[pdrm360]

That's ironic because just like 1 hour ago a girl walked up and talked to me saying I'm cute haha

 

[M-13]

That's ironic because just like 1 hour ago a girl walked up and talked to me saying I'm cute haha

Was it this girl?
 

 
Because she's pretty cute herself.

 

[Nimzerz]

More than half of it is because of the AKG...

 

[conquerator2]

Pedo bears everywhere!

 

[tigon_ridge]

  Graph can't be trusted after 12khz. Rolled off treble is indeed a difficult thing to measure and I wouldn't suggest you guys to used them as reference for any purchase.

Yet that graph is pretty consistent with the other graphs of HE-500 (some show even more upper trebble than I graph I linked). Best way to subjectively test for yourself, though, is to do a frequency spectrum sweep. I don't know about the HE-500, but the HE-400 has plenty of upper treble (a little too much for my taste) from the sweeps I'd made.
 
Why don't you HE-500 owners do a sweep yourself, and compare with your other headphones, then report back. I find the claim that the 500 has no upper trebs really questionable, because for a long time the 500 (and hifiman orthos in general) are known to have plenty of highs, especially when compared to the LCD-2.

 

[davidsh]

Planars are generally known to lack air

 

[Clemmaster]

Planars are generally known to lack air

No, no and no!
Audeze are, not Hifimen (one could argue for the HE-x00, but it is still on the airy side compared to a HD-650).

 

[brunk]

Planars are generally known to lack air

You haven't heard the HE-6 have you. 

 

[pdrm360]

Planars are generally known to lack air

You haven't heard the HE-6 have you. 

 
Most of them lack air but definitely with exception of the HE-6.

 

[Ultramus]

Going to be honest here, what music are you guys listening to that has anything meaningful above 10khz, which is itself a generous threshold. Am I missing something? I don't really find anything above 16khz pleasurable, maybe that is why I love the he-500 so much.

FR is a pretty useless stat provided the headphones don't show significant peaks and valleys throughout the frequency range.

What I would really like to see is a comparison of the oscilloscope plots of a song versus a recording of the same song played through the headphones, and how many cycles it would take for it to sound horribly distorted. That would be cool.

 

[davidsh]

 

Planars are generally known to lack air

No, no and no!
Audeze are, not Hifimen (one could argue for the HE-x00, but it is still on the airy side compared to a HD-650).

 

 

Planars are generally known to lack air

You haven't heard the HE-6 have you. 

 
Almost knew I were going to get those 2 reactions, lol. So much for being lazy on the phone..
Well, many planars do lack air to a significant degree (in absolute terms). There are exceptions like the HE-6 for example, and to some degree lcd3 (despite being dark) if I remember correctly. Getting some proper treble extension and fairly linear upper mids is hard with planars and require lots of R&D from what I have heard.
 
Airyness doesn't make or break a headphone or anything, it's just another thing that I'd have my headphone do right. Despite that not much is to be found above 10 kHz, what is there can sound very pleasurable and give off a good feeling of air between the instruments.

 

[Nimzerz]

Going to be honest here, what music are you guys listening to that has anything meaningful above 10khz, which is itself a generous threshold. Am I missing something? I don't really find anything above 16khz pleasurable, maybe that is why I love the he-500 so much.

FR is a pretty useless stat provided the headphones don't show significant peaks and valleys throughout the frequency range.

What I would really like to see is a comparison of the oscilloscope plots of a song versus a recording of the same song played through the headphones, and how many cycles it would take for it to sound horribly distorted. That would be cool.

^ Koiloco told me the same thing.
Whether it be from speakers or a live performance, I doubt much of the information received by our ears are even above that frequency. It just seems like what I'd like to call an illusion and cheap way to gain "air" rather than a good thing.

 

[davidsh]

^ Koiloco told me the same thing.
Whether it be from speakers or a live performance, I doubt much of the information received by our ears are even above that frequency. It just seems like what I'd like to call an illusion and cheap way to gain "air" rather than a good thing.

Don't quite follow you there? Of course we'd want our headphones/speakers to extend linearly up to 16-20 kHz (19 kHz for me).
Of course we can discuss the importance of what is to be found in those ranges. I don't find airyness overly important compared to some other aspects, but like very good and extended low distortion bass, the 'air' in the treble adds to the realism.

 

[tigon_ridge]

Going to be honest here, what music are you guys listening to that has anything meaningful above 10khz, which is itself a generous threshold. Am I missing something? I don't really find anything above 16khz pleasurable, maybe that is why I love the he-500 so much.

FR is a pretty useless stat provided the headphones don't show significant peaks and valleys throughout the frequency range.

If you mute all frequencies above 14kHz, everything will sound totally veiled, mucky, and just...bad. Above 18kHz it makes no difference to my ears. FR graphs are faarrr from useless. For the average listener who doesn't know how to read and analyze them, yes, they're useless. I've EQ'd all of the headphones I've owned to perfection (that is, as close to near-perfectly flat as possible as the way I personally define "flat") with the help of their FR graphs (among other things).

 

[Nimzerz]

  Don't quite follow you there? Of course we'd want our headphones/speakers to extend linearly up to 16-20 kHz (19 kHz for me).
Of course we can discuss the importance of what is to be found in those ranges. I don't find airyness overly important compared to some other aspects, but like very good and extended low distortion bass, the 'air' in the treble adds to the realism.

I beg to differ... that 'air' is more or less things you shouldn't be hearing in the recording IMO