE500. They will sound great eventually on the LCD 2 when your ears adjust. 
 
That being said though, on select tracks (especially female vocals and acoustics or combo of both) that really shine on the HE500 - I have yet to find a headphone that can best them. 

zoom25 said:

   
Yea. Higher learning curve on the Audeze's than the Hifiman. Also, the sound signature difference. Audeze's will seem a bit boring at first when coming from HE-500. Hifiman is more speaker like, so it takes less time to get used to. Audeze's while having a smaller soundstage, is more 3D and comprehensive.
 
 

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Good description.  The HE-500 reminds me of being at a concert, the Lcd-2 sounds like the artist is performing in my game room.

Lcd2 is a great pair but too mellow for my taste so I ended up with he500.

zoom25 said:

Yea. Higher learning curve on the Audeze's than the Hifiman. Also, the sound signature difference. Audeze's will seem a bit boring at first when coming from HE-500. Hifiman is more speaker like, so it takes less time to get used to. Audeze's while having a smaller soundstage, is more 3D and comprehensive. Even after having the LCD-2 for 5 months and then moving to LCD-3, I still needed at least a month to get a handle on it. I only started liking the LCD-3's after two months with them.

Need to try a lot of material and repeat it as well with different moods, different energy/sleep level, volume. With big investments I notice at first people (including me) tend to be a lot more critical than necessary. It takes out the fun factor. It seems rushed when you are specifically looking for certain things. Best to try stuff out when you have no expectation from things or no checklist. Just listen for what it is. Eventually you'll arrive at a solid baseline.

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Man 2+ months to start liking a headphone would kill me, I was going nuts to adjust to the he500 and that was only 2-3 weeks. I probably would of liked the he500 if the timing of when I got it was better. I got it during a time when I didn't have time and was stress out.

Theres is also the comfort issue with lcd2 too right? These few things is what made me swing toward the he500.

soundeffect said:

Man 2+ months to start liking a headphone would kill me, I was going nuts to adjust to the he500 and that was only 2-3 weeks. I probably would of liked the he500 if the timing of when I got it was better. I got it during a time when I didn't have time and was stress out.

Theres is also the comfort issue with lcd2 too right? These few things is what made me swing toward the he500.

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In those first two months, it was all over the place. Some days were meh, other days pure crap, and some days just wow. After around 2 months, it got a bit more consistent.
 
Exactly. That plays a HUGE role as well. I wasn't doing too much listening with the 3's as I wanted to. I was mostly using my D2000 and KNS8400 that time for shows and movies. Plus the loss of bass coming from LCD-2 was a turn off as well, so didn't spend too much time with it.
 
The comfort issues with LCD-2 initially were with the pads. They were really stiff for the first week, but I just kept plumping them before every session. It actually made them quite a bit better. The clamping is a bit stronger on LCD-2 than HE-500, although the pads on LCD-2 are bigger and fit better. With LCD-3, the clamping is less, but the soft pads kept giving me this vacuum suction feeling for the first 2 weeks. It was really, really annoying. Although it hasn't happened since.
 
Pull the headband apart to make it looser on either phone and throw in a foam add-on headband. Huge difference maker. You get less clamping force, yet the headphone doesn't move off your head if you look down. Also, it spreads out the clamping force so you don't feel it at one particular spot. It's very memory foam type of feel.
 
The new pads of LCD-2 should be better. I'd definitely recommend getting a headphone stand for these new pads. Leave them awkwardly overnight and in the morning you might find one side to be much stiffer than the other. At least with the old pads of LCD-2, you could simply plump them up and in 20 seconds it'd be a good reset. Can't do it that quick with the LCD-3 pads...........IMO 

Hi Guys,
 
I'm still getting a HE-500 when funds open up hopefully next month
 
Just some questions. Will the Burson Soloist SL work well with them? I paid for the Burson HA-160DS but after hearing here on Head-fi it won't work well with HE-500 I decided to trade it for the Soloist SL. That's what Head-fi does with you, huh! Will the Soloist SL work as well as the Lyr or even better?
 
And how about a DAC I can pair the Soloist SL with. I'm thinking about the Cambrigde Audio DACMAGIC 100. I can get it at the same store with a discount for 200 euro. Or is that there something better out there for the Soloist SL and HE-500 combo?
 
 
Thanks in advance guys!

textfeud said:

  Hi Guys,
 
I'm still getting a HE-500 when funds open up hopefully next month

 
Just some questions. Will the Burson Soloist SL work well with them? I paid for the Burson HA-160DS but after hearing here on Head-fi it won't work well with HE-500 I decided to trade it for the Soloist SL. That's what Head-fi does with you, huh! Will the Soloist SL work as well as the Lyr or even better?
 
And how about a DAC I can pair the Soloist SL with. I'm thinking about the Cambrigde Audio DACMAGIC 100. I can get it at the same store with a discount for 200 euro. Or is that there something better out there for the Soloist SL and HE-500 combo?
 
 
Thanks in advance guys!

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Why do people keep saying the HA-160DS doesn't work well with the HE-500. It drives it fine. I'm using it as I type this.

austin morrow said:

Why do people keep saying the HA-160DS doesn't work well with the HE-500. It drives it fine. I'm using it as I type this.

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Some people say the Soloist isn't a good match for the HE-500. Personally I think they sound better out of my Conductor than the LCD-2 did. I'm sure the Soloist SL will serve him fine. It's still a fairly powerful amp.

textfeud said:

  Hi Guys,
 
I'm still getting a HE-500 when funds open up hopefully next month

 
Just some questions. Will the Burson Soloist SL work well with them? I paid for the Burson HA-160DS but after hearing here on Head-fi it won't work well with HE-500 I decided to trade it for the Soloist SL. That's what Head-fi does with you, huh! Will the Soloist SL work as well as the Lyr or even better?
 
And how about a DAC I can pair the Soloist SL with. I'm thinking about the Cambrigde Audio DACMAGIC 100. I can get it at the same store with a discount for 200 euro. Or is that there something better out there for the Soloist SL and HE-500 combo?
 
 
Thanks in advance guys!

Click to expand...

 
Soloist works quite well with the HE500. This is what I'm on at the moment.
 
Bifrost/NAD M51>Soloist>HE500. Very, very good pairing. Prefer this slightly over the Lyr. 

austin morrow said:

   
Why do people keep saying the HA-160DS doesn't work well with the HE-500. It drives it fine. I'm using it as I type this.

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It doesn't have enough output power to drive the HE-500 to its full potential. The Audiolab M-DAC I had, has a similar spec output for the headphone output and with hindsight I now realise that it didn't bring out the best in the HE-500, though at the time I thought it sounded fine (I had to turn the volume up quite a bit). After trying the Project Sunrise 2 I quickly changed my mind, it definitely had a lot more power and brought something out of the HE-500s I hadn't heard before, great synergy too. I am sure people who bought the Lyr had a similar experience. When I then tried the Emotiva Mini-X I was hugely surprised as it elevated everything to another level altogether.
 
The Soloist has quite a bit more output power and meets the recommended specs provided by Hifiman. The Soloist was also on my shopping list, till I got our pricing from our local dealer which was around $1400 and our currency has since depreciated by around 15% so I'm sure its now closer to $1600...  Made the Mini-X seem like a steal even with the high shipping costs and import duties.

austin morrow said:

   
Why do people keep saying the HA-160DS doesn't work well with the HE-500. It drives it fine. I'm using it as I type this.

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The HE-500 sounds decent out of most things because of it's relatively high efficiency, I've found.   Believe it or not, my puny Clip+ can drive it to listening levels and it can sound satisfactory, and it's only putting out about 10mW.  Put it on well designed amp with much higher output, and it will scale considerably better in comparison...so there are benefits to be had by both power output quantity and amp circuit design quality.  The HA-160D should supply a sufficient amount of power, somewhere between 800mW-1W per channel, but the HE-500 can scale a bit beyond that which is why at least 2W per channel is typically recommended.  As an all in one unit though, it's a nice package in terms of ability and it's visual appeal and I suspect it does pair well with the HE-500.  I've not heard it myself yet, but I'd like to hear my HE-500 on one if it show's up at the next local meet.  It's versatile in that it can handle almost any headphone, has a pre-amp out and I suspect from what I've read about Burson products that both the DAC and amp sections are quite transparent and more mid focused.  There's always the option of adding in a well matched, more powerful amp later on via the pre-out, if it's even necessary.

modulor said:

  The HE-500 sounds decent out of most things because of it's relatively high efficiency, I've found.   Believe it or not, my puny Clip+ can drive it to listening levels and it can sound satisfactory, and it's only putting out about 10mW.  Put it on well designed amp with much higher output, and it will scale considerably better in comparison...so there are benefits to be had by both power output quantity and amp circuit design quality.  The HA-160D should supply a sufficient amount of power, somewhere between 800mW-1W per channel, but the HE-500 can scale a bit beyond that which is why at least 2W per channel is typically recommended.  As an all in one unit though, it's a nice package in terms of ability and it's visual appeal and I suspect it does pair well with the HE-500.  I've not heard it myself yet, but I'd like to hear my HE-500 on one if it show's up at the next local meet.  It's versatile in that it can handle almost any headphone, has a pre-amp out and I suspect from what I've read about Burson products that both the DAC and amp sections are quite transparent and more mid focused.  There's always the option of adding in a well matched, more powerful amp later on via the pre-out, if it's even necessary.

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I had the HA-160D for some time. It has a nice warm and very laid back sound. However, it is quite grainy, the pot is tough to turn and crackles after a short time, the preamp has wayyy too much gain, and the DAC is ok. I don't know if they changed it or not, but the USB section on the DAC is not the async type and SPDIF sounded better to my ears. Overall, its tonality is great for small ensemble and jazz, but its too lethargic for rock and classical.

brunk said:

  I had the HA-160D for some time. It has a nice warm and very laid back sound. However, it is quite grainy, the pot is tough to turn and crackles after a short time, the preamp has wayyy too much gain, and the DAC is ok. I don't know if they changed it or not, but the USB section on the DAC is not the async type and SPDIF sounded better to my ears. Overall, its tonality is great for small ensemble and jazz, but its too lethargic for rock and classical.

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The pot is a stepped attenuator, which are typically not very smooth...but the crackling would be a bit concerning.  I did read that the pre out has high gain, so it would have to be a well matched amp with a well shielded interconnect (well, anything pre-amp should be shielded anyway ).

modulor said:

  The pot is a stepped attenuator, which are typically not very smooth...but the crackling would be a bit concerning.  I did read that the pre out has high gain, so it would have to be a well matched amp with a well shielded interconnect (well, anything pre-amp should be shielded anyway 

).

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Yeah, but it ain't your typical stepper, its like twisting a deadbolt lol. Every time i tried to use it as a preamp, it was either way too loud, or had a squealing issue. Just terrible really in that department.

Thanks for all the comments guys!
 
If I'm reading between the lines the Soloist SL is on par with amps like the Lyr? They perform well with the HE-500? Anybody know a good DAC max 300 euro to go with it.