[grizzlybeast]

Did any body familiar with the he400 walk away from the meet with solid impressions on how much bass and mids the 400i had compared to it.

 

[zach915m]

I'm much more familiar with the HE-500 and not the HE-400, but from my listening to the 400i found it quite similar to the HE-500.  I wish I had more time to AB the two, but someone did tell me that Hifiman was trying to come up with a similar signature for the 400i as was in the 500.  Can anyone confirm this?  I really liked the two Hifiman models at the meet, the 400i for it's detailed yet lush sound and the 560 for it's great extension and linearity.  They are both fabulous cans and I was excited to hear from the representative that the pads will work on the He-400 and He-500....I should have asked but I wonder if the headband assembly would work on the older models as well as they are extremely comfortable and if sold separately as a way to make my he-500 even more comfy I would definitely buy one.
 
There was so much great gear at the meet, and while a home listening session for me is much easier to get to know stuff (I'm easily distracted especially when there's so much excitement!) I was impressed by nearly everything I heard.  The Oppo guys were awesome and I loved the PM series, PS Audio's DAC was amazing, Ray Samuels Dark Star murders (in a good way) every headphone you throw at it and the UE UERM's were some of the best IEM's I've heard.  So much fun, and I got to meet Jude who is as good a storyteller as he is knowledgeable about headphones.
 
I'm sure I'll add more later, but had a great time.
 
As a side note I did clean the pots on my Marantz 2238b receiver and the left/right imbalance seems to have worked it's way out, sorry to anyone who heard some scratchiness on it and channel imbalance!  I've also found it takes like 5-10 minutes of being on for it to sound the best and the left right issues to work out.  Gotta love vintage gear!

 

[grizzlybeast]

I do clearly remember a young head-fier being adamant about being able to retro fit the headband to his already franken 5's and they responded that it wont work. But that was early in the game so its worth asking again.

 

[conquerator2]

I do clearly remember a young head-fier being adamant about being able to retro fit the headband to his already franken 5's and they responded that it wont work. But that was early in the game so its worth asking again.

It stands. It's a different design and it won't fit the older models. It's been confirmed, as you pointed out.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

I loved the cars, but the black aventador put my little mercedes back in its place lol.

anyways, i didnt get a chance to hear Fazor LCD-3 vs LCD-X wish i could of, probably same as the last lcd-3 revision i had which was incredible.

I liked the stax setup but it didnt impress me as much as in the past, like its not worth the huge price tag of the whole system.

The Allnic amps were incredible, injecting tube magic into every track and with every headphone. I am blown away again just as before, I really wish more people heard this amps.

The he-560 (earlier version) is good but falls short on sound compared to he-6, its close though and it worked wonderfully with the gsx mk2. im sticking with he-6 though

i couldnt listen to the he-560 that was at the Hifiman table though, they didnt have very good amps for the headphones and they had a weird reference "test" CD playing. so no impressions there.

loved the Oppo Pm-2 build quality, would be great portable, but no interest in purchasing since I find them overly colored and they kinda suck compared to audeze. the LCD-2 off the gsx would walk all over them.

The oppo amp was kinda cool with the screen.

the he-6 with darkstar was very nice too, but i thought the amp was more powerful. good setup anyways.

the 3000anv pair that was there was good, not sure its for me though.

since im planning my repurchase i listened to a few hps on my WA5. loved the hd 800 and audeze on it. i tried a T1 that was there but I believe it was a defective pair, unbelieveably bright and edgy, almost as terrible as a defective grado

I enjoyed the yummy cookies and watching a tuned GTR do launch control in the parking lot too

 

[ThePianoMan]

+1 on the STAX
 
Kojaku's LCD-3 setup rumbled like an avalanche on orchestral music!
 
Zach, good to hear about the Marantz receiver. Man that thing is fun to listen to... something about the way those old receivers sound is magical.

 

[zach915m]

  +1 on the STAX
 
Kojaku's LCD-3 setup rumbled like an avalanche on orchestral music!
 
Zach, good to hear about the Marantz receiver. Man that thing is fun to listen to... something about the way those old receivers sound is magical.

I didn't realize there was a fazored (sp?) LCD there until too late to do real comaprisons, so I'm not sure which one I listened too but as usual I really liked it as usual.  Did most people prefer the "fazor" version?  Sounded like a worthwhile upgrade from the little I heard from others.
 
I didn't expect the old Marantz's to sound as good as they do or to be as clear sounding, all I heard from reading and others was "warm warm warm," but apparently the b-series is a little lighter/brighter sounding.  There's surely a little of that analog-ish "grain" added especially when listening to sax or cello which I really like.  It makes me feel like I'm in the room with the musician more, like one can feel the vibration of the instrument, and it doesn't muddy or detract from the sound at all.  It sits in our living room and my wife has had to come in a few times to bother me because I'm lost listening to it with closed headphones.  Great option for anyone who wants an amp for 200-ish and can deal with the size of them, the 2240 b or non b's can be had for around that and under depending on where you get em.  safer to buy off craigslist.
 
I was surprised at what the Hifiman station was playing with the 560 as it was some sort of atmospheric music that was pleasant but I'd imagine most people were unfamiliar with.  I was able to find some other stuff by using one of the 901's they had connected.  I guess they didn't have the ef-6 there then?  I didn't see it.

 

[ThePianoMan]

Yeah later they had some Chesky binaural stuff up which was much better. It was kind odd (for a meet where people want impressions of cans) music they had playing at first. Pleasant, but I think people were happier when they swapped out the SD cards (which I think they did? There appeared to be different music playing after lunch)
They also didn't have the EF-6, just their smaller amps which were nice... but really those 560's wanted more power to shine. They were not getting 5W at 50ohms I can tell you that.
 
As for the Fazor thing, I'd say I find it worthwhile, less bass, but more controlled, sounded more even with the Fazor, clearer, but quieter. I could see people like the visceral-ness of the non-fazor, but it sounded less bloated with the Fazor. It was a hearable difference but not major.
 
I might have to look into getting a vintage receiver! $200 is pretty reasonable, I have no clue where'd I'd put it though, its freakin huge.

 

[zach915m]

 
I might have to look into getting a vintage receiver! $200 is pretty reasonable, I have no clue where'd I'd put it though, its freakin huge.

 
I just plop it on a $10 square ikea table next to my chair.  Nothing else fits on the table though, so forget having a lamp!

 

[ThePianoMan]

   
I just plop it on a $10 square ikea table next to my chair.  Nothing else fits on the table though, so forget having a lamp!

Hahahahaha, that's excellent! (Ikea is great)
 
It almost looks like something out of men in black. I was half expecting it to start ticking like a Geiger counter!

 

[conquerator2]

Yeah later they had some Chesky binaural stuff up which was much better. It was kind odd (for a meet where people want impressions of cans) music they had playing at first. Pleasant, but I think people were happier when they swapped out the SD cards (which I think they did? There appeared to be different music playing after lunch)
They also didn't have the EF-6, just their smaller amps which were nice... but really those 560's wanted more power to shine. They were not getting 5W at 50ohms I can tell you that.

As for the Fazor thing, I'd say I find it worthwhile, less bass, but more controlled, sounded more even with the Fazor, clearer, but quieter. I could see people like the visceral-ness of the non-fazor, but it sounded less bloated with the Fazor. It was a hearable difference but not major.

I might have to look into getting a vintage receiver! $200 is pretty reasonable, I have no clue where'd I'd put it though, its freakin huge.

5W figure is for HE-6... HE-500 wants around 2W max, which the EF-5 should provide...
After that, it's all synergy mate.

 

[ThePianoMan]

I meant the EF-6 provides 5W. They didn't have any EF-6's. The HiFiMan amps were good, but some of the bigger amps really opened up the 560.

 

[conquerator2]

Yes, the synergy
It's not about wattage after that point.

 

[ThePianoMan]

Yes, the synergy

It's not about wattage after that point.

Of course! My mistake, I meant I thought the other amps provided better power.

 

[Ishcabible]

 
I didn't realize there was a fazored (sp?) LCD there until too late to do real comaprisons, so I'm not sure which one I listened too but as usual I really liked it as usual.  Did most people prefer the "fazor" version?  Sounded like a worthwhile upgrade from the little I heard from others.

 
Well put simply, I didn't love the regular LCD-3 (out of any of the setups), but the Fazored LCD-3 impressed me so much that I'm definitely saving up for one.
 
Good to hear about the 2238! ...maybe you can sell me your 2220. 

 
I was going to ask why Hifiman didn't have an EF6 but forgot to every time I went back to their table. I didn't think the EF5 really did justice to the HE560, but they appealed to me more than the HE6 (save for the Allnic HPA-3000 combo) in most setups regardless.