[Christer]

  Agree and disagree.  I agree the Utopia is great for vocals.  I disagree that it's not good for large orchestra music. I've been listening to a lot of the RCA Living Stereo Fritz Reiner CSO recordings and they sound great on the Utopia with a wide and deep soundstage.  Great dynamics too.

I would say that good and impressive for its age as the old Reiner CSOs undoubtedly are ,they are not exactly  SOTA recordings by current standards. And maybe not the best reference material for low distortion and dynamic range compared to most full dynamic range recordings from for example BIS or Reference Recordings and classical in general.
More demanding recordings would for example be the recent BSO LIVE Shostakovich in 24/96 from Boston or The same orchestra at least in name as Reiner´s in the mid to late 50s, would be either Verdi´s Requiem or Verdi´s Othello under Muti.
There we can really talk dynamic range.
But yes I have to admit and agree as far as soundstage is concerned the 50s with two or three mics, were  better and more accurate than most of today´s  multi and spotmic´d recordings, and in that respect a good reference recording for judging how well a headphone reproduces a real concert hall soundstage captured very much as it was and not processed in postproduction and summing up loads of spotmics in the final mixdown.

 

[moshen]

I believe the whole thinness to the HD800 can be fixed with a higher impedance amp.

Yea, it helps a bit. Even quicker is to just EQ it, I never ran the HD800 without a good EQ curve. Still preferred the HE1000 by a mile after EQ which is why I eventually sold it.

 

[MacedonianHero]

  For a TOTL HP, small soundstage is a big no-no.
I see someone compare Utopia to others and said that Utopia
has image inside his head, which is kind of a big disappointment,
In term of reproducing recording, one can see that no recording is done
in a narrow space that stuck inside anyone's head, at least for a TOTL HP
the sound stage should be outside of head, as big as a recording room can be
is the most accurate one, unless it is outdoor live recording, which should be even bigger.
My 2cents.

 
Small sound stage? The Utopia's have a wonderful sound stage in my setup. Are they like the HD800s? Nope, but nothing is. I would put them on par with the T1Gen2...that is to say pretty darn good. And the preciseness of each player in that sound stage is only slightly bested by the SR-009s.

 

[JaZZ]

  I am still using my HD 800 and listen almost 100% to classical and although I liked HEK in many respects I still stuck with my HD800.
Overall it is a more accurate headphone to my ears at least, than the often impressive, but cheaply built and very  expensively sold HEK.
Now it seems that the even more ridiculously ,ridiculously priced UTOPIAs  are criticised on classical by some here. Interesting to read not yet having auditioned the UTOPIA. 
Another thing that struck me about them in theory compared to the trusted HD800, unless I am misquoting? is that they have 0,2  distortion at 1KHz 100dB. And the HD800 has got a figure of 0,02 ?
 
And it seems as if the HD800 and HD800S are still "KING" with transients and have the cleanest squarewave  of the three?
At least in theory it sounds as if the HD800 should sound more accurate with complex symphonic music than the UTOPIA?
I will definitely audition the UTOPIA. But if I hear the same limitations as some of you here on large scale classical I will stick to my HD800 again.
Soundstage, low distortion and high  accuracy are absolutely essential for classical music imho. I even refrained from "upgrading" to the HD800S because the bass is NOT as accurate on classical music with them as the old version.
And with a new stock cable I don´t really have much problem with the treble other than with already really overbright recordings anyway.
Several classical labels have been and still are using the Classic HD800 at recording sessions for  very good reasons imho.

 
Measurements can be found on Inner Fidelity:  HD 800 / Utopia

 

[SteveM324]

Small sound stage? The Utopia's have a wonderful sound stage in my setup. Are they like the HD800s? Nope, but nothing is. I would put them on par with the T1Gen2...that is to say pretty darn good. And the preciseness of each player in that sound stage is only slightly bested by the SR-009s.

Peter,
I totally agree with you.

 

[zeissiez]

I agree that cable upgrades are mandotary for the HEK. With stock cable, the instruments seemed to blend together, there's no air between them. Transient edge is poor. Soundstage depth is subpar. Imaging suffers. It's ridiculous that Hifiman supply this kind of cable for a pair of headphone of this caliber, and it's equally silly they feed the demo HEK with poor sources. To my ears, with stock cable, the HEK is worth USD800. With after market cables, they really transform to a much better headphone worthy of the price tag. Regardless of the measurement and comparisons, the HEK is such an euphonic pair of headphones, they just sound right. I can listen to them for hours and get lost in music.

 

[moshen]

I dunno, the stock cables are fine to me. I'm happy HEK comes with three. Totally not a believer in cables. I tried many aftermarket cables for the hell of it and just never heard any difference in cables, ever.

 

[zeissiez]

I dunno, the stock cables are fine to me. I'm happy HEK comes with three. Totally not a believer in cables. I tried many aftermarket cables for the hell of it and just never heard any difference in cables, ever.

What source do u pair the HEK?

 

[Toolman]

I found HEK to benefit immensely when paired with a top quality pure silver cable. Yes they cost more but so does your HEK

 

[TheAttorney]

  I dunno, the stock cables are fine to me. I'm happy HEK comes with three. Totally not a believer in cables. I tried many aftermarket cables for the hell of it and just never heard any difference in cables, ever.

You are seriously weird

 

[moshen]

  You are seriously weird

 
Explain? I've not seen any proof in anyone succeeding in identifying cables in a blind test so I'd like to think I'm firmly in the non-weird side here

 

[TheAttorney]

Really, it was a friendly joke )
 
It's all relative. In the high end forum, I'd expect you to be in the minority. In the Sound Science forum it would be the other way round.

 

[moshen]

  Really, it was a friendly joke )
 
It's all relative. In the high end forum, I'd expect you to be in the minority. In the Sound Science forum it would be the other way round.

True that. Unless there's an impedance reaction (BA IEM's, etc) with the impedance output of the amp, I don't really hear much difference in (solid state) amps that I could pick out blind either. Ditto with DACs.  Heresy around here I know.

 

[pedalhead]

True that. Unless there's an impedance reaction (BA IEM's, etc) with the impedance output of the amp, I don't really hear much difference in (solid state) amps that I could pick out blind either. Ditto with DACs.  Heresy around here I know.

I think more people would agree with you than you think. Ime, many differences between components are vastly overstated on this forum (and elsewhere). Differences exist, of course, but the language used is often disproportionate imho. It's even worse with cables. Someone actually just posted in another thread that there was a "night and day" difference between two headphone cables. By any objective standards this is just complete nonsense.

 

[Mist3rLao]

@pedalhead  'Differences exist, of course, but the language used is often disproportionate imho.' You could not have said it any better! Oftentimes, people new to the hobby often get "victimized" into splurging more than needed as a result.