manizkrishnan
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2014
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I will post my comments on Ember with HE-560 today.
I agree and disagree here. the he4 and 6 both had good treble, better then the 400 in most ways with correct amping. But in comparison to the 500s and the lcd line, the 400 could not be called muffled. at that time, the orthos on the market sounded like they were all under blankets. the lcd x finally got some high end.
But we all hear this stuff differently. what is horrible to me, might be perfect for someone else.
In stock form, the the HE400 has the worst treble in history, after its eq'd 6-10db it becomes listenable.
I actually hear more treble on my LCD3F than I ever did on my HE400, because its clean and not a tizz.
Also, the mids/vocals are so recessed it sounds like I am sitting across the road from the concert in comparison to the 3F.
I loved the HE400 for 2 years due to its bass but it has severe flaws.
I think my local store has the 560 for demo now but I don't think I will like it if it sounds more like the HD800.
Maybe I will wait for the 400i to come out and listen to them both at once, think I might like it more.
It's nothing like HD800 dude, still a very planar and very Hifiman-house sound, just so happens people draw comparisons to HD800 because lots of people own HD800s and feel that HE560 might be time for them to dip their feet into orthos.
It's nothing like HD800 dude, still a very planar and very Hifiman-house sound, just so happens people draw comparisons to HD800 because lots of people own HD800s and feel that HE560 might be time for them to dip their feet into orthos.
For the price, the HE400 is a great headphone but I found that the recessed mids got my turning up the volume to hear them, and then the treble cause fatigue quite quickly. On some albums, I felt I needed to stop and take a break and physically felt a sigh of relief when I did.
It wasn't all albums and often I did enjoy them but there were some serious peaks with the pleathers. After I put on the velours, that tamed it somewhat but then I lost some of the crispness of the pleathers.
Maybe the new focus pads would help... but I have the HE560s now.. Can't wait to get in the actual focus pads as I have been with only the Focus-A pads due to the screw up from the factory..
Yeah,,, from memory, these do not sound like the HD800 much. More detail than other HiFiMans yes but the HD800 is a sound all it's own.
The problem in discussing any advantages of an ortho, is the great variance of gear used in member playback. The HE-560 has the best treble ever from an ortho, you could recognize this using a Bakoon to Burson, not using a Vali.
Half the members are confused by what they are hearing, the other newbies misconstrue what they are hearing. Just from what's available at plug in.........
Well for a planar magnetic, a great treble is somewhat of an anomaly,while bass and midrange usually comes with an expected excellence, imo of course. Planars seem to struggle with resonance issues that can plague the treble, and that has been my experience as well.
Headphones like HE-400 have far too much treble, Mad Dogs have too little of it and it's too unrefined, LCD2 has both too little of it and a slight hardness around 9khz. PM-1 has a rough transition from upper midrange to treble. LCD-X has too much of a spike around 9khz-- an accentuated LCD2 problem imo. I've not heard the HE-4,HE-500 or HE-6 but I've read from trusted ears that they all have issues with treble as well.
HE-560 (with focus a pads) is the first planar I've personally heard that does treble right, the balance at around 10khz is just right, and the transition from upper midrange to lower treble and then upper treble is near flawless, it remains relatively smooth while having enough presence in that region to keep a linear sound. Other planars have dips or peaks in that critical transition from 4-10khz.
Ok, so perfect bass, perfect mids, perfect treble... Perfect headphone? ,-)
I sometimes dont understand why people always consider a phone with great treble or great bass automatically a good phone...its the complete picture that makes a phone great or not..sometimes a phone can sound better if its less detaily..or less bassy or even less on treble..or even sometimes soundstage can be to much..to much makes the sound sound unnatural... Its the mix of all that makes a phone Musical or not...gives it emotion...same thing with amping...and above all..all components have to complement each other...synergy i heard somewhere on a different thread...and it doent need to cost a fortune. a rig out of expensive but badly chosen components can sound worse then a affordable rig out of wellchosen components... IMHO ofcourse...
I sometimes dont understand why people always consider a phone with great treble or great bass automatically a good phone...its the complete picture that makes a phone great or not..sometimes a phone can sound better if its less detaily..or less bassy or even less on treble..or even sometimes soundstage can be to much..to much makes the sound sound unnatural... Its the mix of all that makes a phone Musical or not...gives it emotion...same thing with amping...and above all..all components have to complement each other...synergy i heard somewhere on a different thread...and it doent need to cost a fortune. a rig out of expensive but badly chosen components can sound worse then a affordable rig out of wellchosen components... IMHO ofcourse...