Congrats! I myself had to go through that tough decision, and decided on the HE-500 even though I am still not driving them with nearly anything. No proper DAC and no proper amp, but I can still see the potential by using them ever so often with my parents' Denon receiver. I hope you enjoy the HE-400 and TBH, if you think the bass is not more than satisfactory for you, then maybe consider trying a pair of HE-500's before you decide to upgrade.

WOOT 420 posts

nimzerz said:

  Congrats! I myself had to go through that tough decision, and decided on the HE-500 even though I am still not driving them with nearly anything. No proper DAC and no proper amp, but I can still see the potential by using them ever so often with my parents' Denon receiver. I hope you enjoy the HE-400 and TBH, if you think the bass is not more than satisfactory for you, then maybe consider trying a pair of HE-500's before you decide to upgrade.

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Save up for a DAC/amp bruh!
 
It's worth the money. The Denon receiver should put out sufficient power though TBH

^Chrisssss !  How you doing?  We are overdue for sushi again soon. 

koiloco said:

  ^Chrisssss !  How you doing?  We are overdue for sushi again soon. 

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ANYTIME BRO!
 
This time it's on ME
 
Shoot me an e-mail, text, smoke signal, well go hang out soon

chris_himself said:

 
ANYTIME BRO!
 
This time it's on ME
 
Shoot me an e-mail, text, smoke signal, well go hang out soon

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Maybe, this time, I pick you up.  We do lunch and we'll head back to my place.  I'd like to try your HD800 on the WA22.  The LCD2 also, if you still have it around.  I am curious to hear LCD2 on Emotiva again.  At the meet, it was kind not optimal to really evaluate.  No worry about lunch, I do work a lot for too long now.  Unless, you found a job, then in that case, we'll celebrate on you.  

Finally I've got the HE-500. Tried with my 801 with balanced card. At first I was shocked with the sound of HE-500 compared to my IEMs. But after one hr of listening I found out that even Balanced amp, the most powerful amp on 801s, is not enough to drive HE-500. I decided to use my old pre-amp Yamaha CX-600U as headphone amp. After that I started really enjoying music! Now I am looking for good amp. Thinking to get Schiit Lyr. Is it any good to be used with HE-500?

menkau-ra said:

Finally I've got the HE-500. Tried with my 801 with balanced card. At first I was shocked with the sound of HE-500 compared to my IEMs. But after one hr of listening I found out that even Balanced amp, the most powerful amp on 801s, is not enough to drive HE-500. I decided to use my old pre-amp Yamaha CX-600U as headphone amp. After that I started really enjoying music! Now I am looking for good amp. Thinking to get Schiit Lyr. Is it any good to be used with HE-500?

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It's the channel separation at the source as well as the actual power on balanced amps. Balanced amps are more or less just two regular amps in one box. The more channel separation we acheive, the less noise there is to drown out the actual music and thats probably what you're getting now. The Lyr is an amazing amp, Jason is awesome to deal with, and it has so much power, that it removes you ever secondguessing the amp as the next thing to upgrade. It runs a little hot and takes up a bit of space but at least it's very pretty to look at heh. PM me if you have questions, I've owned most of Schiit's lineup and am still to this day a very satisfied customer.
 

koiloco said:

  Maybe, this time, I pick you up.  We do lunch and we'll head back to my place.  I'd like to try your HD800 on the WA22.  The LCD2 also, if you still have it around.  I am curious to hear LCD2 on Emotiva again.  At the meet, it was kind not optimal to really evaluate.  No worry about lunch, I do work a lot for too long now.  Unless, you found a job, then in that case, we'll celebrate on you.  

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Its a date LOLOL. I'll probably need to remind you that both my headphones are atypical of the standard 800 and LCD-2 due to certain accessories on them though if you're using them to evaluate which is better. I honestly think HE-500 is best bang for buck as of right now, HE-6 being the mega-upgrade if you have the amp to swing it. HD800 is great though, I think you'd like that as a contrast to the 500's, but not necessarily to replace them.

^ I will never replace my HE500 or the Q701.  HD800 will be purchased to complement the HE500 and a step up from Q701, though might not be a huge one.  About HE-6, I believe the Emotiva is more than enough to drive it.  I personally would get HD800 over HE-6 as I already have HE500.  I'll text you when I find a spot open on my schedule sometimes next week.

koiloco said:

  ^ I will never replace my HE500 or the Q701.  HD800 will be purchased to complement the HE500 and a step up from Q701, though might not be a huge one.  About HE-6, I believe the Emotiva is more than enough to drive it.  I personally would get HD800 over HE-6 as I already have HE500.  I'll text you when I find a spot open on my schedule sometimes next week.

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Having those 3 cans here, imho the HE-6 is overall closer to the HD-800 than to the HE-500...especially in the treble.  Soundstage and resolution wise the Senns win out but obviously it depends on the music you listen to wether this is important or not (and if you listen to less than pristine recordings those assets transform into disadvantages).  My top choice -at least for classical- would be the HE-6 though. But it's close.

xenophon said:

  Having those 3 cans here, imho the HE-6 is overall closer to the HD-800 than to the HE-500...especially in the treble.  Soundstage and resolution wise the Senns win out but obviously it depends on the music you listen to wether this is important or not (and if you listen to less than pristine recordings those assets transform into disadvantages).  My top choice -at least for classical- would be the HE-6 though. But it's close.

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Fantastic answer and I agree with 100% of everything said here.

xenophon said:

Having those 3 cans here, imho the HE-6 is overall closer to the HD-800 than to the HE-500...especially in the treble.  Soundstage and resolution wise the Senns win out but obviously it depends on the music you listen to wether this is important or not (and if you listen to less than pristine recordings those assets transform into disadvantages).  My top choice -at least for classical- would be the HE-6 though. But it's close.

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+2 as what I read in reviews seems to reflect this perfectly. Also agrees with my personal opinion.

^ what Nimzerz said.  That's why I am 85% leaning towards HD800 as my next purchase and might sneak in the AD somewhere in between. 

Lyr is a great amp with the HE 500 very smooth just upgrade the stock tubes

I'm planning to do the same thing and buy the hd800 to compliment the he500, not quite there yet in the decision as I'm also looking into the T1 which of course I don't think the lyr is great with from what I read. The hd800 might be okay with the lyr though. Ah, in the end I need to upgrade my amp into something that will work with two headphones which I'm not really ready for purchasing two things at once.