[zibra]

Captouch describes HE5LE pretty good what I hear and even Im not familiar with HE500 Im sure I wouldnt like it so much.
Regarding powering HE5LE I could be annoying but Black Pearl amp gives great result with it. It gives about 1.3W at the output but its really enough IMO unless you like just little more coloured sound or more forgiving amp with weaker source scenraio. Source is really also very important here for such revealing cans. If you have setup without much weakness I just cant imagine these cans can be too bright. Surprisingly I find it similiar to Beyers DT880 in terms of overall balance but all  frequencies are just more natural and better.

 

[kozmo]

Quote:

I wonder if it's a humidity thing or you have a different coating on yours. I actually like the shiny/glossy black paint compared to the matte gray on HE-500, but I wouldn't describe it as rubbery and mine hasn't become sticky,

 
You must have a later production HE-5LE if it's glossy. The earlier units have a flat black coating that feels sort of soft or rubbery to the touch.
 
Earlier
 

 
 
Later
 
 

 
Slightly different headband also.

 

[Joong]

Do you know when Head-direct began to ship the shinny one.
I bought HE-5LE some one in US who claimed that he got the pair mid of 2012. And the HE-5LE is mat.

 

[Joong]

Quote:

I haven't tried Schiit Lyr.  I have HE5-LE, and now considering to get Yulong A18 Amp.
http://www.head-fi.org/products/yulong-a18/reviews
http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Yulong-Sabre-A18-Class-A-Headphone-Amplifier.html
 
I would like to have headphone amplifier with balanced output for HE5-LE, especially after my experience with my DIY pseudo balanced amp.  
Has anyone tried Yulong A18 with HE5-LE?
 
Another cheap alternative to try is the DIY amp from Hifimediy:
http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=89
I've contacted Steinar, the designer, he said it sounds pretty good with orthodynamic.  But has to assemble it and put it into casing by ourself.

I have a supprising result when I connect my He-400 to balanced output of little dot mkvii+.
Previously HE 400 was kind of weired phones with to be tilted towards lower band of sound or dark sound, but now tonal balance is wonderful as good as HD 650 with high quality of sound.
I think HE-5LE will be the same thing.
Actually I prefer A18 to other SE driving AMP, when I see the internal structure. I am electrical engineer and can feel what it is.
Especially balanced mode eliminate 3rd order linearity trouble, and better for slew rate, and eliminates lot of commone mode noises.
Amp is is the most simplest one among electronics, which generates some sense of prediction for what they are.
Maybe I might have gone to far.

 

[jerg]

Hifiman shifted their paintjob for HE500 and HE5LE early last year I think. My HE500 which is a March 2012 model is glossy, but another pair from Dec 2011 is matte.

 

[captouch]

You must have a later production HE-5LE if it's glossy. The earlier units have a flat black coating that feels sort of soft or rubbery to the touch.

Mine are from Q3'11,as I bought them in Feb'12 and they were about 5 months old at the time.

Pictures from original ad:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595774/hifiman-he-5le

 

[wje]

And to think, this is the beauty that I once owned.  This was where it all began with HifiMAN and orthodynamic headphones with me.  The purchase a bit over a year ago of a nearly new pair of HE-5LE headphones, that lured me into the sound capabilities of the ortho sound, and the HifiMAN beauty.
 
Yet, the "upgrade bug" hit and the bug wears various disguises.  It likes to appear as an "upgrade bug" but can, at times, be a side-grade bug or even a bug that will take a buyer down a road of higher sound expectations that don't always result in success during such a journey.
 
The beauty of the glossy HE-5LE headphones formerly owned by WJE.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 

[Clemmaster]

That's some testimony!

I can feel some regrets, your hands are shaking...

So far, the HE-400 are my one and only disappointment.

 

[wje]

Quote:

That's some testimony!

I can feel some regrets, your hands are shaking...

So far, the HE-400 are my one and only disappointment.

 
Thank you.  I try to share, real, and objective experiences here, so others might gain from it.  All too often, thread discussions "sugar coat" the actual discussion of an item.  It is this sugar coating that pulls at the emotions of readers and potential buyers.  They read about one person's "aha" moment with a certain product, and they believe they will experience the same, if not better moment, in making a similar purchase.  For these reasons, it is great to read how good a user's liking and experience is towards a product - as well as to look for positive reviews on a product as it makes us feel better and "validated" so we go ahead and make the purchase.
 
Then again, when has one read a negative review of a product that really expressed some of the weaknesses in a product?  It rarely ever happens as most of it is always positive.  That is what kills us, our emotions towards a product when it doesn't meet our own expectations as well as the dollars in our wallet.  All of these items then take us away from the real purpose --- to be able to enjoy our music, which is the real goal or objective of this whole process.
 
Aside from that, I can, at times, see it in members who spend more time talking about their product, or their purchase, than being away from the forum and enjoying it.  Granted, I'm a 10-year vet here on the forum.  But in those 10 years, I've only applied 3,851 posts.  That is just an average of less than one single post per day.  Hopefully, the posts can benefit someone, but not detract them away from the real purpose, or to lead them in a wrong direction in their purchase decision.

 

[wje]

As I wait on my next HE-5LE headphones to arrive, I did pick up a pair of HE-4 headphones -- all minty fresh and still sealed in the box from Justin of HeadAmp on Saturday evening.  The HE-4 headphones come with 2 pair of velour pads and don't even have the pleather pads present.  I'm actually quite happy with this decision by HifiMAN.  One would think that the HE-4, being a headphone with a 1/2 of a magnet structure would somehow be half castrated.  

   However, I can vouch and say that it couldn't be further from the truth.  The HE-4 is quite a performer.  The ladies and their vocals just sound so precious.  The upper-end detail is there, too.  Not to the point of causing fatigue, but just right when it comes to percussion, etc.  The lows and the mids?  Sweet.  Just beautiful.  It's too bad that HifiMAN has ceased production on the HE-4.  I suspect that the amplification demands is what might have been where the HE-4 met its fate.  However, when giving them the right amount of juice, they just shine.  I'm expecting something similar with the HE-5LE as I'm in a better position on this next pair to give them more of what they need than possibly the last time around.  Given the fact that the HE-4 is just slightly less efficient than the HE-5LE makes me confident that the HE-5LE might be quite OK.
 
I suspect this might be my pair of HE-5LEs that could be en-route to me soon.  Just exciting !!
 
 

 

[Clemmaster]

The more I listen to the 4s, the more I think I'm gonna sell the HE-500 and buy the 6s to get that wonderful airy sound back!
 
It seems like they changed the design of all the HEs. My second pair of 4s are different that the pair I sent to them for repair (I like that sentence).

 

[Joong]

Per principle, He-4 has not linear motion for planar coil structure with respect to the magnetic flux lines, whereas he-5le has a linear motion due to symmetric construction of magnets.
It should be technically far inferior to He-5le.
However what I read are surprising.
With What do you guys drive he-4? I think it is hard to drive, because the he -4 has significant offset from ideal orthodirectional vectors to drive whereas he-5le has always to keep the orthogonal directions which is the most efficient.

 

[Clemmaster]

I drive them with SA-31 headphone amp (single ended, 10Wpc if that matters).

 

[Joong]

Thanks for the information, I saw the amp just a minute ago, which is a formidable machine.
This 10 watt per channel makes sense to drive the inefficient He-4 in terms of non-orthogonal current and field direction structure.
My he-5le is driven by little dot mkvii+, 1 watt per channel.
As far as loudness goes, it is enough.

10 watt vs 1watt due to the inefficient structure due to loosing its symmetry.
Whenever he-4 is proven good, it is technically proven that he-5le is far better in terms of THD and hence linearity that strongly affects SQ.

BTW, what is the price of SA-31?

 

[Clemmaster]

Something like $630,00 with shipping and the remote.
 
It is a very nice amp