HD800 vs HE500 - Page 3

Some power conditioners can soften the leading edge of music making them sound, for lack of a better word, rounded. And this can sound appealing on a bright system. There's nothing wrong with this. Some cables can do the same thing.

What you are describing is a low pass filter, why would you want to filter your music?
It's the power companies job to shape the sine wave via firing angle in a valve hall. In fact they even have voltage regulators, specific harmonic filters, massive cap banks with static VAR compensation and better yet synchronous condensers to ensure that your 60hz sine wave is a 60hz wave. In my humble opinion, if the HD800s don't sound good with something linear (benchmark dac1 comes to mind) I would be changing headphones before any well designed equipment. Don't be ashamed if you don't like the HD800s - they aren't for everyone.
Edited by Docks - 11/22/12 at 4:43pm

OR..and stay with me guys...a he500 modded with audeze lcd2 angled pads..here on headfi there is a thread about that..and its said it improves the sound quality..and i for sure am going to try it with my spare pleather pads i dont use anyway.. but those audeze pads are EXPENSIVE
Edited by hifimanrookie - 11/23/12 at 5:49am

Problem there is, a larger soundstage stretches the image and therefore its bound to be thinner. The tone of the HE500 is smaller and produces a thicker, richer tone. I personally don't think its poss... Same with the LCD's, a larger soundstage would ruin what peeps like them for; Warm, n' rich intimacy.

 

There's some truth to this, but it is not impossible to have both a large soundstage and dense solid focused images. Just have to work on one's setup.

pls explain what u mean with work on one's setup...u mean ur rig? the amp and source? ur cables? powercables? headphonecables? interconnects? vibrationcontrol? as i love the sound of the he500 i only hate the pads!

 

Yes all of those, with some things being more important than the rest ofcourse, such as the amp and DAC. Next in line would be cables.

FWIW, I tried both the HD800 and HE500 for the first time back-to-back, and there's no doubt I preferred the HE500 as a whole. The HD800 definitely had better imaging and soundstage, rivaled by none, and if that's what you want, go for it. But I thought the HE500 was more engaging, and had more depth to my ears.

Just to throw my opinion into the mix, I thought the HE500 (both versions I had..old/new) were a league below both the HE6 and HD800. I remember there was a brief period I preferred the HE500 to the HE6/HD800 and then I upgraded my setup and realized the latter two scale way higher.

 

The HE500 are just super forgiving. They sound good from almost any decent setup but whereas the other 2 headphones keep getting better, the HE500's improvement starts leveling off IME.

Hence personal preference and the disclaimer to away listen before you commit.

One thing I can say for sure is that my own HD800 has scaled up commensurate with every improvement I've put in front of it over the past two years.
...This last last week probably being some of the most enlightening and revealing experience I have had in audio thus far.

Installing the P5 power re-generator (not a conditioner in the traditional sense) as well as bevy of HiFi Tuning fuses in the P5 as well as both of my headphone amps (SPL Phonitor, Cavalli Audio liquid Fire) has allowed my headphones (LCD-3, HD800) to reach a level of fidelity reaching beyond my expectations.

Let me just say that the HD800 is very capable of having both a large and deep sound stage and yet being quite intimate when the music calls for it.

I think HE-500 is quite forgiving indeed and can sound very nice even out of my Sansa Clip. But it also has some serious ability. HD800 is likely even more detailed and more capable in other ways, but it can also seem more resolving than it really is because of the brighter treble and more space/separation between sounds due to the angled drivers and all. The HE-500, while really smooth and polite sounding, is also extremely detailed at the same time when you listen carefully. Especially in the midrange - the mids are simply breathtaking on HE-500, yet also subtle and don't try to engage you much if you don't pay attention. The attack may be a little slower than optimal on the Hifimans and at times they can sound dull. But HD800 can sound thin. It's two sides of the coin really. I would say HE-500 is more authentic sounding than HD800 and probably most if not all other dynamics. I think it's a planar versus dynamic thing - the Orthos have something about their timbre that just isn't there with dynamics. It may be because of the faster response of planar drivers, but they seem to be capable of higher realism than dynamics. The dynamics sound somewhat synthetic by comparison.

The closest thing to what you describe would be the HE-6. It's a seriously good headphone

Yep, since mids are where the life of the music is, I always look out for the euphonic factor  - naturalness of timbre, the density and cohesiveness, as well as the "bloom" effect, when it comes to what I would consider as hi-fi midrange response. Just good transparency and detail don't cut it.