sennfan83261
500+ Head-Fier
My initial impressions of the HE5XX (received on 11/11/20):
On the left, the HE-5XX, and on the right, the HE-500 (Audeze headband and velpads). Both were driven by 4-pin XLR connectors from the Cavalli CTH, Cavalli Liquid Platinum, Marantz MM7025, or the THX AAA 789 at various times during my initial listening session.
First things first. The box is rather spartan (no cloth material as shown in MLE’s review). Accordingly, this austere presentation resembles that of what Drop+Hifiman provided previously with the boxes from their previous collaborations (HE-4XX and the Edition XX).
However, this is what greeted me out of the box:
As you can see, one of the screws of the right button is exposed just from hanging the left cup. To fit my head, the cups have to spread farther apart, which further exposes the screw. It looks like that the right button is about to fail. Furthermore, the right button makes the right gimbal swivel considerably looser than the left gimbal.
What follows are my initial impressions of my newly arrived HE5XX to a friend (stream of consciousness):
I may add more later, or just ship them back to Drop due to QC issues…
EDIT: Couple of hours later, I smell the chemical odor from the HE5XX in my apartment (kind of almost towards burnt plastic smell but thankfully not as rancid) with the can sitting a few feet away from me.
On the left, the HE-5XX, and on the right, the HE-500 (Audeze headband and velpads). Both were driven by 4-pin XLR connectors from the Cavalli CTH, Cavalli Liquid Platinum, Marantz MM7025, or the THX AAA 789 at various times during my initial listening session.
First things first. The box is rather spartan (no cloth material as shown in MLE’s review). Accordingly, this austere presentation resembles that of what Drop+Hifiman provided previously with the boxes from their previous collaborations (HE-4XX and the Edition XX).
However, this is what greeted me out of the box:
As you can see, one of the screws of the right button is exposed just from hanging the left cup. To fit my head, the cups have to spread farther apart, which further exposes the screw. It looks like that the right button is about to fail. Furthermore, the right button makes the right gimbal swivel considerably looser than the left gimbal.
What follows are my initial impressions of my newly arrived HE5XX to a friend (stream of consciousness):
- Very cheap feeling, probably one of the cheapest feeling headphones that I’ve held in my hands (like Fischer-Price cheap feeling). Both the HE500 and the HD6XX feel much more substantial than the HE5XX. The upshot is that the HE5XX is light as feather, and with little to no clamp force, one should have no problems wearing it all day.
- L/R indicators are not immediately discernable (later found written with dark text on dark background, see above pic) but one can tell which side is which from the cup angle.
- There is indeed a chemical smell on the headband (definitely not new car, lol), but it isn’t strong nor does it fill my apartment with it. Maybe that is due to the pumpkin pie baking in the oven that's masking it
- The HE5XX lacks the slam of the HE500, the former more on the softer side of things.
- The slam of the HE5XX improves when driven from my Marantz (140WPC at 8ohms) but still noticeably trails that of the HE500 on the same amp.
- The resolution/detail retrieval capabilities of the HE5XX trails that of the HE500, which is by no means a resolution monster.
- There’s less body in the mids of the HE5XX than the HE500. When switching from the HE500 to the HE5XX, the mids sound thin and the upper mids and treble on the HE5XX are a little more peaky than the HE500 on Sun Kil Moon’s “Duk Koo Kim [YT]”
- Soundstage of the HE5XX is pretty nice
- The CTH and LP add much needed body to the HE5XX
I may add more later, or just ship them back to Drop due to QC issues…
EDIT: Couple of hours later, I smell the chemical odor from the HE5XX in my apartment (kind of almost towards burnt plastic smell but thankfully not as rancid) with the can sitting a few feet away from me.
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