Ferbose
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2004
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On July 23, Foo_me and I had a two-person get-together at my place, so I can get a taste of his spanking new toys: HE-90 (Orpheus) headphone and ES-1 amp. It is really kind of Foo_me to drive around with his gears admist the inferno heat (it hit 110 F in Pasadena
)
We tried to set up an A/B test for K1000 and HE-90. The source was my Benchmark DAC1. HE90 was driven by ES-1. K1000 was driven by Cayin HA-1A. The HE-90 and ES-1 both still have low hours (<100). ES-1 is running on stock tubes and its PSU suffered some external damage during shipping.
I got very excited about hearing the legendary, mystical HE90.
Am I supposed to hear what people classify as "uninterrupted sonic bliss" or simply "the best sound ever from a transducer?" Will I get carried into some "ecstatic flow of music" and burst into tears?
The revelation is, HE90 did not blow me away, and it didn't blow other hi-end headphones I have heard (K1000, K340, R10, Omega II, PS1, GS1000, HD650, UE-10) out of the water. It is not the best in everything, and I even doubt if it is the best in anything. Nevertheless, I won't hesitate to call it the finest headphone in the world, since no other headphone I heard can handle every type of music with such eveness and finesse. It has unmatched balance. It does not mean every sonic attribute is exquisitely balanced in a way that they sum up to total perfection. Instead, the sonic attributes are intelligently balanced in a way that the various sonic compromises don't get in the way of music too much.
HE90 (with ES-1) is not resolution monster, just on par with other great cans like UE-10, R10 or Omega II, and sounds quite relaxed and laid back to my ears. Tonal accuracy is very good across all frequencies, and rather sweet in the treble (Omega II too dark here). The bass is very well controlled although I wish it would have a bit more impact (like Omega II and HD650) or speed (like UE-10). Soundstage is very coherent and natural, but there is nothing jaw-dropping about it (especially next to a K1000).
I really like HE90 with pop music, probably more than anything I have heard. With jazz it has a lot of body and sounds really intimate, although I would not mind jazz being presented a tad more livelier. With rock music it seems a bit polite and a bit lacking in bass impact. Perhaps Omega II, PS-1 or GS1000 would do better here. For classical it seems to have everything it takes, but next to a K1000 it is still can't be called the king. K1000 has a bigger soundstage with more air and ambience, and a lot more concert-hall feeling. The timbre of violin is also more faithful on K1000. We both felt that there is no better headphone for classical than K1000.
As for the competition between Sennheiser and AKG's top cans, Sennheiser won by a clear margin. On jazz K1000 lacks the body and weight of HE90, but still manages to sound decent with its "live" feeling. For pop music or rock music, K1000 is no match for HE90, unless the album is mixed to have extremely spatial feelings. HE90 is a cost-no-object statement product designed to be the king. K1000 is a more afforadble statement product to showcase a new concept and to create a specialty product for classical music. Both companies succeeded in their goals. Kudos to the German and Austrian engineers.
At the end of the day we agreed that no headphone can be the best for everything. You just can't ask a heapdhone to sound distant/diffused for classical and intimate/in-your-face for rock, unless you invent a spatial pattern knob built into the headphone (like those spatial pattern knobs on mics). You can't ask for head-banging bass for killer drums and still want airy treble for violins and female vocals, because different frequencies all affect one another. Some people want this more lively and that more replaxed, and others the other way around. The perfect transducer does not exist, and it's not called HE90. The best violin in the world does not do everything best-- it is exceptional in some aspects and well balanced in othners. The world's best pianist can play many standard pieces extremely well, but not neccessarily better on any piece than the specialists. By the same token, HE90 can be called the world's best headphone but it by no means displace or negate other great cans out there.
We tried to set up an A/B test for K1000 and HE-90. The source was my Benchmark DAC1. HE90 was driven by ES-1. K1000 was driven by Cayin HA-1A. The HE-90 and ES-1 both still have low hours (<100). ES-1 is running on stock tubes and its PSU suffered some external damage during shipping.
I got very excited about hearing the legendary, mystical HE90.
The revelation is, HE90 did not blow me away, and it didn't blow other hi-end headphones I have heard (K1000, K340, R10, Omega II, PS1, GS1000, HD650, UE-10) out of the water. It is not the best in everything, and I even doubt if it is the best in anything. Nevertheless, I won't hesitate to call it the finest headphone in the world, since no other headphone I heard can handle every type of music with such eveness and finesse. It has unmatched balance. It does not mean every sonic attribute is exquisitely balanced in a way that they sum up to total perfection. Instead, the sonic attributes are intelligently balanced in a way that the various sonic compromises don't get in the way of music too much.
HE90 (with ES-1) is not resolution monster, just on par with other great cans like UE-10, R10 or Omega II, and sounds quite relaxed and laid back to my ears. Tonal accuracy is very good across all frequencies, and rather sweet in the treble (Omega II too dark here). The bass is very well controlled although I wish it would have a bit more impact (like Omega II and HD650) or speed (like UE-10). Soundstage is very coherent and natural, but there is nothing jaw-dropping about it (especially next to a K1000).
I really like HE90 with pop music, probably more than anything I have heard. With jazz it has a lot of body and sounds really intimate, although I would not mind jazz being presented a tad more livelier. With rock music it seems a bit polite and a bit lacking in bass impact. Perhaps Omega II, PS-1 or GS1000 would do better here. For classical it seems to have everything it takes, but next to a K1000 it is still can't be called the king. K1000 has a bigger soundstage with more air and ambience, and a lot more concert-hall feeling. The timbre of violin is also more faithful on K1000. We both felt that there is no better headphone for classical than K1000.
As for the competition between Sennheiser and AKG's top cans, Sennheiser won by a clear margin. On jazz K1000 lacks the body and weight of HE90, but still manages to sound decent with its "live" feeling. For pop music or rock music, K1000 is no match for HE90, unless the album is mixed to have extremely spatial feelings. HE90 is a cost-no-object statement product designed to be the king. K1000 is a more afforadble statement product to showcase a new concept and to create a specialty product for classical music. Both companies succeeded in their goals. Kudos to the German and Austrian engineers.
At the end of the day we agreed that no headphone can be the best for everything. You just can't ask a heapdhone to sound distant/diffused for classical and intimate/in-your-face for rock, unless you invent a spatial pattern knob built into the headphone (like those spatial pattern knobs on mics). You can't ask for head-banging bass for killer drums and still want airy treble for violins and female vocals, because different frequencies all affect one another. Some people want this more lively and that more replaxed, and others the other way around. The perfect transducer does not exist, and it's not called HE90. The best violin in the world does not do everything best-- it is exceptional in some aspects and well balanced in othners. The world's best pianist can play many standard pieces extremely well, but not neccessarily better on any piece than the specialists. By the same token, HE90 can be called the world's best headphone but it by no means displace or negate other great cans out there.
