HE-500 arrived today and I've been trying to get as much time in as I can. Living in a "loft" apartment above the parent's garage while waiting for our house to be built hampers the testing a bit.
Mainly have listened to various genres of metal, progressive rock, and electronic with a few others thrown in. Artists included Diablo Swing Orchestra, Riverside, Seventh Wonder, Nightwish, Within Temptation, Septic Flesh, Shiny Toy Guns, DJs From Mars, Dredg, and Fun.
I do have to say that the first 4 min of Seventh Wonder's The Great Escape is absolute heaven with the HE-500 (the song is 30min long and I have to shutdown for the night before I could listen to all of it)
I'm actually waiting on a pair of HE-400 I ordered but they haven't arrived yet. Was hoping I could compare them directly. Oh well.
It did just cause me to setup a return of my AKG Q701 though as I find I don't like the sound signature of those especially on some of the tracks I tested. The highs are just a little too shrill for some of the female vocalists I tend to listen to even after burning them in. Plus I might be one of the few who doesn't like velour pads. They itch like crazy while they're on and I can't get past that feeling. I'm trying to put together some comments for the main HE-500 thread but I'm not the best with explaining some of the intricacies that a lot of people go to here.