[davidsh]

Quote:

Hehe, yes i meant that the HE-400 has slighly ressesed mids and that the asgard seems to fill them up a bit .
I will be able to test the HD Titanium by this weekend (long story short, i dont have the mental sanity untill the weekend to do that). 
Im not sure if the Optical (SPDIF I) output of the Titanium HD carries the effects of the sound card, ill try to figure that one out as well.

Know what you mean.. I have loaned 2 DAC's and an amp that I am supposed to give impressions on, and soon I'll have to post 'em back..

 

[catspaw]

No i mean becouse I just got back from my holiday (1 week in Spain after 1 year working in Poland) and I got to see my Ex. Im at work right now trying not to think about her... and failing at it as obvious from my posting.
I need a weekend to recollect my head.

 

[IronDoq]

Quote:

No i mean becouse I just got back from my holiday (1 week in Spain after 1 year working in Poland) and I got to see my Ex. Im at work right now trying not to think about her... and failing at it as obvious from my posting.
I need a weekend to recollect my head.

Sure thing, I totally understand.  But please do let me know when you get the chance to compare them

 

[IronDoq]

Quote:

No i mean becouse I just got back from my holiday (1 week in Spain after 1 year working in Poland) and I got to see my Ex. Im at work right now trying not to think about her... and failing at it as obvious from my posting.
I need a weekend to recollect my head.

Any chance to test out yet? 

 

[catspaw]

Yeah... but to tell you the truth I didnt notice any difference over optical and directly from the Sound card.
 
The sound signature is different for sure, but when it comes to positional cues I dont think it helps that much.
 
Note that I am used to 5.1 speakers so maybe its there but I aint picking it.
 
On another side, when it comes to sound signature, I like Fiio E17  more. Titanium HD seems to be too bass oriented for my taste.

 

[johnman1116]

If optical and direct from sound card sound the same, then did you notice a difference without using the sound card? (straight from E17).

I actually have no idea whether the processing from the Sound card carries over (dolby digital and what not) but that would be a good test. 

 

[IronDoq]

Quote:

Yeah... but to tell you the truth I didnt notice any difference over optical and directly from the Sound card.
 
The sound signature is different for sure, but when it comes to positional cues I dont think it helps that much.
 
Note that I am used to 5.1 speakers so maybe its there but I aint picking it.
 
On another side, when it comes to sound signature, I like Fiio E17  more. Titanium HD seems to be too bass oriented for my taste.

Thanks for taking the time to test, and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to express my thanks any sooner.  By difference in sound signature, what do you mean?
Quote:

If optical and direct from sound card sound the same, then did you notice a difference without using the sound card? (straight from E17).

I actually have no idea whether the processing from the Sound card carries over (dolby digital and what not) but that would be a good test. 

I would also like to know this.  As to whether or not it carries digital... 

 

[catspaw]

By sound signature i Mean there are sounds that are louder. For example the Bass in the HD titanium feels a lot louder, wile in the Fiio E17 it feels more natural to me.
 
The Main issue I have with that is explosions in games. The are way too loud to enjoy the rest at a decent volume withouth blowing your brains out.
 
The HE-400 is already a bass oriented headphone, and with the titanium it becomes too much for me.
Same thing happens with the treble from the fiio E17 and the HE-400, so i had to tune it down a bit with EQ, thou this bearly happened in 1 Game.
 
 
Dont know about the setting you put later on. Ill see if it changes anything when i got  some time.

 

[IronDoq]

Quote:

By sound signature i Mean there are sounds that are louder. For example the Bass in the HD titanium feels a lot louder, wile in the Fiio E17 it feels more natural to me.
 
The Main issue I have with that is explosions in games. The are way too loud to enjoy the rest at a decent volume withouth blowing your brains out.
 
The HE-400 is already a bass oriented headphone, and with the titanium it becomes too much for me.
Same thing happens with the treble from the fiio E17 and the HE-400, so i had to tune it down a bit with EQ, thou this bearly happened in 1 Game.
 
 
Dont know about the setting you put later on. Ill see if it changes anything when i got  some time.

Thanks for the input, it was actually quite helpful!  I managed to actually grab a pair of HE-500s during the Massdrop sale, yippee $579! Now that I have those, I'm almost forcing myself to get a better amp.  That or my birthday is coming up, who knows 

. So I'm going back and forth between the Lyr and Hifiman's own EF-5... Anyone here know of which would serve me better?

 

[catspaw]

Somehow i Favour the Lyr, but im quite sure both are good options. I mean, I use the asgard and its a huge improvment from the fiio E17.
As far as i know the HE-500 is better than the HE-400, but not for everyone, as it seems some people prefer the HE-400.
 
In theory Asgard is "Enought" for the HE-500, but im quite sure it will benefit from the higher end amps.

 

[davidsh]

Woah, pretty nice. When you get an amp, you'll have a pretty solid platform for developing your taste in music and heaphones as well. For many, the HE-500 is a glimpse into the realm of hi-fi, and often a stepping stone. Typically, some wanna go further, others find out they can be satisfied with less.

 

[IronDoq]

  Somehow i Favour the Lyr, but im quite sure both are good options. I mean, I use the asgard and its a huge improvment from the fiio E17.
As far as i know the HE-500 is better than the HE-400, but not for everyone, as it seems some people prefer the HE-400.
 
In theory Asgard is "Enought" for the HE-500, but im quite sure it will benefit from the higher end amps.

Arg I'm having a pretty terrible (heh) time choosing the right amp, so many choices... I've now seen the Yulong D100 which, aside from being a very nice DAC, also has a very nice amp built in, something that 's supposed to be on par with the Matrix M-Stage.  I save money going with the D100 becasue it's an all in one unit with all of the inputs I need and it looks great... But I'll always wonder what the Lyr+Bifrost sounded like, GAH this is killing me.  I need to just realize that whatever I get will sound great, but it's still so hard to decide.  AND there's the Hifiman EF-5 in the marketplace, which would of course have wonderful synergy with my HE-500s... 
 
/MEH
 

  Woah, pretty nice. When you get an amp, you'll have a pretty solid platform for developing your taste in music and heaphones as well. For many, the HE-500 is a glimpse into the realm of hi-fi, and often a stepping stone. Typically, some wanna go further, others find out they can be satisfied with less.

Thank you! I feel quite guilty having these as my first real "headphones" when so many have so much less, but I guess as my circumstances allow for a little money to be dropped here and there, I shouldn't feel too bad.  I don't know.  Well, I do.  And it's going to sound AWESOME.

 

[MalVeauX]

  Arg I'm having a pretty terrible (heh) time choosing the right amp, so many choices... I've now seen the Yulong D100 which, aside from being a very nice DAC, also has a very nice amp built in, something that 's supposed to be on par with the Matrix M-Stage.  I save money going with the D100 becasue it's an all in one unit with all of the inputs I need and it looks great... But I'll always wonder what the Lyr+Bifrost sounded like, GAH this is killing me.  I need to just realize that whatever I get will sound great, but it's still so hard to decide.  AND there's the Hifiman EF-5 in the marketplace, which would of course have wonderful synergy with my HE-500s... 
 
/MEH
 
Thank you! I feel quite guilty having these as my first real "headphones" when so many have so much less, but I guess as my circumstances allow for a little money to be dropped here and there, I shouldn't feel too bad.  I don't know.  Well, I do.  And it's going to sound AWESOME.

 
Heya,
 
The HE500 needs about 1 watt at 38ohms. It's fairly easy to drive. It does sound different at higher current sources. I use a speaker amp. It sounds better to me (and others) than a headphone amp that costs twice as much (Lyr). I have all those amps and ultimately I use a speaker amp that costed less. But hey, it's all a preference game. So don't worry if you're not spending $900 on your amp/dac, it doesn't matter. What matters is what sounds good to you. That may only be $250 or $500, or maybe you are a $2k listener. Don't fret over everything. You'll go inane lusting after the latest and greatest item on the market. Just focus on getting a good dac and amp, that has as much future proofing as you think you might need. If it can power the HE500, you probably don't need anything with higher output because frankly there's only a handful of headphones in the world that demand more than that (and they happen to almost all be Hifimans hah).
 
Just to make your mind even more clouded with too much information, look here for tons of information and impressions from many people using the HE500 with the humble Emotiva speaker amp. Costs less than the Lyr and other mid-level amplifiers. Yet some how just seems to sound better... purely preference of course. But check it out. It may be an answer for you.
 
And don't feel guilty about anything. We're talking at light speed on the internet which is a virtual reality of 0's and 1's. Feel guilty that people still starve and live in mud and are not talking about whimsical hobbies at light speed from around the world like a living sci-fi novel.
 
Very best,

 

[davidsh]

Yeah, get a speaker amp. It doubles... as speaker amp! 

 

[blueangel2323]

Arg I'm having a pretty terrible (heh) time choosing the right amp, so many choices... I've now seen the Yulong D100 which, aside from being a very nice DAC, also has a very nice amp built in, something that 's supposed to be on par with the Matrix M-Stage.  I save money going with the D100 becasue it's an all in one unit with all of the inputs I need and it looks great... But I'll always wonder what the Lyr+Bifrost sounded like, GAH this is killing me.  I need to just realize that whatever I get will sound great, but it's still so hard to decide.  AND there's the Hifiman EF-5 in the marketplace, which would of course have wonderful synergy with my HE-500s... 
 
/MEH
 
Thank you! I feel quite guilty having these as my first real "headphones" when so many have so much less, but I guess as my circumstances allow for a little money to be dropped here and there, I shouldn't feel too bad.  I don't know.  Well, I do.  And it's going to sound AWESOME.

 
Even though the D100's amp section is on par with the M-Stage sound quality wise, it doesn't have as much raw power. I don't own the HE-500s and I don't know how much power they need to truly shine, but something you may wish to double check.