Was a mistake after altering the intro too many times, sorry about the confusion. 

What source and power supply were you using?   An O2 at 2.5 gain gets the HE-500s to play extremely loud, if you have a source that provides 2 Vrms.   This is with a JDSLabs O2 and a kit version I built using the ODAC as source.

Project86 is right on the money. Was going thorugh a lot of different in-ears when doing my review of them and the RE-400s are extremely pleasing to listen to.   I put it up here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HiFiMAN/RE-400/

O2+ODAC game over. Superb combo for the HE-500s 2.5x gain will drive them easily.

It works just fine with a normal gained O2 I have the combo right here.

Bueno Vista Social Club - Chan Chan The Persuasions - Angle of Harlem The Beatles - In My Life The Meters - Cissy Strut The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want B.B. King - Thrill Is Gone Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughn - Call It Stormy Monday / Pride and Joy Nils...

Is there any place online where you can buy them presoldered and tested?   Cheers, Fred

Isn't the AD797 design available in a normal DIP-8 package? I am asking because a Danish site is listing some AD797ANZ and I am very tempted.   I am sorry if it is a stupid question.   Cheers, Fred

Quote:   The presentation of the midrange is very similar. It has the same sweet / liquid qualities as the HE-500s albeit a bit more pronounced on the HE-400s off the Fostex HP-P1 I am doing some tests on a balanced rig right now to see if there is a discernable difference. They are not...

Quote: It has a lot of presence and the bass has good weight to it. The sound stage is intimate yet big enough to give a sense of space that is three dimensional.  

Been using the HE-400s for a week now and they have a quite dark tonality and slightly less sparkle than the HE-500s. They have a detail level in the midrange that is similar to that of the HE-500s, but not quite up there. Bass wise they deliver a lot of punch and the extension is comparable to...

@rawster I based primarily upon my experience with the SR-325is which I had on loan from a friend for a month. I have had the SR-60s for ages and have modded them a lot so I do not use them for comparison anymore. I do not know anything about the Magnum sorry. Correct me if I am wrong but...

It is a known issues with the pades for the HE-series headphones. New pads should be released within two weeks according to posts in another thread. These should be deeper and have a new mounting system.  ...

It sounds like a smoother Grado with less emphasized highs, very little sibilance, yet retaining the same airy presentation. The soundstage is marginally better and more coherent. They have roughly the same level of detail richness.   The HE-300s are very engaging and airy to these ears.

Do you have balanced headphones? If so, which ones? Sennheiser HD600, Head-Direct: HE-5LE, HE-6, HE-500, HE-300, RE-ZERO, RE-272, JH AUDIO 16PRO, Westone ES5   If not, are you looking at balanced headphones or a balanced amp in the future? Yes!   For balanced headphone output, how...

The MMX300s are from what I remember much softer than the DT770s like I wrote in the comparison. And the DT770s can be sibilant but I think the 80 Ohm new version I heard was the only one where it was out of control. To be fair it might depend on source and amping I have heard quite a few...

Currently I have no Beyer DT-series headphones with me. But compared to the MMX300s which are based around the DT770 design, albeit with a slightly more efficient driver, the HE-300s have a little more bass. The sound stage is slightly better on the MMX300s since it is deeper. The bass of the...

They are compared to the HE-500s in this review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Head-Direct/HE-300/1.html

It is probably the same as always. Worldwide gets the shipped from China and US gets it from Head-Direct in the US if the items are in stock.

The SR-71A (I am perfectly aware that there is a balanced version now) was designed to drive HD-6xx series headphones. The Protector is made to drive in-ears and efficient headphones. If that can drive the HE-500s well then chances are that the SR-71A which has even better specifications will do...

My best guess is yes. The Protector drives them very well and the SR71A should be even more powerful.

Quote:   Yes.

Quote: Look at page three perhaps.

Quote: No problem, now it is cleared up :)

It does not say grado like sound stage anywhere in the review. The signature is somewhat gradoish, intimate with ample amounts of bass and good treble presence. The sound stage is comparable to that of the HE-500s, but lacks some depth compared to the HE-6s.