HeadAmp Headphone Demos -- Sign up now for HiFiMAN HE-560
mac336
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2012
- Posts
- 561
- Likes
- 17
LCD-2 has been shipped to ninjames
greatly appreciate this demo opportunity, thanks justin
greatly appreciate this demo opportunity, thanks justin
That Person
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2012
- Posts
- 60
- Likes
- 0
Wewt. HE-400 list updated. Gotta wait approx 3 weeks or so. Looking forward.
DemonFox
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2012
- Posts
- 1,650
- Likes
- 42
I'm waiting at my door like a puppy for the LCD's to show up... I've got my set up ready to go but have no clue when they'll arrive.
Tracking info was supposed to be emailed to you from the person shipping them out
btw -- had to guess that your last name was part of your email address because there was no last name entered on the sign-up form. USPS will reject shipments that dont have a last name on it, fedex/UPS dont care.
btw -- had to guess that your last name was part of your email address because there was no last name entered on the sign-up form. USPS will reject shipments that dont have a last name on it, fedex/UPS dont care.
ninjames
I get people telling me I say dumb things all day.
Quote:
Well I'm awaiting mine but have no tracking info (LCD-2). The person before me did say to expect it Thursday though. Which means I'll likely get it shipped out Monday.
Well I'm awaiting mine but have no tracking info (LCD-2). The person before me did say to expect it Thursday though. Which means I'll likely get it shipped out Monday.
mac336
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2012
- Posts
- 561
- Likes
- 17
Quote:
tracking number is on the picture of the receipt i attached and PMed ninjames
Sorry, i should of typed it out i guess
edit: just checked that pm and realized that you cant even read the receipt when you click to enlarge within the PM. I will PM ninjames the tracking number tonight when I get home.
Sorry for the trouble
tracking number is on the picture of the receipt i attached and PMed ninjames
Sorry, i should of typed it out i guess
edit: just checked that pm and realized that you cant even read the receipt when you click to enlarge within the PM. I will PM ninjames the tracking number tonight when I get home.
Sorry for the trouble
ninjames
I get people telling me I say dumb things all day.
Quote:
Haha I wasn't complaining, just letting him know in case everyone wasn't aware. Actually, the PM is all kinds of screwy because I go in and it doesn't even want to let me try and enlarge it. So it failed on all fronts I guess lol.
Haha I wasn't complaining, just letting him know in case everyone wasn't aware. Actually, the PM is all kinds of screwy because I go in and it doesn't even want to let me try and enlarge it. So it failed on all fronts I guess lol.
johnman1116
100+ Head-Fier
Alright, just got the HE-500 today.
Some quick impressions:
BTW, the moment I opened the box and held the headphones in my hand, I told my roommate "I'm buying these.” Moving on...
These are quick impressions done within basically 2 hours using Flac or 320 kbps with various music, some audiophile quality and some not. Source goes from desktop to Fiio E09k/E07k combo using low gain. I know this isn’t the “optimal” equipment but this is what I have at the moment, sorry. Main headphones are the Sennheiser HD650. Some more background: I am a college student in sunny Californ-eye-a so my English might get a little weird but please bear with me.
And finally, I’m probably a victim of confirmation bias.
Build Quality
Instantly I noticed the weight of the headphone and I actually like it. Makes it feel like a quality product. The weight and parts used to make the headphone make it seem very durable especially compared to my HD650 which I baby in fear of breaking headbands. The little screws for the headphone cable are kind of cool but wish they were like nonscrew-type or universal screw meaning screw just the nut and not the entire cable. It’s cool though, gimmicky and different. It’s pretty big but not really that big compared to audiophile headphones such as the hd650, dt880, denon 2000, etc.
Comfort
The weight is a non-issue for me and the headband is fine given that there is barely any padding. I haven’t tried on the leather/pleather pads but one thing I noticed that both the pleather and velour pads are pretty hard. I much prefer the HD650 pads and even more so the DT 880 pads. I unfortunately have plastic frame glasses and the clamp plus the hard pads cause some discomfort after a 30 minutes to an hour. it kinda feels like my m50s from a while back. Going back to my HD650, these are definitely more comfortable. I believe my ears also touch the pads but because the pads are more soft, there is little or no discomfort. And although while wearing the HE-500, i experienced no headband discomfort, there is no denying the pads on the HD650 are so nice
Without my glasses, the HE-500s are pretty okay comfort wise but definitely not going to have these on for hours and "forget they're on my head". This is probably due to my monster sized ears that touch the pads which we all know to be irritating especially with hard pads. I guess oval shaped headphones are my preference.
Sound
First thing I noticed was the crisp sound especially treble. There was so much texture in the vocals and guitar from AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill. It was eerie how textured it was. It was a little bright for me initially but this may be due to my coming from the HD650 and maybe the included silver cable.
Second thing I noticed was the soundstage. Its huge and so open, much more than the hd650. Another thing I noticed was that when you covered the grills, it becomes very closed and sounds muffled; obvious right? I found that this had a more drastic effect than on the hd650. Oh btw, these are crazy open… I remember when I first got into head-fi with the m50 and 598. Long story short, I thought open headphones were going to be me floating in sound and listening to the HE-500 brought me back to that thought. The HD650 has a big soundstage in my opinion but I believe the HE-500 to have an even bigger one. I don’t know about depth, width, height. Listening the Dave Brubeck at Carnegie – Blue Rondo was “sexy” to listen to. I’m not really sure what that means but that felt like the right word to is. Lots of me grunting and saying yea lol.
I noticed that on some tracks, the sound sounded pretty stereo but still had a wide soundstage which was kinda weird. Maybe it’s more true to the source or idk. It was with many recordings that probably weren’t too well recorded like Top50 and modern music. Sorry if I’m not clear.
While listening more intently for soundstage, I noticed that the instrument separation and positioning was phenomenal (wish I had binaural tracks!). On Led Zeppelin – Good Times, Bad times, everything felt clean and well balanced. I could hear all the little background sounds clearly and nothing felt overpowered.
I love these with rock; not sure if that’s the norm with these headphones. It’s not a bassy headphone but the bass is punchy and tight, I love it. The clean, crisp sound and detailed treble. Loving AC/DC right now… I also realized that I don’t have an ear for mids or maybe just don’t know what to listen for… lol. I’ll listen for that later. What I do notice is the clarity which usually means recessed lower mids. Wish I had more audiophile vocals to listen to.
Other
Driving with the Fiio stack with low gain, HE-500 was driven perfectly well in terms of decibel with it usually around 11 o’clock. HD650 around 10:00.
And that’s basically it for now. Sorry for being all over the place (unorganized) with my writing.
Thanks everyone and VERY MUCH THANKS TO JUSTIN AT HEADAMP. It was like a dream opening up my package, seeing the HIFIman box and putting the headphones on my head
-John
P.S. Box condition was kinda poor. No offense but taping job was pretty bleh... But i want to keep using the same box for nostalgia sake~
Photos
Update
Moving on to the pleather pads and John Mayer - Where the Light Is. Definitely an increase in bass here, a little boomier but you can almost feel that "thud" from the bass drum. Something I noticed was a sense of airiness more so on the velour than the pleather pads which gave a more open sound with better extension. (Way more open and airy sounding coming from HD650). Overall i think the pads are a preference thing (obviously), pleather with its more closed sounding and bigger bass or velour with its detail and open sound.
In Conclusion
I am perfectly happy with my HD650, with the win in comfort which I never really realized until now, is a HUGE deal
The HE-500 has better extension on both spectrum, with a tighter and punchier bass, better detail, separation and airy open sound. I feel like its almost technically better than the HD650 in every way.... but its all preference. I love the HD650s dark sound signature with its big fat bass, never fatiguing sound. big soundstage and its pretty good at data retrieval as well.
Plus I dont have $500 - $700 to spend and am addicted to Crack.
Some quick impressions:
BTW, the moment I opened the box and held the headphones in my hand, I told my roommate "I'm buying these.” Moving on...
These are quick impressions done within basically 2 hours using Flac or 320 kbps with various music, some audiophile quality and some not. Source goes from desktop to Fiio E09k/E07k combo using low gain. I know this isn’t the “optimal” equipment but this is what I have at the moment, sorry. Main headphones are the Sennheiser HD650. Some more background: I am a college student in sunny Californ-eye-a so my English might get a little weird but please bear with me.
And finally, I’m probably a victim of confirmation bias.
Build Quality
Instantly I noticed the weight of the headphone and I actually like it. Makes it feel like a quality product. The weight and parts used to make the headphone make it seem very durable especially compared to my HD650 which I baby in fear of breaking headbands. The little screws for the headphone cable are kind of cool but wish they were like nonscrew-type or universal screw meaning screw just the nut and not the entire cable. It’s cool though, gimmicky and different. It’s pretty big but not really that big compared to audiophile headphones such as the hd650, dt880, denon 2000, etc.
Comfort
The weight is a non-issue for me and the headband is fine given that there is barely any padding. I haven’t tried on the leather/pleather pads but one thing I noticed that both the pleather and velour pads are pretty hard. I much prefer the HD650 pads and even more so the DT 880 pads. I unfortunately have plastic frame glasses and the clamp plus the hard pads cause some discomfort after a 30 minutes to an hour. it kinda feels like my m50s from a while back. Going back to my HD650, these are definitely more comfortable. I believe my ears also touch the pads but because the pads are more soft, there is little or no discomfort. And although while wearing the HE-500, i experienced no headband discomfort, there is no denying the pads on the HD650 are so nice
Without my glasses, the HE-500s are pretty okay comfort wise but definitely not going to have these on for hours and "forget they're on my head". This is probably due to my monster sized ears that touch the pads which we all know to be irritating especially with hard pads. I guess oval shaped headphones are my preference. Sound
First thing I noticed was the crisp sound especially treble. There was so much texture in the vocals and guitar from AC/DC – Shoot to Thrill. It was eerie how textured it was. It was a little bright for me initially but this may be due to my coming from the HD650 and maybe the included silver cable.
Second thing I noticed was the soundstage. Its huge and so open, much more than the hd650. Another thing I noticed was that when you covered the grills, it becomes very closed and sounds muffled; obvious right? I found that this had a more drastic effect than on the hd650. Oh btw, these are crazy open… I remember when I first got into head-fi with the m50 and 598. Long story short, I thought open headphones were going to be me floating in sound and listening to the HE-500 brought me back to that thought. The HD650 has a big soundstage in my opinion but I believe the HE-500 to have an even bigger one. I don’t know about depth, width, height. Listening the Dave Brubeck at Carnegie – Blue Rondo was “sexy” to listen to. I’m not really sure what that means but that felt like the right word to is. Lots of me grunting and saying yea lol.
I noticed that on some tracks, the sound sounded pretty stereo but still had a wide soundstage which was kinda weird. Maybe it’s more true to the source or idk. It was with many recordings that probably weren’t too well recorded like Top50 and modern music. Sorry if I’m not clear.
While listening more intently for soundstage, I noticed that the instrument separation and positioning was phenomenal (wish I had binaural tracks!). On Led Zeppelin – Good Times, Bad times, everything felt clean and well balanced. I could hear all the little background sounds clearly and nothing felt overpowered.
I love these with rock; not sure if that’s the norm with these headphones. It’s not a bassy headphone but the bass is punchy and tight, I love it. The clean, crisp sound and detailed treble. Loving AC/DC right now… I also realized that I don’t have an ear for mids or maybe just don’t know what to listen for… lol. I’ll listen for that later. What I do notice is the clarity which usually means recessed lower mids. Wish I had more audiophile vocals to listen to.
Other
Driving with the Fiio stack with low gain, HE-500 was driven perfectly well in terms of decibel with it usually around 11 o’clock. HD650 around 10:00.
And that’s basically it for now. Sorry for being all over the place (unorganized) with my writing.
Thanks everyone and VERY MUCH THANKS TO JUSTIN AT HEADAMP. It was like a dream opening up my package, seeing the HIFIman box and putting the headphones on my head
-John
P.S. Box condition was kinda poor. No offense but taping job was pretty bleh... But i want to keep using the same box for nostalgia sake~
Photos
Moving on to the pleather pads and John Mayer - Where the Light Is. Definitely an increase in bass here, a little boomier but you can almost feel that "thud" from the bass drum. Something I noticed was a sense of airiness more so on the velour than the pleather pads which gave a more open sound with better extension. (Way more open and airy sounding coming from HD650). Overall i think the pads are a preference thing (obviously), pleather with its more closed sounding and bigger bass or velour with its detail and open sound.
In Conclusion
I am perfectly happy with my HD650, with the win in comfort which I never really realized until now, is a HUGE deal
Plus I dont have $500 - $700 to spend and am addicted to Crack.
johnman1116
100+ Head-Fier
Jeez that long a post post...
FOR JUSTIN:
FOR JUSTIN:
Quote:
Did they arrive today?
I'm waiting at my door like a puppy for the LCD's to show up... I've got my set up ready to go but have no clue when they'll arrive.
Did they arrive today?
ninjames
I get people telling me I say dumb things all day.
The LCD-2 (Bamboo) arrived today. Everything looks in order. So excited. My first impression is that it feels lighter on my head than the HE-400, which I didn't expect. I also don't get the vacuum thing people are talking about, the clamp feels nice.
Holy crap these things sound nice. I don't really have time for a whole review right this minute everything is so silky smooth coming out of my Schiit Magni. With -12 dB attenautors attached, I get the Magni to about 1 o'clock at what I'd call loud comfortable listening volume. Right about 3 o'clock is gets painful.
Not a fan of the band but it's not altogether uncomfortable in that aspect. The bass is just phenomenal. The cable makes me realize just how bad the HiFiMan connectors are.
My first impressions are extremely positive, in regards to the sound, but as I just purchased the HE-400 a couple months ago, I don't get the impression that going to the LCD-2 so quickly is all that worth it, which is more a testament to how much of a value the HE-400 are. That said, I think the LCD-2 might have cemented itself as my next purchase, though I'll have to try the HE-500 and maybe that Stax Justin talked about.
More in depth impressions to come later! I'll send these off on Monday, I'll be done with them before then but the weekend threw it off a little bit.
Holy crap these things sound nice. I don't really have time for a whole review right this minute everything is so silky smooth coming out of my Schiit Magni. With -12 dB attenautors attached, I get the Magni to about 1 o'clock at what I'd call loud comfortable listening volume. Right about 3 o'clock is gets painful.
Not a fan of the band but it's not altogether uncomfortable in that aspect. The bass is just phenomenal. The cable makes me realize just how bad the HiFiMan connectors are.
My first impressions are extremely positive, in regards to the sound, but as I just purchased the HE-400 a couple months ago, I don't get the impression that going to the LCD-2 so quickly is all that worth it, which is more a testament to how much of a value the HE-400 are. That said, I think the LCD-2 might have cemented itself as my next purchase, though I'll have to try the HE-500 and maybe that Stax Justin talked about.
More in depth impressions to come later! I'll send these off on Monday, I'll be done with them before then but the weekend threw it off a little bit.
I agree that they can feel lighter than the HE-400. The leather pads disperses some of the weight while the HE-400 just sort of hang from the top of your head. All of this will depend on the size/shape of your head. For smaller heads, the clamp is a non-issue with the Audeze. For larger heads, the HiFiMAN might be more comfortable. Though I did run into an issue where someone couldn't extend the HiFiMAN cups low enough. The Audeze can extend about 1/2" lower, and they also have longer posts available
TMRaven
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2011
- Posts
- 7,327
- Likes
- 1,087
Keep the LCD2 on for an hour or so then go back to the HE-400. When I first put the LCD2 on my head it didn't feel very heavy either by itself. Going back to the HE-400 you'll be like 'man this thing's really light!'
It's funny that the Audeze headband extenders have longer travel, I found myself having them closer to the top compared to the Hifimans.
It's funny that the Audeze headband extenders have longer travel, I found myself having them closer to the top compared to the Hifimans.
Users who are viewing this thread
