[sachu]

main gripe is taht it can't be opened and tuned to our taste.

I find it sibilant with female vocals, them being fully open also limits their usefulness in my listening environment.

Lastly, my ID-1 and T10 sound very very good when directly compared against the HE-5. Sure the HE-5 is clearly better, but not 10 times better and taht extra bit is what costs so much in this hobby of ours.

The HE-5 is easy to drive on the EHHA when compared against my ID1 which makes me want to up the gain on the amp to 20 from the current 11. The ID1 is that inefficient.

Quote:

Originally Posted by achristilaw /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh! Has Sankar mentioned any cable options to you or anyone you know regarding the LCD-2?

Been trying to get a hold of them but haven't been successful.

 

[achristilaw]

I'm going the First Watt route for my Powah needs! I think both the cable and power excesses lead to the hardness you describe. I'll find out!

 

[thinker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachu /img/forum/go_quote.gif FWIW, I sold my HE-5s today

????????
one of the first thoughts when i received these headphones that i pretty soon will sell them.
THANKS GOD i did not do that and instead mutilated the wire and rewired it and hooked them up with Krell.I had pretty much trouble to get them play i tried on tube amps and hybrids but they got all out of fuel.

 

[achristilaw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thinker /img/forum/go_quote.gif ???????? one of the first thoughts when i received these headphones that i pretty soon will sell them. THANKS GOD i did not do that and instead mutilated the wire and rewired it and hooked them up with Krell.I had pretty much trouble to get them play i tried on tube amps and hybrids but they got all out of fuel.

With his EHHA he has a handle on the power requirements. As a vintage Ortho soldier he has his reasons to walk off and wait for something different.

 

[thinker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by achristilaw /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm going the First Watt route for my Powah needs! I think both the cable and power excesses lead to the hardness you describe. I'll find out!

i share this opinion the HE-5 reacts very sensitive to source -cleanness with power is the key word, First Watt could be a match made in heaven-time will tell

 

[sachu]

Some info and pics of my favorite ortho.., in fact the first commercial ortho ever..the one that actually manages to keep up with the HE-5 and in some areas better than the HE-5.

power needs of the HE-5 is nothing compared to that needed for this headphone.

 

[dBel84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by achristilaw /img/forum/go_quote.gif All you fellas that use the a lot of the vintage orthos aren't to enamored with the HE-5 are you? I have noticed that some of my early complaints I had, the occasional sugar smoothness and the slightly heavy bass are a bother? Just an observation of the comments here and other sites.

I think for many of us "orthoheads" we are looking for the Holy Grail. The promise of a headphone which is perfectly balanced, ie has the right amount of colouration to make give it audiophile appeal and not a studio monitor which some of the fostex series are. BUT, at the same time is perfectly damped ( or constructed such that it needs none ). The HE5 is almost such a headphone for me. It uses new strong magnets, something which was not easily ( or cheaply ) available back in the day, a highly rigid frame not limited by the constraints of mass production. The handcrafted quality of the HE5 is one of its strengths. I mean - wharfdale isodynamic vs HE5 is akin to beauty and the beast. I am very familiar with the sound of orthodynimc headphones and although the HE5 is easily the best overall performer, there are areas of its performance which can be improved. This is only clear to me as I have a colection of tediously ( tenderly

) damped orhtos as reference. I don't find them bass heavy, but I do think the bass becomes a little wayward with some music. Perhaps running them from the Krell is the solution but a simpler solution would be to add a little control for the backwave. I was still aware of a treble peak ~ 5-7kHz, it was just at the right spot to zap me and make me want to turn down the music or take them off. I generally listen at low volume levels and none of my other headphones have this effect.

So a not so simple answer to your observation - yes I have some reservations.

..dB

 

[sachu]

Agreed completely..am in no way saying the ID1 is better than the HE-5..the HE-5 is a really nice headphoine..the best ortho i have heard to date..but it has certain flaws which can be dealt with some damping by the user, if only it was openable. Not being to tweak them make them unappealing to me as a permanent headphone.

Am hoping the guys at Audeze are listening and will make the LCD-2 so it can be taken apart and tuned by the end user.
The slight uncontrolled bass Don refers to is not surprising considering there is not further damping apart from that incorporated into the diaphragm of the driver. The strengths of the driver have been well highlighted by Don..another major plus point in its favor is the sheer size of the driver.

Fang could do well by looking into changing the way the leads are put in that black box right behind the driver. That is just a huge reflex dot and is what we suspect is clearly giving off that spike in the high frequencies.

 

[Kabeer]

You gotto probably understand that dBel84 and sachu are used to being able to just stuff bits around and mash around orthodynamics to tune them to their taste. So a commercial offering that doesnt have their specific tastes is frustrating to them

.

Think about a Senn HD650 or whatever other popular headphone, in general you gotta just take what you get. And it seems the HE5 is a good headphone. No headphone will ever meet the needs of everyone.
I do like the idea of it being openable for us orthoheads, but ya gotta realise that not everyone is as crazy as us

. Bring on the LCD-2 I say. It's a good year for orthos.

 

[achristilaw]

Thanks Fellas for taking the time to give your perceptions of long time enthusiasts and bring the present performance and recent History into better focus. This segment of phone development will grow I feel, and perhaps substantially.

Any nit I have is only because 1. I'm anal. and 2. The rest of the performance is sooooo good that the "problem" areas are merely very good to great, NOT outstanding as the rest. And the lack of overall coloration, makes those nits audible..whereas most other phones have many more colorations and it's "pick" the most offensive.

 

[mypasswordis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Agreed completely..am in no way saying the ID1 is better than the HE-5..the HE-5 is a really nice headphoine..the best ortho i have heard to date..but it has certain flaws which can be dealt with some damping by the user, if only it was openable. Not being to tweak them make them unappealing to me as a permanent headphone.

Did you try unscrewing the screws that hold the headband to the cups?

 

[sachu]

No i did not...aren't the cups sealed though? I know there is no way through the front of the cups..

 

[mypasswordis]

It might pop right out like my SR-X does, which also has screws on the sides.

 

[sachu]

ummm not sure what you mean...but removing the headband would still not give you access to the back of the driver unless you can remove that grill or the whole driver popped out from the front.

It is worth a shot if anyone who has the HE-5 is willing to give it a go.

 

[mypasswordis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachu /img/forum/go_quote.gif ummm not sure what you mean...but removing the headband would still not give you access to the back of the driver unless you can remove that grill or the whole driver popped out from the front. It is worth a shot if anyone who has the HE-5 is willing to give it a go.

Yeah, that. Well, the SR-X has a metal ring to which the pads are attached, that are screwed in using the two side screws. Once you remove the metal ring, you have 3 more screws to take out to get to the drivers. I'm thinking the HE5's baffle is probably held in just by the screws since the rest of its construction seems quite simple. I don't see anywhere else it can be opened and I doubt if there is a faulty connection in the driver or some junk gets caught in the driver under warranty they smash the enclosure to bits and rebuild a new one when they're done.