[chowmein83]

   
You posted some rather in-depth impressions elsewhere from when you heard the HE1000 at meets. Does this one sound noticeably different, as far as you can tell?

 
To be honest, not that much from what I remember.

 

[DarthFader]

  Hifiman HE1000 (beta) Review by money4me247

1. This is my formal review of the HE-1000 beta (only covering sonic aspects).
2. This review covers my listening experiences during my first week with the HE-1000.

 
…

 
A fantastic review! Thanks, money!

 

[money4me247]

  I've just received my HE1000 as a part of the second batch. I hope to be able to offer some impressions soon after burning it in for a bit (because it seems like it really gets better after doing so), but man, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to write anything as good as @money4me247 already has.

@chowmein83, thank you for compliment, but I can throw it right back at you!!! I always love reading your sonic impressions and find them to often quite closely match my own impressions as well. You always do a really good job conveying the scale of various differences and offer solid reference points as comparisons, so I can always draw something meaningful from your thoughts. I am really looking forward to hearing what you think!

 cheers
 
@DarthFader, appreciate the kind words & the kudos! glad you enjoyed my review.

 

[potkettleblack]

Any comparisons between the imaging of the he-1000's and the hd800's?

 

[anetode]

  Any comparisons between the imaging of the he-1000's and the hd800's?

 
The HD800 sounds diffuse, whereas the HE1K has very good lateralization but sounds slightly flatter dimensionally.

 

[saidentary]

  I think some actual beta testers are struggling a bit with describing how this headphone performs. The combination of driver surface area, extremely low mass, new / optimized magnet structure - we're experiencing a headphone that can respond extremely quickly to impulse, without the 'edges' we've heard in the past with other ortho's - due to the extremely low diaphragm mass / optimized magnetics. We have a headphone here that can present as very fast AND laid-back / relaxed. When the music hits hard, this headphone will shake your spine. When music is delicate, layered, textured - this headphone delivers. Many are calling it a genre master; that really tells us a lot about its technical capabilities.
 
As always, you and everyone will need to decide if it's the headphone for your needs and preferences; I guess the point I'm trying to make is while driver speed has often meant certain strengths / limitations in the past, IME - that assumption should not be applied to the HE-1000.

YES!!!!! ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT SUMMARY!!  YES! YES! YES! I personally own loudspeakers that do that! The HE1000 (is the first headphone that I've heard that) does this too!  People who haven't heard this phenomenon are justifiably skeptical of such a description.  I know it sounds like a crock of ....., but it's TRUE.  The only way to verify this, of course, is for people to listen to these for themselves at the very first opportunity. 

 

[chowmein83]

Hey all, I managed to get some listening time in with the HE1000 last night and this morning and I wanted to share some initial impressions.
 
First off, for anybody asking about burn-in: I first listened to it for a while after letting it play for about 30 minutes. Then I listened to it later after music had been playing in it for 6 hours. I then listened to it this morning after letting it burn in over night, by which point the HE1000s had been blaring music for about 15 hours. I'm going to say that I honestly did not really notice much differences in the sound, if at all, during the three times I just mentioned when I listened to it.
 
However, I'm not sure if this was anybody else's experience, but in my first several minutes or so of listening to the HE1000, I actually wasn't that impressed. I thought, "is this really the same headphone that I listened to before at CES and CanJam?" But after those initial minutes, I started to pick up all the little things that it did better than best headphones that I currently own (HE-400i and HD700), and I really started to become impressed. My point is, I don't believe the HE1000 is a headphone that will wow upon the very first listen, but its strengths quickly become apparent soon after.
 
These are some things that I noticed while listening to the HE1K:
 
The bass is really, really good. This is the first thing that I really started to notice about the HE1000. It sounds better than from what I remember before, though this may be due to listening in my own home and with my own music. @money4me247 is right on the money when he says that the bass on the HE1000 sounds like its coming from a well-controlled subwoofer. It's like the bass is kind of separate entity from the rest of the frequency response range, but yet the overall sound still remains cohesive. I'm not sure if that is the best explanation, so I'm just going to say that I really agree with money's analogy. The HE1000 tends to emphasize the sub-bass while the mid-bass is firmly kept in check. And it sounds very full, with no hint of bloat whatsoever. I would say that the HE1000 makes my HE-400i (itself already very impressive in its presentation of bass) sound like it has some mid-bass bloat, even though I know that really isn't the case.
 
I also agree with money4me247's observation that the dynamic range is absolutely humongous on this headphone. I noticed slight differences in volume in certain passages of my music that I never heard before quite easily. I think this huge dynamic range also helps the HE1000 to excel in other areas, which I will get to later.
 
The HE1000 is amazing in making everything clear in a mix. I found myself noticing background elements in a mix very, very easily, much more so than any of my current headphones. And this doesn't only apply to music. When watching movies or TV shows, in scenes where the main emphasis is on dialogue or other elements with music in the background, I found myself being able to clearly distinguish the sound of the background music, much more so than any other headphone that I remember. I don't mean that the background music is drowning out the dialogue or anything like that - the music is still at the lower volume, but its so clear that you don't need to really turn up the volume to really listen to it.
 
Like HiFiMAN's other headphones, crappily recorded music will still sound decent on the headphone, but excellently recorded music will sound spectacular. However, the HE1000 does make badly recorded music sound much more apparent and somewhat worse than my HE-400i and HD700, while the HE1000 also makes really apparent which are the truly excellent recordings and which are good but on a lower level.
 
Vocals sound sublime on the HE1000. Not only do vocals come to the life because of the pretty much perfect tonality of them and because of the details that the HE1000 effortlessly presents, but also because of the huge dynamic range. The fact that the HE1000 is able to capture such subtle changes in volume allows one to really be able to listen to the nuances in the singer's voice - when some words are slightly emphasized, what kind of tone the singer adopts to use in certain parts, etc.
 
Various instruments sound absolutely life-like on the HE1000. You can really hear the air being blown through the bass instruments. Violins actually have that sound where you know it's a bow being pulled across the strings (something that I never really noticed was missing from the sound of my other headphones until I noticed it here).
 
And it absolutely nails how the piano sounds. This is not only in terms of tonality, but also again because of that huge dynamic range. I myself have been trained in classical piano and have been playing the instrument for over 10 years. When one plays classical, there are lots of nuances one has to take into account - which notes are slightly accented, when do you start to gradually play louder and louder, when do you play the bass (the left hand) to be slightly louder or softer than the treble (the right hand), etc. That huge dynamic range allows me to hear all of those subtle nuances in a good recording and is truly something that can literally transport me to being right next to the piano player like no other headphone that I've ever heard ever has.
 
If anybody is looking for comparisons, sorry, I don't have them just yet, mainly because I can't get the HE1000 off of my head once I put them on and start putting music through them. Though I can really only compare the HE1000 to my HE-400i and HD700...
 
I think that's all that I have for now. If you'll excuse me, I gotta get back to listening to them.

 

[reddog]

Thanks for your informative impression of the HE1K, it is appreciated.

 

[Music Alchemist]

[...]

If anybody is looking for comparisons, sorry, I don't have them just yet, mainly because I can't get the HE1000 off of my head once I put them on and start putting music through them. Though I can really only compare the HE1000 to my HE-400i and HD700...

 
Awesome write-up, Noodles!

 
Since I used to own the HE400i and HD 700, comparing them to the HE1000 directly would be especially helpful for me. (I'm sure you remember that I like the HE400i a lot more than the HD 700.) Anyway, I think you were planning on listening through the Attack On Titan soundtrack with the HE1000. Comparing the three headphones with that album, in detail, would be amazing!

 

[conquerator2]

Thanks I can safely say the HE1K has beguiled me, regardless with how stressful the day tried to become. After a half-hour of listening I no longer stressed and somewhat happy and relaxed. I love my alpha primes but I am am quite taken with my first open back headphone. I shall keep these headphones and I hope they compliment my MrSpeaker's Ether's.

I'll be very interested about such a comparison 

 
Now if someone could get the Dharma as well, but the two are a very good reference point for me as well 

 

[reddog]

I'll be very interested about such a comparison 

Now if someone could get the Dharma as well, but the two are a very good reference point for me as well :wink_face:

+1 I wish I could get my mitts on Dharma too.

 

[reddog]

I am listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall and it sounds fantastic on the HE1K. The deep, endless holographic sound stage allows the album to come alive. And level of detail, the level of resolution makes for a very musical experience. The bass, mids and treble are all spot on, allowing the musical instrument to.sound natural and realistic. The bass and sub bass is some of the best I have heard. The mids are very detailed, but so smoth, so musical, not dry or analytical. The treble sounds great , I have not detected any sybilance. I have yet to turn up the volume past the 12 a clock
Position on my yggy/ Rag stack. After I am done with Pink Floyd, I shall put on some Kate Bush and see how she sounds on these beguiling headphones.

 

[DarthFader]

I am listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall and it sounds fantastic on the HE1K. The deep, endless holographic sound stage allows the album to come alive. And level of detail, the level of resolution makes for a very musical experience. The bass, mids and treble are all spot on, allowing the musical instrument to.sound natural and realistic. The bass and sub bass is some of the best I have heard. The mids are very detailed, but so smoth, so musical, not dry or analytical. The treble sounds great , I have not detected any sybilance. I have yet to turn up the volume past the 12 a clock
Position on my yggy/ Rag stack. After I am done with Pink Floyd, I shall put on some Kate Bush and see how she sounds on these beguiling headphones.

Good tastes in music, my man! All of you with pairs of the HE 1000s are making me very jealous!!

 

[moodyrn]

Well I've surpassed the 250hr mark on these. I initially thought the 100hr mark was the sweet spot on these. But I did notice a noticeable change one morning after going from the 130ish mark to the 160hr mark where transparency was slightly Increased along with micro detail. I haven't noticed a change since the 160hr mark. So as of right now, these are very impressive. While it's been a while since I've listened to the 009, I can't directly compare them side by side. But as far as transparency is concerned, I haven't heard none better. So the 009 might still be better in that regard, but I will say they are at least close. Where these really shine is the fact these are among the most musical, fun cans I've had the joy to listen to while still being among the best when it comes to the technicalities. It's hard to achieve a very high level of both. Usually with a highend can you either get a very high dowse of one or the other. For example, w3000anv on the musicality side and hd800 on the technicality side. As a result, these sound very good with lesser quality music, but still really show you how great they are with high quality recordings without ever sounding analytical.

I decided to take these with me on my vacation where I'm using my HIFI m8 to drive them. While this setup isn't as good as any of my setups at home, the he1000 still sound better than most headphones I've listened to at their best which makes these even more impressive.

 

[MattTCG]

Very nice Moody. That patio looks like a great spot for listening to music and enjoying a beverage!! I'll have to stop in on you next time I'm in 'Bama.